Mythical Monster Evolution

"Is my son back from his punishment yet?" A man with dark skin and pointy ears muttered in a loud and powerful voice. He was wearing a large cloth similar to what Royals would wear in the medieval period. The man exuded a strong aura, intimidating everyone with a simple glance.

"My Lord, Prince Thalos still isn't back from his punishment," a young dark elf, who was currently on his knees, his head down, answered.

"Hm, I see. Is he on his way back from the field?"

The young dark elf closed his eyes before opening them a few seconds later.

"Yes. He's only a few hundred meters away from here."

When he heard those words, the King of the Dark Elves straightened his back and slightly smirked. "Tell him to come see me once he's back. I have a new task for him to take care of." The King briefly laughed. He'll be in charge of feeding the beast."

"You don't mean-"

"Yes, he will be the one feeding the beast. Actually, forget about waiting. Let's go and meet him."

The man sitting on the throne suddenly stood up, disappearing from the young dark elf's field of vision. The elf could only gulp in response when he felt the king's power right behind him.

"What are you waiting for? Guide me."

"S-Sure, just a second…"

***

In the meantime, Kai was still following the Dark Elf, who was having fun killing a few beasts on his way back to the village.

'Can I Devour monsters which are already dead?' Kai asked Isla in the back of his mind.

The current situation was certainly something that he could use to his advantage as the Dark Elf, which was only a few meters away from him. There were so many corpses from all kinds of beasts that it would be quite annoying to leave behind such an opportunity.

'You can. However, the effect will decrease depending on how much time has passed since the monster's death. An hour after their mark marks the threshold where you won't be able to devour anything from dead bodies. However, as you can see, right now, this is a golden opportunity. That Dark Elf is killing beasts that you can dream of Devouring.'

Kai nodded, completely agreeing with Isla. There was no time wasted when faced with such an opportunity. Kai had to admit that, as of right now, it had been a good thing to listen to Isla.

Kai swiftly moved away from the tree he had been hiding behind, and toward the first monster corpse, he spotted. He had no idea what the monster was because of how harshly the Dark Elf had killed it. Nevertheless, that was only a detail, as Kai could let the system distinguish those things in his place. That's why, without wasting any time, he used [Devour].

'The beast's bloodline is now within your Evolution Space.'

Kai didn't like hearing those words, as he wasn't looking for another form right now. He wanted to evolve his current form to its limits. However, for that to happen, he needed experience, which meant he needed to kill those monsters.

'Ugh, it's not like I can steal the kills from that Dark Elf. He's bound to find me if I do so.'

However, Kai wasn't the type to abandon. This thought stayed in the back of his mind as he continued to eye the elf in front of him, slaying any beast that would come in contact with him.

'Isla, those monsters that he's killing, how much experience could one of them give me?'

Kai knew that it was a gamble, which actually wasn't necessary. But he was greedy. If he managed to kill a much more powerful beast than himself, he would be able to evolve at a much faster pace.

'You could potentially obtain 1000 Experience Points, and your Monster Core could potentially Evolve to the next tier if you were to Devour the monster.'

Faced with those enticing rewards, Kai took a second to think about his next decision. After all, if he were to fail… he wouldn't be able to enter this game for the rest of his life. He would be back on his bed, unable to move.

However, Kai knew that the faster he evolved, the faster he would be able to find a human form. After weighing his options, Kai decided to go for it. If he failed, he would run as fast as possible. He was in a forest shrouded in darkness, which was perfect considering his current bloodline of the Nocturne Dragon. Kai didn't know why, but he felt that it was possible for him to hide from the Dark Elf with his current powers.

With his choice made, Kai moved forward at a much faster pace than before. As he advanced faster than before, Kai didn't let go of any monster corpses, greedily absorbing them one after another. However, it only slowed him down by a few seconds as he managed to catch up to the man who was busy killing yet another monster in one minute.

Because of the darkness of the surroundings, Kai had decided to use them to his advantage. However, he wouldn't only rely on the darkness. Kai also climbed onto a tree and used the velocity from his fall to steal the monster from the Dark Elf.

'I can do this…' Kai thought, steeling his mind. 'It's all about the right timing.'

Kai moved a few trees ahead of the Dark Elf and watched him getting closer and closer to him. There was only one element missing right now: a monster.

The Dark Elf moved forward without any hesitation, swinging his arms around, waiting for his next prey to appear. For some reason, the monsters within this forest weren't scared of the Dark Elf. They all ran toward him, even if he had killed so many of them beforehand.

Kai had noticed that strange phenomenon but didn't think much of it as he was too focused on the task ahead of him.

"Come, come to Papa!" The Dark Elf hummed as he walked forward.

-ROARRR!

Suddenly, a deep and powerful roar resounded deep inside the forest. However, the power that the roar contained clearly wasn't on the same level as the previous monsters that the Dark Elf had been killing beforehand.

However, that only made the Dark Elf's smile wider, while it made Kai doubt his decision.

Still, the greed within Kai only grew as he heard the monster getting closer.

'Just how much can I evolve if I kill that beast?'