Unwanted Undead Adventurer - Episode 31

“Thrall…?”

A Thrall is a very powerful monster, but it is not seen often. As Lorraine explained, the Thrall is a member of the Vampire family, so it is said that Thralls can only be created by Vampires. As if to prove this, Thralls rarely spawn in labyrinths, but through their connection to Vampires, they spawn from Lesser Vampires. They’re pretty rare monsters.

However, they’re not so rare that no one has ever seen one before, and they can sometimes be found in areas where Vampires live. It is said that they are not originally born as Thralls, but are created when a person is bitten by a Vampire.

“Yeah. I’ve taken requests to defeat Thralls a few times before. You look a lot like the ones I saw back then. Of course, you’re missing flesh in different places, but… well, that’ll vary according to the individual.”

Lorraine is a scholar who is knowledgeable about monsters. And if she identifies me as such, then I can’t deny that it’s pretty convincing. But I wasn’t bitten by a Vampire. So how could I have evolved into a Thrall? In the first place, is it normal for a Ghoul to evolve into a Thrall?

I have my doubts about this, so I ask her, “Is it even possible to become one…?”

But even Lorraine doesn’t seem to know much about this. She shakes her head slowly.

“I told you, the study of existential evolution is still in its infancy. We don’t even know how it usually happens. You’re probably pretty unique, so there’s no easy way to answer how a being like you will evolve,” she says.

That’s true, I suppose. Even she doesn’t know much about it. There’s no way she could easily understand it. But that’s a problem. I hold my head in thought.

Lorraine, seeing this and perhaps taking pity on me, continues, “Well… I wasn’t playing all the time while you were in the labyrinth, either, though. I have some ideas. I can tell you about them, if that’s okay with you?”

Of course, I wouldn’t refuse. After knowing her for ten years, I’m well aware of the usefulness of Lorraine’s hypotheses. I ask her to explain.

“All right, then, I’ll tell you… Well, even if you refused, I’d just tell you anyway,” Lorraine says, laughing. “I don’t know where to begin… For now, I think it would be easier to start by talking about your evolution. I never saw it, but Rentt, you started out as a Skeleton, right?”

“I wish I could have shown you… but it’s not like I can go back. No matter how you look at it, though, I was a Skeleton. Being able to see my own bones sure was surreal…” I say, reminiscing. Lorraine looks a little dumbfounded, but she quickly regains her composure.

She continues, “And then you became a Ghoul.”

“Yeah. You saw me when I was a Ghoul, so you know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah… I felt strange when I first saw it but I also thought it was interesting… But that’s enough of my impressions. More importantly, let’s discuss the evolution. Didn’t it ever occur to you that it’s strange to go from a Skeleton to a Ghoul?”

“…?”

I tilt my head at the question that she suddenly raised. Lorraine gives me a look that says, “You don’t understand the meaning of the question, huh?” and explains.

“To put it simply, existential evolution is the phenomenon of a monster transforming into a superior being. That might not be correct, but that’s how it’s defined. Are we clear so far?”

“Yeah.”

“So, think about it. Are Ghouls a Skeleton’s only evolution?”

“Uh…”

Now that she mentions it, it does feel a bit strange. I’ve read the research books and monster identification manuals in this room, and they said that Skeletons turned into Ghouls, so I didn’t really think it was suspicious, but thinking about it again…

In any case, Skeletons have a variety of evolutions to begin with. The Giant Skeleton that I had to fight recently is one of them, and there are also the weaker ones, Skeleton Knight and Skeleton Soldier. It seems like it’s natural for a Skeleton to evolve into one of those. No, that just raises the question of whether monster evolution is natural in the first place… Well, let’s put that aside for now.

At any rate, I tell Lorraine my thoughts, and she nods.

“You’re right. It’s true that some research books say that it’s possible to evolve from a Skeleton to a Ghoul, but that isn’t guaranteed to happen. Or rather, even though there are some who have seen this phenomenon, we honestly don’t even know if it’s inherently existential evolution or if it’s an exception…”

“What do you mean?”

“To put it bluntly, we don’t know anything.” Maybe because Lorraine can tell that I think she put it too bluntly, she continues, “However, considering that you just became a Thrall, a possibility has presented itself.”

“What’s that?”

“That monsters evolve in the direction that they want to go.”

What she’s saying does make sense. In the beginning, when I went from a Skeleton to a Ghoul, I wanted to become one that whole time. When I became a Thrall… I wanted to become a Vampire that looked human. I’m sure that’s what she means. However, if I have one question, it’s…

“…Why did I go from Ghoul to Thrall? It would have been better to become a Vampire.”

That’s what I wanted to be in the first place, so if I can be whatever I want, shouldn’t I have become one?

However, Lorraine gives me a clear answer to this.

“Isn’t it the same as the rank of the Adventurer’s Guild? No matter how good you are, you can’t just jump from iron class to gold class. In the first place, you can’t become one unless you have the ability.”

“So I need to reduce… the number of steps?” I say.

“The way you’re looking right now, I’d say you’re probably right. It’s really just a hypothesis because the sample is so small. To support this, there’s a recent evolutionary experiment on Petite Souris.”

The Petite Souris is a small mouse-like monster that can be found anywhere and is easy to catch. It is also famous for having evolutions with different attributes depending on the location. Apparently, experiments have been done with them.

“It’s a simple experiment,” Lorraine continues. “You put a few Petite Souris in cages and raise them in volcanic areas, by the water, in forests, in caves, and so on. The results are very interesting.”

When I ask for more details, I find out that the Petite Souris evolved into a Feu Souris, Eaux Souris, Vent Souris, and Terre Souris, respectively. It seems that there was only one of each in each cage. The reason for this is now clear to me: the Petite Souris fought each other and absorbed each other’s power. But as a result, the existential evolution was confirmed.

Lorraine says, “Of course, I wouldn’t have told you this story if that was all there was to it. It may be that they just adapted to their environment. But what if it’s not a passive evolution, but rather the result of the monster’s own desire to evolve? It may be a leap of logic, but considering your circumstances, I thought it was a possibility. After all, it would be hard to explain your evolution into a Ghoul as an adaptation to the environment of the Labyrinth of the Moon’s Reflection. If that’s the case, it would make more sense that you became a Ghoul based on your will. As a matter of fact, you were thinking of becoming a Ghoul. It’s plausible… Of course, we don’t know for sure.”