Chương 24: Leveling & Gene Allocation

The days went by swiftly after getting back to the city. The displaced villagers had managed to contact the seventh circle's administrative board. They'd explained to the government body about the whole situation, but even then, the board didn't trust them until they'd gotten a report from one of their Silverine Knights that just happened to be scouting the area. Later, they were given a section of space in the slums to live in and some rations.

And even then, they were not given anything beyond the assurance of a week's worth of rations initially. However, their circumstances quickly changed after the old man Saru told them of how their village chief was a former disciple of the Nether World sect, and lied about their him going to meet one of the sect elders. That little passive threat had them increase the allocated ration from a week's worth to a month's. But they were still told to quickly find work. Nero hadn't done much for them after getting back.

Mainly staying at one of the many houses allocated to them in the slums. Though he wished to leave internally and resume his adventure instead of wasting time. Except that the old man Saru had requested him to stay beside Sylvia a bit longer for the time being. Being the only one around who was of her age was probably the reason Saru had told him to stay. The girl was still very much in shock. The village had been small, with roughly a few hundred people comprising the whole of it.

And as was the case with such small villages, each house knew the others well and had deep relationships. For her to suddenly wake up the next day in a completely different land, with no access to their well-cherished farmland, familiar well, and landscape. With the vast majority of her relatives, especially her father, being just… gone. Nero could imagine how she must be feeling.

"Or maybe I can't." He'd tried to make her feel better with jokes, random talk and such, to not much success. Her siblings were also taken away from her for the time being, mainly because they kept asking, especially the sisters, about where their father, uncles and aunts were. He had found himself in a rather peculiar place. He had no real experience of even having parents, much less losing them.

Even at the church, he'd spent much of his time out in the alley and with unfamiliar people rather than sitting in that building and praying. He frankly didn't believe anymore that he could understand her current emotions. But then again, maybe that wasn't really necessary. Since she rarely talked at all, he just kept her company by meditating beside her. Which was a bit more productive than sitting around doing nothing.

In fact, his new gene talent showed its progress well; with a thought, he brought up the progression panel of [Endless Path]. [Meditation Technique (Basic)] 213/1000 [Pristine Aura Manipulation (Basic)] 123/1000 Yep, he'd gained another technique after fiddling around with getting a better handle on pristine aura. Initially, he'd practiced suffusing certain parts of his body with the energy and simply moving it around his veins as a sort of entertainment. But had instead awakened this technique.

The meter for Pristine Aura usually didn't rise unless he'd cycled the energy throughout his body in one full circle. And with the meter rising, he could feel a slight increase in efficiency at its use too. It consumed his mental energy slightly less than before, though the effects were too minuscule for him to say anything concrete. Still, after every session of meditation, he peeked through the corner of his eye to check what Sylvia was doing.

And today, he could see her staring fixedly at him, instead of at the ceiling. He feigned having just ended his meditation, and said without looking at her, "Found something of interest, my lady?" Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. She nodded lightly.

"I see you sitting there so peacefully now, on the regular. Is there any benefit to that?" Nero shook his head.

"Not really, unless by benefit you mean a clearer head. This is just a glorified time-wasting sport." Well, that was the case until I got this supreme gene talent, that is. Usually, basic meditation techniques provide zero benefits beyond recovering mental energy. That was why he'd even bothered to buy the thing. But an intermediate meditation technique? That was a completely different beast. It was often used by cultivators to draw in natural ambient mana and refine their beast core.

And it was guarded with extreme measures by every sect. By mastering the basic technique, Nero was hoping it would evolve into an intermediate one. His instincts told him so, at least. But it wasn't like such benefits would apply to her.

"Well, teach me then." She demanded with a blank face.

"You sure? A clearer head is all you're gonna get."

"That's plenty." She gritted her teeth, clenching her hands into fists.

"My father didn't risk his last bits of lifespan for me to sit here dawdling." She said, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. And thus, it began. Nero first told her the fundamentals. Meditation usually took about ten to twenty minutes to fully sink into, this type at least. Which was quite different from the kind one would usually do. It required one's headspace to already be cleared out before beginning the breathing part of it.

Which, depending on how messed up and chaotic your thoughts were, took anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. And an hour was the time she needed to get into it. As they both meditated for nearly two hours, Nero began to feel a prickling sensation near his left shoulder, where Sylvia sat meditating. He broke his session and turned toward her. Her hair, glowing? Nero rubbed his eyes and blinked several times for good measure.

And sure enough, her hair really was glowing with some sort of mystical silver that resembled his own Pristine Aura. After a while, when she finished her first session, she turned to him.

"You lied." She said with an accusatory tone, almost pouty.

"You were watching those firefly-like things all along, and were actually cultivating your beast core." Nero gave her an extremely perplexed look.

"Was I?" He replied dubiously.

"Girl, I don't even have a beast core." She blinked several times.

"You don't?" He nodded.

"Yep." …. The following days with Sylvia turned out to be a lot more interesting than Nero had initially expected. He'd learned that the reason behind her glowing hair, and her seeing strange things during meditation, was her awakened Beast Core. Her father had awakened her core before passing, it seemed. Which made a whole lot of sense, considering he'd also given Nero the task of handing this letter to the elder of the Nether World sect. Something he'd come outside to do today.

Walking back through the slums, Nero finally felt himself in his element. Cooping up inside the house all day had never been his thing. Though, he'd admit meditating peacefully was fun too. Especially so if you could see the elements that made up the world, like Sylvia could, thanks to her awakened core. Either way, walking outside through the knee-deep snow, even without snowshoes, had become easy work for him. It barely posed any resistance anymore.

Especially so after assimilating twenty primitive strength genes and ten speed genes and a grand total of five charisma genes! He'd also gained a total of twenty-eight Prehistoric genes! Though they couldn't be assimilated yet, having a large stock of them was invaluable in gaining access to high-value facilities across the twelve circles! He smiled ear to ear while looking at the status screen.

Status Name: Nero Race: Human Core Stage: Dormant Base Attributes STR: 34 (+27) DEX: 15 (+8) CON: 19 (+9) SPE: 38 (+29) INT: 9 WIS: 11 CHA: 3 (+5) LUCK: 2 (+1) Assimilated Primitive Gene: (79/1000) Unassimilated Genes: Charisma x5 (Prehistoric), Intelligence x5 (Prehistoric), Strength x20 Gene Talent: Aura of Decay (Primitive), The Endless Path (Prehistoric) Beast Soul: N/A Gene Fragments: N/A

"It's kinda odd that I got no gene fragments." He put a hand to his chin at the thought.

"What was even more off was the presence of a lesser oni in the seventh circle." Usually, evolved versions of goblins, like hobgoblins, ogres, and lesser oni, were more common starting from the ninth circle. They featured the more dangerous C and B ranked dungeons, the bosses of which were at times even True Onis! A lesser oni, a matured one like the one they'd fought, was usually at the rank of silver among adventurers and could duel a Silverine Knight to a stalemate.

Putting the thought behind him for now, he saw the branch of the Nether World sect ahead, placing a hand around his backpack's outer pocket. There lay the beast core of the Oni. Selling this back at the guild would pose a lot more trouble, so he really hoped the letter he was carrying from Elder Zyran carried enough clout to let him trade, preferably with an Elder.