After praising the sun, Evan closed his eyes and carefully felt the basic information flooding into his mind.
Remember the original website address: ??????????.??????
It was not knowledge, but an understanding already woven into his instincts.
Demon Hunter.
A profession that had gradually evolved during the Primordial Era as humanity fought all manner of Monsters.
The profession had not sprung into being from a single Beyonder Characteristic.
Instead, it had formed naturally when the experience passed down through countless generations finally crossed a threshold and became a Beyonder Characteristic.
Only later, after incorporating the Beyonder Characteristics of many Monsters and developing numerous legacies and schools, had it taken its present form.
Today, Demon Hunter legacies used Magic Potions to fuse with the Beyonder Characteristics of Monsters, then paired them with the corresponding Demon Hunting Arts to form distinct schools.
Some long-established Demon Hunter lineages had gained signature abilities by repeatedly fusing with particular Monsters.
Evan was the seventh generation of his lineage.
But the lineage itself was not especially old. Its history spanned just 130 years.
Demon Hunters spent their lives dealing with highly toxic Magic Potions, so their average lifespans were short.
From the moment they completed their transformation, they lived an average of only ten to twenty-five years.
Hill's master, the previous holder of this Characteristic, had died at forty-four.
That already made her one of the longest-lived in the lineage.
Years of accumulated experience had given this lineage three Profession abilities.
The first: Demon Hunter Sight.
An essential ability in nearly every Demon Hunter legacy.
Once activated, it let the user see traces and scents associated with Beyonder Characteristics.
Every Beyonder Creature left behind a unique Spirituality that these eyes could detect.
The second: Secondary Brain.
This lineage's specialty, inherited from its second bearer.
The brain could grow a second time.
During the transformation, diseased or excess brain tissue was separated out and combined with a Characteristic from a Brain-Stealing Demon, forming a small mass of brain tissue that helped control the body.
The third: Sage Control.
Another specialty of this lineage, inherited from its fourth bearer.
That bearer had been corrupted by a Desire Demon while hunting Monsters, then used a Magic Potion to bind and fuse with part of the Desire Demon's Characteristic.
When performing a mysterious Ritual, the user could add their own bodily fluids to gain greater control over it.
At that, Evan could not help clicking his tongue.
"So every one of my predecessors had a trick up their sleeve!"
"Those three Side Effects of the Magic Potion ended up reinforcing these abilities."
He matched them up one by one in his mind.
The loss of taste had become the ability to sense scents and Spirituality through Demon Hunter Sight.
The loss of memory came from the Secondary Brain's growth altering the structure of the brain.
As for Sage Control...
That ability directly caused the infertility Side Effect in this Demon Hunter lineage, but in exchange, the energy involved was redirected into Ritual control.
Evan closed his eyes and felt the tiny Secondary Brain inside him.
I wonder if it's because of the Magic Potion, or because I crossed over.
He muttered to himself.
My Secondary Brain... is alive.
At that very moment.
His ears caught a crisp sound.
Ring-ring.
A bicycle bell rang out from below a nearby slope, piercing the silence of the countryside.
"Someone?"
Evan's heart tightened.
His body reacted faster than his conscious mind.
With a Physique of 3.4, the explosive strength of his muscles had reached a level ordinary people could scarcely imagine.
Before he could think, he sprang backward as though propelled by a spring.
By the time he landed, he was safely behind an old oak tree two meters away.
Through the gaps in its branches, his new Golden Slit Pupils and Demon Hunter Sight gave him a clear view of the slope below.
A young man in a postman's uniform was stopping his bicycle at the foot of the slope.
He wore a dark blue Postal Service cap and a canvas mailbag slung across his shoulder. A copper bell hung from the bicycle's handlebars.
The young man looked unremarkable. He was thin and did not look particularly strong.
But Evan's Golden Slit Pupils, sharpened by Demon Hunter Sight, caught a detail no ordinary person would have noticed.
The bell.
Rings of pale blue, wave-like energy hovered around it.
Each time the bell rang, those waves spread outward in strange ripples.
The copper bell was ordinary. The person using it was not.
The postman below had barely parked his bicycle when he raised his head. His gaze pierced the dense woods and fixed precisely on Evan behind the oak.
He did not even glance around or hesitate as he searched.
It was as though the entire forest were transparent to him.
"The younger generation is formidable indeed."
The young man spoke gently, with the amused warmth of an elder addressing a junior.
He bent to lock his bicycle, then strolled up the slope.
His steps were unhurried, his boots rustling softly against the fallen leaves.
"Don't be afraid. Your Eldest Senior Brother asked me to come help. Just call me Hong Si."
Evan stayed behind the tree, ready to counterattack at any moment.
What if Pulis sent this guy to finish the job?
On a night when identities were so uncertain, he could not trust anyone lightly.
Hong Si seemed to sense his wariness.
He took another step forward, a knowing smile tugging at his lips.
"Your senior brother told me... it was around here last week, wasn't it?"
He paused, deliberately drawing out his words.
"That a Vampire scared you so badly you pissed—"
"Brother Hong Si!"
Evan flashed out from behind the oak.
In one swift stride, he reached the slope and all but snatched the rest of the sentence from Hong Si's mouth.
"Can we put it another way?"
"You can say my crotch wasn't sweaty at the time."
"After all, if I don't say anything, nobody will know whether it was sweat or piss."
Hong Si stopped and looked Evan up and down in the moonlight.
Silver-white tousled hair, Golden Slit Pupils, black veins beneath pale skin, and a newly transformed body smeared with dirt and dark red blood.
Surprise crept into his smile.
"I didn't expect you to absorb it so quickly."
"Looks like your body's as sharp as your mind."
He came up the slope, his gaze falling on the Female Assistant's corpse, which was still slowly healing on the ground.
Even with her healing ability reduced by 300%, her recovery remained remarkably fast.
Her smashed neck had already healed, and half her head had grown back.
Hong Si exclaimed, "I'd love to know how a newly initiated Demon Hunter without a rank managed to leave an [Apprentice Level] Bloodthirsty Species in this state."
"And why is this Bloodthirsty Species healing so slowly?"
Evan smiled. "I gave her a heavy dose of something!"
"Oh," Hong Si said, looking as if he understood. "That makes things much easier for me."
As he spoke, he reached into his mailbag and took something out.
A silver-white Tuning Fork about thirty centimeters long.
He knelt on one knee and drove the tip of the Tuning Fork straight into the center of the Female Assistant's chest. Then he lightly flicked its handle with his thumb and forefinger.
The Tuning Fork gave off an extremely faint, almost inaudible hum.
Boom.
The next second.
Under the effect of some invisible frequency, the Female Assistant's still-healing corpse exploded from the inside out.
Skin, muscle, bone, and organs shattered into hundreds of pieces of varying sizes, scattering across the moonlit grass.
Evan's pupils trembled.
His Demon Hunter Sight captured every detail of the attack.
Each sound wave from the silver-white Tuning Fork had become a tangible, blade-shaped slice of energy.
They tore through the Female Assistant's body with overwhelming density.
What terrifying destructive power.
Evan drew a sharp breath inward.
He kept his expression calm while rapidly analyzing the "postman."
The bicycle bell. The Tuning Fork. Sound.
This guy...
Evan narrowed his eyes.
Is he a Poet of the Holy Grail Pathway?