?Two days later...
"I am sure that poor bird must be cursing the seven generations of your family," Octavius said in a voice filled with pity as he watched the black bird being harassed by Evan's shadow undeads.
The black bird was a Rank Three monster so it wasn't difficult for it to kill the shadow undeads, but the shadow undeads continued to attack it without caring about their lives.
"Are you harassing it using your shadow undeads for the past two days?" Octavius asked as his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
"I had to make sure that it wouldn't recover its power, so I had no choice but to do this," Evan said in a voice filled with sympathy as even he was feeling a little guilty for harassing the black bird for the past two days.
After confirming the black bird's location two days ago, Evan continuously sent his shadow undeads to harass it. Because of the continuous attacks of the shadow undeads, the black bird wasn't able to recover from its injuries and its aura was still as chaotic as ever.
The black bird could have changed its location to avoid the attacks of the shadow undeads, but its pride as the Rank Three monster didn't allow it to back away from a fight against Rank One monsters.
It was already vexed because of being beaten down by Voidscar, who was of lower rank than it, so when the rank one monsters attacked it, it did not change its location and continued to kill the shadow undeads again and again.
"So, what do you think? Do you think it will work?" Evan asked as he watched his shadow undeads fighting against the black bird.
"It's very difficult; you have to understand that giving someone their soul essence is basically giving them control over your life and becoming a slave. Even I didn't want to give you my soul essence when you asked me in the past, and I agreed only because of the fact that you told me you would release me in one thousand years and create a new body for me," Octavius said in a serious voice.
"Although that bird is seriously injured, I don't think it will be easy for you to convince it to give you its soul essence, especially when your rank is lower than it."
"Hmm..." Evan fell deep into thought hearing Octavius and continued to stare at it. After a minute of silence, he opened his mouth.
"Do you think my soul can handle the soul essence of this bird?"
"With your current spiritual power, it shouldn't be difficult for you to accept its soul essence," Octavius said and explained. "Normally, it would have been impossible for you to control my soul essence along with this bird's soul essence, but since I lost almost all of my powers, my soul is similar to that of a normal Rank One Core Evolver and it doesn't place any burden on your soul."
"So there is a limit on how many slaves I can get using this method, huh," Octavius' mouth couldn't help but twitch when he heard the word slave, but he still nodded his head.
"Yes, if that bird gave you its soul essence, then I think you will have to increase the rank of your core once again before you would be able to accept anyone else's soul essence."
"Well, if this dumb bird doesn't give me its soul essence, I will go after some peak Rank Two monsters. Although they will not be as useful as this bird, they will still be better than nothing," Evan said in a low voice.
Octavius couldn't help but sweat when he heard Evan and felt pity for the people who were waiting for the phenomenon to end to get their hands on the treasure.
'Even if this demon doesn't successfully get this bird, I don't think those poor souls will have a chance in front of him,' Octavius thought and his soul shuddered when he remembered the scene when Evan drank the Beast Heart Draught and successfully reached the peak of Rank One.
'Is this guy really just a clone?' Octavius questioned inside his mind and felt something was not right, especially after seeing what happened during his advancement earlier.
'Ha! I just hope he is not messing with me and will release me after one thousand years,' Octavius said to himself with a sigh and looked back at Evan.
"What do you think, old man? Do you think I will be able to beat it in its current condition?" Evan asked while looking at the black bird.
Octavius also looked at the black bird and feeling its chaotic aura, he said with a thoughtful look on his face,
"I am not one hundred percent sure. Although that bird is seriously injured and being harassed by your shadow undeads for the past two days, I don't think it will be easy for you to fight against it. The endurance of a Rank Three monster is quite high, so you will have to use your most powerful attacks if you want to make it submit to you." Octavius paused after saying this and added after a moment, "But I think you should give it a try since it is a rare opportunity for you to get a Rank Three slave."
"So you are telling me to fight against a Rank Three monster, huh."
"Yes."
Evan smiled when he heard Octavius' blunt reply and sent a message to all of his shadow undeads to back off. When the shadow undeads received Evan's message, they started to back away and soon disappeared from the black bird's sight.
Seeing the black monsters that were harassing it for the past two days disappear, the bird almost cried.
'I can finally rest for a bit,' The black bird thought and closed its eyes to take a nap.
Evan waited for a few hours so that the bird would fully relax. Around three hours later, Evan noticed the black bird finally fell asleep.
"Old man, are you sure about this?" Evan asked while staring at the blackbird.
"If it works, then your chances of getting that thing will increase significantly, but if it doesn't work, well... you can always escape, right?"
Evan didn't say anything and looked at the blackbird silently. After a minute of silence, he sighed and took a deep breath.
"It's a beautiful bird..." He said and a black-coloured rifle covered in a deep red aura appeared in his hand. Evan aimed the rifle in the direction of the sleeping bird and the rifle's muzzle started to glow with deep blue light.
"A beautiful bird indeed."
Bang!