Genetic Awakening: My Genes Evolve Infinitely!

Rohan reached for the spear at his side. With slow and steady movements, he wandered down to the bottom of the seemingly endless wooden stairs. ’Seriously, just how far down does this go?’

He was starting to wonder if he’d ever be able to make it back out, even if he did find a way to clear this dungeon.

Rohan’s thoughts were racing like a speeding car. So much so, that he couldn’t even keep track of them.

He had absolutely no idea what was in store for him in this place — just that the Origin Realm determined that whatever it was, he should be able to survive it and potentially clear it.

***

"This is..." Rohan looked around in bewilderment.

He took another 5 minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs, but even on the last step, all he could see was endless darkness except for the very stairs beneath his feet. The only way he knew this was even the bottom was the lack of any stairs descending down even further.

Part of his hesitated to take that last step down into the darkness, not knowing what would be laying in wait for him, or if he would even find anything at all. Part of him expected to start falling endlessly into this dark abyss of a dungeon, but he was surprised to find his foot reach solid ground.

And once it did, Rohan had an eye opening experience — both literally and metaphorically.

As if previously covered in a shroud of darkness, all around him the environment changed and revealed itself to Rohan for the first time.

Rohan found himself in a barren, dark cave lit by nothing but what looked like luminescent moss lining the walls here and there. His current location appeared to be a long, narrow tunnel that led deeper into this mysterious dungeon... cave.

He continued observing his surroundings as he made sure to make note of anything interesting and mark where he’d been so he didn’t get lost in this place, which almost became a routine.

Even though it was a long, narrow tunnel, Rohan continued to mark the left wall every 20 or so metres. This place had already proven that it could do all kinds of space trickery, such as obscuring this cave’s appearance until he actually stepped into it, and making the exit into the house completely disappear after looking away. For all he knew, this place could only look like a straight tunnel to the naked eye, but be a winding mess of a maze in reality.

He had to prepare himself for any kind of situation.

’This is getting frustrating...’ The monotonous explore, observe and mark routine carried on for 10 whole minutes as Rohan continued following the tunnel deeper into the cave, and with no luck in finding any clues to how to clear this place as of yet, Rohan was beginning to get irritated.

***

"Well this is an underwhelming beginning to my exploration..." Rohan wasn’t kidding, he was beginning to become bored out of his mind.

Despite walking for what felt like an hour already, there were no changes in the environment yet. Rohan hadn’t even spotted any signs of living beings yet. He was starting to begin worrying about finding a source of food.

This wasn’t exactly like his time entering the Spike Beast gate, fully prepared and knowing he’d be in there for days. Each time he and Elane went out to hunt, they only brought a few snacks along to eat along the way, since they’d return to the city to have an actual meal every once in a while.

’Thankfully, in my current state I should be able to survive the remaining four days in the Origin Realm without any food consumption. But still, the feeling of starvation during this time will hinder my ability to hunt massively...’

That’s when, finally, he arrived at a point in the cave where there was actually a change in the environment. ’All it took was over an hour of walking non-stop. Just how big is this place, anyway?’

If it were anything like the gates back in the outside universe, then he had a lot to worry about...

The single straight line of a tunnel had finally come to an end, and Rohan now found himself at a fork in the road ahead. The cave splintered off into two different directions, which left Rohan with a choice.

’I have nothing to go off, so let’s do this.’

He spun his spear in the air and let it land on the ground. Whichever tunnel the tip landed closest to would be his choice to venture down.

Clang!

"The left it is." He started moving down it without looking back.

And five minutes later, it proved to be the correct choice.

"Grrrr..."

A low growl came from a dark area with none of that luminescent moss to light up the surroundings.

Rohan readied his stance to attack whatever beast was up ahead and was ready to pounce towards it when something else beat him to the punch, coming flying towards him from the side.

’A wolf??’

Rohan recognised that familiar canine body structure from a glance, but that wasn’t of any consolation for him.

’Weren’t most of the beast types surrounding Erenhot Insect types?? I thought you had to venture out into D rank territories to encounter something different?’

But this was a dungeon, so clearly some new logic applied.

He deflected the attack of the incoming wolf using his spear, which gave him enough time to examine the two beasts.

’Both E rank! Thankfully just Ordinary tier, or I’d be in huge trouble just from this first encounter.’

Rohan realised this dungeon might be even bigger of a challenge than he initially anticipated. If he was encountering E rank beasts this early on, then he couldn’t even begin to imagine what was in store for him when he reached the end. If it even had an end...

He struck the nearest wolf before they had a chance to launch another strike.

[You have killed an E rank (Ordinary) Rabid Wolf.]

’Their defence is several times weaker than the Ant’s I’m so used to fighting. They’re specialised in speed! This might not be as big of a problem after all.’