In Luke's hand rested a black stone, its surface etched with the glowing image of a serpent.

"I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FAMILIAR!" roared the Beast Lord's voice from within the stone.

Luke blinked, taken aback. The serpent sigil pulsed again, light flaring.

"DO YOU HEAR ME?!" the voice bellowed, making the stone tremble in his grip.

"I can't believe this," Luke muttered, staring at it in disbelief. "I didn't even know you could get a familiar this way."

He turned the stone over in his palm, studying it. Not that I even know how you're supposed to get a familiar in the first place.

The black stone was impossibly hard, almost metallic to the touch. Then a system notification appeared.

[Notice: The Beast Lord has been defeated. With its fall, magical beasts will retreat from the capital. The path to the castle will be easier.]

Luke's gaze snapped toward the distant castle. It was… open. Accessible. And then it hit him. It wasn't just the castle. It was the third mechanism. The whole area had just shifted in difficulty, and not just for him. Every single person still trapped in this cursed tutorial would find things easier now. This was a huge step toward escape.

"I can do this," Luke murmured to himself.

A voice broke his focus. "Luke, that was insane," Artemis said.

The fight had been so intense, he'd nearly forgotten she was there.

"I know you told me to stay quiet so you could focus," she went on, "but seriously… when people say they want to be so powerful their enemies crap themselves, I didn't think you meant it literally."

"HE HUMILIATED ME!" the Beast Lord said from within the stone. Luke glanced down at the glowing serpent. "I will kill you, human! I will kill you with every ounce of my strength! You humiliated me before you ended me!"

"You're just a rock," Luke replied flatly. "How exactly are you going to kill me?"

"I'll find a way! I will have my revenge!"

"You literally soiled yourself, man," Artemis snorted.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" the Beast Lord roared.

Luke pulled up his system interface and checked the item's details.

[Familiar Rune: Frankzaroth (Legendary)

Description: This rune houses the soul of a serpent from the Jormungandr race, legendary magical beasts known for growing to colossal sizes over time, feeding, and advancing in rank.

To acquire the familiar, you must forge a pact of friendship, convincing the creature to willingly break the rune. Once the rune is broken, the familiar's soul will be bound to yours, and the rune will cease to exist. After the bond is complete, you can summon the familiar at will, bringing it to your side in battle or for other tasks.

(Enchantments): [Familiar Contract (Epic)]: Allows the user to seal a contract with a magical creature.]

Luke finished reading and eyed the stone again. "Pact of friendship?" he muttered.

"I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FRIEND!" the Beast Lord snapped.

"Who'd want to be friends with someone who shat themselves?" Artemis cackled.

"STOP LAUGHING!"

Luke sighed. "Great. I'm traveling with Arkham Asylum's greatest hits."

Artemis was doubled over laughing, mimicking the serpent groaning like it had the worst case of food poisoning, while the Beast Lord kept screaming at her to shut up. Luke glanced at the monster's corpse, then broke into a run through the ruined streets. He needed to find the other fang he'd broken.

"So… can I use you as my assistant? How does this work?" he asked.

"Human! I will kill you!" the serpent's voice snarled. "I will never be your familiar!"

The Beast Lord kept shouting until Luke simply banished him back into his inventory.

Luke stood there for a moment, then pulled him out again.

"Hey! What did you do? I was in this really dark place!" the stone's voice echoed.

"I sent you to the inventory, little rat. I was going to keep you there in time-out until you agreed to be my assistant."

"LITTLE RAT?!" the Beast Lord roared. "I will have my revenge! You'll see!"

"Complain again and I'll send you back right now," Luke warned.

"Believe me, Mr. Pants-Shitter," Artemis chimed in, "being stuck in the inventory is creepy as hell. I'm lucky I'm at least useful as a storage item. This guy wouldn't hesitate to leave me rotting in that darkness otherwise."

"Will you be my familiar?" Luke asked.

"NEVER! WE WILL NEVER BE FRIENDS!" the Beast Lord bellowed, before the stone vanished back into the inventory.

"So," Artemis asked, "what now? I mean, you just killed the strongest thing around here, well, aside from whatever nightmare fuel is still hiding inside that castle."

Luke jogged through the area, scanning for the broken fang. He climbed a tall building and took in the view of the ruined city. His gaze shifted from the castle to where the third mechanism lay. Without the Beast Lord hunting him, the whole region was open for exploration.

