Chapter 16: Hyper Evolution

Villa rebuild in progress.

The place was trashed to bits, but good thing reconstruction was fast. Wrecked in the morning, nearly rebuilt by night.

Still, Filo’s grudge wasn’t going anywhere.

Blood Clan Hunters: We’re freakin’ dead, and you’re still pissed?

Main issue? Filo didn’t personally smash them, so a little bad vibe was normal. Right now, the big problem was the villa’s “defense” sucking. If this happened again, they couldn’t just let the place get demolished again, right?

“You guys know how to set up barriers?” Filo asked, eyeing Chiyan, who was lugging a big log, and Bingpo, who was bossing her around.

“Barriers? Master, we’re dragons. That vague techy stuff ain’t our jam. Shouldn’t you be the pro at that?” Chiyan stopped, turning to Filo, puzzled.

Dragons were all about brute force, while humans rocked technical tricks like barriers. Too bad Filo wasn’t human…

Dubbed the Ultimate Being, Filo’s massive skill list probably had something like that. But she wasn’t sure she could pull it off.

This world’s skill system—voice-activated or what? Yelling and getting nothing would be awkward.

Screw it, time to hustle for once.

Filo waved at Chiyan and Bingpo, then split from the area. Once out of their sight, she stopped, raising a hand.

“Blood Thread.”

Countless blood threads shot from her, spreading everywhere like a web. Minutes later, they dragged back a parade of beefy forest critters.

Tigers, bears, pythons, wolf packs, honey badgers… all kinds of forest badasses shuffled up to Filo.

Thin, near-invisible red threads wrapped them. The critters, especially the bears, looked like they’d cry. Just weeks ago, Filo had them building houses. They thought Chiyan and Bingpo’s arrival freed them, but now? Back again, dragged by those damn threads.

The bears were helpless, hopeless. Forget fighting Filo—they couldn’t even snap one of her threads. So here they were, slinking to her feet.

Roar roar roar!

They couldn’t win, so they just howled. Filo wasn’t so strict as to shut them up—she needed them, after all.

“Done roaring? Ready to listen?” Filo said flatly. The beasts felt their roars hit a void, like punching cotton—zero impact.

Roar~ Roar~ Roar~ The smartest bear stepped forward, growling rhythmically in bear-speak. Too bad Filo didn’t get a word.

Sighing, she opened her status panel, scanning her huge skill list for a translation skill.

Next second, the roars clicked into words she understood, and her speech auto-translated to beast lingo.

“I want you to guard this forest, stop any intruders,” Filo said low.

“We don’t got your kind of power. Those humans and werewolves came through—we saw ‘em, but we couldn’t stop ‘em,” a tiger said, prowling up.

As former forest bosses, they had the right and duty to block outsiders. But they were too weak. Filo, Chiyan, Bingpo, those hunters—without strength, their “boss” title was just for show. They were bummed.

Their problem? No problem for Filo.

Filo pinched her chin, scrolling her skill list. Man, True Ancestor skills were endless.

“Found it. Phew, exhausting,” Filo muttered, closing the panel. She faced the beasts. “If I boost your strength, will you guard my gate?”

The beasts froze. Boost strength… how much?

They swapped looks, hesitant. They wanted to say no, but one wrong move and Filo might slaughter them. Under that silent threat, they nodded.

“If you can make us strong enough to beat those guys from before, we’ll guard your gate.”

“Deal.”

Filo clenched her fist. The blood threads on the beasts turned vivid red, now clearly visible, glistening like blood beads.

“Become my Blood Kin,” Filo said, using a race skill only high-rank-or-above Blood Clan could wield.

[Kin Contract]

Turns targets into the user’s “slaves,” unable to defy orders. Only the master can undo it, or they die if the master does.

At contract time, kin gain the master’s stat buffs—higher master level, bigger boost!

Roar roar ROAR!

Gut-wrenching roars echoed through the forest’s corner. Amid the pain, raw power exploded in their bodies.

Tiger, hyper evolution…
Wild Blood Hunter • Blood Tiger!

Bear, hyper evolution…
Raging Blood Bastion • Bloodthirsty Bear!

Python, hyper evolution…
Binding Life Dominator • Mourning Scale Python!

Wolf, hyper evolution…
Death’s Shadow • Pursuit Wolf!

Honey Badger, hyper evolution…
Reckless Courage Incarnate • Super Honey Badger!

The beasts transformed. Some became Blood Clan offshoots, others evolved within their race. Every one became Filo’s kin, each packing over level 100 power!

Filo nodded, satisfied. As she prepped to send them off, a cute critter, uncalled by her threads, waddled up.

Whine whine whine~

“P-Panda?!?”

…