BXBX NOVEL Chapter 468 Year 1053: January
Unfortunately for the young hero, it seemed Adaptive Evolution was about to have its fun with him again, as he had been stuck on level 298 for quite a while.
The boss monster of Floor 30 was a Level 305 White-Eyed Blight Anaconda, a powerful gargantuan snake-like monster with a body that made the snakes from a \'certain movie with 5 parts\' seem like toddlers.
Its scales were powerful enough to withstand almost any Tier 2 spell unscathed, and a few weaker Tier 3 Spells without issue, gaining even more defensive power when it infused its magic power into them.
With powerful poison on its fangs, breath attacks that spewed more than a dozen different kinds of poison, cloning techniques, high-level earth, wind and fire manipulation, and its Evil Eyes Unique skill that let it inflict malignant corruption on enemies within its field of vision, it was a monster that was sure to prove a tough opponent for any peak B rank party.
Even the Anomalies found it slightly hard to deal with, especially because of its Clones that exploded with the ferocity of Tier 2 Explosion magic upon their destruction.
However, in the end, it was just \'Slightly Hard\' to deal with for them.
The nameless anaconda monster perished at their hands after a near-thirty-minute battle.Evan became Level 299 at last, and it was then that Adaptive Evolution showed its true colours, pulling up another set of requirements for him to ascend to grandmaster level status.
Apparently, due to the fact that his current body was not his real body and his racial factors were different, the level of synchronization between his body and his soul was lacking.
According to the skill, becoming a Grandmaster Level like that had a high level of \'devolution\' risk which was going to give him problems later down the line.
As for the means to solve the issue, well, the skill was apparently still analysing his situation and trying to find an optimal solution.
However, it did state that he was going to need an external Evolution catalyst to aid in solving it.
When Evan saw this notice, it took the combined efforts of Pride and Eliza to prevent him from flipping all the tables in the Oak Avenue Manor in annoyance.
If there was any consolation, it was the fact that his stat levels could still increase, albeit at a slower rate, so he could basically be a half-step grandmaster: an existence who had the power of a grandmaster, but was quite there yet.
Date of Occurrence: Year 1053, January 1.
Year 1053 began on a high note, starting with the news of agricultural research breakthroughs that made things easier during the harsh winter weather; for farmers and other countries that had Agriculture as their main economic power source.
This also marked 2 and a half years since Evan had come to Aidos, and so far, the boy could say he was enjoying his stay.
Especially his visits to his favourite spots from Aidos Online, and his dates with Eliza.
There were a few people who tried to make passes at Eliza here and there; this could not be helped as she was indeed very pretty, and Evan was obviously not a fan of this at all.
A situation like that happened once with a foreign S ranker who just arrived in Gerfast when Eliza was waiting for Evan at the guild.
The S and SS rankers Evan knew who were bored, held the boy back and even concealed his presence so that they could watch a show and see how Eliza would reject him.
In the end, Evan and the other adventurers were once again reminded of the fact that it was indeed very possible to \'kill\' someone mentally and emotionally with just words, and Eliza had a sharp tongue that was more than capable of achieving such a feat.
Anyway, with the assistance of Trains to make transportation faster, Evan stopped limiting his travels to countries that surrounded the GWE and started venturing further into the other parts of the continent.
Date of Occurrence: Year 1053, January 25.
The first month of the Year 1053 started with a high-profile event that made waves, and the month ended with another high-profile event that made waves, just not the best kind.
A Vampire bird was spotted in Ragrela, a southwestern coastal country of the Alpha continent, near a coastal city called Egrad.
It was a powerful Level 600 Epic level existence that struck terror into the people of Egrad, as well as the people of any nearby cities.
Vampire birds were beings that could contend for the \'lesser ruler of the sky\' title. Possessing glossy black feathers and two bloodstained red eyes on each side.
Once Vampire birds locate their prey, they swoop down in a rotating downward motion and pierce their sharp beaks into the prey\'s necks, before sucking their blood.
But that was only the case where it had a single prey. When faced with a city of humanoids like Egrad, filled with hundreds of thousands of potential prey, the Vampire bird\'s methods became even more bloodcurdling.
Situations where powerful monsters left their territories to attack cities like this, were not rare in Aidos, and in such situations, adventurers were usually dispatched to take out the monsters.
If the adventurers in the area were not enough, then the nation involved would either consider sending out knights or soldiers, either that or the nearby lords hire mercenaries to deal with the situation.
However, the instant that the people of Ragrela heard that what they were faced with was a \'Vampire\' Bird, the whole country went on red alert.
As the news spread to the rest of the Alpha continent via newspapers, Guilds, radios and other information sources, it was like the whole continent went on red alert.
National leaders were even tenser than when they discovered that the \'Desecrator of Souls\' who killed millions of people across 12 cities was still alive.
\'Beast King\' Kolvar, whose whereabouts had been unknown for the past year, reappeared in the capital city Goras\' Barthmont Palace, before dispatching one of the Beastkin race\'s Living Legends to Ragrela.
However, this Living legend was not dispatched there to defeat the Vampire Bird, but to cast barriers around Egrad and all the cities near the forest where the Vampire Bird was spotted.
Younger people from the current generations who were born within the past three decades did not really understand why the older ones were on such high alert, but those who were alive even before Dominik caused the \'Disaster of Graugro\' were more alert than when that incident happened.
As for the reason, it did not take long for them to find out.
Just a day after the information of the Vampire Bird\'s presence spread and the \'Beast King\' took action, \'He\' struck.
A massive explosion rocked the forest where the Vampire Bird was spotted.
It was as if someone chipped a tiny piece of the Alpha Continent that the coastal forest occupied, broke it off and dissolved it into the Dread Ocean.
The Vampire Bird\'s body had been turned to dust, and its soul had been shredded to pieces.
It was dead as could be.
As for the person responsible; it was none other than the youngest and newest addition to \'The Five\'.
\'Strongest Human\' Rathal.
For a week after that, Ragrela was still on red alert as Rathal\'s aura swept across the entire country, scanning for any Vampire type monsters.
But after a week of finding nothing, his aura finally disappeared and the people of Ragrela could finally return to normal life.
The Beastman Living Legend returned to the Beast Kingdom shortly after.
Lastly, Rathal and Kolvar Once again went off the grid, presumably returning to where they were before the news broke out.
It was then, that people finally calmed down.
Date of Occurrence: Year 1053, January 27.
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Adventurer\'s Guild Hall F
Capital City Gerfast
Great Western Empire
January 31st
Year 1053
\'Rathal, he\'s the same as ever, huh?\'
Such thoughts ran through Evan\'s head as he stepped into the vicinity of one of the Capital\'s Massive Guild Halls, flipping through a newspaper with the recent Vampire Bird news on it.
\'As expected of someone who nearly wiped out an entire race from the face of the planet.\'
He tossed the newspaper back into his inventory as he was about to enter the guild hall, deciding to be as high profile as always.
Clearing his throat lightly, he slammed the double doors open, successfully catching the attention of more than half the people inside the guild hall and then shouted out loud with a magic-amplified voice to catch the attention of the rest.
[I AM HERE!!]