Mummy Evolution

In the ancient past, Central Continent.

Ismera and Sett reached a training ground outside the royal palace. Sett, somewhat nervous, stepped onto the ground while bserving his surroundings with great interest. People from the royal military trained in this area, and there were many renowned faces around.

Sett and Ismera would have to travel on camel-back for three days before they could reach the Tombthey planned to enter.

And before that, she wanted to see his basic abilities.

Sett gulped.

He was being stared at by everyone in the training ground—and Ismera's eyes, in particular, made Sett especially nervous. He couldn't look like an idiot.

She noticed his nervousness at a glance. Then, she turned towards the crowd. "Everyone, you may leave. Quickly. The prince is nervous, can't you see?"

Sett's face reddened, but even as he stood there speechless, the people around left the grounds obediently.

"Show me your five core abilities," she said with a smile, looking as if she had done something good. "Last time I saw you, you didn't awaken all five, you only had 2 at the time."

Sett glared at her.

"What?" She frowned.

He sighed.

"I am just wondering how different you and my mother are. If she were the one here, she would just force me to stop being nervous. Are you guys really mother and daughter?"

Ismera scratched her cheeks. "She is still like that?"

He nodded and stood straight before her. "I can show you the other four abilities, but River of Reincarnation only works once a year, so I can't use it just like that."

She blinked. "That's fine. That ability is useless in combat and tombs anyway, show me the other four."

He nodded, too, and prepared himself.

Ismera was, for how rough she seemed, a professional Tomb Raider. In fact, legends had it that she was the best in the entire world when it came to strategically defeating seemingly uncrackable Tombs, and Sett honestly believed that was true.

After all, his mother was a Tomb Raider who didn't raid Tombs often. And even when she did, she didn't go through it with methodical Tomb Raiding strategies.

Of course, she had her own strengths but even she had concluded that it was better for Sett to learn from Ismera, so Sett had to respect the teachings.

And to teach a student well, the teacher must first understand his basic capabilities.

"First of all my abilities is Life Share. I showed you this ability before, remember?"

He activated the ability and gave his hand to her.

"Wound me a bit," he said.

She took a knife out of her back pocket and made a small wound on his arm.

Sett, on the other hand, looked at her pocket.

She took out a whole dagger from that pocket. What else was in there?

His hand subconsciously moved towards it.

Oh.

He put his hand into the pocket and his expression blanked out.

"Oh no. Oh yes? No, no, wait—why is it so soft in here? Oh. Ohhh—"

Sett touched something he really shouldn't have—Ismera's hidden dagger holster, which was strapped inside her pocket. But for a split second, he thought he was touching something else entirely, given the warmth and softness.

Then, he noticed the softness that surrounded the holster anyway.

Ah, what a nice pocket. It is so soft inside it. And so warm.

He inserted his hand even—

Smack.

His hand swelled up.

Sett bowed his head slightly, smiling sheepishly.

It was worth it.

So worth it.

Then, they waited for a minute.

60…

30…

10…

0…

"One minute's up," she said, taking this chance to pinch his ears.

He grunted in pain but accepted the punishment without any excuse.

The moment the one minute passed, the wound in Sett's arm disappeared along with the swelling in his palm and both of those appeared in Ismera's body. It was an animated process, one wound vanishing and another appearing. But the moment they appeared on her, they healed like it was just a small mark and nothing more.

Ismera raised her eyebrows with appreciation.

"This is a deadly ability against Tomb Guardians," she said. "If you can get wounded and then have your companions protect you for a minute, you can easily kill Tomb Guardians of your level."

Sett blinked. "That is true… But my mom will kill me if I become too reliant on others."

"Your mother and her trust issues." Ismera rolled her eyes. "Show me your next ability."

"Alright," Sett said, rolling his shoulders. "The second one's called Death Begets Life." He glanced around the empty training grounds, then reached into a small leather pouch at his waist. From it, he pulled a faintly glowing orb, no bigger than a marble, pulsing with a dark, necrotic energy. "I've got a Tier 2 corpse stored in this little orb—well, its death essence, anyway."

"Did you have another Axiom Holder help you make that little orb?" she asked curiously.

"Yes," he said. "I need this death energy to perform Death Begets Life. Of course, if this orb is not available, I can also use corpses as energy."

He crushed the orb in his hand, and a faint mist of black energy swirled around his fingers. He held up his other arm—the one Ismera had cut earlier—and deliberately dragged a training dagger across his skin, drawing a thin line of blood.

A single, powerful heartbeat escaped from Sett's chest, much stronger than his normal heartbeats.

The wound on his skin glistened for a moment before the black mist seeped into it. The skin knitted itself back together, the cut vanishing in seconds. In the end, it only left a faint scar that faded as they watched.

"Oh, a powerful healing ability!" she said in interest, taking his hand.

Sett smirked. "It's pretty good, but also very costly. If I want to completely heal my body from life-threatening wounds, I will need a Tier 4 corpse's death energy."

"Since you are a Tier 4 Tomb Raider yourself, you need someone equal to die for you to heal with this ability, huh?"

He nodded.

Ismera tilted her head, impressed. "So, the more death energy you've got stored, the faster it heals?"

He nodded again. "And more thoroughly. When I was a Tier 1, I used the body of a Tier 2 to heal myself and I was energetic for weeks. Didn't even sleep much."

She was truly impressed.

Death Begets Life.

That was one sardonic name for the ability.

"Is it bad that I need corpses?" he asked.

She ruffled his hair. "Inside Tombs, there is no good and bad, my brat, just useful and useless. You will have to fight a lot of enemies of your rank in the future. It is a foregone conclusion that you will have to kill.

"Since there will be corpses all around you, you wouldn't need this little orb either. This is an ability that is just as good as Life Share—believe me, this thing will save your life."

He beamed. "It can also be used to heal others when I use my True Form."

"Sure, sure. Don't get ahead of yourself and show me the next trick."

Sett hesitated, his expression darkening. Thinking about the next ability made even him uneasy—that ability was too scary. Even his mother had warned him to never use it without an undeniable reason.

In fact, Sett himself hated the ability.