"I wanted to test this familiar stone, see what it's like," he said. "You wouldn't tell me how to use it if I asked, would you?"

"Nope. You've probably figured out by now that Samael left the library as a sort of compass, only giving you access to what you're 'supposed' to know at this stage. If the library doesn't mention familiars, I can't tell you. And besides… I've been nerfed. I only know what's already written on the rune," she explained.

"If I'd never met Samael, I wouldn't even know half of what I've figured out on my own," Luke said. "So I won't complain."

He mulled over his next steps. "Letting Charlie get stronger is a good option. I should also explore more of the city and try to get closer to the castle."

Then his eyes shifted again, like he was looking beyond the horizon. "Once I've handled a few things, I'll come back and activate the second mechanism."

"You know Bartholomew and those other lunatics who want to stay in this world are probably going to come after you, right?" she asked.

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"Hey, I fought a giant snake. Give me some credit," he replied.

Luke leapt onto a nearby rooftop, looking toward the forest.

"I'm just glad we're done with this insanity," she said. "Honestly, this arc of your story was getting boring. I want to get back to the chaos, the Safe Zone drama, romantic entanglements, and—"

Luke squeezed the pendant at his neck. "You're way too addicted to Earth stories. Quit spouting nonsense."

"Alright, alright. I won't keep treating your life like entertainment," she said. "I mean… maybe just sometimes."

He sighed and kept moving.

"I'm just tired of being your Wilson. I want more than watching some lunatic wander around alone," Artemis muttered.

"Wilson is way better than you. I'd trade you for him in a heartbeat."

"Ouch. Wilson's a ball, you know."

"At least Wilson doesn't talk."

Luke finally reached his destination and crouched, picking something up from the ground, the broken tip of the Beast Lord's fang, the one he had sliced off with his kukri during the fight.

[Fang of the Frankzaroth (Epic)]: The tip of a Jormungandr serpent's fang. Still retains active traces of its original venom.

"I can make one more arrow like that and use Mana Missile again," he murmured, turning the fang over in his hand. "Another secret weapon for when I face something big."

He slipped it into his storage item.

"I've still got one more important job. I need to find a creature willing to become my second servant. Now that the Beast Lord isn't hunting me, it'll be easier to look for one that'll say yes."

As he walked, he noticed the sun dipping toward the horizon. A few hours until midnight. He had to put some distance between himself and this place before the statues started moving. After that fight, he was mentally spent, he had no interest in dealing with those lunatic stone freaks tonight.

He pulled up his system interface. Hitting level 50 reminded him that he had unlocked an assassin skill at level 45.

"I'm at… level 50 now. So that should be two skills." He opened the menu, then stopped.

[New skill choice is locked]

"What?" He tapped the notification for the assassin's level 45 skill, but the same block message stared back at him.

Back on the main profile screen, a massive warning banner flashed.

[WARNING: Your class has entered mandatory evolution!]

"Class evolution?" His eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me."

He hit "OK," and new text unfolded before him.

**Mandatory Class Evolution Achieved!**

Congratulations! You've reached the absolute peak of your class, squeezing every drop of knowledge and mastery it had to offer. It's been a long journey, one of focus, determination, ambition, greed… and, of course, a little luck.

Like a true assassin, you advanced step by step, one enemy at a time, one kill at a time. On your path to level 50, you faced moments of trauma, excitement, loss, and triumph. Every battle, every choice, every risk has shaped the person you are now.

Your fights have been bloody, terrifying, and perilous beyond measure, but you met them head-on, holding nothing back in your pursuit of your goals.

Well done, assassin. You are the sum of your own actions. May this new evolution take you even further.

[Mandatory Class Evolution]: This evolution occurs for all races across the multiverse upon reaching level 50 in any class. On rare occasions, certain individuals awaken special evolutions during their journey, but none of those ever surpass the power of a mandatory evolution.

There are countless paths in the vast multiverse. Some choose quiet, ordinary lives. Others dedicate themselves to their professions. And then there are those like you, who throw themselves wholly into their class.

Every step of your story has shaped the options now before you. Each path is unique and will carry you further than the last. Choose wisely, for there is no going back.

(Warning: Until your new class is chosen, you will gain no experience, learn no new skills, and must not hold any unspent attribute points.)

Luke stared at the message, caught off guard. He knew class evolutions were a thing, but he'd never expected to run into one this early.

"A mandatory class evolution at level fifty?" he muttered, thinking it through.

