Netherborne [An OP Monster Isekai]

Evolution Complete.

Alice awoke on a hardwood bed with those ominous words dancing in her vision. She rolled her head to the side, and the words followed before flashing once and then vanishing. She blinked in confusion. “What the,” she glanced around the simple wooden hut she was lying in, “hell happened? Why am I in a hut?” She quickly pushed herself up, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood up.

“No pain?” If the information about her evolution was accurate, how did she feel better than ever? “I expected at least some muscle ache after evolving, but I feel fantastic!” Alice straightened her back and let out a satisfying groan as she stretched her arms over her head.

Feeling refreshed, she surveyed the hut. It was a simple single wooden room with a door, a bed with no cushion or blanket, and a window shutter. Nothing else. “Wait, shouldn’t it be dark in here?” To her, it was only a little dim, but the distinct lack of an open window meant she was definitely using some type of magic. “How curious.” She looked down at her body and gasped. She brought her hands up to her chest. “No way…” Apart from the obvious shock of being completely naked, she saw notable improvements in her figure. She brought her hand up for inspection and found her nails had extended a little more and were still pitch black.

“Damn, these look sharp now.” She could practically see the sheen on the blade of her nails. With some hesitance, she poked herself and felt no pain. “Huh?” She pushed harder and harder; her pale skin, which looked so delicate, held strong until it finally gave way, and the tip of her nail dug in. “Still no pain?” It was a surreal experience for her body to act so differently. “Wait, why is no blood coming out of the wound?” She inspected the small hole in her hand, but nothing was leaking. She shook her hand like a wet towel but still nothing.

Alice knew many of her questions would be answered if she opened her status page, but she almost didn’t want to know. “Come on, Alice, it can’t be that bad. It’s not like you transformed into a demon overnight…right? Just open it!” The command was on the tip of her tongue when the whole hut shook, not like an earthquake, but rather like how a ship crests over a monstrous wave on the open seas. She stumbled back and fell onto the wooden bed as the whole hut tilted and swayed as if it were suspended.

“What the…” Alice said while gripping the bed for support. So far in her life, this was the most bizarre few minutes after waking up she had ever experienced. As the hut finally stopped swinging, she heard a monstrous roar that shook the hut’s flimsy walls. “Okay, this is getting ridiculous,” she said as she stood back up. “Status!”

Before her page appeared, a flurry of log messages flashed past her eyes.

Congratulations, mortal, for reaching level 100.

Creating a summary of your life for optimal evolution.

[Race]

Human

???

[Classes]

Friend of the Void

Black Mage

Apprentice Merchant

[Blessings/Affinities]

Darkness

Void

[Hidden Titles]

Pink Demon - Bestowed by a noble dragon

You are of an unknown race in the System database. Basic improvements based on analysis commence.

Mortal Body -> Basic Mana Body

Incorporating blessings. Basic Mana Body switch to Darkness affinity.

Void affinity cannot be safely added. Creating unique skill: [Void Form]

Upgrading subclass: Apprentice Merchant -> Monarch of Gold.

New unique spell: [Inferior Midas Touch]

[Name: Alice]

[Race: ???]

[Body: Darkness Mana Body]

[Level: 100]

[STR: 118, DEX: 130, CON: 137, INT: 248, WIS: 240]

[Unspent points: 3]

(Dulled Emotions)

[Blessing: Darkness]

[Class: Friend of the Void]

[Sub Class: Monarch of Gold]

[Divine Mission: None]

[Skills]

[…]

[Class Skills]

[Void Form]

[Stealth V]

[Hellfire III]

[Ice Bolt IX]

[Mana Shield IX]

[Float V]

[Mana Sight IV]

[Telekinesis III]

[Void Eye III]

[Sub Class Skills]

[Inferior Midas Touch]

[Fast Counting I]

[Identify I]

Alice clicked on her new body type without wasting time due to the hut still shaking from continuous roars.

[Darkness Mana Body]

After reaching level 100, you have shed your mortal flesh and become a being of mana. Your body is now a dense mana construct that does not require anything to function other than mana. If an area lacks mana, a high food and water intake will be needed to compensate. Your lifespan has also drastically increased.

“So I am some kind of mana blob in human shape? Is that why I shed no blood when I injured myself?” She read over the description and nodded to herself. Apart from the Darkness attribute part, it was the same as other high humans reported. “Some of the high humans lived for hundreds of years… I wonder if there’s a way I can obtain true immortality?” She decided to think about that later and continued scrolling down the list.

“Oh.” She put her hands on her neck and felt a distinct lack of a slave collar. Of course, once she had invested heavily in her CON stat, she barely felt the metal collar, but she was officially free with the Slave debuff gone. A weird feeling rose in her chest, followed by a wave of relief. That part of her life was finally over. She smiled, relishing in the moment for a second before pressing on her new sub-class.

[Sub Class: Monarch of Gold]

You absorbed an altered reality created by ancient dragon magic during your ascension. Due to this, your subclass was updated, and you now have dominion over gold.

