Blaze woke up with a start. His horde had surrounded him, looking at him strangely.
However, he couldn’t see them. Not with the image of that three-eyed monster flashing before him.
What the hell was that?
He thought, trying to remember what happened, but the memories were vague at best.
"My lord, are you alright?" Marrow asked as Fester jumped on Blaze.
"I’m... fine," Blaze replied, patting Fester. "What happened?"
The horde looked at one another, expressing confusion. They were expecting to get answers from Blaze, while the latter expected vice versa.
"You collapsed three days ago," Marrow commented, breaking the silence. "I tried to heal you, but a strange cocoon surrounded you, cutting us off."
She pointed at some distance, right in front of his throne. It was the place Blaze had devoured the nuclei before blacking out.
Now, there was a white shell, roughly seven feet tall, covered in strange webs.
"I was... inside it for three days?" Blaze asked, still a bit dizzy. "Did something happen while I was out?"
Marrow shook her head.
Blaze nodded in relief. He thought the blightlord would attack them for refusing the offer. But it seemed it was bidding time, probably collecting what few zombies that remained out of the spire’s influence.
Still, he was troubled by the fact that he had been out for three days.
Through his early evolutions, the pain he felt was extreme, but it didn’t knock him out. The first time it happened, he was gone for three days.
Who knows what would happen during his next evolution?
He could be out for a week, a month, or even years.
I can’t take that risk.
Blaze thought as he got up to examine this cocoon thing. In his mind, he was already planning contingencies for such events. Anything could happen in the strange world, especially since he had so many enemies.
Upon seeing that he was interested in it, Marrow rushed to inform them about their findings.
"We don’t know what it’s made of, but it is extremely tough," she said. "Everyone tried to break it, even Voss’s chemicals had no effect on it."
Blaze hummed in reply.
Something felt familiar about the cocoon, but he couldn’t quite place it.
"Get back," he instructed Marrow, clenching his fists.
The horde stepped away, and Blaze’s fist slammed into the cocoon. The thing kept rooted to its spot, but there was a slight dent in it.
At a glance, it didn’t mean much, but given that neither Breaker nor Raven could even scratch the cocoon, it made one thing obvious.
Blaze had surpassed both of them in terms of strength. It was strange since he had gotten a bit thinner than before. Physically, his strength should have dropped, not increased to such levels.
Yet there he was, showing further anomalous behavior.
"Yeah, this isn’t enough."
Everyone thought Blaze would be satisfied after putting a dent in the cocoon.
However, that wasn’t the case.
He backed up further and charged at the thing before hitting it with full force with Necrophage.
The dent became bigger, and everyone thought that was it.
But the next moment, the cocoon ripped off the ground and was hurled towards the grade-2s, who were roaming aimlessly.
The cocoon hit them like a truck. Their blood splattered everywhere as their rotten flesh was flung across the lair. Someone’s severed head was tossed outside the zoo’s main gate!
As for the cocoon, it got bent out of shape. However, its threads still held on.
While the ants scrambled to clean up, Blaze clenched and unclenched his fingers. A smirk formed on his lips, showing he was pleased.
However, it wasn’t just because of his strength.
"Throw that into the separator," he instructed, before crushing his mask. "Everyone else, get back to your respective assignments."
The ant’s chitinous mask had served him well. However, with the humans obtaining proper weapons and even stranger abilities, he couldn’t rely on the mask anymore.
The cocoon’s material would be better for him now.
While Saturn processed the material, Blaze tried opening his status page. He had a feeling a lot had changed regarding his abilities and traits, and wanted to check.
Blaze was utterly shocked by what was in front of him.
Subject: Blaze Darwin (Subject Code: J#117)
Status: M.I.A. (potentially deceased.)
— Strength: Prime-Class
— Agility: Prime-Class
— Durability: Prime-Class
— Intelligence: Alpha-Class
[Evolution potential: 0.00%]
[Regeneration rate: Ultra]
[Mutation: Onyx, Asura, Puppeteer] (7 slots remaining)
— Sentient Rot (lvl Max)
— Horde Management (lvl Max)
— Corpse Domain (lvl Max) [Earlier: Corpse Vault]
— Undead Encyclopedia (lvl Max)
— Corpse Creation (lvl Max) [Earlier: Corpse Unification]
— Lair Management (lvl 2)
— Mind Plague (lvl Max)
Earlier, the section showed undead as his status, but now he was missing and potentially dead?
"...maybe they updated their database and reclassified me."
He didn’t linger on such a trivial matter anymore and inspected other things.
His class had changed along with his stats, which was expected. The next surprise came in the form of the regeneration rate and decay rate.
The latter had changed from halted to frozen, which probably meant he was immune to decay, not just on pause like before. As for the regen rate, it had turned from high to ultra.
Most likely, he could not heal on his own without depending on his tendrils or Marrow.
"More mutation slots," he murmured. "If only I spent my time looking for suitable mutations, these slots would actually be useful. Unlike these traits."
It was strange to see that all his traits and abilities except three had already been maxed out. Blaze had thought it would take years, if not decades, to do that.
Yet here he was, corrected and humbled once again.
However, what attracted him the most were three new skills.
Corpse Domain, Corpse Creation, and Requiem, with the latter being an entirely new ability. Especially since it was locked.
"I can’t use it? What kind of trashy ability is it?"