It was noon on the third day after the fall of the Black Serpent royal family. It was also the last day Michael could feed his talent anything significant for a long time.

Right now, he stood inside a mine several miles away from the capital. The mine was enormous. Dark metallic ore covered the walls while faint traces of mana shimmered beneath the stone like buried starlight.

This place had originally belonged to one of the forces that had been wiped out during the battle.

Since Michael had already ordered the mine to be vacated beforehand, no one knew how much of its reserve had already disappeared. Of course, they would know later, but Michael simply did not care.

Before someone bought it from him or entered a cooperative arrangement with him, this place belonged to him. And since it belonged to him, he could do whatever he wanted with it.

After giving the hollowed-out mine one final glance, Michael quietly disappeared.

The next moment, he reappeared deep within a forest. Massive trees surrounded him on all sides.

Sunlight slipped through the leaves in thin golden lines, falling over his body as he sat cross-legged on the ground.

Michael closed his eyes. Most of his attention was fixed on one thing.

His accumulated Evolution Points.

[Evolution Points: 9,823,643]

Close to ten million.

Even Michael had not expected to come this close so soon. Three days ago, the number would have sounded ridiculous to him.

But after devouring a portion of the imperial reserves, the treasures hidden in the palace, several rare materials from destroyed noble forces, and part of the extraordinary materials stored across the empire's mines and vaults, his points had climbed at an almost absurd speed.

And this was not everything. Far from it.

Michael had only taken what he could justify taking immediately without destabilizing the entire empire too much.

The remaining resources still had value, but if he devoured everything blindly, he would gain a short burst of power while destroying one of the best long-term resource sources he had ever obtained. That would be foolish.

Michael exhaled slowly. "Almost ten million…"

The number was huge. Enough to evolve many of his undead and push several important ones forward. But still, compared to his true goal, it was not enough.

Fifty million.

That was the rough number Michael had estimated he would need if he wanted to push all his undead toward Rank 4. And that was only an estimate. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Michael rubbed his forehead. "Resources…"

Once again, everything returned to resources. Strength required resources. Undead required resources. Evolution required resources. His advancement quest required resources.

For a moment, Michael almost laughed. No wonder so many powerful beings spent their lives fighting, exploring, scheming, and occupying territories.

At the end of the day, power was expensive. Very expensive.

Looking at his accumulated Evolution Points, the desire to seek out surrounding powers as strong as the empire filled Michael. Eventually he quenched the urge with a sigh.

This time it was not because of morals, but basic reasoning. Even though he had a lot of Evolution Points now, it was his undead who were growing stronger, not him personally.

If multiple peak Rank 4 superpowers targeted him simultaneously, things would become troublesome very quickly.

But even that alone would not have worried Michael too much. What truly concerned him was the possibility of walking straight into the territory of a hidden Demigod-level supernatural without realizing it.

The Emperor's methods had left a deep impression on him. Such existences could hide their true power with frightening ease.

Shaking those thoughts from his mind, Michael turned his attention back to his talent.

As one would expect, with millions of Evolution Points accumulated, his talent had naturally revealed something new. A subtle but meaningful change.

With a contemplative look on his face, Michael retrieved a crystal from his storage space.

It was a transparent crystal that seemed to hold the dark ink of the void within it while simultaneously containing the stars of a galaxy.

[Evolution Essence Crystal {Common Grade}]

If used by a monster, can raise the grade of a Common Grade monster to Three-Star Common Grade, the peak of its racial rank.

If used by an intelligent race, can grant 3 to 5 attribute points randomly distributed across any stat below 20 points.

At some point after crossing the one million Evolution Points threshold, his talent had gained the ability to condense Evolution Points into physical form.

However, though it carried the same core effect as before and added extra benefits, it was an enormous waste of Evolution Points.

Each crystal cost one thousand Evolution Points to create.

Even evolving a Common Grade monster to Rare Grade normally required no more than twenty-five Evolution Points.

Not only could this crystal only be used on Common Grade monsters, but it was a thousand points per use. A thousand.

Of course, the second function of the crystal was more interesting. Michael suspected that was probably its true value, but even so, the cost remained steep.

However, this was only the Common Grade version his talent could produce. Higher grades were also possible.

[Evolution Essence Crystal {Rare Grade}]

If used by a monster, can raise the grade of a Rare Grade monster to Three-Star Rare Grade, the peak of its racial rank.

If used by an intelligent race, can grant 10 to 15 attribute points randomly distributed across any stat below 200 points.

To create this required 10,000 Evolution Points.

[Evolution Essence Crystal {Extraordinary Grade}]

If used by a monster, can raise the grade of an Extraordinary Grade monster to Three-Star Extraordinary Grade, the peak of its racial rank.

If used by an intelligent race, can grant 30 to 50 attribute points randomly distributed across any stat below 400 points.

Can be used in the crafting of an Epic Grade treasure to nurture an early item spirit.

To create this required 30,000 Evolution Points.

*

A/N: Thank you for reading today's chapters!