Chapter 3: Overpowered
The series of events that had just happened in the short period of time since he had appeared in the Omnisphere made Morden a little light-headed.
He hadn’t even fully understood his mission yet, and then the next thing he knew, he had received a notification about unlocking an innate ability.
"But this innate ability—Gene evolution seems really powerful," Morden muttered.
"If only I could have gotten access to more information
The Bearer world was mostly secluded from the normal citizens, so core information was not available to the public for various reasons. The only non-bearers privy to such information were children of high-standing bearer families and the likes.
It was obvious that this would be a big handicap for ordinary people who suddenly got a bearer tattoo, but nobody really cared.
"I wonder if I could get the details again."
He was currently caught up with the new innate ability and hadn’t realized the faint changes that were going on in his surroundings and even right on his body.
After that notification was displayed, Morden’s Bearer tattoo had been slowly changing form. A dark crystal shard was slowly appearing at the center of the circle.
Even the green crystal on his mom’s precious necklace was gone, and he had absolutely no way of knowing where it had gone.
Scrrreeecccchh!!!
A loud screeching sound suddenly came from behind Morden. It was so loud he could feel his soul shake in his body.
It seems what they said about the fight-or-flight response was true, as Morden immediately sprung towards a tree to his left, hoping to gain cover.
After feeling a bit secured, Morden peeked out from behind the tree towards where he had heard the sound from, wondering if he could see what it was exactly, but the sight in front of him was completely unexpected and it make him open his mouth wide.
About ten meters behind where Morden was previously standing, all the plants there were already burnt to a crisp and even the ground was covered in Red cracks.
Despite all this being quite a scary scene, it wasn’t enough to shock Morden so much; instead, it was the gigantic flaming bird that was currently high in the sky.
’Don’t tell me, that guy caused such a large amount of damage from just a screech,’ Morden thought in horror.
"I better get away from here as soon as possible," he said while cleaning off the beads of sweat on his head.
"But before that I really need to figure out all the basic stuff about this damn place, which means I need to access that screen again."
Morden didn’t have to do anything further, as the moment he thought of summoning that status screen, it immediately appeared in front of him.
[Name: Morden Tales]
[Race: Human]
[Innate Ability: Gene Evolution]
[Status: Confused and Emotionally Depressed]
[Total Genetic Slots: 1]
[Occupied Genetic Slots: 0]
[Strength: 15]
[Speed: 17]
[Durability: 17]
[Assigned Mission: ?????]
[Temporary Mission:Obtain a gene and become a true Bearer]
[Time Remaining: 1 hour 55 minutes]
Now that the screen had popped up again, Morden could finally get a good view of everything, and he instantly noticed some differences between this screen and the first one that appeared.
The first one being the Innate Ability section that wasn’t there before was now included, and the time he also had left had reduced by a bit, increasing his urgency.
That wasn’t all, though; Morden could now see a small circle with a question mark in it to the far right of each section, signifying that it provided additional information.
Not all the sections had one, but a few of them did, which brought a smile to Morden’s face. Out of curiosity, he quickly tried selecting the first one.
[Gene Evolution—an innate ability that allows the owner to evolve the recorded genes as long as he has enough gene shards. Remark: An ability with unlimited potential]
While Morden read through the information that had recently popped up in front of him, a smile was subconsciously forming on his face, and when he finally read the remark, his smile had widened so much it had started looking disturbing.
"It seems the Omnisphere favors me," he said before proceeding to tap on the next section.
[Gene slots—specific areas in one evolution tree where obtained genes are fused and recorded]
Since he had satisfied most of his curiosities about the screen in front of him and Morden could see the time slowly counting down, he knew it was time to move and begin the temporary mission.
[Temporary Mission: Obtain a gene and become a true Bearer]
Reading through the temporary mission currently displayed in front of him, it undoubtedly kicked up some thoughts for Morden.
"What sort of Gene will I be recording first," he muttered.
In this situation, the secrecy of the Bearer world finally showed it’s effects again as Morden had absolutely no idea what type of Genes were even available.
He thought for a bit before another idea popped up in his mind, an idea that seems convincing enough.
"Does it really matter what sort of gene I record, it can be evolved and undoubtedly become stronger," he affirmed.
"If that’s it then, the best option would be to pick the most suitable out of the ones I find,"
Having a rough plan in mind, Morden started his race against time to Obtain a gene as soon as possible. His footsteps on the forest floor were hurried and relentless as he shuffled all about looking for any signs of life. After walking around for a while and not seeing a thing, Morden slowly lost his guards as if he had forgotten about the large bird and at the exact time when he was at his most lax.
Swissshhhhh
He noticed a projectile flying straight at him from the side with absolutely nothing to stop its path.
"Oh shit," he cursed out loudly but with his newly improved stats he was able to react in time.
With a bend of his knee, Morden dodged the projectile with shocking precision and in the same fluid fashion, he turned to look in the direction the attack came from and that was when he saw it.
Standing on the tree not too far away from him were two Golden Monkeys staring back at him menacingly.
"It seems I have found my opponents," he muttered while shaking his head.