The pile of items in front of Darian included a spatial ring, a tube of faintly glowing blood, and two crystals.
Seeing this, Zayden was beyond shocked. He knew what every single one of these items was, and the fact that they came from a rare orb was surprising to him. The rest of the team could see the shock on the face of Zayden so their gazes were on Darian in expectation of an explanation.
Darian held them in his hands, and a few seconds later, there was surprise on his face.
"What is it?" Tyrel said
"Don't keep us waiting," Dare added.
Darian just handed the crystal to them for them to see.
[Name: Low Grade EXP Crystal]
[Tier: Rare]
[Description: A crystal of EXP which, when absorbed, gives the user seven hundred EXP]
Dare and Tyrel had surprised looks on their faces.
"With this, there's no need to kill nulls anymore; we could just get stronger by absorbing the crystals," Tyrel said, handing the crystal back to Dare.
"What I don't understand is the use of the crystal since we could get EXP by killing nulls and even beasts," Dare said, "and the crystal is even a system reward, which means that we can only get it from killing nulls.s"
"Well, you see, the exp in the crystal is way higher than the exp gotten from the null. To get the seven hundred exp given to us by the crystal, we would have to kill tons of nulls, but this crystal can make us jump all of those steps," Zayden explained
A look of realization appeared on the face of Dare. Darian didn't care about all of this and held the crystal in his hand. With a thought, the crystal turned into a large chunk of golden particles that entered his head. He did the same thing with the next crystal as a golden glow covered his body.
He had reached level ten. With that, the three main team members managed to reach level ten and were eligible to take the constellation compatibility test.
Zayden was excited and couldn't wait as he sat down on the floor of the roof.
"I would advise you guys to attempt evolution right away, because we would need as much strength as we can as early as we can to survive this apocalypse," Zayden said as Tyrel and Darian nodded in understanding before sitting on the floor.
Dare, who wasn't level ten and didn't receive the system message, was confused. "No need to worry, once you reach level ten, you will understand what's going on," Zayden said
With everything in place, their attention turned to the system message that had been in front of them for a while.
[You have become eligible for Evolution Attempt ]
[Would You Like to Attempt Evolution?]
[YES] [NO]
Without any hesitation, the trio clicked yes. As if they were about to level up, a golden glow covered their bodies before spreading out a few meters around them, forming some kind of cocoon protecting them.
Dare was surprised as he didn't know what was going on, and this was the first time he had seen something like this. But there was nothing he could do, so he placed his attention on the new skill that he had learned.
He could remember Zayden saying that he would understand when he was level ten. He was level nine, a short while away from level ten, so he needed to level up.
With conviction in his heart, he went to the first floor of the male dorm, the only floor that they hadn't cleared of the nulls. He was going to level up.
****
In a space as dark as night, the twinkling of stars could be seen, forming different patterns; these patterns were called the constellations.
The constellations were numerous, reaching billions in number, and they varied in form. Some constellations depicted a hammer, a swan, a book, an eagle, a bolt of lightning, and many more random things.
Zayden found himself here, looking at the billions of constellations in front of him. But there was something strange about Zayden. He was like a ball, a ball of energy, and only the outline of his face would make one know that this was Zayden.
One thing of note, though, was that he was shown with a resplendent light that seemed to shine the area around him.
"I'm finally back," Zayden said, a wave of nostalgia hitting him.
From his memories, he could remember the last time he was here. Only after two weeks since the start of the apocalypse was he able to reach level ten. He clicked the yes button as enthusiastically as before and found himself here.
At that time, he had the feeling of someone calling him; he could not hear it, but he could feel it in the depths of his soul.
In his previous life, he chose to ignore the feeling and chose a different constellation that eventually cost him his life. Now, being given a second chance, he was going to change his destiny.
Even right now, he could feel it. But his time it wasn't one but two, and they were tugging him in two different directions. Zayden was confused, as this didn't happen in his previous life.
But one of the feelings was stronger than the other, so after a slight moment of deliberation, he decided to go in the direction of that tug.
With that, Zayden started travelling in the direction of the tug. With every meter that he went, he could feel the tugging becoming stronger and stronger.
Unknowingly, Zayden had been floating towards the tug for hours. He had come across many constellations, of which included the Greek gods of Greek mythology, the Roman gods of Roman mythology, the Egyptian gods, and even gods from Norse mythology.
Every well-known and unknown constellation was here.
At this point, Zayden could feel the tugging becoming stronger and stronger, and he reached a region of space where there were no constellations in sight. But the tugging was stronger than ever, so Zayden continued moving.
Zayden could see a pattern of stars twinkling in the distance. It was small, like a speck of dust. But as he continued moving towards the constellation, it kept growing bigger and bigger until Zayden was finally in front of it.
It was a pattern of stars that came together to form a constellation of no definite shape. Its shape was shifting like an amoeba. Sometimes, it was a human, other times an animal, other times an item, and other times a being that Zayden had never seen in his life.
It was more than fifty times the size of planet Earth when it was looked at from space. So gigantic that Zayden could not see the midpoint of the constellation. Zayden didn't know why, but he felt some sort of familiarity with this constellation, a resonance that came from the very depths of his soul.
Suddenly, a strong pressure came down on the body of Zayden. It was like a dozen mountains were suddenly pushed onto his shoulder.
"Argh," Zayden groaned in pain, and almost immediately, cracks started appearing on his soul.l It seemed like any moment now his soul would collapse and he would die.
"Hmph, disappointing."
Zayden heard a loud snort as the pressure that threatened to kill him a few moments ago disappeared like the floating of cotton.
The gigantically big formation glowed with a faint, dark golden light and started shrinking down until it was the size of a young man wearing a hood that obscured his whole face in some kind of purplish gold smoke.
He didn't have any legs and was just floating, as purplish gold smoke could be seen from his waist down.
"P...Physical representation" Zayden stammered in shock.
Physical representation was when a constellation projected itself in a simple form to easily communicate with its chosen successor.
This all meant that this constellation that was supremely strong decided to take Zayden as its chosen successor.
Zayden was dumbfounded, but at the same time extremely happy. This was the peak of good fortune.