Excerpt 10

  (Page 25, Section 1)

  Most creatures with physical bodies can evolve—growing stronger, more efficient, and more resilient—but few pursue the process to any great depth. The reason is straightforward: the younger one starts, the easier this path becomes. Begin intensive body training late in life—especially if you’ve already started overloading your physique with energy—and evolution becomes nearly impossible.

  Natural advantages vary sharply by race. Elves, for instance, possess agility that few can rival, yet their difficulty in building muscle limits how far they can advance along the physical?evolution path. Orcs, by contrast, often manage three full evolutionary breakthroughs in a single lifetime.

  Giant creatures occupy a unique rung on the evolutionary ladder, capable of triggering their first physical evolution naturally in infancy. Yet poor agility and below?average intellect limit efficient training, leaving much of their potential untapped—though most still achieve four evolutions on average.

  So one must wonder: if a giant received focused training from early childhood—honing both reflexes and mind—what force on the continent could stand against it?

  Source: Physical Evolution – Knight Noraxe

  Excerpt 10 End

  Nearly a month had trudged by since the soul?reading debacle, and Hassan felt a suffocating boredom settling over him like damp wool.

  Daily drills still offered a spark of satisfaction—lateral lunges, balance steps, vision?tracking exercises—but the once?novel routines had calcified into pure repetition.

  Worse, the Zamongarai language remained an indecipherable riddle; every conversational murmur that drifted through the tent sounded like lilting growls he simply couldn’t parse.

  The monotony grew so stifling that he considered re?entering the forest, just to glimpse something—anything—beyond canvas walls and endless grass. Yet the memory of that owl?like bird, its beak clamping around his throat, still sent involuntary shivers racing through his fur. He wouldn’t risk a second encounter—at least, not yet.

  Yesterday he’d focused on the delroaches. His latest attempt came tantalizingly close to success—he even damaged one delroach’s wing, pinning it to the ground for a moment. But the injured insect pursued him with manic fury for the entire hour until the training space closed. Was that vengeance, or some built?in escalation response to injury? Either way, the encounter convinced him he’d need greater strength or sharper tactics next time.

  Restlessness peaked this morning. Ignoring the Basic Physique Manual’s stern reminder to polish agility before muscle building, he decided to gauge his raw power through old?fashioned resistance work.

  Planting his hooves wide, he managed five full squats before his legs quivered like reeds in a gale. After catching his breath, he attempted push?ups: three downward presses and his arms abandoned him.

  He collapsed onto the dirt floor, yet a grin stretched across his snout. When he first entered this world, he couldn’t even stand steadily—let alone attempt calisthenics.

  As he lay on the floor, an electrifying sensation surged through his body—not the mild prickling of pins and needles, but a torrent of liquid lightning coursing through every vein. His bones lengthened, muscles tightened sharply, then visibly swelled.

  This lasted perhaps ten heartbeats, but in that instant he sensed himself growing—literally expanding inside his own skin. When the current subsided, he rolled to his hooves and discovered the floor was farther away, the ceiling closer. By his rough estimate, he’d shot up another third in height—on top of the two?fold growth he’d already logged this month.

  Heart drumming with anticipation, he summoned his status panel:

  #####

  Name: None

  Race: Zamongarai

  Age: 50 days

  Tier: 0

  Attributes:

  Physique: 0.44 → 1.25

  Mind: 10.71 → 11.18

  Soul: 10.00 → 10.97

  Talents:

  Human Intelligence (Rank 3: 22% → 33%) – Expand

  Human Soul (Rank 3: 1% → 15%) – Expand

  Zamongarai’s Physique (Rank 0: 49% → Rank 1: 1%) – Expand

  Zamongarai’s Sense (Rank 2: 1% → 24%) – Expand

  Zamongarai’s Soul (Rank 0: 53% → Rank 1: 25%) – Expand

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Vessel Control (Rank Unknown) – Expand

  Skills: Physique Manual (Basic: 6% → 18%), Mind Manual (Basic: 15% → 32%), Soul Manual (Basic: 10% → 22%)

  System Training Space – Time remaining until reset: 16 hours, 33 minutes, 2 seconds – Current Mode: Tutorial

  #####

  It was just as he suspected—his physique attribute had broken through the 0.99 phase at the same time the Zamongarai’s Physique talent was upgraded. More likely, the breakthrough occurred as a result of the talent's enhancement, propelling his physique attribute to 1.25 (0.99 → 1.25) instantly.

  He now possessed a clearer grasp of the requirements for upgrading attributes and talents. It appeared to take a catalyst or 'push' to spark the change—like when he began resistance training, which set the improvement into motion. In a similar manner, his soul attribute and talent had advanced after the soul-reading incident.

