Lord: Starting with Biological Modification

"It’s like you have eyes in the back of your head. The moment I swung my axe, you dodged. Did you learn how to fight blind? And how was your coordination so quick? Did you train beforehand just to ambush me?"

Barrett smiled, not taking offense, and simply pointed to the back of his neck.

Ola leaned in and saw a flat... bug?... attached to the skin on the back of his neck.

"This is..."

"A ’treasure’ bestowed by the Lord," Barrett said, lowering his voice.

"During the drill, the five of us could ’hear’ each other’s thoughts. I could ’see’ the images my Scout saw. We didn’t need to speak, use hand signals, or even exchange a glance—we all knew what to do."

Ola froze in place. His hand, which had been gripping Barrett’s collar, unconsciously let go.

It took him a long moment to understand just how he had lost.

It had seemed like his side had the better equipment, but this hadn’t been a fair fight at all!

The five of them hadn’t been facing five enemies, but a single monster with five pairs of hands, five pairs of feet, and ten eyes!

After listening to Barrett and Ola’s report in the meeting room, Velin nodded.

’The combat effectiveness of the Hive Matrix was even greater than he had anticipated.’

"Ola, Barrett," Velin began.

"Yes, my lord!" The two men immediately stood ramrod straight.

"Each of you will select ten of your men. They will become the first soldiers to be equipped with hive terminals."

"Yes!"

Ola and Barrett roared in unison, their eyes shining with the excitement of warriors about to receive a legendary sword.

...

Circular Magic Potion Garden.

Ryo was in an excellent mood.

Recently, with the support of the Origin Association, his already considerable talent had allowed him to smoothly advance to a Level 2 Mage.

Now, he was meticulously carrying out another task Velin had assigned him:

Conducting a gridded survey and recording of the Ether concentration throughout Mist Spring Valley.

The work was tedious and complex, requiring immense patience, but Ryo reveled in it.

He loved the process of converting the mysterious "Ether" into rows of tidy numbers.

It made him feel as if he were touching the very rules of the world.

Ryo walked to the edge of the lake at the center of the Magic Potion Garden to take a reading.

Sunlight danced on the sparkling surface of the lake.

He held a simple magical instrument in his hand—one he had designed and built himself—that gave a rough indication of the Ether concentration.

At the moment, its needle was pointing steadily at a marking for "Intermediate-Mid."

Everything was normal.

He was about to record the data and head to the next survey point.

Just then, the instrument’s slender brass needle deflected to the right by a minuscule amount.

The deflection was almost negligible and lasted less than a second before the needle returned to its original position.

It was the kind of twitch one might mistake for a tremor in their own hand.

Anyone else would have likely missed the anomaly.

But not Ryo. He was meticulous with every reading, and he was certain his hand hadn’t trembled.

Puzzled, he furrowed his brow and stared at the instrument.

’An illusion?’

He shook his head, ruling out the possibility.

Lord Velin had taught him that a proper researcher must have absolute faith in their observations and data, unless more reliable evidence proves them wrong.

So he stood there, perfectly still, watching the needle.

Ten minutes passed. The lake remained calm, the needle motionless.

Thirty minutes passed. A few workers in the distance cast curious glances his way, but the needle still didn’t move.

An hour passed. The sun began to dip toward the west, stretching his shadow long across the ground.

Just as Ryo’s patience was wearing thin and he began to wonder if he had imagined it, the needle twitched again—the same minuscule deflection to the right, then a swift return to its original position.

This time, he saw it clearly.

’It wasn’t an illusion!’

Ryo’s heart skipped a beat.

He immediately realized that beneath the seemingly placid surface of the lake, there was a problem—a big one, capable of disturbing the local Ether concentration.

Without a word, he silently packed up his instrument and strode back toward the research institute.

He rummaged through his room, found a waterproof bag, and packed a few essential tools inside.

A bottle of Underwater Breathing Potion, a fine enchanted dagger, a Philosopher’s Stone to enhance the effect of his Light Skill, and the Ether concentration indicator.

Back at the lake, he uncorked the blue potion, which smelled faintly of fish, and drank it in one go.

A cool liquid slid down his throat. His lungs tingled with a salty, fishy sensation that was quickly replaced by a peculiar coolness.

Ryo slipped into the water and took a deep breath. Cold lake water flooded his lungs, yet there was no sense of suffocation. It felt as natural as breathing air.

The water was murkier than he’d expected; suspended silt and weeds made for low visibility.

Sounds were muffled and distorted down here. He could only hear the thumping of his own heart and the gurgle of water flowing past his ears.

He cast the Light Skill on his Philosopher’s Stone. A soft white glow dispelled the darkness, bringing the underwater scene into focus.

After a moment’s hesitation, he swam toward the center of the lake. The closer he got, the more distinctly he felt the momentary spikes in Ether concentration.

A talent rooted in his bloodline allowed him to perceive the fleeting sensations without even needing his instrument.

Finally, at the very center of the lakebed, he found the source of the anomaly.

It was a pitch-black opening, about two meters in diameter. Its edges were smooth, showing clear signs of being artificially carved.

A faint current was being drawn into the opening.

’This is it.’

Ryo’s heart began to race.

Fear and curiosity battled in his mind, but in the end, Lord Velin’s teachings won out: ’The unknown is not what’s terrifying; what’s terrifying is an unknown that cannot be observed and recorded.’

He drew his dagger, hugged a heavy stone to his chest, and slowly squeezed into the opening.

The opening led to a vertical tunnel plunging straight down.

He descended for about thirty meters before finally seeing the bottom.

He landed on a sloped rock formation. Before him stretched a deep, horizontal tunnel.

To his astonishment, the water here was a hundred times clearer than in the lake above; he could see almost no impurities.

The Ether concentration in the air—no, in the water—was at least twice as dense as it was on the surface.

Faintly glowing algae clung to the rock walls, bathing the entire tunnel in a dreamlike light.

He followed the tunnel, exploring deeper.

The deeper he went, the higher the concentration of Ether became.

He could even see faint blue streams of Ether Energy, like smoke in the water, drifting slowly from the depths of the tunnel before dissipating upward.

’The fleeting Ether fluctuations at the lake’s center must be the disturbances caused by these high concentrations of Ether escaping from the depths through the opening on the lakebed!’

Ryo walked for about ten minutes. The tunnel began to slope upward, and soon he emerged from the water. The space before him opened up dramatically.