Chapter 10

For a little while, I settled into a steady routine of fighting mobs, harvesting genetic fragments, and gathering both biomatter and mana.

One thing I found encouraging was that the system seemed to scale the mobs as I leveled up. Roaches were now level 3, which made them a little stronger, tougher, and more resistant to damage than before. Aside from that, they didn’t differ from the weaker versions I had dealt with before at all. Their patterns, strengths, and weaknesses were the same, so having learned them by that point, I had no trouble dealing with roaches.

I already knew that a regular roach gave 100 XP despite its current level. However, since the roaches were still one level lower than me, I received only half that amount for each of them. Still, getting even 50 XP for killing a single roach was better than no experience at all.

While some roaches were loners, they usually roamed the vent ducts in groups of two or three, or sometimes even larger ones of four or five. Despite the size of a group, I was experienced enough to deal with them just fine.

After each battle, I collected biomatter, letting my body heal from any injuries I might have sustained, and after that, I set out in search of mana clouds to replenish my energy as well.

At some point, I encountered a new type of enemy. Well, not entirely a new one. It was another spider, but unlike the previous one I had fought, this one was a regular specimen, not an elite. It was smaller, slower, and weaker than its elite counterpart, but other than that, it looked exactly the same. It even had the same ability that allowed it to launch sticky projectiles to trap me, which meant that not only elite monsters but regular ones, too, could have special abilities.

From what I could tell, elite monsters were simply beefed-up versions of regular ones. At least, that was what I could conclude based on the two spiders I had encountered so far, but perhaps later I would learn more details about elite monsters. Having dealt with one elite spider, I already knew what to expect from my current opponent. Thanks to that and to the fact that the spider was weaker than its elite version, it didn’t take me much effort to deal with it.

Its level was 4, the same as mine, so the experience I received wasn’t halved, giving me 100 XP. Sure enough, after defeating the spider, I set about feeding on it. Halfway through consuming its body, a system notification flashed before my eyes.

Fragment: Sticky Glob (Shard) (Rank I)

I had obtained three shards of Sticky Glob from the elite spider, but since the specimen I’d just defeated was regular, it wasn’t surprising that it produced only one genetic fragment. Sure, there was still half the body to consume, but from my experience, I knew that a mob had only one genetic fragment to offer, at least in the case of a roach-sized monster.

As for the elite spider I’d killed before, it had three fragments instead of one. But they were given to me all at the same time, probably because they were of the same genetic type. If a creature’s body contained more than one genetic fragment, and if they were of different types, I didn’t know whether they would be given to me all at once or at different stages of eating through a corpse. I figured I would find out in due time.

I finished consuming the dead spider. Since it was smaller than its elite counterpart, about the size of my body, it amounted to one hundred points of biomatter. Some of them were used to heal the injuries I had sustained during the battle, and the rest was stored inside my stomach. After that, I continued to explore my surroundings.

I considered returning to my nest to attach the Sticky Glob shard to the [Sticky Glob (Shard x3) (Rank I)] I had stored in the cocoon. But after a moment of thinking it through, I thought better of it. So far, I had encountered only the two familiar types of enemies, roaches and spiders, so all the known types of genetic fragments obtained from them could be attached to the ones I already had in my inventory. So for now, there was no need to free up one of my fragment slots.

But if I encountered a new type of enemy with a new type of fragment, then I would head back to my nest to store one fragment there, likely the one that would have formed into a complete whole by then.

I continued to explore the ventilation system, defeating every group of monsters in my path and gaining chunks of XP. At some point, I eventually leveled up to 5. Even though I still didn’t see much point in increasing my attributes, I allocated one point to Magick.

Body: 1  

Mind: 1  

Magick: 1 → 2

Each of my attributes had sat at 1 for a little while, but I hadn’t noticed any meaningful changes at all. I suffered the same amount of damage from monster attacks, and my body didn’t seem to manage mana any more efficiently than before. So now that my Magick was at 2, I didn’t really expect it to have any effect on my body.

I resumed hunting down insectoid foes. Unlike roaches, which preferred to prowl the vent ducts in small groups, spiders were always loners. They never grouped with roaches or even with other spiders, making it pretty easy for me to defeat them.

Other than the ability to launch sticky projectiles, spiders didn’t have any advantages. And unlike the elite spider, their special ability worked much more slowly, with more time needed to recharge between shots.

So I didn’t have much trouble dealing with spiders at all. I only needed to be careful not to get hit by the sticky projectiles, but even the substance that regular spiders launched was much less sticky than that of the elite spider.

At some point, I encountered another group of roaches. There were only three of them in the group. However, I immediately noticed there was something different about that particular group compared to all the others he’d dealt with before.

Flanked between two regular gray roaches was a different kind. While it was the same size as the other two, its body had a green tint and was coated in a glossy, almost wet-looking sheen. I took a second to assess this new type of enemy.

Name: Acid Roach

Level: 5

HP: 75 / 75

Special Ability: Acid Spit

The other two roaches were level 3, with 50 HP each and no special ability.

The fight began.

The two gray roaches barreled toward me, while the acid one opened its mouth wide and launched a glob of green substance in my direction.

The acid projectile darted toward me, but I dashed aside just in time to avoid being hit. While the other two roaches charged me, the acid one remained in place. It clearly preferred to rely on its ranged ability instead of getting into close-range combat. That was fine.

For the next several minutes, I fought the three roaches. I had engaged in numerous battles with roaches, so by that point, I was well aware of what to expect and what the best strategy against them was. The acid roach occasionally launched acid globs at me from its mouth, but I had already honed the skill of dodging spiders’ sticky projectiles, so I didn’t have much trouble dodging the acid ones either.

