Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

"...Monster King," Necro said coldly. The thing that leapt out of the water, aiming to chomp down on him, was over a hundred meters in width and looked like an oversized piranha.

Without even tipping up his straw traveler's hat, the ground around Necro ruptured. Out came a few recently evolved Lvl 5 Roots, each of which pierced through the Middle Foundation Establishment Realm Monster King's tough defenses in an instant.

"Kaaa—!"

With one final unwilling bellow against fate, the piranha Monster King that once ruled this lake like a god… died…

"That's that," Necro declared in a nonchalant tone. "I should get back to fishing now."

*Ding!*

[You slew a 6th Layer Foundation Establishment Realm Yellow-spiked Piranha, draining it of all its Lifespan!]

[Lifespan +621.9]

Even killing Mid Foundation Establishment Realm Monsters barely gave Necro Lifespan anymore. However, something was better than nothing.

Side-glancing at his System Interface, he saw:

{[Idle Evolution System (1st Ascended)]}

[Host: Necro]

[Lifespan: 3/902,800]

[Cultivation: Orange Lotus (1st Petal)] – [6th Layer of Qi Condensation]

[Spirit Roots: Life Embryo (Rank: Eternal)]

[Special Qualifications: Yggdrasil Fusion Entity (Allows for most basic of Spiritual and Lifespan Absorption), Origin Progenitor (Able to assimilate all Bloodlines into one), Aura Factory (Can convert all Limit-evolved Bloodlines into Auras)]

"Nearing one million Lifespan…" Seeing this, Necro thought of his Evolution Tree. To fully max it out and move to the next major rank, he needed over 5 million Evolution Points. This meant he was still quite a ways off.

"Perhaps I should go and hunt something above the Foundation Establishment Realm," he pondered. "From the locals, I heard there was a supposed Dragon Deity rampaging through the hundreds of territories of the Azure Dragon Ridge. I should start there."

Some time later, Necro the wandering fisherman picked up and left. He was like a phantom mirage—there one second… gone the next.

— Within the large volcano-side city of Magnashore, a group of armored figures gathered —

"So we're really doing it," a man said, his voice laced with both excitement and trepidation. "We're going to slay a dragon…"

Patting him on the back was a burly man with a wide, toothy smile.

"Don't go getting ahead of yourself now," he laughed heartily. "First, we have to find the damn thing in the volcano. And even then, it's unsure that we'll be capable of taking it down!"

"Well, you seem oddly spirited for someone who's supposedly risking your life," came the sharp, cynical voice of a woman donned in leather protective gear. She eyed the burly man, who smiled back in response.

"I'm just not afraid to die, haha!" he smacked his slightly rotund stomach, his arms bigger than barrels. "For years, I've been stuck at the Half-step Golden Core Realm. Unless I somehow strike it rich—say, from slaying a dragon, hehe—I'll never see that damn breakthrough."

"You idi—"

*Clap! Clap!*

"Alright, that's enough chatter." A gruff, commanding voice cut through the tension-filled air, belonging to a tall man with an indomitable presence. His cultivation pulsated above the Foundation Establishment Realm, his power on an entirely different level from the hundreds of powerhouses grouped outside the massive volcano looming in front of them.

"I, Yandu Huaxia, the Guild Leader of the Azure Lance Guild, sent out a request for a Quest some days ago," the man continued, grabbing the attention of all. "You all are the ones who came. The very best of the best. But even so, you're just like me and any other trying to gain access into the Sacred Azure Holy Grounds. The easiest way to achieve that is to reach the 4th and above Layer of the Golden Core Realm, which requires a very, very large amount of resources."

Everyone nodded.

Some of them didn't even come from poor backgrounds, but the Golden Core Realm was not something that could be properly measured by normal standards. Regular generational wealth was but a mere drop in the bucket if you wished to reach the Mid Golden Core Realm in a single lifetime.

Even just getting to the Early Golden Core Realm was a nigh insurmountable task…

"That's why we've gathered here on this day," said Yandu, his words igniting a fire in the hundreds of peak experts. "To slay a dragon and return as wealthy Lords!"

"Hooyaaah!!" The experts cheered, their hearts ablaze with fighting spirit.

"Breaking through to the Middle Golden Core Realm comes next, and then the Sacred Azure Holy Grounds—charting a path to Immortality—is right around the corner! So why don't we go and show this dragon why it shouldn't have come to the Azure Dragon Ridge to terrorize our people!?"

"Hoooyaaahhhh!!!"

With that, the Guild Leader of the Azure Lance Guild and his hired hands marched forward. They advanced toward the volcano like an unbreakable chain, their visages a shining beacon of hope for the millions of commonfolk that lived next to the volcano.

They had to win! There was no way they wouldn't!

However… the very next day, following a massive underground explosion that split the earth, some harrowing news returned to the citizens of Magnashore.

"T-They're all dead…! Every single one of them is… is… Ahhhh!!" The crazed shouts of that same burly man from yesterday echoed through the city. He had limped through the city gates but mere moments prior, his right eye a bloody mess and one of his arms missing. Yet, this was only the beginning of the citizens' despair, as not even a minute later, the ground beneath them began to splinter.

A small boy suddenly looked to the very top of the volcano. With a curious voice, he asked his mother, "Momma, what is that?" while pointing at the town-sized claw reaching out of the volcano.

"D-Dragon!!" the mother shouted before frantically taking her son and running in the opposite direction. The countless other citizens soon followed, with the whole city thrown into chaos.

Then there was the burly Half-step Golden Core man from earlier. His erratically flickering pupils focused on that enormous claw, his words an incomprehensible jumble of scared nonsense.