Uzdaax focused inwards and nudged his evolution forward mere moments after being ordered by his master. His change was probably most like Prisaela’s, yet it was still different from all three previous evolutions that day as he had received several system notifications almost instantly.

  What followed after that was a wordless scream of pain as Uzdaax's very existence was written and rewritten, a creature of only soul having his ego scrambled and reassembled.

  That was a new bit of information for the evolutionary monster quartet. Apparently if species had similar enough skills they could merge into new ones, or at least try. [Sunlight Vulnerability] sounded like a pain in the ass to Daax though.

  With each subsequent evolution, as Daax got closer and closer to the “true” form the system was trying to supply him with, the pain grew less and less severe. By the time he’d reached the final system message, he wasn’t even screaming anymore.

  Just as quickly as it had begun, Uzdaax torment came to an end. The thin wispy silhouette he cut as a former specter was gone. Instead, he truly looked like the concept of “a ghost”. His presence had darkened away from being translucent when he evolved into a shadow, and the subsequent Phantom and Ghost had only served to further enhance his detail. Now when the undead stood in a space without incorporeal, or rather [Ethereal Realm], active he just looked like a slightly tired and rundown human man. Faintly shorter than Thozronnath’s human form, pale beyond death, and haggardly dressed. But a human all the same.

  The new skills he’d received flooded his mind with all manner of new information and instincts. Though [Possession] came with a sort of desire, a longing for living flesh. As a specter it hadn’t really occurred to Daax that he couldn’t feel anything, but now as the undead reached higher planes of sophistication, those primal desires for rest had been replaced with emotion and longing. He actually wanted to feel something, anything.

  Taking the time to explain his new situation to Thozronnath, his master, Daax made sure to really underline how important he felt feeling things was.

  “Okay. Okay. I get it. We’ll see if you can possess corpses and still function or if we need to kidnap someone for you. But we’ll do that later. Same for Prisaela’s Inspection. For now, I’ve got another minion to summon and I’m not waiting any longer. Some of you are almost useless like half the time so I need the back up badly.” The devil answered, practically sneering his dissatisfaction at the other monsters before he caught himself.

  Thoz knew they were on his side, they were afraid of him because of what he could do, not what he had done. They were working with him so willingly out of a mutual preservation, and maybe some implicit respect, but after seeing Varekoth’s attitude as a leader it was hard to do anything else. Maybe he could lead them gently and not foster the same feelings of hatred and revolt his own master had.

  Resolving to leave that kind of thing for later, Thoz nudged his skill [Progenitor of Sin] and felt the information flowing into his mind.

  This time the devil chose pride.

  What resulted from that message was something so disgustingly unnerving that even Zildoxoxi was trying to hide from the sight.

  A massive orb of flesh, easily hundreds of kilograms, was pulsing and undulating in mid air as the minion apparently underwent several evolutions before their physical form was finalized. With a sickening squelching sound, the orb shriveled and cracked open, dropping a massive man to the ground.

  Standing almost three meters tall, easily more than nine and a half feet as he stood up from the ground, was what could only be described as a small giant. Oxymoronic as it is. He was well over five hundred pounds of muscle, two hundred and fifty kilograms seemed like the minimum. He was also naked as sin. Pun intended. Messy black hair falling down around tan sandy complexioned shoulders.

  And what a status it was. Despite being almost twenty levels below Zildoxoxi he had higher stats in both Strength and Resilience. He had a slightly higher intelligence, passing above the threshold for sentience easily, and his dexterity was higher than even Thoz, making him the third fastest in the group. Clearly Kaggant had some of the highest base stats of any of the monsters so far, and Thoz was wondering if that was to make up for his lack of skills. He only had ten skills in total across the four evolutions that he pre-evolved. Uzdaax and Zild had that many by their first summoning as unevolved creatures.

  Not that the skills he had were bad by any means. Some of them were unfortunate like [Fear of Fire] but others, namely [Endless Regeneration], had the potential to be incredibly powerful.

  The sin of pride was remarkably apt of a title for Kaggant, and as he stood to as much of his full height as the relatively high ceilings of the small inn room could allow, there wasn’t even a hint of shame in his posture.

  “Uggh.” The giant grunted in acknowledgement of his new master, refusing to kneel or lower his head in the slightest. “I’m starving, do they have any food around here?” The troll asked, surprisingly eloquently. Thoz has perhaps gotten used to his minions having a vocal tic of some kind, or an inability to speak in Zild’s case. Sure it was a small sample size, but even including himself the only ones capable of proper speech right off the bat were Prisaela and now Kaggant.

  Admittedly, Kaggant did have only slightly less fucked up teeth than Thozronnath’s previous impish form. They weren’t nearly as sharp and jagged, but they were still all manner of crooked and looked wildly uncomfortable. This didn’t seem to affect his speech much at all though, at worst it just resulted in a few vowel sounds getting stretched or elongated when he spoke the common tongue. It was likely that would even be fixed with further evolutions like Thoz’s own impediment had been.

  Letting out a frustrated sigh, Thozronnath just gestured faintly to a nearby table. The inn they were staying at was cheap, but thankfully it provided ‘meals’ in the form of a rather simple stew. Kaggant grabbed both bowls and downed them like one would a glass of water, grunting with dissatisfaction at the apparent lack of quantity.

  “Tastes like shit.” was the only comment provided on its quality.

  “Prisaela and I need to go shopping in the morning anyway. For now you can have this” Thozronnath grumbled, tossing some dried meat he’d been saving for travel towards the ravenous troll.

  “We’re getting some supplies since we need to make a trip North. I don’t know how long it will take to get to Krora, but I’m getting a map for that. I have a feeling that whoever these humans are working for, whether it’s Varekoth or not, knows about our presence now. If we sit around and wait we’re as good as dead” Thoz explained, not bothering to go into more detail for the very confused troll.

  “We can handle that in the morning though. For now, go the fuck to sleep” He growled, before pulling Prisaela towards him and falling on to the rather crude hay mattress the room provided.

  It was going to be a long night.

  Stats

  Zildoxoxi

  Prisaela

  Uzdaax

  Kaggant