The Curator

Chapter 56: The Sky Battle

Thalion had changed his plans again, which was almost a habit of his—to want to do one thing and then do a completely different one.
Something had changed massively. The sun was about to go down, and he wanted to fly back. Then it happened. The wyvern just disappeared. Probably, it had gone to the next state of the tutorial, if something like this was possible for beasts because they didn’t have a system shop, at least as far as he knew.
The other beasts were surprised, but t...

Chapter 55: Hunting Birds

Thalion found out that hunting birds was not as hard as he first thought. With the new skill, he was able to kill some fire hawks, but they didn't have any good skills. When things got dangerous, he transformed into a human, which surprised the birds most of the time so much that he could finish one off with his blood thorns. If a big one wanted to go into melee combat, he transformed into the umbral predator and ripped the attacker into pieces.
He was currently hunting for some wind hawks...

Chapter 54: New Form

Thalion had traveled all night until he arrived at the mountain. The thing made the biggest mountains of Earth look like a child in comparison.
The first was easily over ten kilometers high, and he already had spotted a cave a griffin entered with its prey between its claws. The beast was powerful at early level 40. It had the beak and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. The tail ended in one big spike. All of its feathers were brown, and its eyes glowed with a dark red.
Thalion w...

Chapter 53: Into the Jungle

Thalion ran through the jungle. His body was still in pain from the fight earlier. He activated predatory instinct to blend with the darkness and to scout the area so he wouldn't run into any surprises.
He had fed on some plants on the way, which had almost fully healed his injuries, but now he faced a lot of problems. He couldn't go back to the fortress when the orcs had such strong fighters.
Their reaction was fast and very efficient. The orcs had reinforced the blockade and the camp ...

Chapter 52: Bloodshed

Grommash Bloodcleaver was inspecting the blockade around the human fortress. His patron had ordered him to starve the humans and when possible, kill them. The orcs were supporting the Eternal Dominion in their endeavor to bring Ankhet Sekhmara back. He didn't care much for the politics. He just wanted to kill the humans and advance in his class, the blood berserker. The idea was to block the humans from going out hunting, and when they were too far behind in levels, they would attack. In the ...

Chapter 51: Unseen Threats

 Thalion dashed toward the big tower where Kael and Sylas were standing.
"Hey, so where are the attackers?" Thalion asked as he looked around, seeing only some movements behind the trees after landing besides the two. 
"They're gathering. I don’t know what their goal is, but I don’t think they want to attack. They are waiting for us to go out hunting," Kael said with a sour face.
"So you want to attack them?" Thalion asked a bit excited. This was a problem and could be ...

Chapter 50: Plans and Preparations

"I think the most important thing is to have the stronger elite fighters in battle. They have the most impact," Thalion thought out loud.

"I agree," Kael nodded while waving his beer bottle around. "There are pentagrams called war arrays that gather the power of many into one person, boosting the individual to crazy degrees, but I ignored them for now and only went for the normal mgic circles."

"What is the difference?" Thalion asked interested. This must have been the same...

Chapter 49: The Council of Gods

Solarion teleported into a room full of gods, all sharing the same goal, for now. There was Mazu, the Mistress of the Tides, one of many water gods but undoubtedly one of the most powerful. She was skilled in fighting the undead, as her domain was close to the Eternal Dominion. Next to her stood Amoja, Flamebearer of the Eternal Pyre, a goddess of fire. Then there was Atheos, a stone-turned warrior of incredible strength and one of the first to reach godhood after the extinction. Besid...

Chapter 48: Reunion and Surprises

"Hey Thalion, you have grown in power," Kai commented, stepping a bit closer.

"Dude, not only grown. Did you see how fast he is?" Sylas exclaimed loudly.

"Thank you very much. So, can I get a little tour of this giant fortress?" Thalion asked with a smile. It felt good reuniting, but he also felt that this might only be temporary. He needed to find new forms and travel to the mountain so he couldn't stay for too long.

To reconnect with people you had experienced so mu...

Chapter 47: Reunion

Thalion switched to his human form as he neared the fortress and walked out into the clearing. There were many people waiting in front of the gate. He even spotted that fire guy from yesterday—the one who fought Steven—waiting by the gate.

Thalion approached the nearest group. “Hey, what are you all waiting for? Aren't they opening today?”

