Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 57: Increase in strength I

The man’s confidence radiated an almost tangible aura that affected the next group to move.The next to move were the low-level survivors who were once scattered across the corners of the former leaders’ mansions.

They had already killed zombies, so there was no need to fear, especially when they had already been separated. However, not all the survivors were able to finally shake off that fear.

That first step was going to be a huge change in their lives, and most of them couldn’t take that step. Those who were able to do it cried in joy and went to another zombie, but not before learning their skills.

Not even looking at them, something else was on Jon’s mind at the moment. It was what he had heard from the man who had just spoken. The man called him the "new leader."

’It doesn’t have a bad ring to it,’ he mused at the new title he had been given. He was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t such a bad idea to lead after all.

As he snapped out of his thoughts, the evolvers had finished killing all the zombies and taken the orbs they left. Most of them were looking at the orbs curiously, the knowledge of how to use them was transferred to their memories, making some even hide them.

"They’re yours. You worked for them," Jon said, nodding his head. Then the looks on the faces of the evolvers changed to one of surprise in their eyes.

They had thought that maybe the orbs would be collected and carefully distributed or would be given to whoever they liked among them, but he was letting them just keep them.

With this mentality they were getting from this new leader, ’they didn’t seem bad’ was the thought that ran through everyone’s mind as they looked at them for the last time before cracking the orbs.

Then a series of lights started flashing and dimming around them. They had just learned their first skills. Jon then said with an expressionless face, "You’re now officially evolvers." And just like that, minutes into their evolution, 250 new evolvers had gained their first skills.

They didn’t forget to check for the cores of the zombies, as they were quite important, and with that done, they decided to move forward.

However, there was a change in the atmosphere. Half of them, who had just become evolvers, were excited and eager for their next opportunity to evolve, while the other half, who hadn’t gotten a skill yet, regretted missing out. They surely wouldn’t waste the next opportunity.

Leaving the grass area, they started approaching what looked like a forest. It looked like a forest because the trees were much taller than normal. The normal height of a very tall tree was about 80 to 100 meters before the fall, but now even the shortest tree was almost 100 meters tall, and that was when they weren’t exaggerating.

"Woah..."

"How..."

"This is..."

Seeing another wonder, what the strange energy called mana could do and how much it could affect their surroundings was a strange and nice feeling.

After the surprised gazes, they entered the abnormally large forest, and they were even more amazed.

It looked like a place someone had been caring for for years, which everyone here knew wasn’t the case. And even if they had been tending to it for that long, they hadn’t attended to it since the fall past two weeks. So, how could they explain the scene they were witnessing? Well, they couldn’t.

Jon immediately spread his senses and ’Moon Gaze’ to the extreme to see if anything was watching them from a distance or in the surroundings, ready to attack.

And what he saw was, ’So, the trees were also affected by the mana? Or should I say the world itself was affected... hmm?’ As he was still scanning his surroundings, he caught something with his senses.

"Stop," he immediately ordered. The people behind him and the evolvers started looking around with tense expressions.

When Jenny was about to ask what he saw,

HISSSSS

"GULP"

The evolvers immediately tensed as they recognized the familiar loud hiss. There was only ever one animal that made that sound, a snake. Their poisonous fangs were the deadliest part of the creature before the fall, and now, with the fall, just imagining a snake that had gone through evolution... how much more dangerous could it have gotten?

Well, they didn’t need to wait long, as the sound got closer.

WHOOOOSH

HISSSSSSSS

From a distance, a looming figure of a blue snake appeared. It was so huge that they couldn’t see behind it, and it hadn’t even lifted its body. Its length was about 10 meters, and that was just the part they could see; the end of the snake was still in the distance.

Jon, who hadn’t turned off his Moon Gaze, understood one thing immediately about the situation.

And he told the girls, "We’ve just intruded on its domain."

"What?"

"Domain?"

Jenny and Cynthia cocked their heads in confusion, then nodded in understanding almost immediately. "Yes, I think it’s annoyed," Jon continued.

"And I want to fight it," Jon declared. The girls looked at him, looked at themselves, and nodded almost immediately. That snake was too huge, and they didn’t think they could handle it. And if he wanted to fight it, why not let him?

As for why Jon was quite eager, he had a simple reason: he wanted to test everything he had gained for a while and he just wanted a proper fight.

The snake, as if responding to the previous conversation about a domain, let out a shout:

RAARRRRRR

It made a sound similar to that of a roar, and the surroundings rumbled.

Then it began lifting its head while glaring at Jon.

At this moment, if any normal person saw this, they would only see a predator and foolish prey. Fortunately, or unfortunately, nobody was watching. The new evolvers had already run out of the forest the moment the snake approached.

’Gloves’, Jon looked at the black rod and morphed the black rod into two gloves.

HISSSSSSSS

Without further delay, the huge snake gathered a black mass from its throat and shot it forward. It looked like a huge boulder of black rock, but Jon knew better than to try to deflect or block it.

PSSSSHHHHHH

The black boulder of poison immediately melted Jon’s figure along with the ground it landed on.

SHHHHH...

The snake was about to mock Jon for being overconfident when it suddenly felt something—someone above its head. It immediately tried to lift its head to attack, but before it could,

BANG...

The snake’s head cocked downwards.

RAARRRRRRRRRRR

It roared in pain as greenish blood pooled from its now-dented head.

Without waiting to look for Jon or get a proper aim, it began shooting out smaller black masses of poison.

PSHH... PSHHH... PSHHH... PSHH

The ground was smeared all over with black poison, with a shadowy figure blurring around the area.

Earlier, Jon had used his Cloud Steps to create a clone and the Shadow Steps to appear above the snake’s shadow. So, when the snake tried to raise its head, he used telekinesis to stop it for a second before smacking it downwards with his fist.

He could have ended it with a single blow by using his One Strike skill or his aura, but he wanted to fight using only mana and his skills.

Now, using only Shadow Steps, he was dodging the poison.

RAARRRRR

The snake didn’t stop, and this time, sharp, blue objects began protruding from its scales and shooting at Jon.

’Poison needles from its body?’ Jon had thought its huge body was just a disadvantage, but now he couldn’t say the same.

The needles were harder to dodge than the black poison because the number of needles was as many as the blue he could see on its body.

’I need to move faster...’ Jon dodged frantically and morphed his gloves into a shield.

BANG... BANG... BANG...

And as expected, once in a while, the needles would hit the shield.

HISSSSSSSS

RAARRRRRR

The snake, fed up, moved closer. Its long body finally came into full view as it started wrapping itself around the area where Jon was. It was starting to narrow its focus and precision.

’Okay, time to die,’ Jon thought. It was getting dangerous, and if he remained casual, he could get injured, and he wasn’t ready to test out his regeneration yet.

He morphed the shield back into gloves and applied his Moon Energy to them. With a VOOM, he leaped behind the snake at his full speed and landed near its neck, where he began punching the same spot.

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...

RAARRRRRRRRRRR

The snake screamed in pain; it had never felt this kind of agony before. It had been the leader of this part of the forest for a while, but now it was suddenly being overpowered. What was happening?

And with a final punch,

BOOOOOOM...

A gaping hole was left in the neck of the huge snake.

It writhed in agony before slumping to the ground with a loud,

THUDDDD

With that, Jon also landed on the ground, and to congratulate him, a message appeared:

[YOU HAVE RECEIVED LEVEL 30 ’BLUE BLUIRD SNAKE’ REMAINS]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]