Lynn gazed down at the sealed glass container holding the fleshy orb, pondering Alice's words.
"Why would you give it to me?" he asked, looking back up at Alice with confusion.
Alice locked eyes with him, her gaze unwavering. "Based on my observations of your fighting style and the way you use your abilities, this item is probably a great advancement material for your profession sequences." she elaborated.
"You could also sell it of course," she added matter-of-factly. "Regardless, you did the bulk of the hard work in breaking this forbidden space. Consider it payment for saving me and assisting in my investigation."
"Advancement material?" Lynn pondered internally.
Not knowing how else to respond, Lynn slowly nodded his head, accepting her reasoning.
"We can now exit this space," Alice said. "Want to leave together?"
Lynn shook his head. "You go ahead. I have some unfinished business to take care of still."
Alice looked at Lynn and said "Then I'll take my leave first, it was nice meeting you, Doctor Lynn."
"If you need a detective, you can find me in Oakridge City" As she said so, Alice vanished before Lynn's eyes. She exited this forbidden space.
Lynn knew he could follow her lead and exit the same way if he wished. The exit had been opened, with a single thought he could leave this space. But he hesitated, unsure of what would happen if he entered the unknown world beyond the confines of this hospital. With no frame of reference or knowledge to guide him, Lynn decided entering the unknown held too much risk.
And the timer for his own return was already in place, he only needed to wait 30 minutes. In this duration, he had some things to check.
Glancing down at the glass container holding the inert fleshy orb, Lynn used his [Evaluation] skill on it:
[Distorted Flesh]
[Grade: Special]
[Evaluation: A distorted mass of tissue and flesh from an unknown creature. Can be used as a sublimation material.]
"I'm not sure if I'll be able to bring the objects I've obtained from this world with me when I leave," Lynn muttered, his voice tinged with uncertainty.
He looked around at his surroundings. Everything was destroyed, nothing remained of the underground research facilities. Even the zombie corpses were nowhere to be found as they had been entirely devoured by the tentacled creature, meaning he had lost all the potential zombie cores that could strengthen him further.
The only thing that remained was the corpse of the stitched monstrosity. Lynn approached it.
"I wonder if I can get experience from dissecting it," he murmured, his voice barely audible.
Lynn approached the massive corpse of the stitched monstrosity. Gripping his sword, he began the meticulous process of dissection.
Using his sword to carefully cut through the tough, mutated flesh. Dr. Stein's head was stitched within the cavity. The warped flesh parted with some effort, revealing the melted mass that was once human features
He peeled back the layers, progressively revealing the extent to which Dr. Stein's body had fused with the creature. By the end, the doctor was barely recognizable, his form grotesquely merged with the hulking mass of stitched flesh.
"There is no zombie core," Lynn concluded, as expected. This was not a true zombie after all. "At least I gained a significant amount of experience," Lynn reassured himself as he looked at the 30% of added experience.
As Lynn was standing up, his hand touched the coarse threads used to stitch the creature together, he suddenly heard a notification sound.
[Ding!]
[Extraordinary Characteristic detected!]
[Do you want to absorb it?]
Immediately, he felt a sudden influx of information flooding his mind, explaining what was an extraordinary characteristic.
When an extraordinary creature dies, there is a chance that their powers will fuse with the surroundings forming the extraordinary characteristic. If the class is compatible and meet certain prerequisites, you can fuse the extraordinary characteristic to develop a new class skill.
Lynn paused for a moment, surprised, before responding firmly. "Yes!"
As he accepted, a series of notifications started to echo in his mind.
[Player is detected to be in a Dungeon Trial]
[Dungeon Trial Privilege: Exemption from prerequisites]
[Absorbing The Extraordinary Characteristic]
As the notifications continued to appear, Lynn felt a warm flow emanating from the corpse of the stitched monstrosity. The energy seemed to seep into his body, subtly altering and transforming him from within.
At the same time, a torrent of information imprinted itself in his mind, sculpting new knowledge and techniques related to the extraordinary power Lynn was assimilating.
The spirit energy that Lynn had previously utilized solely for his [Cell Proliferation] skill suddenly surged within him, undulating violently. Before his eyes, Lynn watched as the energy seemed to separate into countless thin filaments, extending in all directions from his core.
The sensations intensified for several long moments before gradually stabilizing, the energy strings retracting back to their quiescent state. Lynn took a deep breath as the transformation completed, his body returning to normal.
In his status panel, a new class skill had appeared:
[String Threading]
Lynn's eyes lit up with delight and curiosity as he examined the details of this new ability he had obtained. According to the description, [String Threading] allowed him to project his spiritual energy outward into ultra-fine threads that could be manipulated and controlled.
"Incredible," Lynn muttered under his breath, marveling at this new power. "To think this mutated monstrosity possessed such an ability hidden within it."
Lynn's moment of awe was interrupted by a realization.
"No, it wasn't the stitched monstrosity itself that possessed this ability," he muttered to himself. "It must have originated from Dr. Stein."
Lynn thought back to the battle between the two creatures. At no point had the stitched monstrosity displayed any energy thread techniques. Its abilities were purely physical - unrelenting strength and shocking durability.
"So this ability originated from Dr. Stein, not the creature itself," Lynn concluded. That explained why the stitched monstrosity had never displayed any threading techniques in its berserk state.