Chương 4: System Access

He used the sharp tip of the dagger to make an incision around the throat of the rat, digging just enough to pierce its skin, before pulling the blade straight down to split its skin in two. Then he slowly skinned it until its pink, fatty belly was fully exposed. He severed its belly into two halves next, exposing all of its internal organs. Thankfully, this was the one he'd struck in the neck, so it had bled out already.

He made sure to sever the blood vessels around the jugular of the other rats so they could bleed out while he harvested the organs of the skinned one. There were some plastic polythene bags inside the backpack—standard issue for adventurers' bags, used to carry loot neatly when handing it over to the guild. He separated the claws of the rats first, then the teeth from its gums, then its skin, placing them all inside one bag. Next, he severed the gene-rich parts of its body—mainly its liver, brain, and gonads.

These were for his own consumption. Then, he severed a sizable part of its heart revealing a small gem hidden within. It was a white gem, like translucent glass, with bits of green around its lower parts. The thing was the size of a copper penny, around an inch in height, and slightly warm to the touch. The gem, or monster core as some called it, would easily go for four copper pennies. The one in his hands contained trace amounts of fire mana; he could tell from the lukewarm heat it emanated.

The mana a beast core contained was mainly dependent on its magical disposition. Either way, most E-tier monster cores went for four copper, though the rarer water elemental core fetched a slightly higher price, mainly because of how much they were used by apothecaries to cultivate. Water mana was a great balancer for a beast core that specialized in healing, after all. He put the remaining carcass of the rat inside a separate bag.

He picked up the more disfigured corpse next—the neon rat—and repeated the same procedure: severing and peeling off the skin, slicing the belly open, and grabbing the liver and gonads. And lastly, cutting into its heart and revealing the inner core. This one, though, looked different. It shone with a bluish-green color as he plucked it out. The thing felt cold to the touch, and holding it for a bit too long made his palm sting.

He put it inside his loot bag, but not before wrapping it with some leaves, he didn't want the poison to spread all over. Nero quickly brought over the water pouch and cleaned his hands as the stinging sensation eased.

"That's a poison elemental core…" he identified, not sure how to feel about it.

"It could sell for a high price, maybe ten copper… that's if I can find a suitable buyer." He could sell it to the guild, but he was sure they'd price it just a tad above four copper—perhaps six, but no more. Meanwhile, a poison elemental core cultivator would give him a much higher price for it. And if he got himself a few more such cores from within the dungeon, he could profit even more from selling to the right buyer. But finding a poison elemental beast core holder was no easy task.

They tended to keep themselves hidden, and if he approached them with the cores as-is, he could very well get robbed. Alas, he set the thought aside, and harvested the rest of the neon rat—mainly its teeth, which he rinsed with water before tossing into the bag, then its claws. He went through the other two rats, each of which netted him a fire elemental core. And by now, Nero noticed one thing: each of these rats carried trace amounts of neon green within its core. He turned his head toward the dungeon ahead.

"Don't tell me there's more of these poisonous rats in there…" He'd read about these rats before—Red Rats specialized in, well, rat hunting. But he hadn't seen any mention of this poisonous evolution of the grey essence rats. They tended to normally evolve toward earth elements, not poison.

"This makes the journey ahead more of a hassle than I'd have liked." A poison-focused dungeon meant the healing potions he had wouldn't suffice going forward, especially not the E-grade kind. And healing potions in general were ill-suited to counter poison, especially the poison of the dungeon boss he'd eventually have to face. That means more expenses—a vial of antitoxin costs fifteen copper…

An antidote would be a cheaper alternative, but while an antitoxin could be taken before entering the dungeon and would automatically counter most generic E-grade monster poisons, its effects at E-grade didn't tend to last beyond five hours. And he was certainly going to need more than five hours to clear the dungeon.

"That means more antitoxins and higher expenses." Nero debated whether to go with an antidote instead. Antidotes were taken after getting poisoned, and took some time to kick in—they were the cheaper alternative to both healing potions and antitoxins. But they weren't ideal for dungeon diving, given their delayed effects.

"But alas, I don't have much choice." He conceded that using antitoxins or even healing potions would thin his profit margins by a sizable amount. He'd much rather take some risks instead.

"It's not like an E-grade dungeon could be too fatal." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Maybe the E-grades around the northern side of the seventh district were dangerous, but the western side's E-grades were much weaker in comparison—he'd come here for a reason, after all. Setting the thoughts aside, he pulled in the body of his arch-nemesis next—the rat that had bitten him twice.

He repeated the same process: carving up and peeling off its skin, plucking out its organs, its warm core, and whatever remained of its mostly shattered teeth. He then gathered all the valueless carcasses into one bag, dug a small hole with his dagger, and buried them completely. Then he climbed up the tree with his loot bag full of monster organs and cores. He stashed them inside his backpack, untied the lantern from it, and climbed back down.

"Time to find some dry wood!" he said excitedly. Wandering the forest floor, he gathered small, dried twigs, while the thought of eating those gene-rich gonads and liver lifted his spirits. He'd worked at Red Rats for half a year, and in that time, they hadn't provided him with a single gene. His physical attributes had remained at the level of an average person, even as he'd worked tirelessly harvesting monster after monster. They apparently only handed out genes to their oldest and closest members.

