By the time he was out, his body had turned frail. He was bleeding from all his orifices.

But, he had succeeded in his objective. There was a slight smile on his face.

"High risk, high reward."

"It must have been quite valuable since the risk was so high."

He quickly examined his claws for the jade. However, he couldn't get the sight of it.

"Where is it? Did I drop it?" He was anxious.

He had risked his life. But it was nowhere to be seen. Then, he heard a notification.

"A foreign object has entered the host's body."

"What foreign object?" He was confused. The jade had vanished, and now a foreign object had entered his body.

He examined his body and he was surprised to find jade inside.

The jade had melted and there was only black stone left. He tried to take it out just to be safe. However, it vanished in a flash and entered his crystal.

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Suddenly, his crystal started changing color. The previously cyan color was turning black.

In a minute or so, his crystal turned pitch black. However, the change didn't stop at that. A few moments later, bright spots started popping up.

"I have seen this scene somewhere." He tried to connect the dots between pitch-black and shiny spots.

I remembered. "It's the same as a starry night."

When the change had subsided, his crystal had turned alluring. One could keep looking at it and never be tired of it.

"System, what was all that?"

"The foreign object has blended with the host's crystal."

"I know it blended with my crystal. But how did it happen?" He was at a loss for words as to what had transpired.

"It was the effect of *****stone."

"What the hell is *****stone?"

"The information deals with the truth of the universe. The host's understanding of the universe must reach the required level to understand."

"Fine, keep your secrets then."

He had yet to recover from the shock.

So, he examined his entire body just to be careful. "One can never be too careful."

The crystal was the same as before. However, he was surprised to find he had made a breakthrough.

Grim was even more surprised to find out he had skipped a level. Now, he was at the 4th level of the mutation realm.

He was ecstatic about the change. "Just one stone allowed me to skip a level. What if I could get 10 or 20 of those?"

"Keep dreaming. The host has made the breakthrough to the 4th level. It is advised to form the next crystal."

"Can't you let me be happy for a moment?"

Truth be told, he also wanted to form his next crystal. But, he was too far from home, and he didn't want to break through in an unfamiliar environment.

So, he decided to fly back.