[Your evolution was indeed cut short. I am not quite sure how you did it, and I’m still trying to figure that out, but it was cut short. In fact, I expected that you would’ve had to take a couple of months for this evolution.]

  ‘But my stats…how could I possibly cut my evolution short and still receive this big of an upgrade? Something about that doesn’t add up.’

  [You’re right, it doesn’t, and I think the cost you paid to not only have increased in strength this much while also cutting your evolution short was what it would require for you to progress to the next Tier.

  [Going from just over 90,000 Essence to now over 230,000 Essence doesn’t really feel like a linear increase. That is far more than double what it was previously, and I believe that is the cost you had to pay for what happened.]

  ‘Yeah, I’m not really sure how that works, but at this point in time, I won’t complain. Strength in the future is for the future. I needed power now, and I got it, so I’m thankful that I got it. What happens tomorrow, I’ll let future Rick deal with it. For now, my people need me, and I am here. I won’t have them without their king any longer.’

  [That is understandable, but in the future, I advise against doing whatever it is you just did. While your required Evolution Points to reach the next Tier have increased significantly, and I currently think that is the cost you had to pay, it very well might not be.

  [We don’t know what else has been affected, and who knows what future costs might appear later. You need power now, yes, but you will also need power in the future. I don’t recommend consistently limiting yourself for whatever reason. But understandably, it was needed now. You had a role to play, and you have played it.]

  ‘I’m glad you understand, though I know you weren’t sure how this happened, but I’m almost certain you have a few theories. Let’s hear your best one.’

  [Well, you’re not wrong, and again, I am not sure, but I do believe it had something to do with your will. I have reason to believe that you quite literally willed the world to not only accelerate your evolution but to likely give you the full power of improvements as if you had undergone a full evolution.

  [It is mind boggling, to say the least, and it bothers me that I cannot figure out a better explanation, but I think that is the best I can come up with at the moment.]

  ‘So I somehow unconsciously asked the world itself to do my bidding, and it agreed. If I wasn’t who I currently was, a King of Goblins, then I would’ve thought this idea was impossible and not something I would readily believe.

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  ‘But here I am, the King of Goblins, something that is a part of whom I am down to my very soul. And at the very center of all that I am, from my blood to my DNA I am the King of Goblins. Who else but the world or the gods up above, since we know that they are real, could hear my unconscious cry and answer it?’

  Rick then slowly tilted his head toward the sky and spoke in a soft breath.

  “If it was you who heard my cry and allowed me to come to the aid of my people, then thank you. I won’t forget it.”

  Of course, nothing responded to the King in the woods. That was all right for Rick, as he spent the rest of the night in silence, just watching and waiting for the reason why anger, pain, and sadness churned in his stomach to show themselves before him.

  What he showed them earlier was only a small piece of all that he had become. When they returned, he would wait a moment before he called the rest of his people. He needed some time to truly let loose.

  As for the people in question who brought this upon themselves, they had returned to their camp. Not only was it deathly silent there, with the exception of medical professionals running around and doing their jobs, but the morale had hit its lowest point. Even The Spear of Touval had just begun to come to terms with the task laid out before her…kill the Goblin King.

  That was their task. That was their mission. Returning without completing it was unacceptable, which meant they would have to go back and fight that fierce being once again.

  She was not scared of her opponent, nor was she having second thoughts about taking her spear and meeting her enemies in battle. No, it was the feeling that the King of Goblins gave off that gave her pause.

  He should’ve only just reached the seventh tier and thus should not have been too much of a problem for them, even if she took into account the fact that he was a King and would be stronger than his other companions.

  Still, things didn’t add up the way she thought they should. Because if that was his power the second his evolution was completed, what would it be then? How would they cope then? They could barely get a grasp on him now, what would it be when everything about his power was fully consolidated?

  And then there were his flames. Even now, she could not understand why she could not get rid of them. Although she wasn’t harmed by them and could protect herself from them, that was all she could do.

  No matter how much mana she poured out, the flames refused to die down, and she could see just how much it affected everyone around her apart from her fellow Tier Sevens.

  If that was something he would be able to deploy at the start of the battle and maintain for the entire battle, then they were in for far more than trouble.

  They would be in for death…all of them.

  And it wasn’t she believing that the King could kill all of them by his lonesome, but that was where the problem became even worse. He wasn’t alone. He had an army with him, one that would be able to fight far more freely with him leading them.

  The Spear of Touval clenched her fist tightly as she considered all the implications of what was to come.