Chapter 3: Advanced Gene Fragments

Chapter 3: Advanced Gene Fragments

"No, no, that's impossible. In the past, that rumor had eventually been verified by multiple sources, so there has to be something to it."

According to the lucky fellow who had found the advanced Milk Slime, it had simply appeared as if he were killing regular Milk Slimes. However, Su Ping hadn't even seen a hint of this purported advanced-grade lifeform, despite having been in the cave for three months straight.

And not only that—he was even having trouble with his foundation.

Extensive research in the past had confirmed that the soft cores of these milk slimes were particularly good catalysts for a breakthrough in one's foundation, and prices for these cores were sure to soar in the future. Indeed, they had been in such high demand that the Milk Slimes in the first realm of the dimensional world had been hunted to extinction, so Su Ping made sure to store at least half the cores every time he returned to the settlement.

But even after having consumed countless such cores, Su Ping had yet to experience a breakthrough.

His annoyance flared. The plans that he had worked out for himself rested on two critical components: a breakthrough in his foundation and the spirit essence obtained from the advanced-grade milk slime. Would his work over the past three months be for naught?

Just because he knew the future didn't mean that he couldn't be stymied by unexpected variables, after all.

Should I revise my plans? Three whole months of effort down the drain... The moment he thought of Grace Wang's arrogant expression and his sister's tears, Su Ping's anger rose to a crescendo, and he pounded on the cave wall beside him.

Kraak! The sound reverberated around the cave, and small cracks radiated outward from the point of impact. Fresh blood seeped down Su Ping's clenched fist.

With a long sigh, Su Ping made the decision to leave the cave. The incident with Grace Wang meant that he was even more pressed for time than before, and he would have no choice but to change his plans. Even if it would be less advantageous for his future development, his sister was far more important.

Suddenly, the part of the cave that he had hit began to crumble, revealing a hole large enough to pass through.

"What? This cave had essentially been his second home for three months. He knew the entire region like the back of his hand, and this was an area he'd never seen before.

"Could it be... well, I've already wasted three months; after all, what's a little more time?"

With rekindled hope, Su Ping scrambled into the newly revealed tunnel. As the tunnel expanded, he found himself in a gigantic area the size of an exhibition hall. An enormous silvery-white milk slime sat in its center, glowing with a faint light.

"I've finally found you!"

Su Ping instantly realized that this was the advanced-grade lifeform that he had been hunting. In truth, this tunnel had only been discovered in the past as a result of a long string of coincidences. Su Ping didn't know about the specifics of the discovery; all he had heard were rumors, so he'd never been successful.

And yet his hard work eventually paid off.

The first realm of the dimensional world could generate regular-, mutated-, and advanced-grade lifeforms. In other words, advanced-grade lifeforms were at the apex of the realm.

The enormous silvery-white Milk Slime in front of him was such an existence: the weakest advanced-grade creature, but one whose Spirit Essence was inordinately useful and who would provide as many advanced gene fragments as any other advanced-grade lifeform.

"You'll be my first step to advancement!" After having slaughtered three months' worth of milk slime, Su Ping had developed an intimate understanding of their anatomy. With a precise, efficient stroke, he thrust his blade toward its core.

He had initially expected to be able to kill it with one attack, but even the weakest advanced-grade creature was still stronger than he had anticipated. The blade could only penetrate a little of its jelly-like flesh, no matter how much strength Su Ping used.

His attack naturally enraged the silver Milk Slime, whose core suddenly turned blood-red and shot out toward him like a blob.

As a reincarnator, Su Ping was easily able to avoid the telegraphed attack.

Milk Slimes had essentially no offensive capabilities, and even this silver Milk Slime wouldn't have any particularly destructive or complicated attacks. Apart from its size and resilience, it was really no different from regular milk slime. Its attack pattern was more straightforward than that of just about any other lifeform.

As he dodged to one side, Su Ping nicked the silver milk slime's flesh with a flurry of slices.

In pain, the Milk Slime recoiled before suddenly expanding its body and bouncing up into the air, intending to squash Su Ping into slime paste.

Unfortunately, Su Ping was simply too agile for it and was able to dodge its attacks with ease. At the same time, he continued whittling away at the Milk Slime's jelly-like flesh.

It chased him all around the cave, even as Su Ping kept dodging and slashing. After all, it was an advanced-grade lifeform, and despite Su Ping's relentless attacks, it was able to continuously regrow its jelly-like flesh.

The fight dragged out into a stalemate.

Eventually, the efficiency and persistence of Su Ping's swordplay, honed by months of fighting these milk slimes, paid off. The silver Milk Slime had shrunk to a third of its original size, and Su Ping was certain that he would be able to whittle it down before long.

