Live Dissection

After repelling the Horned Roc, Du Ke continued his advance, mentally estimating his Psionic Energy.

Materializing the daily Mind Armor consumed energy, but acquiring knowledge and practicing increased Psionic Energy. Thus, with the knowledge revealed by the Flower Spirits, his Psionic Energy had not only not decreased but had grown daily.

"Although I don't know Magic, isn't Mind Armor also my Magic?"

The bushes were quiet, with only the chirping of insects remaining. The herbivorous small beasts had long since fled from the roar of the Vulcan Cannon and the cries of the Horned Roc. Du Ke spotted a three-meter-tall bush bearing light yellow fruits. The fruits weren't many and varied in size, from fist-sized to marble-sized. On one of the fruits, a caterpillar was perched.

It wasn't the Bomb Caterpillars from before, but a different kind of caterpillar, one without fuzz, its color close to the light yellow of the fruit.

"Forget it, why am I collecting so many insects? Bomb Caterpillars are enough for me to research." He remembered his mission objective wasn't to collect a large number of specimens, but to find a way to learn Magic.

Of course, the more important thing was to gather information about the Fantasy World. Life was long, and he had many more opportunities to travel to Fantasy Worlds.

"But, if there are caterpillars, this fruit should be edible, right?" Du Ke patted his stomach. He hadn't eaten since waking up, but he didn't rashly eat the fruit. Instead, he explored and found a small beast resembling a rabbit. He shot it a few times with a silencer-equipped Assault Rifle, killed it, and took it to the lake to skin and clean.

Then, he materialized a barbecue grill, skewered the small beast, and began to roast it.

He discarded the internal organs, claws, and teeth, which might be poisonous, leaving only the meat and bones. This ensured it was basically non-toxic. He had already experimented with the meat of the Death Worm on Earth, and since most ingredients were carbon-based, there was no toxicity. Moreover, poisonous things on Earth were either insects, fish, snakes, or lizards.

Few Mammals were poisonous.

When the meat was cooked and fragrant, Du Ke cut off a small piece with his dagger, sprinkled it with materialized seasonings—materialized things eventually turned into energy, but the consumption process could stimulate the taste buds—and then began to eat. However, he only ate a small piece and waited for a moment. Not feeling poisoned, he continued to eat.

He ate half of the small beast, filling his stomach: "It tastes good, fragrant and tender!"

"Since you're the first food I'm eating in the Fantasy World, I'll give you a nice name: Delicious Rabbit." The Delicious Rabbit wasn't a rabbit, nor could it be classified as a rabbit species, but that didn't stop Du Ke from naming it after an Earth species. Otherwise, he couldn't create a new species himself, which would not only be un-vivid but also awkward to say.

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

Just as he was about to get up, he suddenly noticed that the discarded half of the Delicious Rabbit had attracted a group of small beasts no bigger than mice. These small beasts looked like the Golem from The Lord of the Rings, and somewhat resembled bats without wings. They emerged from an underground cave in groups, swarming onto the Delicious Rabbit and devouring it desperately. They had sharp teeth that could chew the Delicious Rabbit bone and all.

While eating, they bared their teeth at their companions, looking very ugly.

At this moment, two small beasts seemed to have angered each other and began to bite. One had its ear bitten, bleeding profusely. It yelped in pain, then opened its mouth and spat, and a stream of flame shot out, like a fire-breather performing a stunt. The flames quickly scorched a patch of its opponent's fur, and also burned off a lot of the fur of the small beasts feeding nearby.

Logically, this small beast incurred the wrath of the crowd. The group of small beasts stopped fighting over food and swarmed it, biting it until it was covered in blood. It fled in all directions, crashing into the bushes and disappearing.

The enraged small beasts, after baring their teeth for a while, hurried back to continue fighting over the Delicious Rabbit.

In just a moment, the half Delicious Rabbit was completely devoured, leaving no scraps. The group of ugly small beasts also began to retreat. Du Ke, who had been observing for a long time, quickly acted, materializing fire tongs and accurately clamping onto an ugly small beast. The small beast was held in mid-air, squeaking in panic, but its companions didn't look back, disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving the small beast to squeak in vain.

"So ugly."

Du Ke had to comment, as the appearance of these small beasts did not conform to human aesthetics.

Whoosh!

Cornered, the small beast turned and spewed a flame at Du Ke. The flame was very hot, but it couldn't penetrate the Titanium Alloy Nano Armor.

"This is also Magic, isn't it? Fire-breathing?" Du Ke continued to provoke the ugly small beast, making it continuously spew fire. After five consecutive times, the small beast could no longer spit out any flames, indicating its Magic usage was limited. "Fire-breathing Golem, that's what I'll call you... Let me dissect you and see where your fire-breathing technique is released from. According to general explanations, you should have some kind of crop to store the fire-breathing substance."

At this moment, Du Ke's scientific curiosity was greatly piqued. He quickly materialized an operating table and began to dissect the Fire-breathing Golem.

Live dissection was a bit cruel, and Du Ke couldn't bring himself to do it several times.

He remembered in junior high biology class, the Teacher asked them to dissect frogs. In a group of four, Du Ke's hand trembled non-stop with the scalpel. In the end, a female classmate couldn't stand it, took the scalpel, and swiftly cut through the frog's skin and flesh. So, Du Ke still couldn't overcome this emotion, even though he kept telling himself that live dissection could better reveal the secrets of Magic.

Therefore, he finally squeezed the Fire-breathing Golem to death before dissecting it.

He cut through the skin, flesh, and bones, searching in the bloody, minced meat. After a long search, he couldn't find any crop that stored fire-breathing substances. Instead, he found that the internal organs of these Fantasy World animals were similar to those of Earth animals. The muscle structure and bone structure were also not much different from Earth animals: the brain connected to nerves, the heart supplied blood, and the lungs breathed air.

"Strange, does Magic generate out of thin air? Why is there no organ for releasing Magic? I've tested the substances in the air, and they are not much different from Earth. I can't find any so-called 'Magic Elements'... Is my professional level not high enough?" He checked the Fire-breathing Golem's body tissues five or six times, but still couldn't find any organs possibly related to Magic.

Ultimately, he had to give up.

Putting away the operating table, he looked up at the sky where one large and one small sun had risen. He felt a sense of disappointment: "I regret not studying medicine. Otherwise, I could definitely find parts related to Magic in the body of the Fire-breathing Golem... If only I could bring someone to the Fantasy World, a scientist, to research the principles of Magic generation for me."

As the two suns rose higher, the temperature continued to climb, already exceeding yesterday's high of 36°C, and it wasn't even noon yet.

Du Ke had already activated the internal constant temperature device of his Nano Armor: "No wonder Shawa Shawa said the Flower Spirits hibernate in the summer to avoid the heat. If it really gets to summer, without air conditioning, one simply cannot survive."