Tempering Limit

The enemy blocking its path was dead. The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle let out an excited shriek.

Then it turned its gaze toward a new enemy—Lu Yuan.

The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle shrieked and roared again, swiping a claw at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan raised his longsword and blocked the claw.

Clang!

As the longsword collided with the claw, Lu Yuan felt the heavy force behind it and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Not bad.

It was within an acceptable range.

He stepped forward and spun, using the force to move to the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's side.

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

With a dull sound, the Petrification Skin split apart, and the Beetle Claw longsword left a wound on its body.

The Beetle Claw longsword was, after all, an Elite Quality Gene Armament. Combined with Lu Yuan's own strength, even the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle found it difficult to completely withstand such an attack.

Having suffered substantial damage for the first time, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle shuddered and let out a piercing cry. Its movements became even more frenzied.

Its two sharp foreclaws swung wildly, attacking Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan dodged while counterattacking.

After fighting for a while, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle had gained quite a few wounds.

Though the wounds were not deep, dark green blood seeped from many of them, staining its body dark green.

After being wounded repeatedly, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's movements became stiff and trembled. Its attacks were no longer as violent as before.

This also made it easier for Lu Yuan to evade.

A moment later, he dodged one of the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's claw strikes and drove his longsword into its eye, piercing deep into its head.

"Screech!!"

The Black-Striped Graystone Beetle let out a shrill scream and collapsed. Its short little legs twitched continuously as its life force gradually faded.

Lu Yuan glanced at the corpse on the ground, slowly exhaled a breath of foul air, and dispelled Black Iron Body.

This battle had consumed more than half his spiritual energy, but the gains had been plentiful.

He had killed four dogmen and an Elite Ferocious Beast.

All he could say was, as expected of me!

My strength was damn amazing!

White light flickered over the dead Black-Striped Graystone Beetle. The next moment, it condensed into spirit crystals.

Unlike the Graystone Beetle, the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle had condensed twenty spirit crystals—twenty times as many as a Graystone Beetle!

Not only that, a white orb floated up from its corpse and hovered above it.

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

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. A Gene Armament!

Although Elite Ferocious Beasts did not have an especially low chance of dropping ordinary quality Gene Armaments upon death, Lu Yuan was still quite happy that one had dropped on his first try.

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

This Gene Armament was called Graystone Beetle Armor, condensed from the shells of Graystone Beetles.

Because it was an ordinary quality Gene Armament, it simply provided considerable defensive power. Unlike Elite Quality equipment, it could not amplify his strength.

The armor's design was also very crude. It only protected vital areas such as the shoulders, chest, and knees, while most areas were left exposed.

Lu Yuan suspected that the armor had been cheaped out on.

No matter what, being able to protect vital areas could sometimes save a life.

After all, this was the Gene Armament he had obtained from killing his first Elite Ferocious Beast, so Lu Yuan had not held overly high expectations.

As long as it worked, that was enough.

Previously, when Lu Yuan had equipped the Beetle Claw, his physical body had found it somewhat difficult to bear.

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

On top of that, this armor was only ordinary quality and did not provide much of a strength boost, so Lu Yuan could still equip it.

With a thought, he absorbed the Graystone Beetle Armor into his body. Like the longsword, the armor turned into a phantom and floated around the Gene Chain.

Lu Yuan immediately felt his defensive ability improve somewhat.

However, his original defensive power was already quite formidable, so the increase was not all that significant.

With another thought from Lu Yuan, the armor appeared on his body, protecting his vital areas.

Lu Yuan lowered his head and looked at it.

Mm... the design was a little ugly.

He would replace it as soon as he got something new.

Afterward, Lu Yuan collected the black-striped carapace from the Black-Striped Graystone Beetle's back, then gathered the spirit crystals and Gray Stone Armor from the other four Graystone Beetles.

Finally, he picked up the loot dropped by the other four dogmen.

Perhaps because the four dogmen had only entered recently as well, their haul this time was not very impressive.

Altogether, they had only 112 spirit crystals, along with the same number of Gray Stone Armor.

This dashed Lu Yuan's hopes of finding other gains.

