The Fruits of Evolution
When I opened my eyes, an entire day had passed. My body had accumulated far more fatigue than I'd realized. The silver lining was that Baengnae had taken the initiative to clear out the native creatures from the surrounding zones while I was down. The storage gauge was nearly at 100%.
"Looks like all that's left is to run the artifact search."
The cleared zones were the Poison Spider Swamp, the Venus Flytrap Garden, and the Bean Bug Landfill. The names sounded dangerous, but they were all ordinary zones. Unless the maze itself mentioned a location by name like the Quiet Plain, zone names were given by the first discoverer. If that person was a coward, the name became terrifying. There were also names coined by bolder explorers. The forbidden-access zone we were about to visit, the Cornfield, was one such example. Because it was named the Cornfield, countless hungry users had flocked there only to meet gruesome ends. The first discoverer had eventually died as well, so there was no one left to blame, but this was the kind of world where people died for the pettiest reasons.
Slurp— I savored a bowl of soup whose ingredients I couldn't identify while receiving the report. The taste wasn't bad. I read through the materials Nareun-i had prepared in advance.
"Beginning the bull hunt summary."
"Go ahead."
"Forces deployed: 1,032 monkeys and 211 dark elves. 611 and 15 respectively perished, for a combined 617 survivors. Final survival rate: 49.6%."
"Any seriously wounded?"
"There were quite a few with minor injuries, but all were at a level that could recover immediately."
I nodded. The bulls had narrow fields of vision, so once they locked onto a target they dealt with it thoroughly. It was only natural there were no serious casualties.
"Still, the results are better than expected. I figured anything over 20% would be a success."
"It's all thanks to your efforts, Master."
I wouldn't deny it. If we'd followed the original plan, the survival rate really would have been under 20%. The toppling operation had more than doubled the number of survivors.
"Next, the profits."
This was the most important part. Over 600 zombies had died, so we needed profits exceeding that number. Otherwise, every battle would leave us in the red and growth would slip further away.
"Profits: Of the 27 bull beastkin corpses, 2 were too heavily damaged to be used as food and were converted accordingly. The remaining 25 were successfully turned into zombies."
Not bad at all. The bulls from the Black Burrow had been hunted with care, so their damage was low. Maintaining that standard in a chaotic melee had been difficult. The fact that 25 still remained was thanks to the bulls' exceptionally tough hides. But Nareun-i's report wasn't finished.
"One of the two heavily damaged corpses was given to Little Master, and the other was distributed to the zombies with outstanding performance. As a result, several individuals achieved evolution."
"Hmm…?"
Evolution itself had been expected. But when I suddenly imagined what would happen if a monkey evolved, nothing came to mind.
"What does a monkey even turn into? A monkey beastkin?"
At Nareun-i's gesture, the monkey cooks who had been preparing my soup stepped forward. Only then did I realize these ones were different.
"These guys… they're a bit bigger, aren't they?"
The twelve monkeys lined up all had physiques on the level of the Monkey King. Though there was some variation between individuals, they averaged around 1.7 meters tall. Nareun-i continued her explanation.
"Twelve individuals achieved physical growth. There is also one that underwent a different form of evolution."
Nareun-i brought out one more monkey. It had a similar build to the others but was wearing red glasses. I was genuinely surprised.
"It grew… glasses during evolution?"
"Ah, no… I provided the glasses. I issued one to distinguish it from the others."
Come to think of it, I remembered buying a pair of glasses without lenses to coordinate Bangsil-i and Nareun-i. One of them must have been given to this monkey. The red glasses made the zombie monkey look noticeably smarter.
"So what actually evolved?"
At that moment, the monkey with the red glasses bowed its head in greeting.
"I greet the king of the horde."
Its speech was clear and precise, and its eyes looked far sharper than those of the other dull-witted zombies.
"This individual was among the earliest infected. It repeatedly distinguished itself in battle and was rewarded with many monkeys to consume. As a result, its intelligence appears to have risen significantly."
I understood. The ones who had performed great feats in this battle and eaten bulls had grown larger, while the one that repeatedly ate other monkeys' brains had evolved to become intelligent. It was an extension of the zombie growth rules I already knew, simply expressed more dramatically through evolution.
"Not bad."
I purchased a magnifying glass and checked the grades of the new individuals.
"Hmm…?"
At least the grades had risen honestly. The monkeys we'd seen in Pinwheel Village had been Grade 3. The ones that had taken the elves' weapons had risen to Grade 4. So the ones that ate bulls and evolved physically reaching Grade 5 made sense. But I'd expected the red-glasses monkey, whose intelligence had increased, to be Grade 4, yet it was also Grade 5. I examined it closely and noticed something.
"Huh? Is this…?"
I pointed at the tube at its waist. Nareun-i nodded.
