Living Dissection

After driving off the Horned Roc, Du Ke continued onward, silently calculating his Psionic Energy.

The daily manifestation of Mind Armor consumed energy, but acquiring knowledge and cultivating it could increase Psionic Energy. Thus, with the knowledge revealed by the flower fairies, not only had his Psionic Energy not decreased, it had gradually increased.

"Although I can't use magic, isn't Mind Armor my magic?"

The bushes were silent, with only the chirping of insects remaining. The small herbivores had long since been frightened away by the roar of the Vulcan Cannon and the Horned Roc's cry. Du Ke spotted pale yellow fruit growing on a three-meter-tall bush. There were not many fruits, and they varied in size. The large ones were as big as fists, while the small ones were the size of marbles. A caterpillar was even lying atop one of them.

It was not one of the Bomb Caterpillars from before, but another kind of hairless caterpillar, its color close to the fruit's pale yellow.

"Forget it. Why am I looking for so many bugs? The Bomb Caterpillars are enough for my research." He remembered that his mission was not to collect a large number of specimens, but to find a way to learn magic.

Of course, more importantly, he was here to investigate information about the Fantasy World. Life was still long, and he would have many more chances to travel through the Fantasy World.

"But if there are caterpillars, these fruits should be edible, right?" Du Ke rubbed his stomach. He had not eaten anything since waking up that morning. Still, he did not rashly try the fruit. Instead, he searched around and found a small animal that resembled a rabbit. A few bursts from his silenced submachine gun killed it, and he took it to the lakeside to skin and clean it.

Then he manifested a grill, skewered the little beast, and began roasting it.

He threw away the possibly poisonous organs, claws, teeth, and other parts, leaving only the meat and bones, which basically guaranteed that it was not poisonous. He had previously tested Death Worm meat on Earth. They were all carbon-based foods and non-toxic. Besides, poisonous creatures on Earth were usually insects, fish, snakes, lizards, and the like.

Very few mammals were venomous.

Once the meat was cooked, its fragrance filled the air. Du Ke cut off a small piece with his dagger and sprinkled it with manifested seasoning—the manifested items would eventually turn into energy, but they could still stimulate his taste buds while being eaten. Only then did he take a bite. But after eating just that small piece, he stopped and waited for a while. Once he felt no signs of poisoning, he continued eating.

After eating half the little beast, his stomach was stuffed round. "It tastes pretty good—fragrant and tender!"

"Since you're the first kind of food I've eaten in the Fantasy World, I'll give you a nice name. I'll call you Delicious Rabbit." Delicious Rabbit was not actually a rabbit, nor could it be considered part of the rabbit family, but that did not stop Du Ke from naming it after an Earth species. Otherwise, he would have to invent some entirely new species name himself, which would not only be less vivid but also awkward to say.

He found the remaining half of the Delicious Rabbit troublesome to carry, so he casually threw it away.

Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly noticed that the discarded half of the Delicious Rabbit had attracted a group of small beasts, each not much bigger than a rat. They looked like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, while also somewhat resembling wingless bats. They crawled out of some underground hole in a swarm, rushed onto the Delicious Rabbit, and desperately fought over it. Their sharp teeth could chew up the Delicious Rabbit, bones and all.

As they ate, they bared their teeth at their companions. They looked utterly ugly.

At that moment, two of the little beasts seemed to have angered each other and began biting and tearing at one another. One had its ear bitten, and blood streamed down. It squealed in pain, then opened its mouth and spat. A jet of flame immediately burst from its mouth, like a fire-breather performing an act. The flames quickly scorched a patch of its opponent's fur and burned off quite a bit of the fur of the nearby beasts fighting over the food.

Naturally, that little beast had provoked public outrage. The group stopped fighting over food and swarmed it, biting it until it was covered in blood. It fled in all directions before crashing headfirst into the grass and disappearing.

After baring their teeth furiously for a while, the little beasts hurried back to continue fighting over the Delicious Rabbit.

In just that short time, the half Delicious Rabbit was gnawed clean without even scraps remaining, and the ugly little beasts began retreating. Du Ke, who had been observing them for some time, quickly acted. He manifested a pair of fire tongs and accurately clamped one of the ugly beasts. Suspended in midair, it cried out in panic, but its companions did not even look back. In the blink of an eye, every one of them had vanished, leaving it to squeal on its own.

"Really ugly."

Du Ke had to give it that assessment. This type of little beast simply did not fit human aesthetic standards.

Whoosh!

Driven into a corner, the little beast turned and spat a jet of flame at Du Ke. The flames were extremely hot, but they could not penetrate the Titanium Alloy Nano Armor.

"This counts as magic too, right? A fire-breathing spell?" Du Ke continued provoking the ugly little beast, making it breathe fire repeatedly. After five consecutive times, it could no longer spit out any flames. Clearly, the number of times it could use magic was limited. "Fire-breathing Golem, that's what I'll call you... Let me dissect you and see where exactly your fire-breathing spell comes from. By ordinary reasoning, you should have something like a crop that stores the fire-breathing substance."

At that moment, Du Ke's passion for scientific research surged. He quickly manifested an operating table and began dissecting the Fire-breathing Golem.

Live dissection was somewhat cruel, and Du Ke could not bring himself to start several times.

He remembered middle school biology class, when the teacher had them dissect frogs in groups of four. Du Ke had held the scalpel with trembling hands, and in the end, a female classmate could not stand watching anymore. She snatched the scalpel from him and sliced through the frog, layer by layer, skin and flesh. So even now, Du Ke had not overcome those feelings, no matter how often he told himself that live dissection would better uncover the secrets of magic.

So in the end, he crushed the Fire-breathing Golem to death before dissecting it.

He cut through its flesh and bones, searching amid the bloody mangled meat. After searching for a long time, he found no crop for storing fire-breathing substances. Instead, he discovered that the internal organs of these Fantasy World animals were much the same as those of Earth animals. Their muscle and skeletal structures also differed little from Earth animals. Their brains connected to nerves, their hearts pumped blood, and their lungs breathed air.

"How strange. Could magic be produced out of thin air? Why is there no organ for casting magic? I tested the substances in the air, and they clearly aren't much different from Earth's. I can't find any so-called 'Magic Element'... Could it be that my professional knowledge isn't sufficient?" He checked the Fire-breathing Golem's tissues five or six times over, yet truly found no organ that might be related to magic.

In the end, he could only let the matter go.

He put away the operating table and looked at the two suns, one large and one small, that had already risen into the sky. He felt rather dispirited. "I regret not studying medicine. Otherwise, I definitely could have found something related to magic in the Fire-breathing Golem's body... It would be great if I could bring someone through the Fantasy World. Bring a scientist over to specialize in researching the principles behind magic."

As the two suns rose higher, the temperature continued climbing, already exceeding yesterday's high of 36°C, and it was not even noon yet.

Du Ke had already activated the temperature control system inside the Nano Armor. "No wonder Shawa Shawa said the flower fairies hibernate through the summer to escape the heat. Once summer truly arrives, you simply can't survive without air conditioning."