Tempering Limits

The enemy that had blocked his path was dead, and the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle let out an excited shriek.

Then it looked at its new enemy, Lu Yuan.

The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle shrieked and roared again, its claw attacking Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan raised his longsword, blocking it in front of the claw.

Clang!

The longsword and claw collided, and Lu Yuan felt the heavy force, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Not bad.

Within acceptable limits.

He stepped out, his figure turned, and he used the force to come to the side of the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle.

The longsword in his hand slashed horizontally, cutting across the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's Petrification Skin.

With a muffled sound, the Petrification Skin was cut open, and the Beetle Claw longsword left a wound on its body.

The Beetle Claw longsword was, after all, an Elite Quality Gene Armament, and coupled with Lu Yuan's own strength, even the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle could hardly completely resist such an attack.

The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle suffered its first substantial injury, its body shook, and it let out a sharp cry, its movements becoming even more frantic.

Its two sharp front claws danced wildly, attacking Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan dodged, avoiding the attacks while counterattacking.

The battle continued for a moment, and the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle had many wounds on its body.

Although the wounds were not deep, a lot of dark green blood flowed out, staining its body dark green.

With continuous injuries, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's movements were somewhat stiff and trembling, and its attacks were no longer as violent as before.

It was also more convenient for Lu Yuan to dodge.

A moment later, he dodged a claw attack from the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle, and the longsword pierced into its eyes, penetrating its head.

"Squeak squeak!!"

The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle screamed sharply, its body fell to the ground, its short legs twitching constantly, and its vitality gradually dissipated.

Lu Yuan glanced at the corpse on the ground, slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, and dispersed the Black Iron Body.

In this battle, most of his spirit energy was consumed, but the results were very fruitful.

He killed four Kobolds and also killed an Elite fierce beast.

I can only say that I deserve it!

My strength is so strong!

The dead Black-Striped Graystone Beetle had a flash of white light, and the next moment, the white light condensed into Spirit Crystals.

Unlike the Graystone Beetle, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle condensed twenty Spirit Crystals, a full twenty times that of the Graystone Beetle!

Not only that, a white ball of light floated out of its corpse, floating above its corpse.

Inside the white light orb was a set of somewhat crude-looking gray armor.

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. Gene Armament!

Although the probability of an Elite beast dropping a Common Quality Gene Armament wasn't too low, Lu Yuan was still very happy that it dropped on his first try.

Lu Yuan picked up the light orb, and the information about this Gene Armament entered his mind.

This Gene Armament was called Graystone Beetle Armor, and it was condensed from the carapace of Graystone Beetles.

Because it was a Common Quality Gene Armament, it only provided considerable defensive capabilities. Unlike Elite Quality, it didn't amplify his strength.

The style of this armor was also very simple, only protecting important parts such as the shoulders, chest, and knees, with most parts left exposed.

Lu Yuan suspected that this armor was made with shoddy workmanship.

In any case, being able to protect the important parts could save a life sometimes.

After all, it was the first Gene Armament he obtained from killing an Elite beast, so Lu Yuan didn't have too high expectations.

As long as it was usable.

Previously, when Lu Yuan empowered the longsword with Beetle Claw, his physical body had some difficulty supporting it.

But now that he had inscribed an Extraordinary Gene, his physical body had become much stronger.

In addition, this armor was only Common Quality and didn't have a large power amplification, so Lu Yuan could still empower it.

With a thought, he absorbed the Graystone Beetle Armor into his body. Like the longsword, the armor turned into a phantom, floating around the gene chain.

Lu Yuan immediately felt that his defensive ability had improved to a certain extent.

However, his original defensive ability was already very strong, so the improvement wasn't too significant.

With a thought, the armor appeared on his body, protecting his important parts.

Lu Yuan looked down.

Well… the style is a bit ugly.

I'll change it as soon as I get a new one.

After that, Lu Yuan collected the black-striped carapace from the back of the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle, and then went to collect the Spirit Crystals and gray stone carapaces from the other four Graystone Beetles.

Finally, he picked up the spoils dropped by the other four Kobolds.

Perhaps because these four Kobolds had also just entered not long ago, their gains this time weren't very good.

In total, they only had 112 Spirit Crystals, and the same number of gray stone carapaces.

This dashed Lu Yuan's original hopes of having other gains.

But overall, this wave was more rewarding than hunting Graystone Beetles alone for several hours.

