Ares was having a blast, so much so that he unknowingly moved a few steps closer to the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox.

The next second, he felt his consciousness blur. Staggering forward, Ares swung his sword, but his aim was off. While he managed to kill a few wild creatures, he also accidentally struck the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox.

He watched as the fox's health bar dropped slightly, now showing 98%. The numbers weren't displayed, likely because they were too large, so it was converted to a percentage.

The Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, rudely awakened from its slumber by the strike, immediately lifted its head in fury and let out a roar at the chaotic mass of creatures below. One of its massive tails rose and slammed down in front of it.

The area was too large for Ares to dodge, and he took the hit head-on, getting slammed into the ground. A sharp, pervasive pain radiated through his bones!

When the tail lifted, the remaining wild creatures were dead, leaving Ares feeling a pang of regret. "Damn it, those were all my evolution points! This big guy killed them all."

Looking down at himself, Ares was shocked to find his once-glowing golden bones now dim and covered in a layer of gray.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that his tightly-knit bones were now riddled with cracks, like a spiderweb of ice.

Ares: !!!

His bones could actually get damaged? What would happen if they broke? Even with infinite health, he could still get hurt?

Ares shivered. Everything had been going so smoothly; he hadn't encountered a single worthy opponent.

Even facing a behemoth like the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, he had relied on his infinite health to try and challenge it. But he had never considered whether his skeleton could withstand the attacks!

Quickly, Ares opened his interface and found more changes. His evolved body parts now showed repair options, along with damage values.

Body Status:

[Overall Damage Rate: 90%, All Attributes Reduced by 50%, Requires Repair to Continue Evolution]

[Repair Requires Evolution Points: 10% of Total Evolution Points Used for Previous Advancement, After Repair, Enter a 60-Second Weak State, All Attributes Reduced by 90%]

[Can Repair 3 Times Daily, Refreshes at Midnight. Repairs Used Today: 0/3]

[Requires Evolution Points: 587965/46670]

[Repair?]

Seeing his remaining 587,965 evolution points, Ares breathed a sigh of relief and chose to repair without hesitation.

Golden light flowed, and Ares felt the pain in his bones quickly subside. But soon, a wave of weakness followed, seeping through his bones.

Before he could catch his breath, the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox's tail rose again. Ares took a deep breath, pulled himself from the ground, and instead of fleeing, rolled towards the fox's feet.

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The Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox was massive, and compared to it, Ares was like an ant to an elephant. Being small had its advantages; for instance, the space between the fox's feet and its tail formed a small angle, just enough for Ares to hide.

In his weakened state, with all attributes reduced by 90%, Ares knew he couldn't easily create distance. More importantly, he wasn't sure if the wild boss would relentlessly pursue him due to the aggro.

If that were the case, he'd be in trouble. While he had enough evolution points to spare, he didn't have enough repair attempts.

Watching the massive tail descend, Ares calculated the angle. He couldn't dodge this hit, but he needed to escape the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox's attack range before using his last repair.

If he could survive the 60-second weak state, he could use his high agility to escape quickly.

The second strike finally landed. Ares rolled forward, using the momentum to reduce the impact and ended up beneath the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox.

With aggro locked, the fox knew where Ares was, but its only attacks were stomping and releasing "Fox Stench."

Yellow mist spread, but Ares was unaffected—he had no sense of smell.

He couldn't smell the stench, nor did he lose health.

The skill was a miss.

Ares only needed to watch out for the fox's stomps. Fortunately, these were within the normal attack range, and the stomps were rhythmic. Two seconds wasn't much time, but it was enough for Ares to change positions.

He was briefly stunned, likely due to the fox's passive skill, "Charm." Coincidentally, Ares also emerged from his weak state at that moment. His attributes restored to 70%.

Even with reduced agility, his original stats were high enough that the remaining 70% allowed him to utilize his speed.

Seizing an opening, Ares sprinted towards the back of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox during the two-second gap before the next normal attack.

With all his might, Ares managed to cover several hundred meters in those two seconds. By the time the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox realized Ares was escaping and gave chase, another two seconds had passed, and Ares had widened the gap to nearly a kilometer.

He was well beyond the fox's aggro range. As expected, the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox took a couple of steps, lost its target, looked around, and then lazily returned to its resting spot.

Feeling the aggro lock vanish, Ares breathed a sigh of relief. "No wonder the areas outside the newbie zone are so tough. Even a low-level wild boss is this strong..."

"But why would such a powerful creature be resting in the wild? Doesn't the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox have its own lair?"

This so-called game world had many inconsistencies that puzzled Ares, but he couldn't quite articulate them. Perhaps it was just the design style of "Genesis."

Ares stopped overthinking it. He looked towards the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox and then at the deeper wild zones. He knew there were even higher-level bosses there. A surge of determination welled up within him. These bosses would be his stepping stones to greater power!

For now, he needed to quickly enhance his strength. Seeing the swarm of wild creatures approaching, Ares let out a raspy laugh, raised his slightly dimmed golden bone sword, and charged forward.

One day and night passed.

Ares fought his way from the level 30 zone to the level 50 zone, once again encountering a barrier.

He had grown accustomed to these sudden "air wall" obstacles, so he turned back without hesitation to continue hunting.

During his rounds, he discovered at least three wild bosses and several shimmering rainbow-colored portals.

According to his interface, these portals led to places called "instances," where players obtained their high-quality gear. Outside, wild creatures only dropped materials.

Ares noted this information, then avoided players and wild bosses, focusing solely on farming evolution points. As he progressed, the wild creatures' levels increased, and the attacks he endured grew stronger, causing damage to his body.

Though the damage from wild creatures was minor, it accumulated into a significant number, and he watched his body's damage value slowly rise.

Finally, when his experience bar reached 30%, Ares had amassed a million evolution points!

He first repaired his body to 100%, overcame the weak state, and then unhesitatingly upgraded his golden bone sword.

Tier 7 → Tier 8.

And the spine upgrade was unlocked!