"Individuals whose intelligence has risen gain improved dexterity and can now handle long needles. They can't attack from long range, but mid-range attacks are possible."
"Oh…"
Good news. There was only one for now, but if more appeared, our tactics would become far more versatile. We were steadily building a proper formation.
"Alright, that's enough about the monkeys. Where are the bulls?"
Strictly speaking, the monkeys were a side profit. It was time to check the main reward.
"Ah, the bulls were all taken by Little Master for hunting, except for one. She didn't bring them here, worried they might interfere with your meal."
"Interfere with the meal?"
I frowned slightly at Nareun-i's choice of words. If they would interfere with a meal, that meant they were so unruly and low-intelligence that they couldn't sit still. We'd gone to the trouble of catching them, so that wouldn't do.
"How's their intelligence?"
"They're not particularly bright. Still, they understand basic commands. However, that's not the real issue."
After listening to Nareun-i's explanation, I realized they weren't the brainless zombies I'd feared. The problem was related to hierarchy. Each bull possessed tremendous strength and refused to obey zombies they perceived as weaker than themselves. But they were high-grade resources. We couldn't just stab them to death like disobedient monkeys. That was why Baengnae had been going around the zones hunting under the pretext of education.
"Nareun-i still doesn't know me very well."
Unfortunately for them, I had no patience for that. If they didn't listen, they became beef from that day forward. But they would probably listen to me. They were bulls, yet also zombies, so they couldn't disobey a Zombie Summoner's orders.
"Let's go take a look. The fact that they left one behind probably means they wanted me to see it when I woke up."
I headed for the training ground. When I woke up, I had been back in the earthen fortress we'd seized before the [Exit], so the training ground was the ants' training ground. When I arrived, one bull beastkin was playing tug-of-war with dozens of monkeys. It was one against twenty-three, yet the rope remained taut. Seeing that, the unease I'd been feeling quietly vanished.
"Hah, at least their strength is the real deal."
Their intelligence was a bit of a problem, but how could a zombie be perfect? We'd just have to build on their strengths one by one. If we kept feeding the bull beastkin brains, one day they might suddenly evolve to become intelligent as well. I used the magnifying glass on the bull humanoid.
Wild monkeys had originally been Grade 3. But upon becoming zombies, their grade had dropped to Grade 2. Likewise, the bulls had been Grade 12 but were now Grade 9.
"As expected, raising Baengnae's grade is the priority."
Both monkeys and bulls had suffered roughly a 30% grade loss, but strictly speaking the bulls had lost more. This was because the same poison had been used to infect individuals of different grades. In the end, the higher Baengnae's grade as the source became, the stronger every subsequent zombie would be.
While I was thinking that, the person in question's voice rang out.
"Baengnae's here!"
She must have been nearby and turned back after hearing I'd woken up. Behind Baengnae, an army of Minotaurs carrying massive battle axes approached the earthen fortress with heavy footsteps. The pressure radiating from the group was immense. A smile unconsciously spread across my face at the realization that they were all mine now.
"Damn… the visual is perfect."
But there was no reason to be satisfied here. What I'd seen was only a tiny fraction of Stage 4. There was still an endless amount of profit to be extracted from this world. Let's take it step by step. First, we would sweep the three zones Baengnae had cleaned while I was asleep. The native creatures there would have been completely wiped out anyway. We could gather everything in about half a day. And after that came the real main event. There had been a signal from a high-grade artifact in the nearby forbidden-access Cornfield. This would be our third high-grade Fruit of Good and Evil after the two Giantification fruits.
I ordered the bulls to rest. Upon checking them, I saw that despite their imposing return, every single one of them was exhausted. Baengnae must have forced endless battles on them under the guise of education. They had become as docile as lambs.
"She really does handle things well."
Now that I had confirmed our forces were evolving and high-grade individuals were accumulating, I issued the order I'd been planning.
"Nareun-i, about what we discussed earlier regarding performance. Go ahead and select the particularly outstanding ones."
"Yes, understood."
From experience, consuming six Fruits of Good and Evil per day was the most efficient. In other words, one every four hours. Consuming more than that caused the effects to overlap before the body could fully absorb them, resulting in loss. According to this calculation, Baengnae and I consumed twelve fruits a day between us. But our supply rate far exceeded that. For low-grade artifacts alone, we discovered at least twenty per day, and each one yielded a minimum of three fruits. And as our zombie legion grew, that speed would only increase. Even if we weren't distributing them yet, it would be good to identify the useful individuals in advance.
While we were on the subject, I gave Bangsil-i, Nareun-i, and Boots a few stat fruits each. From now on, they would be consuming Fruits of Good and Evil as well.
"Alright, I'm heading out. Let the kids rest for a bit, then start preparing for the Cornfield conquest."
"Yes, Master."
Our goal for tonight was to conquer up to the entrance of the Cornfield.