Chapter 17: Merek’s Shocking Strength
After reaching level 12, strength slowly seeped back into Merek’s limbs, enough for him to push himself upright. He activated Veilwalk, a rift appeared in the space before him and he walked through.
There, amid the dim glow of the afterlife, he handed over 45 essence cores to Verya, the shopkeeper of Morrow’s End. The remainder, he brought back.
Upon returning to the physical world, he tossed them into his mouth, one after the other, crunching them like brittle stones.
His undead did not rely on essence cores to grow. That single fact changed everything.
If his wraiths could continuously hunt without competing for resources, while he devoured the spoils, his progression would outpace almost anyone else. A dangerous advantage.
So far, he’d formed a hypothesis about these mutated creatures. They evolved in two ways.
One—by devouring other lifeforms.
And the second—more unnerving by far—was time.
Yes, time itself strengthened them.
It didn’t matter if they hunted or hid. Simply surviving was enough. The longer they remained alive, the stronger they became. That meant if humanity hesitated, even for a moment, extinction wouldn’t just be possible—it would be inevitable.
As Merek turned to leave, Yuki’s hand clamped gently onto his shoulder. She stood still, her glowing orbs narrowed at the darkness beyond. "Something... is coming," she said, voice low, tense.