Humanity: Evolve

After several hours, the sky had turned dark and it had begun to rain lightly. Zhang Long's fellow rookies had all woken up by now, each one feeling the same sense of panic upon noticing the soul stones embedded in their foreheads.

It took roughly half an hour for Alan to explain the circ.u.mstances to the group, mainly repeating what Benton had said to Zhang Long.

The old man in question was currently sitting by the side with a confused and lost expression, occasionally stroking his white beard.

Everyone had eaten and cleaned up. Most had socialised already, forming a couple cliques. Zhang Long, due to his cold and unfriendly looking exterior was not part of these, which to him was perfectly fine.

Jack Roberts was the centre of one of these cliques. This was mainly due to his happy go lucky personality, nothing really seemed to faze him.

Soon, it was time to leave the portal area. Zhang Long waved to old Benton, whom he had quite the impression of, before getting on to the truck, his luggage was stored in the second vehicle.

Alan himself was the one in the driver's seat, with Ryan and the rest in the same truck or following behind in another.

This time, the atmosphere within the truck was quite lively with people taking the initiative to crack jokes and befriend each other. Zhang Long guessed that this was due to the previous pressure of making the warp wearing off.

Zhang Long sat at the closest to the exit, right at the back just like when he got on the truck before. Although he didn't seem that social, he actually wanted to learn more about spirit beasts and their strengths.

He was still waiting for his talent to show itself, Benton had told him that it would take a while to awaken, especially if it was one of the stronger or more useful ones. The longer wait time merely increased his expectations.

He remembered from Benton's well rehearsed explanation that spirit beasts possessed a core which functioned similarly to a human's soul stone. Zhang Long was curious as to whether spirit beasts had talents as well as power levels.

He also noticed that Benton had a yellow soul stone, unlike the blue one which Zhang Long and everybody else in the group had.

From this he could tell that the colour of the spirit stone correlated to strength, especially since the government wouldn't put an elder who liked to pretend to be senile in charge of such an important location as the portal.

He definitely must be strong enough to be able to defend the portal from wild spirit beasts. Otherwise Zhang Long would have definitely regretted coming through, under the charge of such a flawed organisation.

Thus, it was because of this that he decided to ask Alan, even though he would have rather kept silent.

'Each person's soul stone has grades. A first grade soul stone is blue, like yours and mine. Then, in ascending order, it's green, yellow, red, purple and black.

Each change in colour representing a progression in grade and subsequently a promotion of one's strength.

Currently, the highest us modern humans have only managed to promote up to the third grade, that is, yellow.'

Alan said in his monotone voice.

The entire group had hushed to listen as this knowledge was one of the fundamentals of a pioneer.

'Mister Alan, you said that the highest us modern humans have promoted to is yellow, then how do we know what the colours after that are?' Someone asked in a somewhat timid manner.

Alan chuckled in what Zhang Long felt was a despondent way.

'We aren't the only human beings in Pangaea, there are more primitive but undoubtedly stronger people living here too. They are the natives and the friendliest and closest tribe of these people to us have a leader of the red grade.

As for the rest, there are without a doubt other stronger natives who have reached the higher grades, whom have been recorded in legends and such. Whilst us modern humans in our... Professional ways are loathe to take myth for fact, we don't have anything else to go off of.

To give you a feeling of the differences of power between grades, let me give you all an example.'

Everyone nodded eagerly.

'Our old Benton, the senile fellow you saw before, could kill each of you rookies with a single slap.'

There were hushed whispers and exclamations of surprise but also doubt. Regardless the thoughts of his audience, Alan continued.

'And the tribe leader that I previously mentioned, the one at the fourth grade, he could kill Benton with a single slap too.'

This time nobody believed him, save for a couple individuals, Zhang Long included.

'If the existence of spirit beasts are real, then I wouldn't be surprised if this were true too.' He thought.

Alan began to explain more in detail.

