Undead Evolution: From Trash To Divine-Chapter 41: Traceless steps upgraded to epic grade

Lukas continued to slaughter the Bloodthirsty Boars. Just as he had expected—since he hadn’t learned the Blood Sense talent earlier—he could keep using these boars to farm sacrifice points.

So after an hour of relentless hunting, he amassed a total of six sacrifice points, just enough for him to upgrade Traceless Steps.

After his temporary goal was completely met, Lukas didn’t linger around for long. He quickly returned to an abandoned cave he had found earlier. After summoning Tommy to act as a guard, Lukas quietly summoned the status window and clicked on the plus sign beside Traceless Steps, starting the evolution.

[-5 sacrifice points, remaining points: 1]

[Analyzing strengths and weaknesses of First Sequence rare‑grade talent: Traceless Steps...]

[Checking all feasible evolution paths for the talent. Listing suitable epic‑grade evolution paths.]

[Please select one of the paths listed below:]

Echo‑Drift Steps – Leaves misleading sound echoes behind, causing trackers to follow false movement paths.

Shadow Steps – Allows footsteps to briefly phase out of reality, preventing any physical interaction with the ground.

Phantom Void Steps – Erases all traces of movement from perception itself, making tracking impossible unless directly witnessed.]

After his experience with Tommy’s evolution, Lukas had, for some reason, been expecting something like this to happen, so he wasn’t shocked. Instead, he patiently went through each of the three options.

The first option impressed him the least. It felt like a minor evolution; there would be no fundamental change to Traceless Steps, just an add‑on that created misleading sounds to confuse the enemy. The remaining two options felt like real upgrades.

Although Lukas had yet to encounter such strong beings often, even with Traceless Steps erasing his footprints, an experienced hunter could easily detect the traces he left behind. With Shadow Steps, he wouldn’t have to worry about this problem at all.

It was a good upgrade, but compared to the third option, it paled.

If he chose Phantom Void Steps, then probably most First Sequence creatures would fail to detect his presence unless they were directly looking at him. This was exactly what he needed. Although monsters in the Iron Tree Forest might be dangerous, as long as he didn’t venture too deep, his chances of encountering anything above First Sequence were close to zero.

So with that upgrade, he wouldn’t need to worry as much about getting suddenly jumped.

Although he still didn’t feel completely safe, for now this was the best choice. If at epic grade the talent could make him almost undetectable, maybe at legendary grade things would change even more.

Just thinking about getting a legendary‑grade talent caused his heartbeat to accelerate. A legendary‑grade talent... just how awesome would that be?

Although there were thousands of awakeners living in Roaring Dragon Settlement, those with legendary‑grade talents could be counted on fingers.

They were just that rare. There might not be a single one appearing for years.

Lukas’s eyes practically glowed as he made his choice.

This is it.

...

Even though it was daytime outside, the interior of the cave was pitch‑black. If not for the light seeping out from the runes engraved on Tommy’s bones, it would be difficult to see anything. Tommy stood straight like a statue, his soul‑fire‑lit eyes scanning the surroundings with alertness. If anything dared to get close to Lukas, he would attack mercilessly.

Just a few meters away from him was Lukas, sitting cross‑legged with his eyes closed.

For a moment, the air around Lukas’s figure rippled like water, twisting and turning. His presence disappeared like clouds on a windy day. If, at that moment, no one was directly looking at Lukas’s position, it would be difficult to detect him.

Tommy grew slightly alert seeing this, but soon calmed down as the connection he shared with Lukas told him that his partner was still there.

Lukas got up and looked at his slightly blurry hands, muttering out loud, "This is pretty good..."

Even though he hadn’t intentionally spoken in a low voice, his words sounded barely above a whisper. Right now Phantom Void Steps seemed to be erasing even his presence and voice.

After playing around with the technique for a few minutes, Lukas confirmed a few things. As the talent was still a passive talent, he could adjust the effect. Moreover, although the grade of the talent had gone up, the consumption still remained the same.

At this rate, I can continue using Phantom Void Steps for one hour straight just with the energy from one star.

In another fifteen minutes, he had fully grasped the talent.

However, before moving out, he wanted to see how many sacrifice points it would take to upgrade a First Rank epic‑grade talent to legendary grade.

With that thought in mind, he dismissed Tommy and walked out.

Although with both of them working together, hunting would become easier, right now Lukas wanted to test out the effect of the upgraded talent alone.

...

"As expected of an epic‑grade talent..." Lukas muttered in awe, his eyes focusing on a Bloodthirsty Boar cautiously moving forward, calmly ignorant of Lukas standing in plain sight—even though the distance between them wasn’t that great, barely six feet.

Lukas brandished his sword and moved toward the boar, not using any other talent, checking just how close he could get before the Bloodthirsty Boar would finally react.

Slowly the distance continued to shrink.

Six feet... four feet... three feet...

The monster still hadn’t reacted at all. Mind you, this was a monster known for being highly perceptive. By now, the distance between him and the boar was just an arm’s length.

The Blood‑Infused Copper Sword was raised high, a sharp but chilling glint in Lukas’s eyes as he swung the sword down.

The boar, as if finally sensing Lukas’s presence—or maybe the impending doom—reacted, but by this time it was too late.

Puchi! Like a knife through butter, the sword cut through the boar’s neck, sending blood spraying in every direction.

Lukas looked at the blood‑stained sword in his hand and the boar’s severed head in the distance, his heart growing cold.

He knew the difference between each grade was huge, but never in his life had he imagined it would be this huge.

It appears I need to be even more careful in the future...

While thinking, he summoned Tommy and handed him the severed head, waiting for assimilation.

Under his watchful eyes, the skull disappeared, but he received no prompt.

Hmm, this is expected. It’s not every time that I’ll get the opportunity to learn a new talent...

With that thought in mind, he started moving again, searching for his next prey.

He planned to return to the camp only when either the second wave started, or he had upgraded Phantom Void Steps to legendary grade.