He could barely accept it.

After putting everything away, Lu Yuan left the battle area.

In the Graystone Forest, some distance from the battle area, Bertha Vermi glanced behind her and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one was chasing after her.

Then, she gritted her teeth, a ferocious look appearing on her face, and clenched the longbow in her hand:

"Damn humans! How dare you attack me! I can't let this matter go!"

With a flip of her hand, a transparent crystal appeared.

This was a Communication Crystal, which could be bought in the city shops of the Origin Land. It required a considerable amount of Spirit Crystals and could be used for communication within a certain range of the current city.

Bertha Vermi inputted spirit power, and with a thought, the transparent crystal glowed with white light.

The white light flickered, and soon, an image appeared within the transparent crystal.

It was a Kobold with black fur.

He looked at Bertha Vermi respectfully:

"Third Miss, what can I do for you?"

Bertha Vermi gritted her teeth:

"My training team was attacked! Everyone except me is dead."

Hearing this, the black-furred Kobold was stunned, and his eyes widened:

"All dead? Lajin too? Is he dead as well?"

"I said, everyone is dead!"

Bertha Vermi frowned and raised her voice impatiently.

The black-furred Kobold quickly lowered his head:

"Yes, Third Miss! Did you encounter a team from some faction?"

"No, it was just one human."

"One human? Third Miss, isn't the place you're training the Graystone Forest? How could one human have the strength to wipe out your training team?"

The black-furred Kobold looked bewildered.

"I'd like to know too! How are you people doing things? The information on the experts in Sandstone City doesn't include this human! You're taking my father's money, but you can't get anything done! I'll tell my father about this!"

Bertha Vermi said angrily.

"Third Miss, please calm down... This is our dereliction of duty, please allow us to make up for this mistake."

The black-furred Kobold quickly said.

"Hmph! I want revenge! I want to tear that human into pieces! Send more people! He's very strong, don't let him escape!"

"Third Miss, rest assured, I will gather the men immediately!"

The black-furred Kobold quickly said.

"Hmph! I'll wait for you here!"

Hearing this, the coldness on Bertha Vermi's face dissipated slightly.

She slowly said a sentence, and then cut off the communication.

Looking at the transparent crystal, she recalled the previous humiliation, gripped the longbow in her hand, and gritted her teeth:

"Big brother and second sister are doing well, why is it so difficult for me?! Damn humans! Wait, I will make you regret provoking me, Bertha Vermi!"

Lu Yuan absorbed Spirit Crystals while hurrying on his way. Out of a total of one hundred and thirty Spirit Crystals, Lu Yuan absorbed a little over one hundred in no time.

At this moment, the lower section of the gene chain in Lu Yuan's body flickered with a dazzling white light.

The tempering degree has reached about 8%.

However, Lu Yuan found that his efficiency in absorbing Spirit Crystals for tempering was getting lower and lower.

Moreover, his body had a faint pain.

Lu Yuan suspected that it was probably because he had absorbed too many Spirit Crystals in a short period of time, and the tempering speed was too fast, which led to this situation.

After all, besides him, which Apprentice level Gene Warrior could absorb more than one hundred Spirit Crystals in ten minutes to temper the gene chain?

If others knew this speed, they would be scared to death.

Even if his absorption speed could keep up, his body couldn't withstand such a tempering speed.

He was probably at the limit of short-term tempering now. If he continued to temper the gene chain, he felt that his body might collapse.

He needed to slow down.

However, even if he didn't temper the gene chain, Lu Yuan could still continue to absorb Spirit Crystals.

He had to charge the Evolution Cube to prepare for the next evolution of the Black Iron Body.

Although he was not sure how many Spirit Crystals it would take to evolve from Elite Gene to Boss Gene, the amount would definitely not be small.

No pain, no gain.

Being able to use Spirit Crystals to evolve Extraordinary Genes was already a unique opportunity, and Lu Yuan was quite easily satisfied.

Lu Yuan absorbed another ten Spirit Crystals, and he suddenly thought of something and stopped.

That's right, I've also offended a consortium now, maybe they are coming to find trouble with me, I have to keep some trump cards.

Lu Yuan glanced at the remaining twenty Spirit Crystals and stopped absorbing them.

At the same time, he also sped up and ran towards the outside of the Graystone Forest.

As long as he left the Graystone Forest, let the people from that consortium look for him.