He'd faced some strong human opponents before, but never anyone with a class level that high.

"So most people just stick with their starting class, pick up a few minor attribute boosts, and only then evolve at level fifty?"

It made sense now, why some enemies had been impressive and others barely put up a fight. He remembered the Shadow Assassin he had fought, someone clearly dangerous, though he was almost certain that man had been injured at the time. That renegade had only recently attacked the Safe Zone and clashed with Bartholomew's army.

Reading the system's text and piecing it together with what he already knew, Luke started to understand the Safe Zone's power dynamics better, especially once he factored in how Professions worked. Bartholomew recruited the most talented professionals to serve under him.

Most people in the Haven didn't have high combat class levels. They focused on their Professions instead. That meant no advanced fighting skills, but plenty of practical knowledge, how to build a house, craft tools, repair equipment. Skills that kept them alive, even without much combat training beyond the basics. After all, the only way to level up a combat class was to use its abilities to kill, while a Profession advanced simply by working.

"That means Bartholomew's strongest allies are probably all over level fifty," Luke guessed.

If Bartholomew had beaten Marshall in battle and survived here for eight years, it made perfect sense. The more Luke learned, the more he realized how much he still didn't know. He tried to tap the screen again, but an error message popped up.

[Warning: You must allocate all Free Points before proceeding, or they will be lost.]

"Yeah, I'm not letting something that valuable go to waste," he said.

He opened his system interface.

Name: Luke Level: 35 Race: Half-Demon Rank: F Class: [Demonic Assassin (Lvl 50)] Profession: [Botanist of Mother Freya (Lvl 39)] Titles: [Dark Lord] Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Dark Demon] Health Points (HP): 2870/2870 Mana Points (MP): 2590/2590 (2640) Stamina: 1828/1830 (2030) Soul Fragments: 62/1000

Stats: Strength: 409 Agility: 305 (355) Endurance: 183 (203) Vitality: 287 Perception: 346 (356) Intelligence: 259 (264) Free Points: 32

Class Skills: [Basic Blade Handling (Common)], [Profane Knife Throwing (Uncommon)], [Twin Blade (Common)], [Basic Dark Dash (Rare)], [Basic Blood Regeneration (Rare)], [Assassin's Mark (Rare)], [Demonic Blade Dance (Rare)], [Wraith Form (Ultra-Rare)], [Force Infusion (Rare)], [Advanced Stealth (Rare)], [Assassin's Tracking (Rare)], [Mana Infusion (Rare)]

Profession Skills: [Herbology of Mother Freya (Ancient)], [Precise Extraction (Common)], [Basic Potion Crafting (Common)], [Corrupted Plant Growth (Rare)], [Plant Sensor (Uncommon)], [Botanical Bond of Mother Freya (Rare)], [Seed Conversion (Rare)], [Plant Manipulation of Mother Freya (Rare)], [Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya (Ultra-Rare)], [Thorn Mutation (Uncommon)]

Race Skills: [Identify (Common)], [Demonic Perception (Uncommon)], [Dark Blood (Uncommon)], [Meditation (Common)], [Demonic Endurance (Uncommon)]

Bloodline Skill: [Servant of the Dark Lord (Unique)] Servants: [Princess Charlie (Skeleton) - Lvl 20], [Servant Slot Available]

After that insane stunt of dumping seventy free points into Strength before, he'd seen firsthand how devastating his kukris could become. The boost had been enough for him to take down a level 60 Fallen Stone Angel with relative ease. The bow, unfortunately, didn't benefit nearly as much. He'd learned that attributes tended to sync better with a weapon tied to the class itself. A sword, for example, wouldn't hit nearly as hard for him as his kukris did.

But that didn't matter. It was still better to amplify the damage of his best weapons than keep things balanced just for the sake of it.

Stats Updated: Strength: 409 -> 429 Agility: 305 (355) -> 317 (367) Free Points: 32 -> 0

He drew his kukris, feeling the sharper, deadlier weight in his hands. Definitely more lethal. Satisfied, he sheathed them and glanced back at the system screen as a new notification appeared.

[Accept Class Evolution?]

Yes!

From this point on, he'd be stepping into something new, leaving Demonic Assassin behind for… whatever came next. When he confirmed, five options appeared before him. Reading through them, Luke noticed something surprising. Some were tied to Divine Orders. Which meant certain gods had been making investments in him.

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