Genetic Awakening: My Genes Evolve Infinitely!

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

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

[You have killed...]

Over the next 24 hours, Rohan did quite a lot of hunting inside the dungeon. By now, he had to have dispatched over 50 wolves, and that was at the lower end of his estimate.

Once he carried on down the long tunnel after taking care of the first three wolves he encountered, it was as if they never stopped coming. Before then, he hadn’t encountered a single living thing after 2 hours of walking through the dungeon. But now? He came across at least one wolf every 30 minutes or so!

Sometimes they showed up in groups. The biggest group he encountered so far was a group of 5. Despite having higher numbers than the group he first encountered, they were actually easier to deal with.

Rohan had learned quite a bit from his experience fighting against that first group, and applying this to every wolf he encountered from then on proved to be a very wise choice.

Despite possessing higher intelligence than the beasts he was used to dealing with, these wolves had no way to communicate with each other, so they all acted in the same manner when he encountered them.

To him, he was seeing these Rabid Wolves for the 50th, 60th or so time, while from the wolves’ perspective, each encounter with Rohan was new.

’However, either my luck is shit, or this dungeon is preventing me from earning any genes or genetic armaments. I’ve killed well over 50 wolves by now, yet not a single piece of loot beyond the guaranteed Origin Crystals have dropped so far!’

***

Rohan spent some time resting to let his stamina regenerate and give his mind some rest from constantly being on the move and in combat.

However, after he continued exploring, he came across something that completely blew any know-how he thought he knew about the Origin Realm away. First, it was the existence of this Dungeon itself, but now this...

[E rank Dungeon chest: A treasure chest sometimes found inside dungeons inside the Origin Realm.]

In typical Origin Realm fashion, it didn’t give much away about this, apart from the fact it was a treasure chest.

But Rohan was still unable to comprehend the fact this thing existed in the first place. He stared at the chest for longer than he was willing to admit.

It wasn’t like it was some old wooden box left behind in this place by some previous explorer. This treasure chest was recognised by the Origin Realm itself, so it had likely created it as well.

’First dungeons, and now this...’

"...Right then."

Rohan crouched in front of it, inspecting the small box. The chest itself didn’t look particularly grand, like you’d expect a treasure chest to be. It looked old, made of some reddish wood reinforced with thick bands of black metal. There were no jewels, carvings or dramatic lights spilling out from the seams. If anything, it looked too plain.

You could tell this was something made by the Origin Realm, rather than human hands.

Still, he wasn’t stupid enough to simply open it without caution.

Although he never expected this thing to exist in the Origin Realm, that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard of them in stories before.

This thing could be a trap for all he knew.

He used the butt of his spear to tap the lid first. Nothing happened. But more importantly, the sound that resonated from it let him know that it was, in fact, hollow inside.

Rohan then took a few steps back and propped the tip of his spear in the gap between the lid and the rest of the small chest, and used his spear as a crowbar to pry it open.

Once again, nothing happened.

’It really is just a chest.’

But that didn’t stop him from opening it slowly. The hinges creaked faintly as he lifted the lid, and Rohan instinctively leaned his upper body back, activated his molten-stone skin, ready to jump away if something suddenly exploded out at him.

"...."

Which made it rather anticlimactic when nothing did.

Rohan blinked.

Inside, resting on a bed of a dark velvet-like cloth, was what looked like a fist-sized clump of charcoal.

’Well, this wasn’t what I was expecting.’

’Calling this thing a treasure chest is a bit misleading, no?’ He cursed the Origin Realm for being so cryptic with all its explanations.

When he first read this thing’s description and found out it was a ’treasure chest’, he was expecting something like a box full of gold, jewels, or maybe even Origin Crystals considering the context of where he found it.

But instead, all he found was this block of charcoal? ’What does the Origin Realm thing it is? Santa Claus?’

Rohan frowned.

"No way this thing is just a rock though."

He reached into the chest and picked it up. The thing was warm to the touch.

Then the familiar notification from the Origin Realm popped up before his eyes.

[E rank (Ordinary) Blacksteel Chunk]

[A metallic treasure found within dungeons. Contains a dense concentration of mineral essence. Usable only on Metallic weapon type genetic armaments.]

Rohan’s eyes widened. Then narrowed. Then widened again.

He read through the information several times just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.

"...Holy shit."

His shock stemmed from two factors. For one, the fact that this was a treasure just like the Lava Hellebore was one thing.

But the second factor was what shocked him even more!

’It’s been subtle before, but now that I have this thing in my hand...’

’Is it just me being delusional, or is the Origin Realm giving more information than it usually would on things to do with this dungeon?’

He recalled back to the first time he laid a hand on the Lava Hellebore. All the Origin Realm told him about it at that time was its name and rank.

But this time, it was giving him this, but also a short description of the treasure itself! Even what it could be used on!

It wasn’t just this as well, he realised that it had even done the same for the treasure chest.

’Something isn’t right about this place.’