'Each grade has three sub grades. Whilst each major promotion would grant a similarly major increase in strength, each minor promotion of sub grade will grant a minor increase in strength.

Whilst I am still in the first grade like all of you, I am at the third sub grade, whereas all of you are at the first.

Finally, the bottom three grades of blue, green and yellow constitute the "Lower Pillar" whilst the top three grades of red, purple and black constitute the "Upper Pillar".

Once one transcends the lower pillar and enters the realm of the upper pillar, they gain an increase of strength directly double to the strength of the entire lower pillar.'

Whilst the rookies were still dazed, trying to take this information in, Alan changed the topic.

'Spirit beast cores follow an identical progression system. Each core is graded in the same way as our soul stones, with the same colours. The only difference is the increment in power and the size of the core.

Each time a spirit beast promotes, their core grows in size, the size itself depending on individual and species. The same goes for the power increase.

Another thing to note. At the start, low grade humans and spirit beast are relatively even, a first grade human versus a first grade spirit beast, the victor would depend on one's talent.

If the human had a stronger talent, he would win and vice-versa. Of course there are many factors to take into account, such as the condition of health and so on, but this is just a general guide.

After that however, things change and the scales tip in the spirit beast's favour. Whilst a first grade human gains a double strength increase upon reaching second grade, a spirit beast would gain a three times increase.'

Alan smirked upon hearing the sudden silence. Everyone suddenly felt as if the world had given up on them.

'Why don't us humans get stronger that quickly too?'

This same thought was in everyone's minds, Zhang Long included.

However, he didn't really plan to fight much, if not at all. All he wanted to do was research the different spirit beast species.

Alan unhurriedly said, 'However, when heaven shuts the door, it leaves open a window. Although our direct strength pales in comparison to spirit beasts, humans never were really meant to rough it out in the first place.

Our lack of scales and claws are proof of that. Our seemingly innate ability to tame beasts and summon them is perhaps one of the ways out we've been given.'

Zhang Long slowly nodded his head upon hearing these words. It was true, throughout history mankind had employed various different ingenious methods to achieve their goals. In his opinion, the human hand was one of the best gifts of evolution.

Without the dexterous digits of each finger, many possibilities would be cut off and the development of mankind would greatly differ.

Alan continued to explain other things, such as artefacts however they weren't of much interest to Zhang Long.

He looked upwards, noticing a large dent in the ceiling.

'So that really happened, huh.'

Zhang Long felt the urge to shudder. He wondered what grade that massive warp beast was, the fluctuations caused by it's mere passing by were strong enough to dent the truck's sturdy hull.

Although Zhang Long in particular wasn't that interested in violence, the temptation for power as great as that was undeniable.

Awhoooooh!

A clear, resounding howl cut through the rowdy chatter in the cabin. It sounded like that of a wolf's howl, yet somehow felt more powerful and ferocious.

Although Zhang Long sat at the back of the truck, he caught a glimpse of Alan's stern face turning rigid in alarm.

A similar expression found it's way onto the faces of everyone in the cabin. Whilst they didn't doubt the senior officer's ability to protect them, the wolf howl sent shivers down their spines.

Zhang Long rubbed the goosebumps across his arm subtly.

Awhooooooh!

More howls came, from all directions.

He slowly got up and peered through the airtight window just above his seat. It was dark outside and visibility was poor. Although he couldn't see any rain, there were a few raindrops pattering against the window.

'Stay calm, everyone. We'll handle this.' This time, it was Ryan who spoke.

As he said that, lights around the truck were turned on, instantly giving some visibility to the shivering passengers.

Zhang Long saw the light reflecting off of a pair of eyes, which quickly dipped down into the tall plains grass.

After a few minutes, the situation seemed to calm down, save for the occasional howling in the distance.

Suddenly, Ryan g.r.o.a.n.e.d in annoyance.

'Alan.'