Alice blinked many times at the floating screen. “Ancient dragon magic? Altered reality? What in the goddess is this thing talking about?” She wracked her brain, but the last thing she remembered was helping kill one of those Fleshtrees and getting the level one hundred notification before promptly passing out.

Deciding to fish for more clues, she jumped down to the Subclass skills. “Why does my new skill not have a level? Does that mean it can’t be upgraded like my Fireball spell?” She tapped the skill, and some information appeared.

[Inferior Midas Touch]

A unique skill that attempts to mimic the ancient dragon magic spell: Greater reality manipulation, Midas Touch. It allows the user to turn anything they touch into gold, but due to its inferior nature, it has a major side effect.

“Which is?” Alice frowned and tapped the screen, but it refused to elaborate on the major side effect. “All right, that spell is being ignored for now. But I wonder if it works with my True Damage trait?” She decided to test that theory some other time as she was deeply interested in what the Void Form skill could do.

[Void Form]

Become one with the void. Has tremendous side effects.

“Right.” Alice rolled her eyes, swiped the screen away in irritation, and decided it was time to work out what was happening outside. She marched over to the door, but her hand paused. “I have no clothes on. Darn, if only I had some— Wait.” She realized she could use her Mana Shield spell at maximum strength to coat herself in Darkness affinity mana. She activated the spell and felt surprised at how mana flowed out of her body from everywhere. “Oh, right…mana body. I am literally all mana now.” Darkness wrapped her form, leaving only her head exposed as she pushed open the door and received a face full of freezing-cold air.

Squinting her eyes, Alice surveyed the surroundings and was once again confused. The hut was built upon a large wooden platform consisting of many brown wooden logs side by side, fused together by ice. She could tell from a glance that the ice was the same magical ice Victor produced with his spell. Walking out onto the platform, she decided to use Float as her bare feet might slip on the frost-covered logs. “Evolved, but still need shoes,” she muttered. “Ridiculous.”

A large gust of wind whipping her from both sides made her look up. Two titanic-size dragons, even bigger than Genus, were flying overhead. Their scales had that same chrome shine as Genus, but they were black scaled. Alice almost summoned a Hellfire spell to her hand, but upon closer inspection, she noticed that many vines were wrapped around their limbs and tail and were attached to the log platform. “Are they carrying this?”

“Oh, Alice.” A voice she knew all too well came from behind the hut. “You are awake.”

“Genus?” Alice turned on her heel and looked up. “AH?” Towering over the hut was a bone-white, snake-like creature. If not for his rainbow eyes and similar head shape, she would never be able to recognize him as a dragon.

“What the hell happened? Where are we?” she blurted out. “And why do you look like a hairless cat?”

Genus chuckled and gestured with a nod of his head for her to come around to his side. Then, as she floated around, he explained. “I used a spell that comes with major side effects while you were asleep…”

Alice’s blood ran cold. Both her new spells warned of side effects, one major and the other tremendous. If a major side effect turned a mighty golden dragon into a hairless cat with wings, then what would happen due to a tremendous side effect?

“Don’t worry.” Genus tracked her as she circled the wooden hut and saw her expression change. “My scales grow back.”

Alice paused and met his eyes. “H-huh? They do? That’s good. You look ridiculous!” She continued floating while chuckling to herself.

The dragon snake frowned. “Luckily, they do, but it takes a while. About a week at most, but with rest, they return faster. Hence this wonderful contraption Victor built for us.” Genus slapped his tail, causing the log platform to shudder. “Now, this is traveling in style! We should have made one earlier…although we didn’t have any undead large enough to carry me.”

“Yeah, so about that—” Alice began, but Genus cut her off.

“While you were sleeping, we were attacked by the scouts from the noble families. Victor made hilariously short work of them, and now they serve us.”

“So those roars?” she questioned. Unless Genus had been yawning extra loud, she couldn’t understand where they had come from.

“Take a look for yourself.” Genus whipped his head to the left, and she followed his eyes. “It’s rather entertaining how they keep coming.”

Alice floated to the side and couldn’t help but marvel at the view. They flew amongst fluffy white clouds. Occasionally she saw through a gap and caught a glimpse at the endless ice below. “An arctic floor? Did the roars come from down there?” The clouds surrounding the platform briefly lit up as purple lightning flashed across the sky, followed by thunder.

A second roar that sounded far more primal and dragon-like rang below, and through a gap in the clouds, Alice saw a smoke trail following a snow-white-scaled dragon spiraling down toward the ice. Seconds later, the dragon slammed into an ice sheet with a thump she could hear even from here, causing a crater and spiderweb cracks to appear for miles.

“That must have hurt.” Genus chuckled from the side. Alice had to agree, assuming that the white dragon was still alive.

“Oh, Alice.”

Alice stumbled back as an enormous shadowy head with many blue eyes appeared only a meter before her. “Let’s talk.”

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