Chapter 5: Aerowolf Spirit Essence
Chapter 5: Aerowolf Spirit Essence
Why? How could Su Ping be so much stronger than she was? It was true that she didn't have any actual combat experience and that she mostly leeched off her teammates, but she should have had many more gene fragments than he did, surely? And those gene fragments were directly correlated with her constitution, with how much genetic energy she had!
How could he have flipped her head over heels with just a single blow?
Just how many gene fragments did Su Ping possess?
In truth, Su Ping still had no mutated gene fragments, but his ten advanced gene fragments represented a strength roughly equal to that of a hundred mutated gene fragments. With his extensive combat experience on top, Grace Wang never stood a chance. No one would be able to beat Su Ping in terms of constitution if they didn't have advanced gene fragments themselves.
It wasn't just Grace Wang who was stupefied by the outcome of the fight, but all the onlookers as well.
"When did the king of the dumps become so strong?"
"Well, are you sure he's the one who became strong? Maybe it's Grace Wang who's always been this weak!"
"If I were her, I'd go crawl into a hole and die. Honestly, how could she lose to someone like him with a single blow?"
No one believed that Su Ping, who had resisted any attempt to be dislodged from his position at the bottom of the gene leaderboard, could have suddenly grown so strong. The natural conclusion could only have been that Grace Wang was unexpectedly weak.
Of course, there were bystanders who noticed something amiss.
"Are they all fools? Grace Wang has twenty mutated gene fragments, so how weak could she really be? No, the conclusion must be that Su Ping's far stronger than he's letting on!"
Upon hearing this, Grace Wang yowled as though she were a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "That's nonsense! How could trash like him be strong? I was just careless! If I had prepared in advance, I would have pummeled him into the ground!"
The remaining onlookers quickly backed off upon seeing Grace Wang's somewhat crazed expression. She twisted her head and glanced toward the direction in which Su Ping had vanished, her eyes narrowing into thin slits. "Su Ping, just wait. I'm not done with you yet!"
Not far outside the district, Su Ping dove behind a tree, activated his Milk Slime Spirit Reservoir, and encased himself in translucent white armor. His target for today would be an aerowolf, a wolf-type lifeform that lived in the Valley of Winds.
Su Ping had long since mapped out the dimensional world, and he headed straight for the valley without needing to check his map.
In terms of outer appearance, aerowolves were quite similar to regular gray wolves, though they were significantly larger. With all four limbs on the ground, their backs would be at eye level. Despite their intimidating size, however, they were just regular lifeforms.
Su Ping didn't need any preparation to handle such prey; the moment he found a pack of aerowolves, he rushed straight at them.
The other hunters in the valley all thought that Su Ping was going crazy. Usually, to hunt a pack of aerowolves, most people would lure them into a narrow pass and kill them one at a time there.
Su Ping could only be so daring because of the Milk Slime Spirit Reservoir and the advanced gene fragments he had obtained. At this stage, he didn't have to fear most regular lifeforms at all.
Despite the wolves' desperate attempt to bite and scratch him, they weren't able to claw away his armor. On the other hand, Su Ping was able to wave his sword with abandon, beheading an aerowolf with every strike. His immaculate footwork and lethal technique made fighting the pack of aerowolves seem like child's play.
In a matter of moments, carcasses were strewn all around him.
A team of hunters, who had witnessed the sight from afar, could only stare at him in shock.
Of course, such a massacre would have produced regular spirit essences, but Su Ping only clucked his tongue as he picked one up.
Given his recent acquisition of an advanced-grade spirit essence, these regular-grade spirit essences seemed useless in comparison. Only a mutated-grade spirit essence, at the very least, could capture his attention.
He raced through the valley, killing every pack of aerowolves he came across. After hundreds of kills, he finally heard a deep howl from the distance. As Su Ping looked toward the source of the noise, he saw a truck-sized aerowolf emerging from afar.
"A mutated-grade lifeform! Haha, it finally appeared!"
Licking his lips, Su Ping rushed forward fearlessly.
The regular aerowolves quickly moved out of the way of the impending confrontation.
Clang! Su Ping's sword struck the wolf's claws.