'Yeah, I know. The mangy bastards are following us.' Alan growled, increasing the truck's speed.

There was a moment of silence.

'Should we stop and fight them?' Ryan asked uncertainly. 'If we kill enough, the wolf pack will back off, they do have some semblance of intelligence after all.'

Alan frowned, considering their options.

'Unless they're able to damage our truck, there's no harm in letting them follow us back to base.' He replied. 'I don't see what they can do to the hull anyway.'

At this moment, Zhang Long felt as if he had forgotten something important, but couldn't quite remember.

'We're approaching the forest edge, nearly there folks.' Ryan encouraged, grinning at the suddenly weary passengers.

Once again, the whole ordeal seemed to calm down, with the wolves staying out of the truck's lights. All Zhang Long could see was the flickering of the tree shadows through the window.

Bam!

Something heavy landed on the top of the truck. Then, there was a scraping and scratching sound from above.

Zhang Long's eyes constricted as he glanced upwards.

The dent!

The truck's ceiling had been damaged in the warp!

At this moment, several other people exclaimed, realising the same thing.

Bang!

There was a second impact, then a third and then a fourth.

'Shit! They must've jumped across from the trees!' Alan yelled.

Ryan grabbed his iron tipped bat and got out of his seat, climbing through the narrow gap and into the passenger cabin.

He gently fingered the soul stone on his forehead, causing it to glow. Then, the bat he was holding became covered in mystical runes, a feeling of power emanating from it.

Ryan said nothing, but his mere presence was enough to calm everyone.

Suddenly, a gust of wind rushed in and a canine snout poked in through the ceiling.

Ryan reacted in an instant, swinging his club like a baseball player.

His blue lit runic weapon smashed into the wolf's face, causing blood to splatter downwards.

The wolf whimpered as it fell away, off of the truck. However, another wolf poked it's head through again.

Ryan knocked it away easily, just like the first, however, the wolves learned from this mistake.

They began wildly swiping at the edges of the gap, widening it. The sound of bone on metal was similar to that of chalk on a blackboard.

There was a loud bang from the exit hatch, which suddenly fell away. The back of the truck had been directly knocked off by a large white wolf with a shaggy mane which had been loping behind.

Zhang Long, who had been kneeling on his seat to look out the window fell back, directly towards the wolf's jaws.

Then there were more thuds from the ceiling, signalling the arrival of more wolves.

'Alan, they got one of the recruits!' Ryan yelled.

'I f.u.c.k.i.n.g know!' Alan shouted back.

The sound of screeching metal intensified and even more thuds could be heard.

'At this rate, he won't make it. Alan, do something, now!'

At that moment, Alan decisively swerved the vehicle. There were several howls of pain but the truck couldn't handle the sudden change of momentum, directly tipping over.

Zhang Long, who had fallen into the jaws of the large wolf let out an involuntary scream as the latter bit down on his leg.

The truck slid down off of the road, the passengers and wolves all engaged in a struggle.

'Am I going to die?' Zhang Long wondered.

His vision wavered and the searing pain in his leg intensified. His body hung in the air, mid-fall.

Zhang Long felt helpless, even after two years of martial arts training and having his body enhanced by the spirit stone, he could do nothing but wait to get eaten alive.

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye, the truck tipping and him falling out had taken only a few seconds.

Strangely, his mind began to wonder. He saw the photo he put in his b.r.e.a.s.t pocket slip out.

He saw a younger version of himself, arm around a silver haired girl.

'Even before I die, I still can't stop thinking about you-'

A sudden impact from behind hit the wolf which held him, sending him and the large white creature flying through the air.

As he rag-dolled uncontrollably, he caught a glimpse of the second truck which had been following behind them.

Then, he hit the ground, sprawling across into the forest. The pain in his leg was overwhelmed by a second, sharper pain in his back.

Zhang Long faintly heard the crack of bones.

Then, the white wolf smashed into him, knocking him unconscious.