The day and night cycle in this realm is different from Earth.
In this realm, the cycles are much longer. If we were to convert it, a single hour on Earth is equivalent to ten hours here. The day cycle is 55 hours long, while the night cycle is surprisingly short—only 5 hours long. Even if I sleep for 3 or 4 hours, it would still be bright outside.
Why sleep here and not in the settlements? If you're weak, you can be robbed at any time if you don't pay attention to your surroundings—even in inns. Only the rich and high-influence people who have their strongholds and guards can sleep peacefully. For everyone else, it's the jungle law.
Or you can return to reality and sleep on Earth, but you lose more since the time cycle is much faster there. Simply put, you don't sleep for the same amount of time. But I shouldn't complicate myself with these thoughts. I just shut down my brain and went to sleep.
Will anyone search for me? No one is searching for the people sent out by the young master as long as you don't show up publicly in front of many people. They can threaten your family if you do. And I have no family, so why did I stay with that asshole? Even if I escaped, the same situation would befall me again. For me, the settlements are the greatest threat. Some people will recognize me because of my past and try to exploit me.
So, sleeping outside the settlements is much better.
This is how I spent my days searching for herbs or stealing monster eggs. After 4 days of hard work, I made 3 silver. Thanks to the herbs, I could collect many times the money I needed. Monster eggs only sold for 1 or 2 copper each, and then you had to escape from the monsters chasing you. On the other hand, herbs aren't protected by anything at all, and I could gather a lot of them in no time.
As I was in my cave, I bought the potion. It was in a glass bottle with a cork keeping the green liquid inside. The cork was easily removed, and with one gulp, I downed all the liquid. I almost spit it out due to its horrible taste, but soon I felt a warm feeling inside of me, and the scars on my body slowly healed—though not all of them. Looks like I have to buy a few more potions to fully heal myself, but this is progress too.
[Your genes are being healed. Your gene cap went from 31 to 38.]
Seeing this message, I bought myself some food from the system and ate it. I felt this meal was more delicious than any I had in my past years. Soon, my gene cap went from 31 to 38.
How do I know how much I have? It's just a feeling, like you know instinctively, like a sixth sense.
Strange, I know, but don't question me—I don't know why. I've thought about this many times, but I couldn't find an answer. My days passed like this, repeating the same actions but never boring. After all, being chased by monsters as I stole their eggs for money is exciting.
Why not build a trap? With what? Do you want me to dig a hole? With what? Do you want me to craft a weapon when I don't have any? Do you think they'd let you have a weapon as bait? The moment they find I have a weapon, I would be killed on the spot with no one questioning or daring to raise their voice on my death.
So, with no weapon to protect myself, only my legs to escape, I had no choice. I was eyeing the item shop, but even when I collected 4 silver, it did not open up at all. In the settlement, the cheapest weapon costs 10 silver! It's daylight robbery, as on Earth, you can live well for a month with only 1 silver.
I thought the system might be asking for 10 silver like in the settlements too. I considered saving up, but what if I need more? The system doesn't show me how much I need—it will show up by itself. In just 10 days, my gene cap went from the original 31 to 58. Just great progress. I'm almost as strong as my mother's gene cap now. It's like a big rock was lifted from my heart. I sat down in the cave and started playing with the rocks, drawing my progress each day. Ugly as hell, but only I know about this place.
As I touched the rock, it felt warm. Warm?! Soon, the rock wall started getting more and more heated until it began radiating heat from itself. I had to escape the cave because the temperature was rising rapidly, and with water nearby, just inhaling the air caused pain. Thinking of finding another hiding spot, I felt disheartened. I don't know what happened—something like this never happened in the past years I spent here.
Suddenly, the ground started shaking. Looking around, I saw silhouettes appearing from the distance—monsters, many of them! I looked for a way to escape, but with no options available, I climbed a lush tree and tried to hide myself. Monsters after monster—I could recognize a few of them I'd stolen eggs from. I could see them being injured, likely having encountered humans and fought with them. But no monster paid attention to me. All their attention was on the waterfall, or more likely, the cave behind it.
What is happening, and why are the monsters gathering here? Soon, I saw monsters much bigger and stronger than the ones here.
Elite monsters. Just their aura made me fear them. Do I have to hunt down such monsters myself? Even if there were hundreds of me, I can't guarantee I could leave a scratch on them, let alone kill them. Mortal and extraordinary monsters I can imagine I could handle, but elites are far beyond my league. Now, I think there are monsters even above those.
But I soon regained my composure. If I can kill them, my strength will skyrocket. I have a system—I should fear nothing. It's only a matter of time before I can defeat anyone. But first, I have to escape. Monsters upon monsters as far as the eye can see. Just what is happening?
Soon, I felt warm air hitting me. I looked back at the cave—its heat radiating out to this tree, which is at least 50 meters away! What kind of heat is being generated inside the cave? Thankfully, I left before it was too late, otherwise, I would have been cooked alive. My breathing became heavy as the air itself was painful to inhale. The monsters aren't faring better than me—some mortal monsters already collapsed. But for the extraordinary and elite monsters, I felt my grip on the tree trunk loosening. I started positioning myself so that if I fell unconscious, I wouldn't fall off the tree into the monsters.
Before I closed my eyes, I saw a system message
[Due to the high concentration of spiritual powers in the area, the system will repair the user's gene cap instead of enhancing it.]
With that, everything turned dark.