With a howl, the mutated-grade aerowolf repeatedly swiped at Su Ping, but he didn't even flinch. The protection of the Milk Slime Spirit Reservoir was such that he only had to focus on attacking, and attack he did, his sword gleaming as he thrust it toward the wolf's underside.
In a matter of moments, the two of them exchanged hundreds of blows, but the mutated aerowolf's claws found no purchase in Su Ping's armor. However, Su Ping's sword also couldn't penetrate the wolf's dense layer of fur and muscle, and the resistance even caused the blade to snap in half.
"You bastard—that sword cost me 800 points!"
Su Ping had overlooked the fact that he was still using the cheapest blade he could afford; it was sharp and strong enough against regular lifeforms, but for a mutated-grade aerowolf...
The aerowolf almost seemed to cackle as it opened its jaws wide, intending to finish Su Ping off with one bite.
"Just because I'm weaponless doesn't mean I can't kill you, you know."
As the aerowolf bit down, Su Ping's amorphous armor suddenly flowed into the wolf's mouth and began to balloon. In a matter of moments, the aerowolf's eyes bulged as its throat swelled.
Pop! After a discomforting stasis, the aerowolf's throat finally exploded, separating its head from its body and showering Su Ping in blood.
As Su Ping crushed the spirit essence of a regular aerowolf, the will of the world spoke into his mind. You successfully killed a mutated-grade aerowolf and received its spirit essence. [Spirit Essence designation: augmentation-type.]
A mutated aerowolf's spirit essence was particularly useful in the dimensional world. As an augmentation-type spirit essence, it was able to increase one's speed without inducing any additional energy consumption. Upon its activation, he would be able to move as fast as lightning for a short period of time.
Su Ping had gone to the Valley of Winds to hunt for both gene fragments and this particular spirit essence. He hadn't expected that he would be so lucky as to encounter a mutated-grade aerowolf so quickly, however.
After its death, the surrounding aerowolves all cowered and fled, leaving the carcasses of their mutated and countless regular-grade comrades behind.
Su Ping took out a gigantic pot and a variety of spices and seasoning, then began butchering the carcasses, stripping away their fur and bones. He threw the meat into the pot, added the spices, and poured in a generous quantity of white wine. After letting it stew for three hours, the aerowolf-meat broth was ready to be consumed.
[For consuming the meat of an aerowolf, you received one elementary gene fragment.]
[For consuming the meat of a mutated-grade aerowolf, you received 1 advanced gene fragment.]
...
Su Ping: a mortal lifeform
Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX: Ninefold Carapace Evolution, First Form: Carp
Gene Fragments: Elementary, 40; Advanced, 10; Advanced, 10
Spirit Essences: Milk Slime (Advanced); Aerowolf (mutated)
The mutated aerowolf had provided him with ten advanced gene fragments. Although there was still a large quantity of aerowolf meat left, hunters could only ever get twenty gene fragments of each type from any particular species, so Su Ping packed up the rest of the meat and got ready to leave.
He also brought the backbone of the mutated-grade aerowolf back with him. Bones from mutated-grade lifeforms made for good crafting materials for weapons, and Su Ping was in need of a new one.
When the hunters saw Su Ping returning so soon with a huge sack of items, they all began to gossip.
"Oh, the king of the dumps is returning with a big haul; I wonder what it is?"
"Aerowolves, of course."
The other hunters couldn't help but snicker. "Is he still hunting those stupid aerowolves?"
"Really, how long is he going to keep doing that? He seemed to have become a little stronger judging by the results of that fight, but he's still repeatedly doing the same things!"
"I heard Grace Wang's going to face him with her whole team next time."
"Well, he asked for it."
"Isn't Grace Wang pretty trashy, though? Does she need her whole team to beat a weakling like him?"
As usual, Su Ping ignored the crowd. He placed the sack of aerowolf meat on the point-conversion counter and found that it was worth 500 points. He couldn't help but sigh in anticipation—his hardest days were over.
He had previously amassed 1000 points only with three grueling months of work, but now—just one day—has netted him 500 points.
With all his preparations in order, it was time for the next step.
These hunters really have nothing better to do, do they?