Before he could do so, however, Su Ping's stamina was sure to give out. After all, his foundation hadn't yet broken through, and he had only filled a fifth of his basic gene capacity. With only twenty basic gene fragments, his constitution was simply too poor for a drawn-out fight.

Skill and technique were meaningless if his body couldn't keep up, and he was quickly running out of stamina.

After another ten minutes, Su Ping could feel his body at its breaking point. Sweat drenched his body, his muscles quivered, he panted in huge, gasping breaths, and he was only keeping himself upright by willpower alone.

Would this be it for him? To be killed by the advanced-grade creature he had worked so hard to find before even taking the first step toward success?

As the silver Milk Slime bounced toward him once more, Su Ping yelled out in frustration, stepping aside and forcing his arm to strike again at its jelly-like flesh, at least once more. As he looked death in the eye, the tip of his sword suddenly radiated light; the moment it struck the Milk Slime's flesh, Su Ping felt as though a dam had broken within his body, flooding him with strength.

Finally, a breakthrough!

Clad in shining light, his sword was faster, more flexible, and easily able to penetrate into the silver Milk Slime's core.

Upon reflection, perhaps this was something Su Ping could have anticipated. Without any fear of death, without pushing himself to his limits, how could he have hoped to advance? He had used his experience and knowledge from his past life to work out the safest route to ascension, but it was exactly this safety that had caused him to stagnate in his foundation.

Despite his earlier exhaustion, Su Ping now felt relaxed all over, as though his body had been reforged, refueled, and revitalized. He immediately reached into his spirit reservoir and retrieved the spirit essence of a regular milk slime, smashing it to pieces.

An astounding discovery from his past life was that, within ten seconds of killing a lifeform, destroying a spirit essence would increase the chances of a spirit essence condensing from the recently deceased lifeform. If the destroyed spirit essence belonged to the same species, a spirit essence would be guaranteed.

This phenomenon had been heavily studied, and the conclusion was that, because a spirit essence was composed of spiritual matter, destroying a spirit essence would temporarily increase the spirit density in the air. The dead lifeform would then absorb this spiritual matter to condense a spirit essence, with a probability increasing with the spirit density.

[You successfully killed an advanced-grade milk slime and obtained its spirit essence.]

Su Ping beamed in delight, then hurriedly brought out the silvery-white Spirit Essence from his spirit reservoir. Activating it by will, he transformed the spirit essence in his palm into a gigantic water balloon, one the size of a human. It gave off a silver glow, and its center was a soft core.

[Spirit Essence designation: weapon-type.]

Even though the will of the world had classified it as a weapon-type Spirit Essence, the hunters of the dimensional world instead categorized it as a rare transformation-type Spirit Essence.

A moment's thought was sufficient to transform the water balloon into a silvery-white, translucent overcoat. Its color was relatively appealing, but because Su Ping wasn't yet accustomed to manipulating the spirit essence, the structure of the coat was lumpy and misshapen.

After significant effort, Su Ping finally transformed it once more into a suit of silver armor. A pale pink pearl was embedded into the breastplate, the core of the spirit essence. As long as it wasn't destroyed, the armor would be able to repair itself and even regenerate itself. The advanced-grade Milk Slime Spirit Essence was infinitely flexible, able to be used as standalone armor or in addition to other armor-type Spirit Essences.

In Su Ping's past life, the hunter who had obtained the advanced-grade Milk Slime Spirit Essence had gained such proficiency with it that he ultimately became known as the 'Metamorphosis Sovereign'.

At present, Su Ping could only generate at most one or two extra arms, and he would require significant practice to draw out the Spirit Essence's true utility. There was also one caveat to the transformations: the amorphous material, by nature, was unable to reproduce anything sharp.

Of course, it was already more than sufficient for most purposes, and it wasn't as though this flaw couldn't be fixed. In the third realm of the dimensional world, there was a curious item known as Pandora's box. It was a consumable item that could fuse multiple advanced- and higher-grade spirit essences to enhance them.

This was the primary reason that Su Ping valued this spirit essence so highly. It met the necessary requirements for fusion, so it had limitless growth potential. As long as Su Ping was willing to spend an exorbitant amount of resources to do so, it could grow to a disaster-grade, or even a monarch-grade, Spirit Essence.

More importantly, because Milk Slimes were one of the weakest lifeforms in the dimensional world, advanced-grade Milk Slimes were the rarest of the rarest of the rare, and there had only been one recorded appearance in the past.

As a result, this advanced-grade spirit essence that Su Ping now possesses might well be unique. Three months of effort for such a valuable and customizable Spirit Essence was a bargain. But, even more importantly, this particular spirit essence was necessary for the next step in his plan.