Chapter 281 Monster Evolution

Jin looked at the new monster card and back at Derek once more. He clearly did not expect the evolution of a monster happening right in front of him. "Is Derek's... erm... form permanent or temporary?" Jin asked the System.

"Permanent. Variant DNA changes happened as a result of the repeated use of the enhancement card." The System noted, and Jin got excited. If Derek as a regular zombie could evolve, would that not imply other monsters had the chance to do so, too? Jin anxiously asked the System, and it returned a positive reply.

"While rare in their natural habitat, it is possible for monsters to evolve under the System's premise. Only one creature out of a million has the chance to experience such a change in the wilderness. Even then certain conditions such as stress, environment and genes play a vital part in the evolution in the wild." The System stated.

"So do I have to find more enhancement cards?" Jin asked, thinking that was the prerequisite for the monsters to evolve under the System rule.

"Negative. User simply needs to push the monsters to their limit. The System has checked every monster in the User's care, and has compiled a file of those who are close to breaking into the next evolution phase." The System then released a list full of Jin's monsters names right in front of him on his all new Tact Tweet. Jin casually scrolled through and checked the bottom of the list to find out that even normal zombies had an experience bar that could potentially cause them to evolve.

"Are these the experiences each individual monster acc.u.mulated through fighting in the dungeons with the cultivators too?" Jin questioned. The System gave a happy emoji icon holding a pair of fireworks and said nothing else.

"Wow, so in a way, my customers are training my monsters to the next level. Wait does that mean in those story themes, they would change appearance too? Won't that... erm affect my dungeon instances experience?"

"Positive. User, please adjust your dungeons once the monsters have evolved. System does have the ability to retain old Story Instance Themes. Similar to the previous Easy, Medium, Hard difficulty. It is User's choice in determining whether this is necessary." The System stated.

"Damn! That means more work for me. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing too. At least this way, the story instance theme would not feel too stagnant, especially for old customers." Jin thought to himself before he noticed that even the zombies started to move out into the portal, lead by Ghoul Half Lord Derek.

Jin checked once more on Yun, to reassure that she was okay to handle the shop. After all, this could take a while to complete. However Yun simply gave him the go ahead again.. "There is no need to worry too much Jin. Especially now that the Shop is within an instance. Even if those Royal Rats decide to come to cause trouble, they will simply be toyed with, no matter their Grade. You have more important things to take care of. Shoo shoo, go complete your mission," Yun answered in his thoughts as he sighed and entered the portal.

When he arrived, he realised that the facility was actually in ruins. Rubble were lying all around with broken weathered pillars and damaged stairs. Only with guidance from Sebastia and the other battle maids that the group could find the underground entrance of the facility ruin. "Maybe that is why the dungeon core is defunct." Jin assumed after seeing the sight of the wear and tear by the environment before he returned to the area where he was teleported alongside with the monsters.

He did not have much information since he trusted the Minotaur Battle Maids to do their scouting jobs. In the meantime, the several monster groups were chattering noisily, talking about their tactics, about their weapons and what rewards they were hoping for. Then, a loud resounding shout came from the side of the ruins.

"You there! Identify yourself at once! Are you one of the monster sympathisers or are you a monster in disguise?!?!" A loud booming voice echoed throughout the area, and Jin noticed that a large group of adventurers was coming towards them, all ready to slaughter his monsters if given the chance. He then remembered that this was the dungeon world after all. It shouldn't be a surprise to have an encounter with adventurers.

"System, what are their power levels or grade equivalent?" Jin asked immediately as he wanted to know if it is wise to retreat or fight with them. But if possible, he would want to stay his ground because he does not have any time to waste. Worse case scenario, these adventurers might grab the defunct core. Best case scenario, they would be additional fodder for Jin to clear up. If that was the case, he might as well clear them up right now since reports from Sebastia indicated that the humanoid robots were apparently stronger than the living adventurer.

"Power levels ranging from 50 to 90, where each grade is equivalent to 10 power levels. The majority of them are around Grade 5 to Grade 6. System has scanned only a few individuals at Grade 9." The System stated as it showed the statistics on the Tact Tweet. There were slightly more than one hundred adventurers present, indicating that they were preparing for a major raid.

"Wow, this Tact Tweet is amazing. It even shows the location of each adventurer. Hmm, I don't have that much time to deal with their questions. I kinda doubt that cooperation is still on the table, after seeing me with that many monsters. Moloch had previously told me that summoning so many monsters at once would be impossible for any normal summoner. I guess we will have to stay here and defend ourselves. Looks like I will go for a fight." Jin quickly judged, as the adventurer group got even closer.

"You! Answer me right now, or I will personally bring you down!" The booming voice continues.

"System, you sure that if those adventurers die, they will get resurrected?" Jin, ignoring the adventurer group wanted to make sure that he would not need to hold back. The System gave a positive reply: "Their resurrection process is much easier and less complicated compared to your world's resurrection process. If an adventurer dies, said adventurer resurrects at the nearest church for a respectable sum of dungeon dollars."

"The System recommends killing the adventurers. Killing them yields you dungeon dollars and possible equipment." System continued to babble.

"Heh, because in legal terms, this could be counted as self-defense, right?" Jin cracked a joke as he took out Bam in Katana form.

"System will provide the necessary anonymity tools." A half panda mask appeared right in front of Jin. To his surprise, the rest of his bellators also wore various but similar panda masks. He noticed that his and Zeru's mask was 90% black, before it went white at the edge of it, whereas for Milk and Peppers, the colours were swapped. Passing him as they stepped forward in front of him, Jin was also able to see a cross, a flame, and a sword sort of accessory attached to the side of the half panda masks.

"Wouldn't want ending up with a bounty now, would we?" The only one who had a different mask was Kraft when he appeared at Jin's side. The mask looked to be the counterpart to the same mask he saw Tsu, one of the black foxes, wear. That black ornate fox mask with golden edges.

Suddenly, there was a thought that went through his head. "Master, the Deep Ones and I can keep them occupied. We refrained from fighting against these…metallic objects because they were not worthy. These adventurers on the other hand…Heh heh… they should make a great sacrifice to this Great Shadow Dagen." Mr Derpy talked in his head.

"Oh? So you are saying you can deal with this all by yourself? Are you that confident?" Jin was already suspecting that Mr Derpy was the kind of monster that loved to steal the spotlight. Unfortunately his fighting style was very expensive, if not controlled.

"Well, to be honest, not really. But we are dying to have some good proper fight. Not just against some human looking robots. We crave for humans, and my minions are bloodthirsty. So in return for not participating in that competition, I demand we shall have the right to keep the equipment of the adventurers for ourselves!" Mr Derpy ordered in a low voice in Jin's thoughts.

Jin scratched his head and sighed upon remembering that the Deep Ones were more of a chaotic nature. He recalled how terrifying the Deep Ones were and could not say no. Besides, it would affect his competition, if he needed to split the competing forces before they even had the chance to go inside. Not to mention, Mr Derpy's 'orders' lightened his load on upgrading cards since they were limited in quantity.

"Kraft, mind looking after them?" Jin asked, and Kraft nodded his head as he locked and loaded his revolver. "Can't say no to a bit of bloodshed, can I?" Kraft's smirk looked a little evil, but it also made Jin assured that he would get the job done.

"Ripcaller, Piercestriker and Slashreaver. Make sure no one runs away without feeling the wrath of a store manager." The three goblins who were well trained in ambushes acknowledged Jin and immediately ran off into the ruins.

"As for the rest of you! I hereby declare, that the competition starts now!" Jin shouted and the unison of monster roars and shouts momentarily terrified the army of adventurers.

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