BXBX NOVEL Chapter 232: Clusters
The shock-wave rippled outwards, briefly parting the thick, black miasma before it returned, casting a depressing mist over the entire area again.
When the dust settled, the once standing hill looked like a scene from a war documentary, devastated by a missile strike costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per shot.
But for Reign, it only cost a portion of his energy reserves.
This was something humans could never achieve; they had to rely on limited resources just to mimic a fraction of his power.
And not just him.
Demons, angels, and the corrupted, could cause the same damaged with just their bodies alone.
He landed on the ground and quickly absorbed the mangled corpses using hundreds of bone tendrils.
The black miasma was filtered out of his body, and dark dust points accumulated at an accelerated rate. Finally, he heard the level-up sound.
[Level Up + 1]
Reign clenched his fist, knowing that he had finally reached level 60.
'Good thing I absorbed that Naturalized Crystal,' he said with a grin, remembering how that alone had boosted him three levels.
Such treasure was quite rare and would take a normal demon hours, even days, to absorb. But with the system, he had consumed it with ease.
"Give me something big!" He rubbed his bony hands together eagerly, anticipating what the system had in store, especially since this next evolution required 2 Evolution Points.
[Ding]
Overlord : The Ruler of death …..
"This..." he couldn't control his creepy grin, which stretched up to his ears as he read the description. It made him feel that all his previous evolutions were trash in comparison.
The Overlord evolution would grant him dominion over life and death.
His power to control the undead would increase by ten fold, allowing him to summon and command legions of skeletal warriors.
His aura would instill fear and despair in his enemies, draining their strength and will to fight before they could even approach him.
This form would also enhance all his physical abilities, giving him strength, speed, and resilience that was worthy of the title Overlord.
The ultimate ruler of the battlefield, he would become a living nightmare for anyone who dared oppose him.
CLICK!
He wasted no time and chose to evolve.
This place was safe, giving him enough time to upgrade his body without any disturbances.
As the evolution took effect, he felt a sudden warmth spreading through his body, intensifying into a searing heat.
His bones began to burn as if they were metal reaching its melting point, glowing pure red.
Even Reign, known for his durability, was forced to kneel under the excruciating heat, feeling as if he were swimming in molten magma at the center of a volcano.
Wisps of smoke began to rise from his body as the intense heat continued to rise.
'What's happening?' He gritted his teeth against the pain, which surpassed anything he had ever experienced.
And he was not speaking metaphorically; his bones were changing at an atomic level.
Previously, his bones were harder than metal but still a bone nevertheless.
Now, the very atoms of his body were transforming into a different periodic element, heated to the point where they began to melt.
Due to the intense heat, his bones began dripping from his body.
It started in his feet, where his bones began to glow with heat, tiny steams of molten metal forming at his ankles like wax dripping from a candle.
The change moved upward, his legs now slowly shortening as the heat grew stronger.
Advancing to his torso, the intense heat spread across his abdomen and chest, casting a strange red light that flickered around him.
The heat kept spreading, moving up his arms to his shoulders, where it collected and dripped, forming tiny glowing drops that sizzled on the ground.
Covered entirely in molten metal, his whole body became a pulsating mass of hot-red metal.
And after the intense heat reached its peak, his body began to cool down and solidify
The molten metal that had once covered him now hardened, forming a rough looking piece of mineral .
He resembled more of a rock than a demon now; anyone passing by might mistake him for an ore deposit.
"Fuck, what kind of evolution is this?" he cursed aloud.
How did he go from being a Demon Lord to a piece of ore?
But before he could process what was happening, there was a sudden thud inside him.
His vision blurred for a moment, and he was pulled back into a dream-like state.
This time, he found himself in a dark place.
Everything was pitch black, there was nothing but total darkness.
[Ding: Congratulations! To complete the entire transformation, you need to activate your DNA Clusters .]
The familiar sound of the system was the silver lining in this weird situation. It made him feel less worried about being pulled into this dark place.
Finally, it decided to converse with him, and judging from its words, he could tell that there was some semblance of intelligence in it again.
"So you finally decided to talk to me again? Why did you stop responding before?" he asked.
The system did not answer him this time.
He thought that his previous question might have been something too personal so he decided to ask something else related to the current situation.
"What's happening ? And what's a DNA Cluster? "
[System: DNA Clusters are specific sequences within an organism's DNA formed at birth. These clusters are predetermined, and when the peak is reached and limits are broken, the clusters unlock, allowing the organism to evolved further]
"And how is this related to me? I thought you were aiding me to bypass this unnecessary work," Reign asked, thinking this was different from the system's usual straightforward evolution method.
[System: Due to host having the Legendary Race, Legendary Core, and Legendary Domain, your clusters were far bigger than normal. The system doesn't have enough reserves to automatically unlock them, so you need to manually unlock them yourself.]
Reign sighed, feeling it was pointless to argue with the system. "Alright, so can you at least explain more?"
[System: A normal organism typically has between 1 to 99 clusters, while stronger organisms may have between 99 to 199, 199 to 299, or 299 to 399 clusters in their bodies. The higher the cluster count, the greater the chance of reaching Demon God status.]
'Wait...' Reign's mind raced as he processed everything.
This was a new term, but if his understanding was correct, these DNA clusters determined an organisms limit from birth.
It meant that when a demon was born, they already have predetermine limit.
This could explain why some demons could reach the rank of Demon Lord while others could not.
For instance, if the requirement to become a Demon Lord was to unlock up to 100 clusters, a demon born with only 99 clusters would never break through no matter what.
On the other hand, those who started with 99 to 199 clusters had a higher chance of breaking through.
In his case, relying on the system meant that instead of having fix number from the get go, it generated additional ones as he grew stronger.
"So what's my current count right now ?"