“Yes, they said they bought something from the system shop, so we can all enter,” a woman said happily.

“Do you know who ow...

Chapter 46: Blessings and Rivalries

Kael exited the system shop with mixed feelings, as he was surprisingly invited by a god for a round of talk that, in the end, got him an ancient blessing and solved all the problems he had worried about last night.
The god who blessed him was Aeta, a god with a ranger class like him. It was really nice meeting the guy.
They had a long talk; he even gave him an orb that bound him closer to nature and allowed his body to absorb mana more easily. Then they had a little archery lesson, and...

Chapter 45: Blood and Shadow

Thalion was pretty happy with himself despite messing up four items, but it was only natural to fail the first few times.
He appeared before the voice of the system after the system shop opened and instantly asked, "Hi, can you give me body-tempering manuals for my humans and beast form?"

Instantly, a lot of items appeared in front of him, but two drew his attention immediately.

Crimson Vein Codex
This manual channels the user’s blood essence ...

Chapter 44: Forces Aligning

Seraphina Marquess sat on her throne, reviewing the reports from last night. As expected, the man who owned the White Fortress had attacked one of his direct neighbors, and his camp would probably grow in power. There were even rumors that the man was blessed by a god, and that was where his strength came from. But she didn't need to worry. Here on the sea, he had no chance of fighting her.

Last week, they had gathered many slaves and even found that stubborn girl, Nerissa, who had set ...

Chapter 43: Kills

Thalion watched as the healthy warriors sprinted toward the hole in the wall that the big axe man had created, leaving their wounded and most of the healers behind, it seemed.

Eyeing the easy credits to claim, he waited until most had passed through. Then he struck. Appearing before the first healer, he tore her head off with a swing of his claws. A few swipes later, the remaining eight lay lifeless on the ground. He looted their belongings and waited for the ...

Chapter 42: Night before the System Shop

Steven watched as his man slowly pulled down the walls, the runes only lit in dime light.

This Michael had tricked his scouts into thinking their defenses were weak to bait an attack. They even had magic circles that buffed the mages in them, giving them extra firepower.

That's why he made a solo attack on the castle. He flew over the walls and attacked the casters and the magic circles with the cleansing flames and light beams from his lance.

It took him longer than expecte...

Chapter 41: Another bloody night

Thorwald had a wide smile on his face. The night was finally there, and he would be part of Steven's attack group with two mages, three archers, and one light warrior.

All were over Level 39 and radiated pure strength and skill. The last system shop had provided them with the perfect equipment, and today they would raid some of those weak human bases that managed to resist them. He was still furious that this guy Kael had managed to gather enough credits to buy himself such a fortress.<...

Chapter 40: Shadows Before the Hunt

Thalion checked his notifications while continuing his feast on the plant life.

You have killed human Level 31

...

...

...
You have killed human Level 27

You have reached Level 30

He gained an entire level from killing all those humans. It was quite a lot, even though some were of a lower level than him. He allocated his free points into...

Chapter 39: Helping out

 Thalion jumped on the top of a tall tree and then used his new ability, mistform, and shot with incredible speed in the air. After a short time, he was over 800 meters above the ground.

He deactivated the spell that had cost half his mana and summoned a mana barrier under his feet to get a good look around.

In the south, he saw a giant ocean. It has to be one this time since there were meter-high waves crashing at the beach.

On it, he saw some kind of swimming p...

Kapitel 38: The third stage

Kael’s group fought tirelessly, hunting down the fiercest creatures the jungle had to offer. Each kill brought them closer to their goal, and the camp's atmosphere grew increasingly tense as the last of them neared the critical threshold of level 25.

Finally, the moment arrived. Together, Kael and his group triggered the evolution that would propel them to the next stage.

When the teleportation finished, they found themselves standing in a lush, alien landsca...

Chapter 37: Shopping Time

Thalion had spent the whole night searching for something to feed on but only found a few beasts, which he quickly slaughtered. So far, nothing was his equal in his Umbral Predator form.

Then the long-awaited prompt appeared.

System shop available: Time left 11:59 hours

Finally, he thought while triggering the shop. Shortly after, he appeared before the voice of the system again. He had a total of 109,080 credits, and his plan was to buy armor and weapons for his human form....