When I opened my eyes, the monsters had long since disappeared from the area, and I felt like my whole body hurt after sleeping who knows how long on the tree. What surprised me was the feeling of my gene cap being fully healed. In just half a month, from 31 to 70. Even better than my parents. I could almost be categorized as above average. My eyes felt misty, so I used my clothes to clean them.
Looking at myself, covered in dust and worn out, with holes in my shoes—how good would it be to buy clothes for myself?
[The user has regained his consciousness.]
[Due to the user fully repairing his gene cap, the system function will now be unlocked up to the elite tier.]
Huh? Wait, so the reason I couldn't unlock those sections was because of my defect? Could it be everything was limited as a system protection for me? I opened the system, and I was astonished. The previous sections that were locked now opened up to me. In the herb section, many new herbs and medicines appeared one after another! Some had great effects, like one that, for 10 gold coins, could expand the gene cap by 10! I felt like the world around me was shattered. I could hardly imagine what the other sections were like, so I opened them.
First, there were skills. Unlike in games, here you needed to learn them—how to chant or use them—and they weren't bestowed upon you miraculously. Learning skills took time, but seeing a few of them, like 'Sword Mastery (Overlord)' for 1 platinum coin, I was amazed. Just remembering those elite monsters, I could hardly imagine how strong this skill is. It's a passive one that helps you learn how to master the sword. Once you fully master it, it will disappear as it's fully integrated into your body.
For occupations, I found the one I was searching for—Herbalist (Mortal). It gives you an encyclopedia of all mortal plants. This encyclopedia will appear in your mind, and if you encounter a new herb, you can identify it. It cost 20 silver. I already prepared myself to save up for it.
There are many occupations like 'Dragon Slayer (Legendary)'. I was shocked. Do dragons exist? Don't judge me, but there are no records of dragons ever appearing in front of humans. If there is one, I don't think the dragon would think the same way humans do when they meet. A snack, I guess. In the Realms, you don't know who is a native creature and who isn't, as there are intelligent species, but they are xenophobic to the extreme. They view us as invaders, which isn't wrong. People from who knows where came and stole their land and food. At least the good thing is we leave the realm once our gene cap is maxed out. Of course, people are staying in the realm because they know if they advance, it will become worse for them. On the higher realms, it's a dog-eat-dog situation.
How do I know so many things about it? Well, the people who experimented on me loved to chit-chat all the time, and one of them was from the 5th realm, so he said many things that should not be said.
But I cleared my mind and climbed down the tree. Everything was trampled to the ground, but interestingly, there was no blood or remains of animals, as if all of them were friendly to each other. But that's not possible.
I could only give up my thoughts and went back to my cave. Inside, nothing had changed, but the drawings on the wall had disappeared. Did I trigger something with my drawings on the wall? I refrained from doing anything to it, who knows what might happen next. Instead of thinking, I started buying food from the system and prepared for a feast. Knowing that I was weak and needed all the strength I could get, I started planning.
In the item section, I found many items, but I sorted out those I couldn't afford. What's the point of looking at items much higher in price if I can't buy them? You might think it's good to plan for the future, but what about the present? You need to live in the present to know what lies ahead. Don't plan if you can't accomplish it in the present—that you need to do so you can plan. Strange, but the past years taught me that the present is the most important. Dreaming about the future is a waste of time.
I need strength now, not later. But the little money I had made for me was an easy choice. The system listed three items for me
Worn Down DaggerDescription: A dagger on the brink of breaking apart. It can cause significant damage when stabbed into a target and may infect it with who knows what bacteria.Cost: 2 silver
Worn Down Short SwordDescription: A short sword on the brink of breaking apart. It can cause significant damage when stabbed into a target and may infect it with who knows what bacteria.Cost: 4 silver
Worn Down SaiDescription: A Sai on the brink of breaking apart. It can cause significant damage when stabbed into a target and may infect it with who knows what bacteria.Cost: 1 silver and 50 copper
Current possession: 87 copper
In just 5 days, I gathered enough money for my short sword.Looking at it, as the system said, rusty, but the weight is not that heavy. I can swing it around a few times before my arms lose strength. Feeling this, I need to train with this short sword before I start hunting. If I don't know my weapon, how am I supposed to use it?
Coming near to one of the trees, I started practicing—hitting its bark, slicing it, or stabbing it. The slicing isn't that great, but the stabbing has much better effects. Katanas are much better for slicing targets whose skin is weak, but once you use them against those with tougher skin or armor, it's like they're made out of glass—they break instantly. On the other hand, swords are much better. Even though their slicing effect isn't good, their stabbing capability is effective against even armored targets as I can attack their weakness or joints for a much better effect.
I tried to attack as fast as I could, so I knew what my speed was, and it was not bad. As for how much strength I can inflict, I have to know what monster I want to hunt. Feeling my ego swelling, I calmed myself down and started thinking about my past. When I realized how weak my gene cap was, many people attacked me and thinking back, I would have had a hard time even if I had my body now.
I should choose my first target to be weak—that I can easily hunt down. Searching the forest for a good target is not easy. First, I need to prevent strong beasts from detecting me and find monsters whose strength is the same as mine or weaker, which is hard because most beasts have the same strength as humans or even stronger. But most of the time, monster strength is greater than humans. The hardest point in my search is avoiding other gene evolvers. People are not afraid of stealing other people's prey, and it is more common if you don't have enough background. There are groups of people specializing in this kind of thing.