CHAPTER 1466: SECOND LAYER

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Ding!

[You have raised a [Crimson Predator Vine Colony Nightmare Beast (S Rank)] as an Undead!]

[You’ve assigned the name [Thorn] to your new Undead!]

[Thorn] has evolved into a [Abyssal Crimson Predator Vine Colony Nightmare Undead (SS Rank)] due to the name you’ve given to them!]

[All of [Thorn] Stats have increased, and they have gained new Abilities.]

"Oh wow, SS Rank?! That’s a pretty strong one, hahaha!" I laughed out loud. "I knew that you would be special! Alright Thorn, you’re going to scout for us ahead of time! you’re big and can spread underground, right?"

"GRYYAAAH!"

Thron let out an agonizingly painful to hear shriek.

"Good girl! So dig underground and spread your vines and roots as we advance, alert me of any monster coming forward, okay?" I asked her.

"SHAAAH!"

She quickly began digging underground, becoming our living warden. My sensing abilities are pretty sharp, but they can’t detect for kilometers away.

Meanwhile, Thorn can easily detect from dozens of kilometers, or maybe hundreds of them by touching the ground and feeling all the earth’s vibrations.

"Ah right, if anything gets too close, catch it and immobilize it! You can take some for yourself as well, but not everything."

"GRYAAAH!"

She responded once more before digging her entire body underground, as if she was never there to begin with.

"I’m sure she’ll be pretty useful~" Partner nodded, as she was riding her beloved Tooth. "But why aren’t you SS Rank too, Tooth?! You’re weak!"

"G-Gryaarr?!" Tooth, the Skeleton Sabretooth Nightmare Undead that I had gifted to her was shocked to be told that he was weak.

"Have some patience Partner, he can get stronger through naturally evolving by devouring souls," I explained to her. "I could prematurely evolve him too, using a bunch of materials, but that wouldn’t be fun, right?"

"Hmmm, alright, you’re not wrong," Partner nodded. "We’ll have plenty of souls to devour, Tooth! Look forward to it!"

"Raaarrr!" Tooth responded happily.

I think this was for the best, Partner needed some kind of pet after all.

"So you’ve given the troublesome brat a pet, huh? I hope she doesn’t end up killing the damn pile of bones..."

Suddenly, a black cat appeared from my shadows, yawning.

"Ah, Elizabeth! Good morning, we got here already." I said.

"I can see... I have eyes," she groaned. "I can... I can feel the presence of high quantities of Nightmare Power... This place’s dangerous. It’s not just wilderness, you know?"

"It’s not?" I asked.

"Of course not, did you think we Nightmare Demons were dumbasses that do nothing but sit down and then go to kill humans?" Elizabeth facepalmed. "You’ll find out once we get deeper into these forests."

"What?" I asked. "No, tell me right now!"

"Nuh-huh~" She quickly began walking forward. "What are you waiting for? Let’s go."

"Don’t disobey me and tell me!" I said.

"Ugh, you sure hate surprises, don’t you?" Elizabeth sighed. "Come on! It’ll be fun."

"..." I looked at her with a serious expression.

"Aaah... Okay, there’s Nightmare Demon villages and a city," she explained.

"What?!" I gasped, and everyone else had a similar response.

"We got some rich culture actually! But you spoiled the entire surprise! Fucking hell Maria! You’re so fucking boring," she sighed.

"Are they aggressive? Barbaric?" I wondered.

"Who knows what they are like now? Last time I saw them was like a hundred years ago," She looked around, sniffing the air. "Hmm, smells like blood."

"Well, now that picked my interest..." Lucifer said. "So Nightmare Demons have civilizations..."

"We’ll have to see what they do, if they aren’t a threat to us and are just living... I don’t think we should bother them," I said.

"But if they’re barbarians that attack us right away?" Emeraldine asked.

"Ah well, in that case I am not hesitating," I smiled. "Alright everyone, let’s go."

As we started moving forward, Lucifer walked to my side.

"I suppose this is where I should go evolve," he said. "I hope it doesn’t take too long."

"Ah right, then let’s go there first," I nodded, touching his shoulder and then bringing him along with me into a black hole.

FLASH!

We teleported in the designated area on top of the mountains of my Soul Scape, where Lucifer quickly sat down cross-legged, and started the process.

"Then I’ll begin, thank you for your help so far, Maria. Once I come back, I’ll make sure to protect you and everyone else." He smiled confidently.

"Oho? I’m looking forward to it then, honey!" I said. "I’ll take good care of Nyx."

"Thank you," he closed his eyes, as pure white light and void energies engulfed him, creating an egg-shaped cocoon around him.

I felt his body and soul beginning to grow, twist, and warp around, constantly transforming.

Huh, once he steps out of that egg, he’ll surely be a new man.

"Alright, now, we can finally keep moving. I’m just ONE level off evolving after all, so we should hunt as many Nightmare Beasts as we can find," I nodded. "Let’s go!"

Now that I think about it, what do I do once its time to evolve for me?

Like Lucifer and the rest, it might take me a while to evolve fully!

Shit...

Wait, no, I can modify that, right?

Maybe if I pay a lot of System Points, I could make the evolution instant or at least reduce the time as much as possible.

Once I get to max level then I’ll have to check these things.

We walked down the crimson path ahead of us, before entering the crimson blood forest at full.

There was a lot of ponds of blood-like water, which was definitely not blood but some sort of miasma.

The trees looked rather intimidatingly red, but also beautiful.

The grass was red, and there were some small, fleshy plants with eyes on them... maybe Nightmare Beasts, but too weak for them to even try to attack us, and I didn’t bother with them either.

As we walked forward, we realized everything was quite peaceful, albeit very eerie.

"So where are these Nightmare Demons at, Elizabeth?" I asked her.

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