Genetic Awakening: My Genes Evolve Infinitely!

The presence of this elite explained the strange, disciplined shape of the pack immediately. The ordinary Rabid Wolves wouldn’t have gathered together like this, as despite being wolves, they were rabid and so weren’t under the influence of their normal instincts.

But it seemed that under the influence of this elite, that had changed. They weren’t just gathered here by coincidence, nor were they simply howling like idiots. They were arranged in a circular formation, with the elite at the centre.

’It’s using the ordinary wolves as a wall to protect itself...’

Now that Rohan had finally noticed the presence of the elite in the centre of this chamber, he almost felt insulted that he hadn’t done so earlier.

’Tsk, was I so excited by the prospect of so many free Origin Crystals that I completely forgot about how the Origin Realm works?’

Because of how strange the dungeon had been since his first encounter with it, he’d completely forgotten its similarities to both the gates back in the outside universe, but also the beast nests like the one he’d encountered with Rudith and the others.

Beasts, especially mindless beasts like all the ones he’d encountered so far, didn’t just gather together for no reason. Literally every single time he experienced a large gathering of beasts in his time as an Awakened so far had a stronger presence behind them.

Liam... The E rank Elite back in the ant nest... and now this place, where another E rank Elite was standing guard in the centre of this chamber.

The elite’s presence slithered through the chamber like a cold draft through a house with broken windows. Rohan felt insanely pressured by it — he had no right to be facing off against such a powerhouse at his current rank. He knew that too.

It wasn’t as suffocating as what he’d experienced under the hoplite’s aura, but it was still very heavy. It made every little instinct within his body remind him that charging in mindlessly now would be a very quick way to get mauled to death.

Even with his molten-stone skin, the chances of them outlasting his energy reserves were higher than Rohan managing to take them all, including the E rank Elite, out before that happened.

The ordinary wolves condinued to circle and shift around the centre of the pack, scratching at the stones and letting out low growls. Compared to their ’Rabid’ moniker, they looked and acted much more like normal wolves right now.

Rohan was annoyed. That whole herd mentality idea he’d been working with so far hadn’t exactly been wrong, but it suddenly looked far less useful when there was an Elite in the middle holding all the mess together.

’So much for an easy clean up.’

Rohan stopped advancing and let the tip of his spear lower to the ground, creating menacing sounds of metal on stone with sparks flying off while he studied the horde more carefully.

’There.’

So far, he could only feel the aura emanating from the elite, but hadn’t yet seen it. The blue moss from before was far less prevalent in this place, making it much dimmer, close to the point of total darkness.

Right at the centre, a darker shape shifted between the ordinary wolves. The pack parted just enough for him to catch a proper glimpse of the thing.

At first glance, it looked like the others — a lean build, same rough grey fur, same hateful red glow in its eyes. But everything about it was much more intimidating. It’s body was slightly larger, but not so much that it was obvious.

To put it lightly, it looked like a much more streamlined version of the ordinary wolves Rohan was already so used to killing by now. As if they were the version 1, and this elite was version 2.

But Rohan himself had been working on some new tricks over the past couple of days.

"Let’s see how you guys like this."

He lifted his spear up, and something spectacular happened.

Rohan hadn’t just been idling away over the past two days while hunting in this dungeon. Ever since he first received the newly added molten attributed, he’d been working on honing it for more uses than just spurting a bit of lava at the enemy whenever his body was hit.

And just a few hours prior, he’d finally seen some success.

Lava started to flow out from his molten skin towards his spear, and after two seconds passed, the entire thing was coated. ’I reckon that with some more practice, I can get this time down to a single instant.’

But the real kicker came next.

Rohan planted his feet into the ground and lowered his centre of gravity, then with both hands gripping tight as ever on the shaft of his spear, he swiped it across the empty air in a wide arc, from one side of his body to the other.

With the speed he was able to swing his spear when using his full strength, the results of this new technique were devastating.

Liquid lava went flying, quite literally everywhere in front of Rohan for several hundred metres before its momentum faded and fell down to the ground.

Or, for a good chunk of unlucky wolves, a rain of lava fell down onto them before they could react — which, let’s be real, even if they could react, their puny brains wouldn’t know what to make out of this attack.

Carnage erupted all over the cave chamber. Over a hundred wolves were hit by Rohan’s lava rain and escaped the control of the elite lording over them. These wolves returned to their rabid form and started running all over the place, whimpering and rolling about, desperately trying to rid themselves of the pain Rohan had caused them.

As the elite was only a single tier above the ordinary wolves, it wasn’t able to maintain control over them while they were in their panicked and distraught state. It wasn’t like the pseudo commander tier beast back in the spike beast gate, or Liam’s absurdly overpowered gene that allowed him to control thousands of beasts at once.

’I think I’ll name that technique "Napalm rain."’ Rohan smugly thought to himself.

He always knew the properties of his molten skin resembled a mix of lava and napalm, rather than just straight up lava, due to its sticky properties. So this new and unique method of applying his molten element fit that description perfectly.

But his smugness faded when his eyes landed back on the elite.

The larger wolf had not escaped the napalm rain entirely unscathed, but compared to the other wolves around it, the damage it suffered was almost laughably minor. A few splashes of molten lava clung to its fur along its shoulders and one side of its back, burning away patches of dark grey hair and exposing the reddened flesh underneath, but that was all.

It had clearly reacted in time, moving just enough to avoid the worst of the attack while its ordinary underlings took the full force of it.

Aside from that, it was more resistant to the lava as well. Being the same rank and tier as the gene it originated from, it was logical that the elite would be able to fend better against it.

Still, that minor damage wasn’t what Rohan was aiming for. Robbing the beast of control over the hundreds of rabid wolves in the chamber was the real success from this attack.

’I’d send another volley over it it wasn’t so energy exhausting.’ That one attack alone drained him of over 10% of his energy reserves.

The careful, circular formation around it had broken down into utter chaos in the space of seconds. Wolves were rolling across the stone floor, slamming into one another, yelping and howling in a great panic as the sticky molten substance clung to their fur and refused to come off. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Others bolted blindly in random directions their reddened eyes could point them to as pain overrode whatever thin leash the elite had over their minds.

Standing at the edge of it all, spear still dripping with molten lava, Rohan slowly raised his gaze to meet the beast at the centre of it all.

"There you are."

The Elite Rabid Wolf looked back at him, and whatever primitive beastly calm it had worn before was gone. It was agitated. Furious at the collapse of the order it had build but rational enough to realise that Rohan was a far more formidable foe than it judged.

Its lips curled higher, exposing every inch of its wet, serrated teeth, while a low growl rumbled out of its chest and spread through the chamber like thunder. The annoyed sounds of the elite overtook any yelping and whimpering of the other wolves, sounding as clear to Rohan as if the beast was right next to him.

Rohan smiled.

"It’s just us two now. Your underlings can’t even help themselves, let alone help you."

He rushed in.