The change happened noticeably, beginning with white mana leaving Arthur's body and penetrating Mero's chest. As if he was shot with a bullet, Mero fell to the ground while clutching his chest.
"Aagh!" He gave a pained scream as a dark green substance oozed out of his skin. He then started vomiting the same material as Arthur watched.
'I should help him.' Arthur hurried to use the amplification rune to boost his stamina and then used the Heal-III rune to heal whatever damage that would happen during the evolution.
His mana was eaten up as the screams died down to turn into labored breathing. A vapor then started leaving Mero's body and it started to shrink down.
Mero was almost half of Arthur's height taller. Yet now, there was barely a foot between them. As the vapor cleared away to reveal Mero, Arthur was stunned by the changes.
One short horn protruded from his forehead, gleaming dangerously in the light. His face turned from the barbaric appearance of a goblin into a more humanoid form, with eyes that gleamed with intelligence.
"My Lord!" Mero kneeled on the ground as he shouted with fluent Yalveran Language. Arthur's eyes buzzed with how loud he shouted.
"You can talk now?"
"What?" Mero looked at him confused before seeming to inspect himself. After a few moments, he seemed to have realized. "Almighty God, you have given me the skill Intraspecies Communication and Enhanced Intelligence."
Mero's eyes were full of tears as he looked at Arthur. Hearing his words, Arthur felt envious. If he could give such skills, wouldn't he use them himself?
"This is something you've had. It's a bloodline skill." Arthur circled him as he studied him with curiosity. "A monster that can speak. Only powerful were thought to be able of such a feat, but here you are. What's your species?"
"I..." Mero looked at his own hands as he tried to think of an answer. "Am a Hobgoblin. How do I know this, my lord?" He asked with confusion.
"It's inherent, it seems." Arthur nodded at him. "A hobgoblin, huh?" He smiled with satisfaction. "How strong are you right now?"
"At the peak-high-tier, my lord." Mero pounded his chest in pride. "My strength has increased with the evolution. Of course, so did my loyalty." He hurried to explain.
"I know." Arthur smiled. "I can feel that." He had the strongest bond to Mero at the moment, even with how approximate their strengths were. "From now on, you're the leader when I'm not around. Take care of your brothers." Arthur patted his head.
"Yes, my lord." Mero had tears in his eyes as he nodded.
***
After strengthening a few goblins, Arthur went back toward his tent. By the time he was over, it was already dark. As soon as he reached the tent, someone called out for him from the outside.
"Dinner is ready, sir." The guard said and Arthur affirmed his understanding. He left the tent shortly after and headed toward the giant clearing where tables have been placed.
"Sir Alexie!" The man, who was the magic gunman that shot toward Arthur before, shouted as soon as Arthur arrived. "Let's drink together!"
"Before such a busy day, that would be unwise." Arthur smiled warmly and looked around. He found Ellen to be missing, probably chose to eat alone. "It would be great if I know what we're facing tomorrow." Arthur sat down.
"Of course!" The gunman slammed the cup on the table. "In our recent investigations, we have..."
"I'll take it from here, Aran." Norman came forward and sat close to Arthur, serving him food. "After all, I'm the host of Sir Alexie Linan." He said with a courtesy smile.
'I know what you truly are, brat.' Arthur thought but simply smiled in gratefulness. He nodded, allowing Norman to explain.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Three weeks ago, we found that the undead monsters' number was dwindling. That was bad... I mean concerning." He corrected. "We started investigating the cause behind it, and our findings were abnormal. Even though their number was decreasing, their level of organization was the same."
"And that's an indicator of an Undead Lord. A contradiction." Arthur swallowed the food and added.
"Yes, exactly. As expected from a Jerano's student." Norman started to suck up to him. "That's why we tried finding the Lord, but all we found was an abnormal phenomenon."
"What do you mean?" Arthur placed down his fork with a frown.
"We found a stable fissure," Norman said with a grave expression. "The monsters that came out of it were all below the true-monsters rank, so we are not worried. The only worrisome matter was the Lord's existence, but we have enough manpower to take it down."
"Are you going to investigate the fissure tomorrow?" Arthur's heart held an ill-forbidding. "That should be dangerous."
"It normally is with fissures, but it's simply a separate space if it's stable. You can think of it as an intersection between the two worlds."
"That's a dungeon, not a fissure." Arthur corrected.
"By definition, yes." Norman nodded in agreement. "Yet this fissure didn't need a dungeon break, the monsters can roam freely out. This made it a fissure. We have already analyzed the mana quantity; it should be safe."
"That's the reason Jerano sent us, to report on this phenomenon." Arthur nodded in understanding. "Very well, let's try to solve this." He said before standing up and returning to his tent.
As he was undressing and getting ready to sleep, a soft voice whispered from behind him.
"Bang."
Arthur turned instantly and slashed with his dagger. Before the sharp edge of the dagger reached the newcomer, he stopped his attack.
His actions generated a gust of wind that made the curtains and mattress flutter. In front of him was the smiling Rae with her white scarf covering her body.
"Always so paranoid." Rae smiled as she pushed the body of the dagger away with her finger. Arthur retracted it with annoyance written on his face.
'That's what happens when everyone is out to kill you.' He thought inwardly. "I thought you weren't here for me. How would you explain yourself now?" He returned his dagger to his subspace.
"Not everything revolves around you." Rae came out of her cocoon. "What would the sun say?"
"Hah," Arthur snorted. "Being in my tent has nothing to do with me? You'd make an excellent lawyer."
"I'm bored, that's all there is." Rae shrugged. "I heard there would be an undead lord here, so I came along."
"You can't just come along." Arthur frowned. "This is my task, leave. Unless you want me to report back to the school."
"You're so boring." Rae scowled before heading outside. "I'll be hunting to my heart's content, stop me if you can." She left without saying anything else.
Arthur sighed. Her words gave him an idea. Why was he waiting for tomorrow? His only chance to hunt and level up was through the night.
He took out the Demonic Mask from his subspace and wore it. It was time to hunt the remaining undead.
***
The next morning, Arthur came out of his tent to find the guild's members ready to leave. He ate breakfast quickly before being joined by Ellen.
"Are you okay?" Ellen asked when she saw him absent-minded. Arthur nodded and didn't say anything. He hadn't slept at all last night and simply hunted his way to Level 38. His Legacy Points were now 13 while his Stats Points were 12.
"We need to leave, Sir Alexie." Norman came, fully geared in armor. Arthur glanced at it and found it to be fully inscribed. He was wearing his armor too, but it lacked in aura compared to Norman's armor. "Hehe, I'm something of a rune apprentice myself," Norman said with pride.
'Well, I guess he passed at that time too. Damn Julia and her selfishness.' Arthur nodded and stood up. Ellen followed after him. The troupes were numerous, almost fifty strong.
Judging by their lifeforce, Arthur found that three of them were of the middle stages of the Vetus Rank. The rest were all rei-rankers. This was a full-fledged army and a Lord that can summon only high-tier undead shouldn't be an issue.
They started heading deeper into the mountain range on foot. Arthur didn't need to do anything and all of the monsters were taken care of by the guild members. On the way, Norman tried to brag about his father's guild.
It took an hour of walking and Arthur restraining himself from slapping this pig that they reached a spot where they could see the fissure.
"What is this..." Arthur hadn't found this place yesterday because he focused on the undead groups instead.
Between two mountains lay a giant dome structure that looked like a perfect half-sphere with a smooth surface. As if the outer space of earth has been stolen and sewed, this place looked like nothing Arthur has ever seen.