The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

The beast that burst through the bushes at that moment was covered in tough-looking green scales despite looking like a bear, and Craig barely caught a glimpse before the creature slammed into professor Dane's body.

Of course, even though professor Dane was completely naked and had lost all of his artifacts, his spirit power and level were still there, though in an exhausted state after passing through the thunder array.

The two of them understood that fighting in this place would only lead them to doom. They had to get rid of this beast as soon as possible to escape and hide!

To the beasts in the wonderland of doom, the humans who were foolish enough to wander into their territory were simply the perfect tonics for enhancing their strength.

After all, consuming their opponents while they were still alive meant that almost a tenth of the prey's power could become theirs! Over time, it was no wonder that the beasts in this forest had grown so strong.

"Craig! If you have some offensive artifacts I can use, now would be a great time to take them out!"

The Terran Prince didn't hesitate at all as he took out a glowing red longsword from his spatial artifact and threw it towards the professor.

Unfortunately, the scaly bear creature seemed to have sensed it, and waved his massive paw to flick the sword far away before Dane could even get close.

"Shit!"

==========

Back at the academy, as they headed towards the 'Tower of Solitude', Evelyn couldn't help but get a little nervous. 'How long is she going to stay with us? Isn't she supposed to be a loner?'

If Aurora didn't leave while she picked out her cultivation technique, the risk of getting caught increased greatly!

Evelyn could only bite her lip and hope for the best.

When the white bearded old man saw Aurora leading the students towards his tower, he couldn't help but raise his brows in surprise as he clasped his hands respectfully. "Lady Aurora, greetings. What brings you here today?"

Some of the children giggled at the scene of the old man treating a 'little girl' so respectfully, though they understood that Aurora was probably an old monster herself, it still looked funny.

The platinum blonde gave him a brief nod in greeting before pointing at the pink haired girl behind her. "This is my disciple, Evelyn. She'll be picking her cultivation technique today, so I came along."

The two teachers apparently had much milder tempers than professor Dane, and didn't pay any mind to the children's murmurs and giggles.

The old man couldn't help but frown. "Eh? Lady Aurora, the 'Tower of Solitude' only allows one person to enter at a time. I'm sure you're well aware of that?"

Aurora didn't respond to him at all, and simply gave Evelyn a nod. "Come."

The pink haired girl felt a little awkward as she held Aurora's hand and walked into the tower, not daring to look at the rapidly darkening face of the white bearded old man.

Aurora was of course well aware of the tower's functions, as well as the actual restrictions of the place.

The reason they only allowed a single student to enter at a time was to make sure that the guardian of the tower could monitor them properly and make sure they didn't damage or steal any of the cultivation arrays.

Of course, the children weren't allowed to bring in any spatial treasures either. They could only browse around the thousands of cultivation techniques and pick one they like, not even knowing its grade, name, or function.

This meant that their choice would be based entirely on instinct or luck.

Not to mention anything else, Aurora didn't even ask Evelyn to put away her spatial belt! No wonder the old man outside looked so furious.

The 'Tower of Solitude' looked like a tall, circular building from the outside, but it was actually just a single story on the inside from what she could see. The singular path split into seven, each with shelves on both sides with neatly stacked cultivation array disks.

The fact that they all looked identical, and that each of those seven paths kept on dividing as they went along further, Evelyn knew even she would feel overwhelmed even if she could see the cultivation technique's name and grade with her system.

[Status Check… ]

—Lizard's Tail Technique: Grade 3

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience at a slow trickle.

—Combat Abilities: Lizard's Tail

—Non-combat Abilities: Cold Blood

At first, she thought she had stumbled upon something pretty good even with the first technique she probed, but discovered the truth soon enough. Lizard's Tail was just a trash technique!

[Status Check… ]

—Brigade of Nightmares: Grade 5

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience at a moderate trickle.

—Combat Abilities: Nightmare

—Non-combat Abilities: Midnight Phantasm

The more she looked around, the more she discovered that nearly all of the cultivation techniques looked 'good' in terms of their abilities. Of course, she could only see the technique names, and not their descriptions. 

Evelyn could only differentiate between them based on their grades.

Curiously enough, Aurora kept leading her deeper into the tower until they reached one of the less prominent corners. "Pick one from here, if you like."

The pink haired girl couldn't help but give her 'mentor' a grateful nod. "Thank you, Aurora…"

Because she knew that this place had perhaps the best techniques in the tower, and she would probably never be able to find it on her own.

Students only had fifteen minutes to find one they liked, after all. It's not like she could look at each and every one to—

"Take as much time as you like. It's an important decision, after all."

Evelyn felt her lips twitch. 'Well, it's good for me…'

So she probed the cultivation arrays in the area one by one, and as expected, they were all at least grade seven, or higher!

Every subsequent one she checked made her heart beat faster as she almost made up her mind, but Evelyn managed to keep herself in check, she knew she had to be patient!

[Status Check… ]

—Thundering Fury: Grade 8

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience rapidly.

—Combat Abilities: Lightning's Call

—Non-combat Abilities: Ultra Instinct

Just by looking at the abilities, she could tell that it was a technique based around fast movement and lethal strikes! Evelyn fancied such a style very much, to be able to take down an opponent before they could respond, and to dismantle their plans in an instant! And it was even a grade eight!

Unfortunately, not long later, she found a total of three arrays of a higher grade, making her give up on the lightning technique.

[Status Check… ]

—Eternal Ember: Grade 9

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience rapidly.

—Combat Abilities: Ashes to Ashes

—Non-combat Abilities: Eternal Agony

'Based on their acquirable ability, Vivian and Amara should be very suitable to practice this technique, right?' But Evelyn wasn't completely sure if her hunch was right. After all, without seeing the descriptions or observing the ability in question, she was just basing it all off on their names alone.

The ability she could acquire from Amara was Burn-me-not, which should be related to fire at the very least, right? And the one she could acquire from Vivian was even more obvious, named 'Pyromaniac', what else could it be?

If she could get 'Eternal Ember' for them, their future was set to be boundless!

But of course, her own compatibility with Eternal Ember was about as good as it was with any other technique here. There was no reason she couldn't use it, but there was no reason to pick it over another of the same grade.

The next array disk brought her a great surprise, because it was the first high grade 'support type' cultivation technique she had seen in this place!

[Status Check… ]

—Arcane Archive: Grade 9

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience rapidly.

—Combat Abilities: The Great Arcane

—Non-combat Abilities: Master Codex

Unfortunately, the ability names did not make it obvious what it was supposed to do. Just the name of the cultivation technique made her think that it was somehow related to knowledge. 'Maybe it would fit well with Amara?'

And then the last one of grade nine, with which she had the highest 'compatibility' with, presumably…

[Status Check… ]

—Searing Soul: Grade 9

—Able to dig into the world source to harvest experience rapidly.

—Combat Abilities: Soul Avatar

—Non-combat Abilities: Soul Dominion

There was no other reason for her to think so except the fact that both the abilities as well as the technique name itself contained the word 'soul'. As her most prominent stat, Evelyn was sure that if she could use it to her full advantage, she would be able to bring down much stronger opponents with little effort!