  While it seemed unlikely that a baby Zamongarai would remain capped at 0.99 attributes without resistance training, it was plausible they could achieve the breakthrough over time. Nevertheless, the resistance training appeared to have significantly accelerated his progress.

  Just as accomplishment blossomed in his chest, an agonizing hunger cramped his stomach. The sensation was no mild pang; it felt as though every drop of energy had been siphoned away, leaving a hollow ache demanding instant replenishment.

  Driven solely by hunger, Hassan scrambled up the chair and onto the table as if scaling a cliff. He seized the nearest nutritious herb and desperately tried grinding it into paste on the tabletop.

  Before he could proceed further, the caregiver seized him with both hands, their expression marked by clear confusion. Still gripped by hunger, Hassan decided not to risk his life. He gestured toward the food and then to his mouth, signaling his need for something to eat.

  The caregiver gave him a peculiar look, scanning him from head to toe before seemingly grasping the situation. Without hesitation, they set him on the tabletop, took the herb in his hands, and effortlessly ground it into a paste. This time, forgoing the spoon—perhaps recognizing the urgency—they hastily shoved the paste into his mouth.

  Hassan wasted no time swallowing the paste. Unsatisfied, he pointed at the herbs again, signaling for more. The caregiver understood at once, pressing more green mash into his mouth. A third scoop followed, then a fourth, then a fifth—until, at last, the caregiver folded its arms and shook its head. Hassan’s frustration flared, but before he could protest, a sudden realization cooled his temper.

  The sheer amount he had consumed was far beyond his usual intake. Normally, he ate only a small mixture of herbs—nowhere near a fifth of what he had just devoured. He reminded himself that hunger never vanishes instantly; overeating could even slow digestion, prolonging the sensation.

  He took several steady breaths and forced his focus elsewhere. Soul meditation should help, he thought, directing his senses away from the gnawing emptiness. After what felt like ages, the hunger finally ebbed. Hassan opened his eyes—only to find the caregiver staring at him in wide?eyed amazement, a mix of disbelief and confusion written across their face.

  A chill ran through him. How suspicious did I look? No normal baby could act that way. Would the caregiver march him off for another soul?reading? He couldn’t endure that pain again.

  Panicking, he decided the safest course was to act as though nothing had happened. He shuffled toward the edge of the tabletop, preparing to climb down. Just as he reached the chair, the caregiver scooped him up. Terror flared—then melted into relief when the caregiver simply set him gently on the floor. They must think I’d fall, he realized. Good—still treating me like a helpless child.

  Even so, he watched the caregiver from the corner of his eye. Only when their attention drifted back to routine sitting did he release a long, silent sigh. It seemed he wouldn’t be dragged off for soul?reading after all.

  Hassan replayed the scene in his mind. The caregiver had given him a quick, head?to?hoof inspection, registered his sudden growth, and—without hesitation—whipped up a paste and fed it to him, stopping at exactly the right moment. This must be a standard growth spurt for Zamongarai babies, he reasoned, and the thought eased his nerves.

  Even so, the caregiver’s baffled stare tugged at the back of his mind. No use brooding over it now, he decided. Better to verify what had actually changed. He opened his status panel—one detail jumped out immediately.

  #####

  Physique: 1.25 → 1.56

  Zamongarai’s Sense (Rank 2: 24% → 30%) – Expand

  #####

  While the rest of the panel remained unchanged, his physique attribute had risen by nearly a third of a point, and the Zamongarai’s Sense had improved by 6%. Adding that to the earlier leap, he felt compelled to test the new ceiling of his strength—and, by extension, the freshly upgraded Zamongarai’s Physique talent.

  Starting with squats this time, he powered through eighteen full reps before his legs threatened to buckle under the strain. Once he caught his breath, he pushed himself even harder, managing seven push-ups—a significant improvement, more than twice his earlier record.

  Then, scarcely a minute later, he found his muscles almost completely refreshed. The speed of recovery surpassed anything he had ever experienced back on Earth. His present strength still lagged behind his former human peak, but at this accelerating pace he might eclipse it within a few short months. The Zamongarai body really is something else.

  For a heartbeat he felt invincible—until the memory of the chieftain’s tent resurfaced. Those distant shockwaves had nearly flattened him, proving true power was still far ahead.

  He then decided to test himself with some basic agility exercises, but quickly noticed something was amiss. Hassan realized he had become less flexible and noticeably clumsier. It seemed that as his strength surged significantly, his agility suffered, and his ability to maintain finesse in movement diminished. The realization brought clarity—unless he consistently trained his agility, as outlined in the manual, this imbalance would persist.

  Hassan scowled, the thrill of gaining raw power was dampened by the realization that it had come at the expense of his agility. The trade-off left him frustrated, knowing he'd need to work harder to restore balance.

  Drawing a slow breath, he nudged the frustration away and fixed on the plan that had been simmering for over a month. It was time to hunt some delroaches.