SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 70: Missed opportunity

"Can’t do it? Then stay here and wait for the second trial to begin... wait, wait, what did you say?"

The Guardian Spirit froze mid-sentence, her tone trailing into disbelief as her eyes narrowed on Ricky’s unmoving figure. Her ethereal form seemed to flicker slightly, as though the very idea of what he’d just declared disrupted the ambient spiritual flow.

She had expected hesitation. Expected him to flinch. Back off. Plead.

But instead, he had done the unthinkable—he had agreed. Agreed to forge a second spiritual space without the aid of any heavenly treasure.

A cold silence fell upon the grand trial hall. The golden altar beneath their feet shimmered with faint pulses of energy, reflecting the heavy atmosphere coiling through the chamber like mist. The towering pillars—etched with ancient runes and wrapped in threads of luminous gold—seemed to lean inward, bearing witness to this moment.

The Guardian Spirit’s cold stare turned unreadable as she studied him deeply.

Ricky stood tall, defiant. His eyes burned with unwavering resolve, his clenched fists trembling—not from fear, but from sheer, unrelenting will. There was no hesitation in his posture. No doubt in his heart.

He was going to leave this place. And no one, not even a being of divine construct, was going to stop him.

The Guardian Spirit’s frown deepened.

His swift grasp of the technique earlier had not gone unnoticed. His affinity with the cultivation path was abnormal—dangerously high. Which meant... his chance of succeeding in creating a spiritual space in the second trail, in the crucible of the trial itself, was not zero. Risky? Yes. But not impossible.

Her purpose—her lifelong duty—was to oversee the trial and find a worthy successor. She could act cold, aloof, even cruel, but watching a potential inheritor throw away their life before reaching their true potential struck a chord within her ancient consciousness.

And so, for the first time, her voice trembled—not with disdain, but with concern.

"Mr. Pest, what you are going—"

She didn’t even finish the sentence.

In the very next breath, her expression twisted into a mask of horror.

"Nooo! Stop!" she cried out, her voice reverberating across the sacred chamber like a divine bell struck out of tune. The sound shattered the tense silence and sent ripples of spiritual energy surging across the floor.

Her graceful figure surged forward, arms half-extended as if she could halt what was already in motion.

At the same time, chaos erupted around them.

Gasps echoed. The other participants snapped to attention, their meditative states broken. Noctyss, seated quietly a moment ago, leapt to her feet, her expression morphing from worry to panic in an instant.

"Master! What are you doing..." she shouted, her eyes wide with disbelief as she ran toward him. Her usual composure fractured under the weight of the moment.

Her voice cracked with desperation.

"You can’t throw away your life for a mere spider..."

But those last words were a mistake.

Even as Ricky stood amidst the blinding surge of spiritual force, his soul seed on the verge of splitting, her insult struck him like a blade. His compound eyes gleamed—no, blazed—with wrath.

The darkness around him twisted, responding to his fury.

"Noctysssss," he growled, his voice low, drawn-out, almost hoarse.

The air quivered as spiritual force condensed around his frame like a storm waiting to break.

"Dark Shadow is not a mere spider. And you better remember that for the rest of your life..."

His voice carried like a final edict from the abyss.

There was more he wanted to say—so much more—but the moment would not allow it. The ritual had begun. The soul was splitting. And once the path was chosen, there could be no turning back.

Rays of dark violet and black mana whirled around him, wrapping his form in a cocoon of chaotic brilliance. The spiritual space trembled, and even the ancient altar beneath his feet began to glow in resonance.

A storm was coming—and Ricky was the eye at its heart.

....

That son of a bitch really went ahead and did it..."

Gorath muttered, a strange look flickering in his molten eyes. His towering frame stood still, fists clenched, as he felt a terrifying pressure ripple through the inheritance ground—one that seemed to originate from Ricky’s location. It wasn’t just spiritual force. No... it was something ancient, unnatural. Something wrong.

Although Gorath’s own balls were metaphorically—and quite literally—several times larger than Ricky’s, at this moment, they felt small and shriveled under the weight of what the mosquito had just done.

Because deep down, Gorath knew—if their roles were reversed, he would never have had the guts to go through with it.

Not because he lacked courage, no. He was a warrior. But because he wasn’t stupid.

He wasn’t stupid.

Gorath repeated that thought in his mind, a little firmer this time, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

"Kekeke... that pest is done for..." Thrixil cackled from across the platform. Her serpentine body shimmered with delight as she leaned in with gleaming eyes, eager to see the mosquito annihilate himself. His very presence irritated her, like a buzzing in her ears that she longed to silence.