Still, while I managed to dodge most of the projectiles, some still managed to land on me. The acid chewed through my chitin exterior without much trouble, leaving behind gaping holes. It was quite painful, and I couldn’t help but hiss in pain every time I was hit by an acid projectile.

But sure enough, after a few minutes, the battle was over, with me emerging victorious. I received a total of 150 experience points for defeating the three enemies: 100 XP for the acid roach and 25 XP for each of the two regular ones, as they were two levels lower than me.

I began to consume the body of the acid roach. As usual, about halfway through eating it, I received a system message.

You have received a genetic fragment: Acid Gland (Shard x1) (Rank I).

Only I didn’t have any more available slots, so I couldn’t help but wonder where it was going to be stored. The answer was given to me immediately. I felt something coming back up from my throat, and a moment later, the object popped out of my mouth and dropped to the floor before me.

The object mostly looked like the previous genetic shards I had examined. I already knew what this shard was, but I still summoned its description.

Fragment: Acid Gland (Shard x1) (Rank I)

I resumed eating what was left of the acid roach. As I did so, I was thinking. Acid roaches seemed to be quite rare. The one I had just defeated was the very first one I had ever encountered. Then another thought occurred to me. I had encountered an acid roach only after I reached level 5. Could it be that the system introduced new types of enemies as I grew stronger?

Anyway, I needed to decide what to do with the Acid Gland shard I had just found. I didn’t have any more available slots to store it. As I had just learned, I couldn’t swallow it, as I would immediately be forced to barf it back out.

Maybe I could carry it in my mouth then? But what if I needed to use my fangs to deal bite damage to my enemies? Carrying the fragment in my mouth seemed like it could be troublesome. In the end, I decided to return to my nest and store the Acid Gland shard in the cocoon for now. After I did that, I continued my exploration.

Eventually, I had collected enough Chitin Plate and Fang shards to form two more complete fragments. I now had three complete fragments: one Fang and two Chitin Plates, with one of them inserted in the active slot.

So I now satisfied all the requirements for evolution but one: I still needed to find a single core genetic fragment. I decided to store the two complete fragments in my nest and recover the Sticky Glob and Acid Gland shards. This way, I would have one available slot in my inventory.

Running back and forth, constantly returning to the nest to store or recover fragments, took some time and was quite inconvenient, but since I had quite limited internal storage, there was currently nothing that could be done about that. Unlike biomatter, I didn’t want to just leave behind any genetic fragments. After all, they were much more valuable.

I continued exploring and fighting enemies. I now encountered acid roaches much more often, which confirmed my previous assumption that new types of enemies were introduced as I got stronger.

Eventually, I collected nine more shards of Acid Gland, merging them all together to form a complete genetic fragment. I also collected seven more shards of Sticky Glob, meaning I could now return to my nest and attach them to [Sticky Glob (Shard x3) (Rank I)], stored in the cocoon, to form a complete fragment, which I did.

After that, I checked my inventory and evolution requirements.

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Inventory  

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Biomatter: 100 / 100  

Active Fragments: 1 / 1 (Chitin Plate (Rank I): +100 HP)  

Stored Fragments: 3 / 3 (Chitin Plate (Shard x5) (Rank I), Acid Gland (Rank I), Sticky Glob (Rank I))  

Core Fragments: 0 / 1  

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Evolution Requirements  

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Level 5 (Current: 5)  

Biomatter: 100 / 100  

Core Genetic Fragments: 0 / 1  

Genetic Fragments: 3 / 2  

Genome Stability: above 60% (Current: no data)  

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In the cocoon were also stored two complete fragments: Fang (Rank I) and Chitin Plate (Rank I). So, I actually had a total of five complete genetic fragments. But I still had no idea where to get a core genetic fragment. I had killed quite a lot of enemies, but I had yet to find a single core fragment.

Then a thought occurred to me. If I could merge shards of the same fragment together to form a complete genetic fragment, maybe I could merge complete fragments of different types to form a core fragment. It was definitely worth a try.

So I regurgitated [Acid Gland (Rank I)] and [Sticky Glob (Rank I)] to vacate two slots, then climbed back into the cocoon to retrieve [Fang (Rank I)] and [Chitin Plate (Rank I)], swallowing them. I then climbed back to the floor and stopped beside the spot where the previous two fragments rested.

It was time to put my theory to the test.

With a thought, I attempted to merge the Fang and Chitin Plate fragments that were stored in my inventory. As soon as I tried to do so, a system message flashed before my eyes.

Three or more genetic fragments need to be used to form a core fragment.

So my theory proved correct. I tried to add to the pair of fragments the one that was inserted in the active slot, but nothing happened. It clearly meant that I needed to put it in the third slot, which was currently occupied by [Chitin Plate (Shard x5) (Rank I)].

So I barfed it out and transferred the fragment from the active slot to the newly vacated inventory slot. Then I tried again. Another message flashed before my eyes.

Chitin Plate (Rank I) + Chitin Plate (Rank I) + Fang (Rank I) → Tank Core (Rank I)  

Proceed with combination: Y / N

I felt a wave of excitement wash over me. I was aware that I had two more fragments lying on the floor before me, Acid Gland and Sticky Glob, meaning I could try to look for more possible combinations. However, I was so excited at the moment that I didn’t even think about that and immediately thought, Yes, instead. Immediately, a system message popped up before my eyes.

Combination complete! You have received a core fragment: Tank Core (Rank I)

I then put it in the active slot and swallowed the three fragments that lay on the ground. I was excited. Being at level 5, having 100 points of biomatter, one core fragment, and two regular genetic fragments, I now satisfied all the requirements for evolution!