As the burning sensation from the python's core finally settled, Primo stared at the floating text in his vision. The rewards were incredible.
[Gained:
+4 Strength
+2 Defense
+3 Evolution Points
Skill:
He sat there for a moment, waiting. He expected his skin to suddenly turn grey or feel like rock. He expected the dark office to light up with heat signatures. But as the seconds ticked by, nothing happened. He touched his arm; it felt like regular skin. He looked toward the corner of the room; it was still just a murky, pitch-black shadow.
Wait... why don't I feel anything? Primo wondered, a seed of doubt planting itself in his mind. Did the assimilation fail? Are the skills broken?
He checked his hands again, squinting into the darkness. There was no "Stone Skin," and his vision hadn't changed at all. Just as he was about to panic, a series of bright, urgent notification panels flickered into existence.
[Maximum status point for strength reached.]
[Strength: 12/10]
[Evolve to expand the limit.]
[Evolution Points: 5
Evolution Possible]
[Evolve Now?
He is shocked as the realization hits him that there is a limit in status. He remembers he is only Level 1 and realizes that 10 points is his current limit. He needs to level up or, as the system terms it, evolve.
He looked at the
He expected a warm glow. Instead, he felt a localized explosion in the center of his chest. A tingling heat surged outward, but it didn't stop at a tingle. It turned into a grinding, white-hot agony that made the python's core feel like a mere sting. This wasn't just energy moving through him; it felt like every single cell, every strand of muscle, and every inch of bone was being shattered and rebuilt into something denser and more efficient.
The sheer violence of the change caught him off guard. Primo collapsed onto the floor, his body writhing as if he were being electrocuted. He barely had the presence of mind to grab the cloth he'd dropped and shove it back into his mouth, biting down with enough force to make his jaw ache. He couldn't scream—he couldn't risk waking the others—but the silent torture was visible in the way his muscles corded and spasmed.
Wyn watched in absolute horror. He had seen the "core part" pass and thought Primo was safe, but now his friend was in even worse pain. Primo was soaked in sweat, his skin flushing a deep red as his body underwent the evolution. Wyn paced back and forth silently, his hands trembling, wanting to help but knowing he couldn't stop whatever this was.
The process felt eternal. For seven grueling minutes, Primo lay on the carpet, his mind a blur of pain and shifting biological structures.
The white-hot agony finally receded, leaving Primo breathless and drenched in sweat, but feeling an undeniable surge of new vitality. As he lay there, the final notifications of his transformation blinked into existence.
[Evolution Successful]
[Evolve: Human Level 1 - Human Level 2]
[All Stat Limits Increased to 20]
[+1 to all Stats]
Another series of panels flashed in his vision. He had reached Level 2, and his stat ceiling had effectively doubled. The most welcome surprise was the automatic +1 bonus to every single attribute, a reward for surviving the evolution process.
Primo sat up slowly, checking his arms and legs for any major physical changes. To his surprise, he looked exactly the same. There were no stone scales or glowing eyes. He felt significantly stronger and more "solid" on the inside, but he wondered why the new skills from the python hadn't triggered yet.
Seeking answers, he pulled up his updated status window.
[Name: Primo Adam
Level: 2
Race: Human
Evolution Point(s): 0
Stamina: 9
Strength: 13
Defense: 6
Agility: 9
Will: 11
Skill(s):
Everything seemed to be in order. His level had updated, his stats were higher, and the new skills were listed. To understand why he couldn't "feel" them yet, he focused on the skill names to bring up their descriptions.
[Stone Skin
Rank: C (Active)
User can harden his skin like stone. Activating consumes stamina.]
[Infrared Vision
Rank: D (Active)
User can see heat signatures. Activating consumes stamina.]
The mystery was solved: they were Active type skills. Unlike his "Great Ear," which seemed to be always on or easily toggled, these required a manual mental trigger and carried a cost. Now, he just had to wonder exactly how much of his 9 Stamina they would drain if he used them for a long period.
He also noted a curious detail. The python had stone-like scales, but his skill was called Stone Skin. He realized this was likely the work of his S-Rank Controlled Assimilation. The skill was keeping his base race as Human, and since humans don't have scales, the system had adapted the python's defensive trait into a form compatible with human biology.
"You okay?" Wyn's whisper broke his concentration. Wyn was staring at him, his eyes wide in the dark, still clearly shaken by the sounds Primo had been making.
Primo remained quiet. He sat in the dim light, thinking through everything that had just happened—the agonizing pain of the evolution, the limits of the status points, and the sheer power contained within a single Mid-Grade core.
He looked at the high ceilings of the faculty room, then at the barricaded door, and finally at his bruised, exhausted friend. An idea clicked in his head, sharp and clear. If the world was going to keep producing monsters like that python, a group of Level 1 humans stood no chance, regardless of their individual skills.
Primo looked at Wyn and blurted out, "We all need to level up."