Accident & Dream Appears [9/last]

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In the same location where Evan's selection was taking place, Evan could be seen crying in pain. No one approached to check on him, knowing well that nothing could be done at this point; he would emerge either successful, crippled, or in the worst case, not at all.

"How long do you think he will take to assimilate it?" one inquired of Soul, who was observing him in silence.

"No, I can't say, as even those who are experts in souls cannot fully discern what lies within. There was only one man who managed to unravel the complete theory of the soul, but he disappeared in the tempest of time, silencing everything. We can only hope that he awakens; then we may know," Soul replied, recalling her master's tales of a being who challenged the gods with their authority, possessing the power to annihilate the souls of beings deemed immortal, having vanquished many.

She yearned to emulate that individual.

All waited eagerly for his awakening as hours slipped by.

Despair was setting in when Evan's eyelash twitched slightly. The onlookers were not ordinary people; they were perhaps of god-like stature, so they quickly noticed it.

They congregated around him as he began to open his eyes, finding them standing close, waiting.

"Hi, guys, did something happen that you're all looking at me like that?" Evan inquired, scanning his body for anomalies, recalling the dark orb he had absorbed.

All this time, he had been in an endless, dark chamber, feeling as if thousands of insects were consuming him from the inside out.

"Oh yes, you did something monumental, something that could have killed you had your luck run out sooner," one of them exclaimed, his voice growing louder with each word.

"Huh, but I didn't do anything. I just absorbed a normal orb, right?" Evan responded, feigning innocence, aware that he had been through a harrowing ordeal after the act.

"Yes, you did, Evan, and don't try to conceal it. You can't, as we've known you for too long," Grim retorted, shaking his head in disapproval.

"But what did I just take? If it's not something trivial, why didn't you give it to me earlier? If it was important, why wait until I found this?" Evan countered with a question of his own.

"I would have preferred that, Evan, but after your class orb absorption, I assumed you wouldn't have room for this. So I skipped it, yet, astonishingly, you managed to take it," One explained.

"Alright, I've taken it, but what is it that you're making such a fuss over?" Evan inquired, assuming it was some sort of skill or ability, not daring to think it was anything else.

"No, it's something that can elevate a life from nothing to everything, a dream for any race to birth two at a time, a stroke of luck for some to be born with it, one in a trillion or more. It's not a class, talent, bloodline, or ability, but a Physique that everyone dreams of, yet only one is born with it. It's not just any Physique, but the Physique of a Monarch. You understand its significance, right?" One elaborated, watching Evan's expression shift from neutral to amazement, then horror, and finally shock.

Evan hadn't realized that all this time, his soul was undergoing an upgrade in quality, akin to going from delicious local street food to the exclusive grandeur of a five-star hotel's cuisine.

"Hahhhhh, a monarch's physique? But how? Isn't a being said to be in a realm of his own? When did I manage to kill it?" Evan pondered, doubting his past selves' ability to defeat such a foe. He wondered where he acquired this power—was it a reward, or an upgrade of his core to monarch status? If he had obtained it in a past life, why hadn't he used it? Was his past self waiting to use it from the beginning in the next life?

"You did kill a monarch, one of a higher tier than yourself, and that's why you received this title we bestowed upon you last time," one explained, revealing that Evan had slain a monarch during his second life in an expanse siege break—a concept not of this time but of the future, so patience was necessary.

"So, care to tell me who it was that died to grant me such incredible loot? Which monarch was it? Flame, serpent, ice, or beast?" Evan inquired, unable to think of someone he might not meet in his life. He could still name the Dragon, Time, Void, Shadow, and others who could kill him whenever they wished.

"Well, you didn't even meet them, as you are too insignificant to kill them. But it was a vile and many-lived individual whom you managed to kill eight times, yet he did not perish due to his carelessness. He was the Death Monarch, pursuing that girl who set your mind ablaze, and you killed him eight times in the second tier. But as he advanced to the third and invaded the second to kill you, he died—perhaps his revival was on cooldown, and his great strength overwhelmed him, leading to his demise in that battle," one elucidated, and with that, Evan understood.

"But if he was killed by someone like me, doesn't that mean his physique is much weaker compared to others? I recall a monarch can single-handedly defeat an army, ruling over nations or empires, but this man wasn't like that; he was just a simpleton who got killed over a girl," Evan remarked, yet he sensed that perhaps this physique could still be of some use to him.

"Yes, but a monarch is still a monarch, and perhaps it's your destiny, so let's hope it serves you well," one of them said, setting the matter aside while also pondering that this physique might be too feeble compared to others.

"Let's get you out of here before you acquire anything more," one suggested, about to send him away when Evan halted him.

"Wait, I want to try something," Evan interjected, feeling a pull from something, as if someone was beckoning him to take it along.

"We can't risk you taking anything more; the threshold of limits is teetering on the edge of bursting, and excessive greed could harm your soul," Soul warned, observing the vein-like structures in Evan's soul as he moved towards an object among various items.

However, Evan ignored the warnings, brushed aside some orbs, and grasped a single particle from the cluster of floating objects.

"Maybe this is the final piece to complete me, the reason I came here," Evan said as he observed the orb displaying an image of a light blue egg floating inside.

"What's that inside?" he inquired.

"Oh, it's trash, Evan. It's a companion egg, one of those useless things that give you the perfect companion, like an animal or a monster, to bond with after they're born. They grow independently, just like their master or partner," One explained, thinking it foolish to risk danger for an egg that could be found later.

"But what's the harm in trying?" Evan countered and, before anyone could react, he absorbed it.

Then, nothing happened, as if he hadn't absorbed it at all.

"What's going on? Is something wrong with you? Why didn't the process start?" One asked, equally puzzled.

"Hold on, let me check," Evan said, attempting to sense the egg. Fortunately, it was there inside him.

"Yes, it's inside, bonded successfully. Perhaps it doesn't require much space," Evan announced, and One sighed in relief.

"Alright, now return immediately before you pick any more of them," One instructed, but Evan just chuckled. With a snap, Grim instantly made the orb vanish from in front of them.

"And listen, Evan, the place where you'll find the artifact is over there, so please make sure you get there on time," Grim advised, pointing at Evan's forehead. A beam of light entered his mind, showing him an area of a closed factory, which he recognized instantly since it was on the way to Rey's house, a route he had taken a few times.