"Big sister Flare, wait a minute, I have a request." Flare pauses. She turns to him with a puzzled expression, and he can see that he is distraught.
"Do you have any healers in your group? Elcio sacrificed both his arms in order for us to defeat the mutated peak Advanced Grade ant." Just as he finishes this, Flare is so shocked that her expression becomes gobsmacked.
"Your group fought a being that is known to be invincible below Supernaturals!?" The people around them heard her shout and also frozen in their steps.
"Yes, we were unlucky to encounter it; hahaha, it had chewed a hole in my stomach; my guts were actually spilling out earlier, hahaha!" Trying to ease the tense atmosphere, he tries to make a joke.
"Cleo, fighting against a peak Advanced Grade mutant is considered suicidal for your group! What were you thinking!?" She is going crazy about how he undermines what had happened.
"Uhm, young miss, what he had said about his guts spilling out is no exaggeration; in order to fight against the mutant, he was forced to grit his teeth as it chewed his stomach from inside out; his guts were definitely spilling out; if not for his abnormal regeneration, we would have thought that such injuries would have killed him; he lost a ton of blood that should not be possible for normal humans," the guard captain added.
"What!?" She is now more angry than before.
"Please calm down; I am alright; my guts have rearranged themselves, and I am recovering fine." Seeing her getting more anxious, he tries to calm her down, but the blood on his stomach is not helping his cause at all.
"You sit down!" She roars, causing him to sit on the ground. She quickly leaves, and when she returns, she brings with her a female medic; it seems that this person is a member of the army.
"Why did you drag me here, Flare?" asks the medic. She frowns, and her gaze locks on Cleo. Her eyes narrow down on his bleeding stomach.
"Excuse me, are you the crazy ant killer?" She asks, startling everyone. Cleo does not know what she means, so he can only shake his head.
"Really? Your injury in your stomach seems to resemble the rumors in our camp. Three beings are now famous in our camp: the crazy ant killer that killed a mutant while having his guts spilled out everywhere, the unstoppable maniac who was known to not rest and continues to fight no matter how great his injuries are, and the ravenous wolf that swallows his prey without any mercy," she states as she looks at their group.
"Then it is probably the young master; he is the only person that I know of in this base that is capable of surviving having his guts spilled out," states Elcio.
The medium chuckles.
"According to our supernatural gene warriors, the supernatural grade ant actually made a move against you and was an unstoppable maniac because of the rate of your killing. After being blocked by our warriors, it sent one of the royal members of their hive to deal with your group."
Flare is speechless hearing the recount of her friend's cousin's battle; it seems that he was not just some random fighter in this battle.
"Flare, did you ask me here to heal him? Then, I forgive you, he is a great asset in this battlefield, considering that his group seemed to not tire even after fighting for an extended amount of time."
She summons her soul blessing, and her entire body is bathed in green warm light. Cleo hurriedly grabs Elcio, and the green warm light that was supposed to be for him was sent to his companion.
"What!?" The medic is startled by the sudden turn of events, but Cleo does not care; he walks towards his cousin.
"Big sister Flare, you do not need to worry about my recovery; you have just given me enough high-quality food to eat, and I promise you that I will be able to fight once again." Flare is actually hesitant to let him fight again, but seeing his determined expression, she can only sigh and agree with his request.
She orders her servant to bring the cooked Advanced Grade flesh to her cousin; she does not want him to move in his current state. Elcio, on the other hand, was crying in gratitude; he can move his hands once again.
"Finally! Food!" Without hesitation, he immediately shoved the food into his mouth. Other than the guards, the people nearby were shocked at how fast he was recovering.
Notifications from the system about him obtaining advanced genes repeatedly ring in his head, but he ignores them.
His bones start creaking, his figure is actually growing bigger, and his muscles increase in size. Just as he reaches twice the size he was, he starts shrinking; his muscles do not grow smaller but more like they have contracted themselves and transform into a more compact form.
His hair grows longer as the image of both a dragon and a tiger appears above him; his eyes change in appearance; he groans from the pain that his body is now undergoing, but he does not stop eating.
[Talent (overwork) activates, the gemstone of life activates, and the dragon-tiger body tempering technique is now undergoing the second transformation.]
"Ugh." He groans as he feels his inside seemingly burning in flames. His heart starts beating rapidly. It seems that the advanced genes have pushed his body to its limit; he has not even filled his normal gene enhancement.
The small hill of cooked flesh of the advanced-grade genetic creatures was eaten quickly by him; this gives him a massive amount of advanced genes, and because his cousin truly cares about him, the food prepared for him does not only carry one kind of creature.
ROAR! He can only let out a roar to get the excitement out of his body. What he does not know is that his roar causes his two avatars to soar to the sky and also releases their own roar that riles up the ants and other creatures nearby.