By "closest," he meant relatives of the Red Rats' head captain and owner. While they sold most of the genes, they kept a large chunk mainly for their family and descendants. And while this made their party of slum rats far weaker than any other adventuring party—resulting in a higher casualty rate due to the lack of strength—they made up for that weakness with sheer numbers instead. Slum rats' lives were cheap, after all; they came at exactly one hundred and twenty copper.

"But now, I can finally eat and assimilate the genes of the monsters I harvest!" he said to himself, unable to contain his joy. Being a monster harvester without being able to assimilate a single gene was like being a chef who never got to taste food, no matter how hungry. It was torture, and finally, he'd be freed from that agony. After gathering a sufficient amount of wood, he returned to the tree where his backpack was. He arranged the dry twigs and lit them with a matchstick.

The fire soon illuminated enough of his surroundings that he no longer needed the lantern, so he turned it off, climbed the tree, and brought down his backpack. Nero opened the plastic bag holding the organs and pulled out the gonads and liver he'd stored inside. He took his knife and separated the greenish-brown sac from underneath, careful not to nick it.

Then came the stringy tubes leading from the gallbladder into the liver tissue; he peeled these off with the point of his knife, before rinsing everything with water to remove the thin silvery membranes and blood clots. After cleaning the five livers, next came the gonads. He located the tough, hairy skin sac, made a slit, and peeled the whole thing off. Then Nero sliced away the coiled tubes wrapped around the testicles, along with the straight one leading out, and gave the remaining parts a good rinse.

Repeating the process, after about another half hour of cleaning, his organs were ready.

"More like the rats' organs," he laughed to himself, laying all ten pieces over the fire, which had calmed down significantly by now. He slowly roasted them, then brought out another loaf of bread. Using his dagger, he chopped both types of organs into small pieces, tucking them into the bread alongside some beef jerky for flavor. He climbed the tree with everything—he didn't want unwelcome guests turning him into food while he ate. Once back at the top, he bit into the bread along with everything else.

The organs tasted gamy and slightly nutty, and the faint foul taste was promptly masked by the jerky's spices. In the dark, only the sound of his chewing and the crackling fire below echoed as he finished his meal. After drinking enough water to feel nearly full, he lay back down over the branches and pulled the blanket from his bag to cover himself. The breeze was chilly, and at such a high altitude, it felt downright windy too.

Still, the warmth of the fresh meal in his stomach made everything a bit more bearable. He drifted into another nap as time ticked by and midnight fell over the forest. The darkness looked much the same as daytime, so the main change was the forest growing more alive, the sounds of different creatures becoming more frequent. Just then, an unfamiliar, feminine, almost robotic voice rang in his ears.

[Acquired Primitive Gene x1] [Acquired Primitive Gene x1] [Acquired Primitive Gene x1] The voice repeated, and on the tenth time, the message changed into something different. [Notice: requirement for 'Star Law' access has been met. Attempting to integrate the host into the Genetic Constellation… successful] [Assessing Genetic Compatibility…. Successful] [The host's current self is Compatible with Primitive genes. Assigning status…. successful.] [Congratulations. The host Nero can now access the genetic interface with the command 'status'] Nero slowly sat back up, feeling like he was dreaming. He pinched his skin to check, and sure enough, it hurt.

"I've gotten access to the constellation…" he murmured, dazed." Status," he whispered, almost unsure whether anything would happen at all.

Status Name: Nero Race: Human Core Stage: Dormant Base Attributes STR: 7 DEX: 4 CON: 10 SPE: 9 INT: 9 WIS: 11 CHA: 3 LUCK: 1 Assimilated Gene: (0/1000) Unassimilated Genes: Strength 3x (Primitive), Speed 5x (Primitive), Dexterity 2x (Primitive). Gene Talent: N/A Beast Soul: N/A Nero stared at the blue hologram before him for a good half hour, as if enthralled. Sure, when he'd decided to go solo adventuring, he hadn't, even for a passing second, considered the benefits it could bring him beyond money.

He'd wished to consume gene-rich parts and gain access to this system, but that wish had never taken precedence over his desire for wealth.

But to become part of the Star Law—the law whose barrier supposedly had been protecting their world from the Unknown from ancient time—and to gain access to its system interface, he hadn't expected this privilege to overwhelm him as much as it had. He indulged in the feeling of being one of the chosen, before it dissolved into the cruel waves of reality. After a good while, Nero finally came to his senses as the wonder and joy died down. He looked at the stats with a clearer head.

"Primitive genes, huh, that's the lowest class of genes I could possibly be compatible with." He shook his head.

"No, it's to be expected. I'm not from some imperial or knightly bloodline, so I couldn't be compatible with anything higher." He smiled, running his hands around the hologram that listed one thousand.

"It means I'd need a thousand primitive genes before I can ascend." He turned away from the status window, and settled into a meditative stance. It was time to assimilate the genes.