Born in apocalypse

The snacks had a distinct crunchiness—almost too literal. The echoes of bones snapping and crystals shattering as they were consumed still reverberated vividly in Dhruv's mind.

The sight of them eating the dead corpse still sends shivers down his spine, but what can he do? They have to eat if they want to become stronger, faster. The mutation is a very important aspect of their lives, as they can further decide the task they want to assign the responsible limb to perform.

They had completed their portion of the meal and were now nearly done consuming the cores.

Dhruv observed them and then started heading in their direction. As he gazed at the remaining cores, he remarked, "Leave a few of those cores behind. I've got an experiment in mind that I need to carry out."

Looking at the trio, who almost stopped their absorption the moment they hear this, he then shifted his attention to the surplus of remaining cores, which actually exceeded what he required for the experiment. Awkwardly scratching his head, he continues...

"You don't have to leave this many; absorb them and spare ten for me." He thought for a bit and then continued. "Yeah, ten would do the trick."

Getting permission, they set aside the ten cores and resumed absorbing them, as if the previous interruption had never occurred.

After waiting for a few minutes, they had absorbed all the cores except for those ten that had been set aside. As Dhruv looked at their satisfied expressions, he inquired, "How much progress did you make in saturating your core?"

"50%," Alaric replied. While nodding in acknowledgment, he assumed the other two were likely at the same level of concentration since they had absorbed an equal number of cores. However, the response from Azarex that followed left him stunned.

If not the same, he had anticipated that the percentage difference would be minimal, perhaps around 2 or 3% at most. However, the answer he received from Azarex shattered his expectations; the response of 63% was far from anything he had imagined, representing a staggering 13% difference.

Processing this revelation, he turned his attention to Vexar and gestured for him to proceed. Once again, the outcome was different.

Vexar looked at his brothers in confusion and then said: "70%."

"Huh! Why did the concentration differ when all three of you had the same number of cores," he asked in amazement.

"Wow! Why was the concentration different even though all three of us had the same number of coins?" he asked, surprised.

As they glanced at one another, all three of them simultaneously spoke up, and it wasn't just their timing that matched. Their response was identical too: "I have no idea."

'What is happening today? I'm getting one shock after another. Is someone pranking me' Dhruv couldn't help but wonder.

Jokes aside, that didn't make any sense. The concentration percentage should be equal, unless... unless the required amount for evolution varied among different species.

That was the best answer he could come up with. And it wasn't just a random guess either; his theory had some validity. Vexar's being a demon wasn't that unique of a species, if you consider the entire cosmos, of course. Azarex might be seen as relatively uncommon, given his skeletal nature. However, the most distinctive of them all was Alaric; he's essentially like a shadow.

'This means that the more unique a species is, the more energy it requires for evolution. This is likely the reason.' He wanted to think more about this problem but was just too tired to continue this much thinking.

He looked at the trio, who were looking at him with burning gazes, looking for an answer. To satisfy their curiosity, he began explaining his hypothesis about the difference between their concentrations. Even his hypotheses were heard by them like a very knowledgeable sage passing on his life's worth of knowledge.

"...But remember, these are just hypotheses and not absolute truths," he cautioned them upon noticing their intense focus.

"Yes, of course, my Lord," all three of them replied in unison.

At times, their striking resemblance almost gives him a creepy feeling.

Staring at the remaining ten cores, he picked them up and then instructed an undead goblin to fetch a bed from the pile that was thrown in front of the gate.

Obeying the command, the undead brought him a bed. He seated himself on it, adopting a meditative posture. He began to take out the ten cores he had previously picked up, tossing them in front of him onto the bed. He began to closely examine them, trying to find any differences. Even after a while, he could not find any difference, except for a slight difference in their size.

Not finding any results outside, he tried to look inside the monster's core. It wasn't possible before but now he can do it with the help of [Mana sensitivity].

The moment he peers inside of the core, his mind becomes overwhelmed with the amount of information that is seeping into him. He quickly deactivated the skill, but the image was still in front of his eyes.

'What was that?' he exclaimed.

The thing he saw in the core was the same as how DNA is depicted in science books. And the thing that overwhelmed him was that all this information stored in the DNA was transferred to him. In addition to the DNA sequence, there was another thing there. It was an extremely concentrated form of mana that had bound all the DNA together.

'But it was different, that... that thing was so pure..' he thought, remembering that mana.

He remembered how the color of the concentrated mana was pure white, instead of blue. Which was the normal color of the mana.

Now he is even more eager to perform the experiment. And the thing he wants to do is see what happens if he uses the fusion skill on two of these monsters cores.

He set aside two cores from the rest and began their fusion. To his surprise, the process unfolded seamlessly without any anticipated explosions. As he fused the two cores, they combined into a singular core. Their outward appearance remained largely unchanged— they retained their original size and emitted an identical amount of mana externally.

'Maybe the changes happened on the inside' Thinking this, he decided to peek inside the core.

He activates the skill, and this time, with caution, he peers into the core. But, his caution went for naught as once again the headache began to form just a second into the core.

But one second was enough, and he had seen what he wanted to know. The experiment had been successful, as he originally wanted to increase the potency of the core by twofold.

Which had exactly what happened, and the dense mana inside the core became twice as strong, but the purity remained unchanged. What had not remained unchanged was the DNA sequence. Prior to the experiment, it had been meticulously arranged, almost mesmerizing in its beauty. But now, unfortunately, it is a complete mess.

Satisfied with his experiment, he decides to sleep.

Little did he know, this would be his last peaceful nap for a significant period of time.