Chapter 7 : Stellar Refinement And mDNA

Having left the pawnshop, Lucas' next task was to find a place to stay for the rest of the day as the next day, he would be meeting the glasses-wearing man from the pub to go purchase a store. For the moment though, Lucas intended to know more about this world.

"System, how do I unlock your full functionality asides missions?"

"Upgrades come about from levelling up the system through completing missions. Asides from that, host can upgrade the system if special conditions are met. Said conditions are deemed confidential to the host and it is expected that you explore." The system answered.

"You want me to explore a new world without any form of protection or knowledge? What if I get killed while taking a walk? Wouldn't you be hostless?" Lucas couldn't help but find the system's methods to be obstructive.

"If that were to be the case, then it means that the host was never fated to be the Crafts-God." The system succinctly replied.

Lucas sighed at his fate that was quite miserable compared to certain main characters. At least in the books he read, the main characters would get transmigrated into a body with knowledge of the world, some in a noble family, a godly constitution, or whatnot. But in his case, he was brought over with no knowledge or information, has to deal with speciesism, and is in a body acclaimed to have the worst potential.

Since the system wouldn't give him the information he needed, Lucas decided to find it.

This was a technological world and apart from electricity being an essential factor to such a world, there was something else equally important; the internet.

For a world to advance, especially technologically, there must exist a vast network that holds massive information and enables an easier transmission of data or information from one point to another. On Earth, this was known as the internet and its Eretrean equivalent was what Lucas was after.

A library was another good option but Lucas couldn't be so sure that such would exist here. A digital version might, but it would most likely be in schools or educational facilities rather than the public area.

During the next few hours, Lucas did his best to familiarise himself with this new world. He had managed to purchase a device known as a communicator, the Eretrean equivalent of a mobile phone. The device with a lackadaisical name referred to a more brand collection of devices which had different forms like a watch, a hand-held device or even a pair of glasses.

Using the device after a little bit of learning, Lucas logged into the Eretrean server in the Kellan Solar System Intra-network (KSSI). This was a large network that covered an entire solar system and within this network were servers dedicated to each planet in the solar system.

There was a similar network that spanned the entire galaxy with each star region being a server, but most times, the average individual didn't need to log in to such networks as information and news on that level was too far from them. Having to focus on a solar system alone was more than enough most times.

As for what a star region was, it was a new term Lucas had learnt. The system had only informed him that he was in Baylands City located in the Groeten continent of the planet Eretre, and that this massive planet was in the Kellan solar system. The Kellan solar system, from what Lucas read about however, was one of four (4) active solar systems out of a total of twenty one (21) solar systems in a region known as the Blue Mist star region. Above star regions was the entire galaxy which was dominated by the hyuman race, and this galaxy was called the Niera galaxy.

Apart from that, Lucas had also managed to learn about the world in detail specifically its power system. Unlike Earth of his last life, this would seemed to cultivate a certain type of energy.

In his very first life as Yohan, Lucas had practiced in the art of magic which was one of the most common. In his first life, there were two major forms of energy refining or cultivation based on two major mystical energies prevalent at the time: Mana and True energy, an energy equally as mystical as mana.

In that world, there were two classifications for mystical energy users but the most used was based on the energy one refined. Those who refined and practised with mana were known as either mages or witches, while those who refined true energy were called deserters.

Another classification was based on the usage of mystical energy with those versed in the art of summoning known as Summoners and they could either be mages or even deserters. There were also body honers who used mystical energy to refine their body and improve their physical strength and power, spell-casters, and so on.

As Yohan, Lucas had started out as a spell-caster but when he began to venture into blacksmithing, the need to improve his body came about and so he dabbled into Body-honing as well, achieving both status by relying on mana.

In this new world however, the mystical energy that existed was just one; Stellar energy. Just as its name implied, it was a mystical energy that existed in the cosmos and was rumoured to have birthed the stars and the universe as well.