The panther, however, remained unmoved. He crouched in a quiet corner of the platform, his obsidian fur absorbing the golden light around him. He ignored the chaos, the pressure, the chatter. The world could crumble for all he cared, as long as his territory—his home—remained untouched.

---

Meanwhile, deep within the epicenter of this chaos, Ricky was calmly screaming in his head:

"Fuck, system—do something."

In stark contrast to the turmoil erupting around him, Ricky’s expression remained composed. Eerily so.

His spiritual space was violently trembling, webbed with hundreds of spiderweb-like cracks. The fractures spread like veins of destruction across the darkness seed, and yet, Ricky’s gaze never wavered.

Just moments ago, he’d followed the first instruction of Selene’s technique—he had taken his spiritual field and shaped it into a ceremonial blade.

This step alone should’ve broken him. It was an act few dared to attempt, let alone succeed at. A normal cultivator would have been crippled, or worse, turned into a soulless husk.

But Ricky was different.

He already knew the ’Holy Blade’ skill. With some careful adjustments, it became the perfect foundation. So he forged the knife. And with that same blade, he made the first cut.

A gentle, surgical incision—straight through the core of his soul’s seed.

The moment the cut was made, a cascade of system notifications appeared in his mind:

---

[Host attempted to create a second spiritual space detected.]

[Substituting heavenly treasure with lifespan.]

[Calculating lifespan required to create the second spiritual space...]

[Calculating...]

[Use fifty thousand years of lifespan to initiate the creation.]

[Yes/No]

---

There was no hesitation. None.

Hell, forget fifty thousand—he would have said yes even if the price was fifty million years.

His finger twitched. Yes.

The moment confirmation echoed in his mind, a gut-wrenching weakness flooded through his body. It was as if time itself had been ripped from his marrow. Over ninety percent of his lifespan—stolen in an instant.

But Ricky didn’t flinch.

He remained still, focused inward, watching as the seed of Darkness—now cracking apart—was suddenly bathed in a soft, golden light.

The spreading fractures slowed, then stopped. Slowly, reverently, they began to mend, as if the golden energy was weaving each broken strand back together.

And then—under his gaze—it happened.

Another seed of Darkness emerged from the light, born beside the first like a twin. Nearly identical, perfectly formed, yet unmistakably new. It shimmered with an eerie glow, as though the system had simply copied the original one line for line.

Ricky’s brows knit slightly.

"So that’s the downside..."

If he had created the second spiritual seed through normal means, it would have been blank—a fresh canvas. That would’ve allowed him to develop an affinity with something other than Darkness. Water, fire, wind—he could have diversified.

But now...

Now both seeds were attuned to Darkness. Not a weakness, necessarily. But certainly a missed opportunity.

As Ricky pondered, the transformation wasn’t done.

With a flash, another spiritual space burst into existence. Smaller than the original, it hovered in orbit around it, almost like a celestial moon circling a dark star.

Ricky let out a small breath.

"Okay... let’s call this new one Moon. Calling both of them spiritual spaces would just get confusing."

The moment the second space stabilized, the golden light dissipated, retreating back into the void.

Silence fell.

He had done it.

---

Outside...

Guardian Spirit’s eyes widened in pure disbelief. Her jaw trembled slightly as the reality settled in.

"No... fucking way... he actually succeeded..." she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"It can’t be real..."

But it was. The pressure was undeniable. The energy radiating from within that sealed zone confirmed it.

Noctyss, standing just behind her, saw the Guardian’s expression shift. A sudden thought crashed into her mind, cold and unyielding.

"That pest... did it."

Her heart pounded. For all her scorn, for all her words—he had succeeded. She felt something stir in her chest. Awe? Dread? She didn’t know.

And then, the very ground beneath them trembled.

As if the inheritance ground itself recognized the birth of a true successor.

One by one, the sixteen golden pillars encircling the trial platform flickered... and vanished into nothingness.

"What the hell?!"

Confusion erupted among the participants.

"Why did the pillars disappear?! I was just about to make a breakthrough!" one of them shouted, furious.

But their anger was short-lived.

Those who were paying attention—those who were still watching Ricky—felt it.

A chill, crawling up their spine like death’s breath. Gorath stepped back unconsciously, brows furrowed with instinctive fear.

Something terrible had just awakened.

And none of them... not even the mighty... would leave this place unchanged.

Visit freewe𝑏n(o)v𝒆l.𝑐𝘰𝑚 for the best novel reading experience