10

As Sylas had expected, the Physical of the red fox was only so high due to its main stat: Dexterity. In addition, it seemed that the odd move it had used before wasn't something it could use continuously. 

It probably had decent Speed as well, but agility would definitely be its strong suit, maybe even acceleration. 

The more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt that the stat system wasn't nearly comprehensive enough. There should be more to it, but none of those thoughts slowed his movements. 

He rushed after the red fox as it rolled across the grass, slamming into a nearby tree before it could go too far. It tried to scurry to its feet, but the impact with the tree threw off its timing and, right then, Sylas swept in. 

He pierced down with his femur short spear. 

It was then the red fox did something that was out of Sylas' calculations once again. Its tail whipped against the tree, giving it the extra balance it needed to swiftly dodge. 

Sylas' short spear barely grazed against its ear, drawing blood and nearly cutting it in two. 

The fox leapt backward and let out an enraged yelp before leaping right at Sylas' head. 

Its agility was simply beyond common sense. Sylas hadn't even retracted his hand from the first pierce. His body was off balance and the only saving grace was that the fox was facing his body from a narrow angle. 

Sylas tried to force himself to spin out of the way, but he wasn't nearly as agile as the fox. At the very least, his own Dexterity stat seemed far more focused on accuracy and control. 

The fox bit into his shoulder, angrily tearing into it with its teeth. 

The jolt of pain shot through Sylas' body and his mind went blank. 

In his life, he had never broken a bone, he never suffered any severe wounds, he had never even had any close run-ins with death, even given all the rare snakes he worked with…

This could be said to be the worst sort of pain he had experienced in his life, and it came from a small creature with a maw so small it couldn't even properly get a hold of even his relatively lean shoulder. Even the bite marks were hardly a couple of centimeters deep. 

An odd feeling welled up in his heart as time seemed to slow around him. 

It was one part humiliation, another part a reality check, and a final part… 

Excitement? 

His opposite hand suddenly flashed over with the antler blade. His Blade Aura was just about to tick down to zero, but there was still just enough left to drive it right through the eye socket of the fox. 

The red fox released in panic, but it couldn't dodge as it fell to the ground. 

Sylas raised his injured arm and drove the short spear right through the throat of the red fox. 

His Blade Aura blinked out, and a wave of fatigue hit him. 

He took deep breaths, standing there with his shoulder pooling with blood. His heartbeat was no longer calm, beating like a drum in his chest. Every pump seemed to force more blood out of his shoulder and reverberate through his very bones. 

It took a long while before he calmed down. 

Just what was that rush? 

---

[Red Fox]

[Gene Detected] 

[Fragmented Gene: Dexterity (F)] 

[Attempt Assimilation?] 

[Yes][No]

---

Sylas didn't forget himself entirely. He couldn't stay here for long. 

He had some worries about whether that fox had rabies. If it did, he would be in trouble. But he felt that he should be safe unless this system spawned viruses as well. 

For all of these extinct creatures to suddenly return, they had to have been recreated by some unknown method, maybe a far more advanced kind of cloning than the people of Earth had access to. 

In that case, unless they were also being needlessly cruel, there shouldn't be a reason to release viruses along with that. That wouldn't preclude new viruses from manifesting on their own, but he could at least hope that he wouldn't be that unlucky. 

[Gene Assimilation Starting…] 

[Gene Assimilation Triggered] 

Sylas felt his Title activate once again. 

---

[Gene Assimilation Successful] 

[Gene Talent Detected] 

[Trade 10 Fragmented Dexterity (F) to unlock: Sudden Burst?] 

[Yes][No] 

---

Sylas' brows raised. He hadn't expected to run into such a thing so quickly. But he could only choose "No". He didn't have ten Gene Fragments in total, let alone ten of this particular kind. 

It would also be a hard pill to swallow, even if he had the opportunity. After all, losing ten Gene Fragments would also mean losing all the stat boosts that came with it. 

---

[Name: Sylas Grimblade] 

[Species: Human (F)] 

[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage] 

[Level: 0] 

[Titles: A Patient Stalker] 

---

[Physical: 8]

>[Strength: 5] 

>[Constitution: 5] 

>[Dexterity: 13]

>[Speed: 8] 

[Mental: 6] 

>[Intelligence: 5] 

>[Wisdom: 10] 

>[Charisma: 2]

[Will: 11] 

[Luck: 1] 

---

[Gene State: Soft] 

[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); (2) Dexterity (F)] 

---

[Gene Talents: Blade Aura (Mutated - Weakened)(-); Sudden Burst (Dormant)(F)]

---

Each Fragmented Dexterity Gene had given him a +1 to his Dexterity stat. If he wanted to awaken Sudden Burst, he would need to give all of that up. 

He had been lucky, getting two successes in a row. But the failure of the elk was still looming over his head. There probably wouldn't be such a good chance to kill an elk that easily again, either. Unlike the red foxes, the elks out-massed him. If he got caught by an elk like he had the red fox just now, instead of a few shallow wounds, it would have been broken bones at best. 

In this environment, he couldn't afford such devastating injuries. 

The good news was that, according to his grandfather, just the existence of Aether within him allowed wounds to heal much more quickly. An injury that would usually take weeks to heal might only take a few days now. 

Even so, those few days were too valuable to him right now. His Soft Gene State would end soon.