Although generally, the manipulation of Stellar energy is known as Stellar refinement, the classification of practitioners was based on utilisation as there was only one type of mystical energy. The equivalent of body-honers were known as Stellar evolvers and their art, stellar evolution, was the act of using Stellar energy to purify and temper one's physical form. There were also summoners, but they were very rare. As for the rest, they were nominally called stellar refiners.

Stellar Refining was the art of refining and absorbing stellar energy into the body. Based on the refining manual one used as well as the path they chose, the result would be slightly different and as such, everyone's strength differed. There was also another determining factor of one's strength and that was their talent. When reading about this, Lucas finally found out why humans were treated as such.

Initially, the ancestors of the hyuman race were just like earthlings, humans who were occupying their home planet and had barely even explored their solar system. However with time, their technology advanced and they encountered alien civilizations. The ancestral humans had allied with one such civilization as a means to adapt to the interstellar society quickly, although they had the lower hand in this alliance. In the process of that, they had realised their weakness. Unlike the other intelligent species, humans couldn't absorb and manipulate stellar energy; in fact, they couldn't even sense it.

All civilizations had advanced by relying on stellar energy, aiding them at higher levels to rely less on their physical needs like food, air and so on while strengthening them beyond their base form, which in turn enabled the species to explore more regions in space, move in space and even do battle. Without the ability to manipulate this mystical energy, it was deemed that humans would be left behind until they would eventually be conquered by a stronger alien race.

Through the aid of their allies as well as the brightest minds in their race, the ancestral humans found a way to artificially induce evolution within themselves, creating the hyuman race; a stronger version of humans who could utilise stellar energy. Overtime, due to proliferation and the law of survival, humans began to go extinct while hyumans overtook them after all, who would want to remain a weakling or want their child to end up as such?

Nonetheless, not all hyumans were born equal with some more talented than others in stellar refinement. This was all because of a special DNA within them; the essential element that differentiated hyumans from humans and enabled the former to manipulate stellar energy. It was known as the mDNA.

Every hyuman was born with a different concentration of the mDNA in their body and the more one had, the higher their future prospects would be and the greater their talent. Due to the extinction of pure-blooded humans and some other factors, an mDNA concentration less than 10% couldn't qualify as a hyuman and would be called a human. At less than 10%, one had almost no future in stellar refinement as such, there was no reason to see them as hyumans.

At the start, the ancestral humans weren't born with mDNA so they had to manufacture it. Overtime, natural hyumans came to be. As such, there are two types of mDNA: the m(o)DNA (Metamorphosed DNA) which was naturally occurring in modern-day hyumans, and the m(z)DNA (Metamorphized DNA) [1] which was used to create the first generation of hyumans.

Hyumans born with a low m(o)DNA concentration can inject themselves with m(z)DNA to increase the overall concentration of their mDNA and in turn increase their talent. Of course however, there were limitations to this otherwise the hyuman race would easily be able to mass produced super-powerful beings with the ability to rule the entire universe. The limit was usually a 30% increase.

For instance, a hyuman who was born with mDNA of 20%. As they are born as such, this implies their mDNA is entirely m(o)DNA. Said hyuman now injects the special serum containing m(z)DNA, increasing their total mDNA count by thirty percent to become a concentration of 26%, as thirty percent of 20 is 6.

Also, although the total mDNA concentration increased one's talent, the value of the m(o)DNA was more influential in this.

Take for instance a hyuman whose mDNA concentration is 40% with seventy percent of this (28) as m(o)DNA and the remaining thirty percent (12) as m(z)DNA. They would be less talented than another who has the same mDNA concentration value, but entirely made up of m(o)DNA. What's more, the latter can inject m(z)DNA into their system and increase their ability thirty percent, becoming more talented.

"So in the end, two things determines one's strength in this world; your refining method and your mDNA value. Unfortunately, pure-blooded humans don't have a chance." Lucas sighed.

It was stated that the current serums containing m(z)DNA couldn't work on humans or rather hyumans with less than 10% mDNA concentration, much less true and pure-blooded humans like Lucas. Which meant that he was destined to be at the bottom rung of society.