Chapter 36: Hunting Shadows

Thalion checked his credit score and was surprised. Killing the two nobles, the city bombardment, and the few warriors he had killed on the third stage brought him up to 92,070 credits, which was monstrous. There was also a counter under his tutorial quests:

Special Event starts in 175:06 hours

Tribute 50,000 Credits to travel to the fourth stage

This was interesting. He could instantly travel to the fourth stage, but he doubted he wa...

Chapter 35: Into the Jungle

Thalion took his first look at his surroundings. He was in another jungle, similar to the last one. The dense foliage, towering trees, and sprawling vines came alive with a bioluminescent glow, bathing the jungle in a soft, ethereal light. The leaves and flowers emitted radiant hues of blue, purple, and green, creating a living canvas that pulsed with energy. The ground was carpeted with luminous moss and strange, glowing fungi, lighting the path as he moved deeper into the jungle.

Chapter 33: One last fight

Thalion waited until it was probably around 3 o'clock in the morning. The city had grown quiet, at least the palace, as only the occasional report came in, and in the last hour, it was completely silent time to make his move. He put on his black robe and mask to hide his identity, which could be crucial for the future if he didn't manage to kill the nobles.

He slowly snuck up the stairs, passing through the entrance hall, and kept going to the higher floors. Thalion was relieved to see ...

Chapter 32: Slaughter

Thalion followed one man from the docks, someone who looked wealthy, at least judging by his clothing. He wore the usual blue robe, but it was adorned with gold embroidery, and he carried himself with his head held high, not acknowledging the other citizens around him. A perfect target.

Keeping a good distance, Thalion shadowed the man to one of the larger houses near the giant palace. A man, probably his butler, opened the door before the wealthy man could reach it. That could b...

Chapter 31: Infiltartion

After a bit of searching, they found a small ant hive, which was perfect to give them the last levels. While Jakob and Annie were killing ants, Thalion checked out the scroll to see if you could evolve while fighting.

The scroll explained in the typical monocron voice, "You are evolving outside of time, so it is entirely possible to evolve while in battle."

This was quite interesting. If they got caught, they could trigger the evolution and because they were in the tutorial, autom...

Chapter 30: A Gathering of Nobles

Lady Nerissa Selwyn sat at the head of the long, polished table, her keen eyes scanning the faces of the noble families gathered in the grand council chamber. The room, dimly lit by crystal chandeliers, felt heavy with the weight of uncertainty. The recent attacks had unsettled even the most composed among them.

"These assaults on our operations cannot be ignored," Lady Nerissa began, her voice steady but edged with frustration. "While we may not yet know who or what is behind them, wha...

Chapter 29: Raid

 Thalion met with Annie and Jakob at the large tree where they had spent the night. Resting against the mossy trunk. They recounted the sighting of the boat and their former owner just before drifting off to sleep. Now back in his human form, Thalion sat beside them, deep in thought. His life had transformed from being an underpaid worker who once loved his job to battling for an immortal existence. Since the system’s arrival, eternal life had become his ultimate dream.

One thing...

Chapter 28: Forged by Fear, Bound by Power

Thorwald stood at the camp's edge, his gaze sweeping over those who moved with a revived sense of purpose. A rare, almost predatory smile curled on his lips. The progress they had achieved was undeniable. Only six remained below level 25, and they were mere hours from reaching it. Soon, all would be ready to evolve, to teleport to the next stage, and to confront the enemies who haunted his thoughts: Thalion and Kael.

The memory of the old man’s death still lingered, not as a source of...

Chapter 27: Preperation

After Annie and Jakob awoke, Thalion transformed into a shadowstalker and began to move to another cross on the map. He discovered one lucky thing: his map was updated every day, as if it were connected with a cloud or some similar technology. After an hour of travel through the undergrowth of the jungle, he came to a small field teeming with Midnight Sunroses.

"This is just perfect," he thought. There were even four people, all from Veridara,...

Chapter 26: Pursuit of Power

Chapter 26: Pursuit of Power

Thalion ran until nightfall, his stamina down to twenty percent by the time he finally slowed. He doubted any human could have kept up with them, and for the next few hours, they would be safe. Jakob and Annie were also exhausted; clinging to him for so long as he sped through the jungle had taken its toll. Thalion glanced back at them, hi...