Zach opened his eyes and found himself buried under the rocks and a wall.
His vision was red and blurry, but he glanced around and saw the destruction the soul eater had caused.
It was unreal.
Zach couldn't believe his eyes, and he couldn't comprehend how a level 150 boss could be that strong.
Sure, it was supposed to be strong. But the disparity between the boss of floor 50 (level 100) and floor 75 (level 150) was too much.
Zach's vision finally got cleared, and he could see the destruction clearly, but that didn't make him feel better.
Zach looked at his body and noticed he was missing his lower body. He was bleeding nonstop, and his HP was depleting continuously.
The explosion from his gloves did more damage to him than the light beam would have.
Because of the latest update, players could now feel the pain until they got healed. Not only that, they could die from intense pain and blood loss.
Zach was going through all that, but he felt guilty about the deaths of the guild members.
'More than 1000 guild members died within three minutes…'
"I was supposed to solo the boss yet…." Zach looked at the scene and saw the remaining guild members screaming in pain for help. They were running all around the floor to save themselves from the monster.
He looked at the remains of the corpses of the players and gazed upon the bodies of the players who were injured and bleeding. If it was anyone other than Zach with his injury, they would have died instantly. But Zach's physique helped him reduce the damage from the explosion.
The monster wasn't even moving from its place. It was simply shooting a light beam to annihilate everyone.
'Is… it my… fault?' Zach asked himself.
It wasn't his fault. If Zach hadn't participated in the dungeon expedition, the guild members would still have entered floor 75 to fight the boss, and the outcome would have been the same. Even Victoria's life would have been in danger if Aria wasn't with her.
After watching the scene, Zach lowered his gaze in shame as a thought crossed his mind.
"If floor 75 has such an unbeatable boss… I can't fathom the power of the boss of the floor 100."
Zach glanced at the edge of the floor and saw Victoria dashing at the soul eater with a sword in her hand. She felt despair after losing all her guild members, which she took responsibility for protecting. They were here to level up, not to die.
"…!"
Zach tried to move, but of course, he couldn't move without his legs and ended up falling to the sides.
His limbless body rolled on the floor and stopped after hitting a big rock.
'With the rate my HP is depleting… it will hit 0 HP within 100 seconds.'
Zach glanced around with his eyes and saw Aria was running after Victoria to stop her. However, she stopped when she caught a glimpse of Zach, and her face turned pale.
Aria rushed to Zach, but Zach shook his head and pointed his gaze at Victoria.
After seeing that, she felt as though her heart was stabbed with thousands of needles.
The love of her life was severely injured in front of her eyes, and yet she couldn't go and help him because she had promised to protect Victoria.
Zach closed his eyes, and Aurora's face flashed before his eyes. He remembered his promise to her. He imagined what would and could happen if he died. Firstly, he would die in the real world too.
Ezra and Zoe would get to know about his death, and they would mourn for him. Then the news would go to Aurora if Aria told her, and she would cry too. She might even kill herself after finding out since that's what she tried to do when she lost hope in living.
After that, Aquarius and Ruli would get to know about that.
Zach didn't want any of that to happen. He wanted to stay alive and live for himself and his loved ones. Zach had a reason to survive.
At the same time, Zach heard a notification and the voice ringing in his mind.
[The dragon egg has been hatched!]
Zach slowly opened his eyes and saw a prompt on the screen that said:
[Do you want to open the egg now?]
[Yes] [No.]
Zach slowly raised his hand and moved it to tap on [yes].
Zach was blinded by the light, but the next time he opened them, he saw a newborn dragon staring right at him.
However, its size was the size of an adult human arm.
"…."
[You look in a terrible state, Master,] the dragon said. However, it was speaking directly into Zach's mind.
'I am having trouble speaking. Can you hear my voice through telepathy?' Zach asked in a low voice.
[I can.]
Zach had received telepathy as a benefit of Aria's blessings, but it only worked with Aria as long as she was in his sight. However, it could evolve and make it possible for Zach to use it on other people too.
It worked on Aria because they had a master-servant contract, and Zach and the dragon had the same pact. That was the reason why Zach could use telepathy with the dragon.
[You should get yourself healed, or you will die at this rate.]
'I know…'
The dragon heard the commotion, so it looked at its right to see the soul eater.
[What… why is it here…?] The dragon was visibly shaken after seeing the soul eater, as though it already knew it.
'Do you know that monster?'
[It is not a monster, it's an abomination…]
'I can't count how many times I have heard that word before…'
[This monster is known as a world eater, or some might refer to it as a realm eater,] the dragon stated. [It is born from the cosmic energy in the universe, and its existence is to devour everything, even the world order itself. It can eat an entire realm within seconds.]
'So even the name of the monster is false in this game…' After a brief pause, Zach said, 'It seems that I underestimated gods' hate. They are trying to perish us for good.'
[I would have provided assistance, but I am not ready yet,] the dragon said in a disdainful tone.
'…'
[Master, do you have MP to spare?]
'I do…'
Zach had 11,000 MP left.
[Can you pour some MP inside me?]
Zach slowly moved his hand and pressed his finger on the dragon's body. He poured 500 MP into the dragon and waited for something to happen.
[I can feel my power rising, but it's not enough. I will need time to grow my body.]
'How much time?'
[A few weeks…]
Zach stared at the scene as his HP got closer to 0.
Out of a sudden, an idea crossed Zach's mind. He turned to the dragon and asked, 'Can I pour my MP into any beast?'
[I am not sure, but most likely yes since we beast feed on power too,] the dragon replied in a hushed voice.
'I don't know if this would work or not, but it's worth trying. It's not like I have any choice here…'
Zach opened his inventory and selected the red core he had gotten after defeating the secret boss— Lord Abomination.
[Master… this core is…]
Zach placed his hand on the core and released 500 MP inside it, but nothing happened.
[Process failed!]
[2 attempts left!]
'Why did it fail?' Zach wondered.
[Master, trying releasing more MP,] the dragon suggested.
Zach released 1000 MP, but nothing happened.
[Process failed!]
[1 attempt left!]
'…'
Annoyed and frustrated, Zach released all his remaining MP into the monster core, and he heard a voice in his head saying:
[Congratulations! Your skill 'Tamer' has been evolved into 'Necromancer!']
In Gods' Impact, players got skills based on their talents and requirements to achieve them. Zach had gotten the tamer skill when he took the dragon as his pet.
And now, he used a technique on the core that evolved his Tamer skill into Necromancer.
Zach's HP had reached two digits, and it was depleting at a fast speed.
He closed his eyes and gathered his strength to utter a word:
"…Arise…"
***
Total players in the game- 1,297,912
0 new players logged in.
268 players died.
====
Author's Note- This chapter has become one of my favorite chapters of this novel. It took me hours to execute it properly; it was long too. Hopefully, it was worth it.. And I hope you enjoyed it too.