Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills-Chapter 292: Calamity.(12)

At the beginning of the brawl between the calamities and humans, Rowan resolved to copy and merge with the affinities of his two allies once night finally arrived. He would wait until everyone was distracted and then slip away with the help of Black Drifter, merging completely out of their sights.

That had been his plan—until the weather calamity started showing signs of erupting at any moment.

Rowan observed his surroundings: the closest person was Eliman, who was stretched far away, fighting against a torrent of massive D-rank monsters capable of blocking his Blood Magic 'Sacred Chain' spell. The blood mage was completely distracted by the chaotic clash, locked in combat with his nemesis, and would not notice what Rowan was doing.

Amid the chaotic noise of monstrous cries and the constant rumbling thunder, he wasn't at all worried about drawing their attention.

Without hesitation, Rowan instantly opened his targets' character statuses and quickly copied the specific affinities he needed.

[ Affinity :Blood Magic: Copied successfully ]

[ Affinity :Summoning: Copied successfully ]

[ MERGING! ]

[ RISKY ]

[ RISKY ]

…

[ RISKY ]

Confirmation prompts appeared before his eyes, accompanied by numerous [Risky] prompts.

But he was already aware of that and had anticipated them.

'Black Drifter, now!'

Black Drifter drifted away from the group of flying monsters he was brawling with. He shrank to a miniature size and rocketed toward Rowan's position.

In its miniature form, Black Drifter easily evaded every attack the opponent hurled at it. Because of its tiny size, Black Drifter became nearly impossible to pinpoint in the darkness, preventing the horde of massive monsters from chasing after it and drawing unwanted attention toward Rowan.

Once it arrived before Rowan, it morphed back to its original size and grabbed him. Then, without wasting a second, it blasted them far from the battlefield.

At that moment, unimaginable pain had already begun storming through Rowan's body. His insides were bombarded with intense, indescribable agony.

It began with a searing, unbearable heat in his lower stomach, as though he had swallowed burning coal. At the same time, his head was assailed by a merciless migraine that felt ready to shatter his skull at any moment.

Black Drifter landed Rowan in a plain, open field not so far from the dark forest.

Once Rowan hit the ground, he grabbed at his stomach.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

He let out a bloodcurdling cry of pain. It was excruciating.

If Rowan didn't even possess [Resistance], he would likely have died the moment the pain seized his body.

But [Resistance] played a truly vital role, holding him together.

Minutes passed.

Rowan's cries intensified.

His face was slick with perspiration.

His eyes were bloodshot, blood dripping from them instead of tears.

His nose, mouth, and even his ears began to bleed.

Black Drifter towered above his anguished master. Its eyes shone with sympathy as it watched him.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help his master. He could only wait for the pain to pass by.

This wasn't the first time he had accompanied Rowan for something like this, so he remained calm instead of panicking like the first time. He simply stood over him patiently.

After another ten minutes passed, Rowan's cries of pain gradually subsided and finally ceased.

He began gasping heavily, catching his breath. His eyes returned to their normal hue and fluttered open gently, greeted by the worried gaze of Black Drifter and the flicker of system notifications.

[ Affinity :Summoning: merged successfully ]

[ Due to current level of mana core [Magic] and compatibility with affinity, SUMMONING (C) has been lowered to SUMMONING (D) ]

[ Affinity :Blood magic: merged successfully ]

[ Due to current level of mana core [Magic] and compatibility with affinity, BLOOD MAGIC (C) has been lowered to BLOOD MAGIC (F) ]

[ Your soldiers have.. ]

[ Your ally has.... ]

A satisfied grin appeared on Rowan's face as he pushed himself off the ground.

"With these two added to my arsenal, I would be unstoppable!"

Now he just had to obtain a spell from both affinities and begin increasing his compatibility with them.

Given his ability to learn any spell of his affinities instantly, fulfilling that would be very possible.

"I might even sell some of my crafts with them in exchange for their spells after the battle."

"But before then."

The calamity outside was still raging, but the soldiers and his allies were overall doing a good job keeping them at bay.

"But that's just the weakest front. The real horrors lie at the back of the horde—if we manage to beat these weaker ones, we'll be completely spent before facing those terrifying foes."

When Rowan checked the power levels of the gigantic, terrifying foes at the back, they were all C-rank. He even spotted a B-rank powerhouse among them—Rowan had encountered many frightening monsters both on Earth while playing the game and in the game world. Yet nothing was as truly terrifying as this one monster.

Recalling their appearance sent a shiver through him. They were even scarier than the Forest Eater!

Rowan's D-rank combat powers combined with Merla's and Eliman's Tier-3 magic cultivation powers would still be woefully inferior against a single B-rank monster. They had only a 10% chance of defeating a C-rank foe with combined efforts—and only a 0% chance against a B-rank.

This leaves Rowan with a single option.

[ DING! DO NOT ATTEMPT! ]

[ DING! PROBABILITY OF DYING IS ABOVE 99% ]

As Rowan attempted to evolve, he was greeted by the system message warning him against his plan.

Rowan stared at the red holographic windows, a solemn frown creasing his face.

'Why does the system care?'

Rowan scoffed.

The creator of the system is the reason he was currently facing two calamities at the same time, yet the same system was warning him against gathering the power he needed to take care of his situation.

"Is this what other F-rank territory Lords face when upgrading their lands? Does a mere F-rank territory Lord have to battle C-rank powerhouses just to raise a territory to E-rank? This is bullshit—I feel the system is targeting me specifically."

First, he was blessed with five SS-rank unique skills.

Take, for example, his 100X rewards: it multiplied his rewards. Those would have made him very rich, he could upgrade everything he wanted, even his own power.

But the 100X reward made his upgrades extremely expensive. The actual cost to upgrade his E-rank skills would actually be at least thirty times higher than what a normal Lord would pay.

His other skills also carried certain restrictions and biases.

And now he had to battle a B-rank monster just to upgrade his territory.

Considering all these constraints and setbacks, it felt as though the system had blessed him with superior skills only to torment him with dire situations. It was almost as if he were the creator's personal target.

[ DING!!! ]

As those final fragments of thought appeared in his head, a strange memory blurred in Rowan's mind—it was brief, fleeting.

"Ahhh!"

Rowan fell to one knee, clutching his head as it began to throb right after that strange memory surfaced.

Weirdly enough, he could not recall what the memory had been, even though he had experienced it only just seconds ago.

He tried to recall it.

But that only made his head ache more intensely.

'What is happening to me?'