Chapter 5: First Evolution
Confusion completely overtook Morden while he stared at the screen in front of him, trying to figure out why that had happened.
"Why isn’t it being recorded?" he muttered worriedly.
A large number of disturbing thoughts kept flooding Morden’s mind, making it hard for him to even think properly.
"Is it some sort of defect? Is it because the gene grade is too high? Is it because of that awakened innate ability?"
"Ohhh wait, the Awakened ability," Morden suddenly called out.
He could remember the moment the ability was about to be awakened; there was a system screen glitch, and then the screen read something about a primordial shard detected and then the ability.
"The ability could cause a glitch in the system, which says it can’t be a problem with my recording," he concluded.
But having no way of confirming his suspicion, Morden could only grit his teeth and keep his frustrations to himself.
"What do I do now?" he wondered.
The first attempt to record a gene had failed, and his timer was still slowly counting down. The last option was the common-grade gene, something he wasn’t willing to accept.
Who could blame him? Everyone wants something better.
Completely helpless and stuck in a dilemma, Morden moved to rest on a tree trunk, blood still trickling out of his chest and shoulder.
Time passed, but Morden still remained in his spot, his eyes closed and his consciousness slowly growing dizzy; he had lost too much blood.
[30 minutes are left for the temporary mission to end; failure to complete the mission shall result in elimination.]
The sudden sound jolted Morden back to a more alert state, forcing him to open his eyes to read the text again.
"Time is running out, uhhh?" he said in a low voice.
"I guess there’s no choice then."
He recorded the common-grade gene in his mind, and the next moment he received a notification.
Are you willing to record the (common-grade) Boost? Yes/No]
Staring at the string of texts again, a gentle sigh escaped Morden’s mouth before proceeding to select the ’Yes’ option.
Immediately after the option was selected, a response was instantly initiated.
Morden noticed the same feeling as the first time; something was moving in his body, and it was heading towards the Core at astonishing speeds.
It was almost three times as fast as the first one, and the impact was less noticeable.
But unlike the last time, upon arrival at the Genetic Tree in the core region of the body, Morden suddenly noticed some sort of absorption force being generated; the Genetic Tree was actively pulling it in.
Before Morden could even blink, the gene had already completely fused with the slot on the genetic tree and had even started to create changes.
The first thing that hit him like a train was pain. Pain spread straight from his body core to all his extremities first and then his brain last.
He could feel it like a certain part of his veins was being destroyed and newly reconstructed simultaneously and endlessly.
It was so painful, Morden couldn’t even bother screaming out; instead, his eyes almost completely rolled over.
He could only remain in his sitting position, frozen physically and mentally by the pain.
As time flew by, a thin line of tears had already formed on Morden’s face and had even completely dried, leaving only a mark when the pain slowly reduced until it completely vanished.
[Congratulations, Morden Tales has successfully recorded a gene and has obtained the ability Boost and is also now a full-fledged gene bearer.]
[Congratulations, Morden Tales has successfully completed the temporary mission with a B-rank performance and has been rewarded an uncommon-grade genetic weapon.]
[The inventory is now accessible.]
[The assigned mission will now be displayed.]
A barrage of notifications and text suddenly appeared in front of Morden.
Despite what he had just gone through, a smile slowly formed on his face when he read the first line of text, but the smile slowly faded as he read the next lines.
"I got a freaking B-rank performance, how the hell?" he complained.
"All I’m worth is a B-rank. Who decided that?"
His unwillingness to accept the assessment didn’t stop him from checking the other notifications, and what he saw gave him a feeling of anticipation.
He wasted no time and was about to pull up his status screen to check the inventory and the assigned mission when the strings of text in front of him suddenly glitched in a way that seemed awfully familiar to him.
[An uncommon-grade gene was detected. Would you like to convert them to genetic shards?
Having gained clarity for a while, Morden didn’t know how to react to the confusion that had suddenly popped up again.
"What the hell are gene shards?" he questioned.
From the glitch to the status screen and the overall vibes of everything, Morden knew this wasn’t normal.
"I don’t have any more use for the gene anyway; I might as well try."
With that thought, he didn’t hesitate anymore and chose the ’Yes’ option.
[Conversion successful—You have obtained 11 genetic shards.]
A smile formed on Morden’s face seeing the successful conversion despite having no idea what he was supposed to do with them.
Having no way of getting any answer at all, Morden pushed that thought aside and decided to pull up the status screen to give himself some sort of relief or joy.
[Name: Morden Tales]
[Race: Human]
[Innate Ability: Gene Evolution]
[Genetic shards: 11]
[Status: Still Confused and Emotionally Depressed]
[Total Genetic Slots: 1]
[Occupied Genetic Slots: 1]
[Ability obtained: Boost (Common grade)]
[Strength: 15]
[Speed: 17]
[Durability: 22]
[Stat Points: 10]
[Assigned Mission: Stop the Mountain Lord’s Reign of Terror]
[Temporary Mission: Completed]
[Time Remaining: 22 hours, 50 minutes]
[In Inventory: Uncommon-grade Genetic Weapon]
Seeing his new and upgraded status screen, Morden couldn’t help but nodded his head with pride.
"So much growth in such a small amount of time," he said in a serious tone while attempting to get up.
And just the way it had happened twice before, the status screen in front of Morden glitched crazily again, and now the blue text was replaced with purple ones.
[Enough gene shards detected]
[Would you like to use the innate ability to evolve the acquired ability from common grade to uncommon grade for 10 genetic shards?]