Chapter 626: The Withered II

"Judge... has awakened?"

The hoarse voice of the tall creature echoed among the broken rocks.

Lian kept his eyes on it.

The black creature, standing nearly four and a half meters tall, was still looking up at the sky, its long limbs trembling violently, and the two purple lights where its eyes should have been remained fixed on the Hollow Sun.

Around it, other creatures were also emerging from cracks in the ground.

Some had bodies similar to humans, but their arms were far too long, some moved across the ground using four or six limbs, and others could not even stand properly on their own feet.

He looked at the scene in front of him for a few seconds.

So it recognizes that sun.

He still did not know what these creatures were or why they had emerged from deep underground, but that one sentence showed that at least some of them knew something about the strange phenomenon in the sky.

Lian focused his attention on the nearest spider-like creature.

A semi-transparent window appeared in front of him.

[ Race: The Withered ]

[ Rank: Mutated ]

[ Level: 26 ]

His eyebrows rose slightly.

Mutated?

At the same moment, Noah also looked at the creature, and similar information appeared in front of him.

"Mutated? So these used to be other creatures?" The young Frenchman took his folded umbrella from his shoulder and moved his gaze over the creature’s unusual limbs.

Rindo also kept his spear ready.

"Most likely."

Lian gave a slight nod, as he was familiar with the concept of mutated creatures.

Unlike most monsters that belonged to a specific race from the beginning, mutated creatures were beings that had lost their original forms or nature and turned into something different because of extreme changes.

Such transformations did not always make them stronger.

Some mutated creatures gained new abilities, while others even lost the natural abilities of their original races.

This was not the first time he had encountered mutated creatures either, as he had previously encountered a race of them in the Dreadmaw Mountains.

However, what caught Lian’s attention was that the creatures in front of him did not look similar to one another.

One moved across the ground using six limbs, while another had a tall and thin body.

And the third creature, with white, cracked skin, was still trying to crawl back into the crack it had emerged from.

So they probably didn’t all belong to the same race before.

He turned his gaze back to the tall creature.

If he could obtain even a little information from it, perhaps some of the recent events would become clearer.

He took a step forward.

"Do you recognize that sun?"

The creature lowered its head for a moment, and the purple lights on its face settled on him.

Its neck tilted to one side with a stiff movement, and its extremely long fingers slowly opened and closed.

"Ju... Judge..."

Lian waited.

"Have you seen it before?"

The creature had no clear mouth, but a hoarse voice came from deep inside its body.

"Sh... shouldn’t..."

At that moment, one of the nearby spider-like creatures turned its head toward the young Vorhelm.

Its body tensed for a few seconds, then its four lower limbs pressed hard against the rocks.

Lian noticed the movement from the corner of his eye, but before the creature could reach him, something unexpected happened to the way it moved.

Its two hind legs bent at unnatural angles, and instead of moving straight forward, its body launched toward him from the right.

Its long, bony limb moved toward his neck.

Vorhelm only turned his upper body slightly, allowing the attacking limb to pass beside his shoulder, then moved his right fist forward.

Bang!

The punch struck the creature directly in the chest, its cracked skin sank inward, the bones beneath it broke, and the force of the blow passed through its body.

The Withered was thrown several meters backward and landed on a rock with a heavy sound.

It did not move again.

[ Level 26 Withered has been killed ]

[ EXP received ]

Lian glanced at the notification.

Since reaching the limit of twenty thousand stats during his first evolution, increasing his stats further was no longer possible, but experience could still raise his level and bring him closer to his second evolution.

And these creatures? Despite their terrifying appearances, they did not seem to pose much of a threat to his current strength.

Of course, he still needed to check the levels of the others.

Lian turned his gaze back toward the cracks.

More Withered were coming out.

And some of them reacted in completely different ways after seeing the first creature die.

One curled up on the ground, another began screaming, but several creatures that seemed to have less control over their behavior charged straight toward him.

He let out a calm breath.

"Well, it seems we can’t talk for now."

The first Withered to approach was a three-meter-tall creature with long arms and a face covered in bone plates.

[ Race: The Withered ]

[ Rank: Mutated ]

[ Level: 31 ]

The creature attacked with a hoarse sound, bringing its right arm down toward Lian from above.

However, compared to the enemies he had fought before, the speed of its attack was nothing special.

Without stepping back, Lian caught the creature’s wrist with his left hand, stopping its long limb on the spot.

The Withered tried to free its arm, but it did not have enough physical strength to do so.

The young Vorhelm punched the creature’s head with his right fist, and the sound of breaking bones rang out. Its black head bent to one side, and its huge body fell to the ground.

[ Level 31 Withered has been killed ]

[ EXP received ]

Lian released the broken wrist.

The first creature had not even fully hit the ground when another Withered approached from the left.

This one had four arms, with its two upper limbs being longer, and their fingers ended in hard claws.

He recognized its movement.

He took a short step forward and punched the middle of the creature’s body before it could complete its attack.

Its thin body caved in at the point of impact, a muffled sound came from its throat, and it was thrown several meters backward.

When it hit the ground, it was already dead, but the battle had only just begun.

Three more Withered emerged from the crack on the right.

One moved on all fours, another had a thin body with unusually long legs, and the third looked almost like a human whose face was mostly hidden beneath dark skin.

Lian glanced at their notifications.

[ Level 22 ].

[ 29 ]

And [ 34 ]

They’re still weak.

The first creature leaped at him.

Lian swung his fist toward its head, and the blow landed before its claws could reach his body, crushing its head.

The second tried to pass him from the side, but he took a short step and blocked its path before punching it in the chest.

The sound of breaking bones rang out.

The third stopped for a moment, but before it could change direction, Lian reached it and struck its face with his right fist.

Its body fell to the ground and did not get back up.

[ Level 22 Withered has been killed. ]

[ Level 29 Withered has been killed. ]

[ Level 34 Withered has been killed ]

[ EXP received ]

The young Vorhelm looked at the notifications for a moment, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

Not bad.

Although the Withered had different levels, most of them had trouble controlling their movements.

Even those that showed greater speed usually lost their balance after one or two movements.

In comparison, he not only had very high stats, but his indestructible body also greatly increased his physical attack and defense.

He did not need to use skills that consumed a lot of energy or the energy of his cores to defeat these creatures.

His ordinary punches were enough.

The sounds of bones breaking and bodies hitting the rocks echoed around the cracks.

Several more Withered climbed down from the edges of the rocks.

One of them leaped toward Lian with an irregular movement, but he had already noticed it.

He moved half a step to the right, and the creature passed beside him. Just as it was about to land on the ground, Lian’s fist struck the back of its neck.

A short cracking sound followed, and the Withered fell onto the rocks and remained motionless.

Farther away, another creature with extremely long limbs tried to approach him from behind.

But even before it reached him, Lian turned around and struck the creature’s head directly with his fist, sending it flying to one side.

The Withered fell to the ground and did not move again.

With every kill, an EXP notification appeared.

Lian paid no attention to them for a while, keeping his focus on the creatures that were still trying to attack him.

However, he had not forgotten one thing.

Not all the Withered behaved aggressively, as some of them were still standing motionless beside the cracks.

The white-skinned creature that had repeatedly said "I don’t want to" was now curled up behind one of the rocks.

And the tall, shadow-like figure, the same creature that had spoken the word Judge, was slowly moving away from the battle area.

Lian did not stop it from leaving, as he had no need to chase a creature that did not intend to fight just to gain EXP.

But that wasn’t the only thing.

It was the behavior of these creatures that interested him, and he wanted to understand the reason behind it.