Still, this haul was greater than what he could have earned from hunting Graystone Beetles alone for several hours.

He could barely accept that.

Only after putting everything away did Lu Yuan leave the battle area.

In the Graystone Forest some distance away from the battle area, Bertha Vermi glanced behind her. Seeing that no one had followed, she let out a sigh of relief.

Then she gritted her teeth, a vicious expression appearing on her face as she tightened her grip on the longbow in her hand.

"Damn human! You actually dared to attack me! I can't just let this grudge go!"

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

This was a Communication Crystal. It could be purchased from city shops in the Origin Land for a considerable number of spirit crystals, allowing communication within a certain range of the current city.

Bertha Vermi poured spiritual energy into it, and with a thought, the transparent crystal began to glow white.

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

It was a dogman with black fur.

He looked at Bertha Vermi respectfully.

"Third Miss, what business do you have with me?"

Bertha Vermi gritted her teeth.

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

Hearing this, the black-furred dogman froze and widened his eyes.

"They're all dead? What about Lajin? Is he dead too?"

"I already said they're all dead!"

Bertha Vermi frowned and raised her voice impatiently.

The black-furred dogman hurriedly lowered his head.

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

"No, there was only one human."

"One human? Third Miss, weren't you training in the Graystone Forest? How could a single human possibly have the strength to wipe out your training team?"

The black-furred dogman looked utterly bewildered.

"I want to know that too! How do you people do your jobs? There wasn't even any information on this human in the records of Sandstone City's strong people! You take my father's money, yet you can't get anything done! I'll tell my father about this!"

Bertha Vermi said angrily.

"Third Miss, please calm down... This was our failure. Please allow us to make up for this mistake."

The black-furred dogman hurriedly said.

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

"Rest assured, Third Miss. I'll gather men immediately!"

The black-furred dogman quickly replied.

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

Only then did the coldness on Bertha Vermi's face ease slightly.

She spoke slowly, then cut off the communication.

Looking at the transparent crystal, she recalled the humiliation from before. Clutching the longbow in her hand, she gritted her teeth.

"My eldest brother and second sister are doing so well. Why has everything gone so badly for me?! Damn human! Just wait—I'll make you regret provoking me, Bertha Vermi!"

Lu Yuan absorbed spirit crystals as he traveled. Out of the roughly 130 spirit crystals, it did not take him long to absorb a little over a hundred.

At that moment, a section beneath the Gene Chain in Lu Yuan's body glimmered with dazzling white light.

His Tempering Level had already reached around 8%.

However, Lu Yuan discovered that the efficiency of absorbing spirit crystals for tempering was getting lower and lower.

Moreover, his body was beginning to feel faint pain.

Lu Yuan suspected it was because he had absorbed too many spirit crystals in a short time and tempered too quickly, causing this condition.

After all, besides him, what apprentice-level Gene Warrior could absorb more than a hundred spirit crystals in ten-odd minutes to temper their Gene Chain?

That speed would scare anyone else to death.

Even if his absorption speed could keep up, his body could not withstand such a tempering rate.

He had probably reached his short-term tempering limit. If he continued tempering his Gene Chain, he felt that his body might collapse.

He needed to slow down for a while.

Still, even without tempering his Gene Chain, Lu Yuan could continue absorbing spirit crystals.

He needed to charge the Evolution Cube and prepare for Black Iron Body's next evolution.

Although he was not yet sure how many spirit crystals it would take to evolve from an Elite Gene to a boss Gene, the amount certainly would not be small.

No pain, no gain.

Being able to evolve an Extraordinary Gene with spirit crystals was already a one-of-a-kind opportunity. Lu Yuan was quite easily satisfied.

Lu Yuan absorbed another dozen or so spirit crystals before suddenly thinking of something and stopping.

Right, I've offended a corporation now. Maybe they're coming to find trouble with me. I need to keep a trump card in reserve.

Lu Yuan looked at the remaining twenty-odd spirit crystals and stopped absorbing them.

At the same time, he sped up and ran toward the edge of the Graystone Forest.

As long as he left the Graystone Forest, those corporation people could search all they wanted.