Endless Evolution: Last Star

During his Phantom journey, Adam had already faced or seen the Top-10 monsters of the Purple Threat Level several times.

Moreover, he had personally defeated the Top-2 Thunder Demon, and together with Alexia they had handled the Top-4, North Keeper, in this lab, he had to eat the heart of the Top-7, Bladeclaw Beast to heal his arm.

Thus, when Snow Follower, Top-9 among Purple Threat Level appeared, Adam saw all monsters except Top-8 and Top-1. He didn't fight all of them, but he saw everyone except those two in battle.

"Oh... He is Top-9? He looks stronger... much stronger than some Frost Beast that is a Top-6... Alexia dealt with him pretty quickly..." Adam muttered, remembering the events from Eclipse.

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Frost Beast was the first Top-10 monster Adam had met, he didn't fight against it, Alexia had taken that role.

Magnus nodded.

"That's true. However, don't forget that the rankings are made by humans, namely the missions department. They look at all the battles in which a particular monster participated, assessing the abilities and the damage that the monster caused. Then, taking into account these and many other factors they determine the rating of the monster.

My point is that this is a subjective opinion, although it is close to reality." Magnus explained with a slight wave of his hand.

"Hmm?" Adam raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying that this rating is wrong? So... Thunder Demon isn't Top-2?"

Magnus shook his head with a slight smile.

"You don't have to worry about that, Thunder Demon more than deserves his place in the ranking, as do most of the Top-10. Hehehe, especially the Top-1, that bastard will definitely always occupy his throne for sure, he's a true walking disaster." Magnus chuckled evilly.

Unlike Adam, Magnus was well aware of who occupied Top-1 and what that monster was capable of.

"To some extent, Snow Follower is an exception since the mission department gave him Top-9 as an advance." Magnus pointed at the monster who was quietly waiting for his move.

Adam tilted his head in a confusion:

"An advance...? What the hell does that mean?"

Silvana took a deep breath, looked at Adam, and said with a serious look:

"This means that the mission department didn't have enough material and data to confidently place Snow Follower at the 9th position. Even if the monster is strong enough for Top-10, the mission department should have enough precedents and battles involving this monster."

Silvana continued:

"To some extent, it can be compared to probability theory and a trivial casino. If there is a 10% chance of winning the jackpot, then one out of 10 people will win it the first time. Thus this person may think that the chance of winning the jackpot is 100%. Moreover, the same person may win the jackpot twice in a row, the chance of that is small, only 1%, but it is more than possible."

Silvana glanced at Snow Follower who was serenely looking away, seeming to realize that his turn hadn't come yet.

"In general, without enough cases, you can't get an exact average, because in different situations, the same monster can bring different destruction." Silvana shook her hand slightly.

Adam nodded with a deep gaze. He understood what Silvana was talking about, but something was still unknown to him.

"Wait... That means Snow Follower didn't fight much... but, is that possible? He's a Crown Type." Adam scratched the back of his head in confusion.

Magnus chuckled.

"That's the point. Snow Followers are by far the most passive monsters of the Purple Threat Level. It's almost impossible to get them to fight because they have to be genuinely interested to do so. Even when Phantoms specifically attack them, Snow Followers just run away, they're really good at that."

Adam's eyes went wide.

"Hah... As expected of a Crown Type, so... if it fights so rarely that even the mission department doesn't have enough data to confidently give him a rating, how did you manage to catch him?" Adam asked with genuine interest.

Magnus smirked.

"Well, as you realize yourself, I usually have stronger Phantoms helping me, but... his situation is special." Magnus glanced at Snow Follower, "After all, he almost killed Nessa a year ago."

Adam flinched, as Silvana's eyes went wide.

Nessa answered nothing, for all this time she had been trying to gather her thoughts to prepare for battle against Snow Follower. Not only was this monster stronger than her limits, but it was also a personal history.

Magnus proceeded to explain.

"Occasionally, Nessa visits Dead Lands. It became more frequent after her temper tantrums stopped and she gained full control over both her body and mind. Naturally, she was always alone and it was all done under my cover. No one was ever supposed to know who Nessa was."

Magnus continued:

"Usually, Nessa always won. In Dead Lands, she could keep her cool, but one day she met Snow Follower. I immediately told her to run away since it wasn't her level, but Nessa was overconfident from endless victories."

Magnus looked at Nessa sternly, with a slight worry in his gaze. One way or another, Nessa was probably the only person Magnus cared about. It wasn't surprising, though, since they were actually father and daughter.

Nessa shuddered slightly. Magnus was quite a strict man, he had to be, considering the path they had to go through to normalize their relationship.

"Anyway. A few attacks later, Nessa was practically dead on the ground. She was bleeding heavily. I didn't have time to call the Phantoms for help, so when they met up I sent drones with explosives so they could at least distract the Snow Follower." Magnus clenched his fist tightly as he continued his story.

"However... Snow Follower did not finish Nessa off. He examined her with interest as if he realized that there was something wrong with her and that she was capable of more than she showed. So... Snow Follower lifted Nessa into his arms and headed straight for my drones." Magnus bit his lip with a slightly crazed smile.

It seemed that even he couldn't believe that something like that had happened a year ago. Monsters, especially Crown Types sometimes tended to possess a unique behavior.

"No way..." Adam muttered in disbelief, he seemed to have already realized what happened next.

"Yeah." Magnus nodded as the corners of his mouth went up, forming a grim grin, "My drones, at his will, escorted him to me. Using the drones, I covered Snow Follower with a dark cloak, so... no one even realized what had happened. Naturally, it was at night and in the slums where few people passed by and most of them were under the alcohol."

Magnus continued:

"Snow Follower walked through the cracks in the walls, reached the lab, and gave me Nessa. Then, he just sat in the corner and waited. His patience seemed to have no limit, so... as you can see a whole year has already passed."

Adam and Silvana glanced over, this story seemed crazy to them, but... did Magnus have a reason to lie?

"Agh... Fine, something I've been talking about. Now you know the backstory, so it's time to get to the action!" Magnus exclaimed before the drone lowered the pod with Snow Follower.