Four gleaming gene crystals pulsed with their essence, blindingly bright. "Time to power up," Rook murmured, as he activated the crystals with his own essence. Two of them turned a normal grey while the other two darkened ominously.

The essence started leaking into his cells, through his veins, and it remained in the heart. His veins bulged out, his skin reddening to an Elmo-like deep red. The burning sensation was a bit intense but again tolerable. He felt this persist for about half an hour. Not as agonizing as the first times he had used lower-ranked crystals.

Panting, Rook glanced to the system panel in the hope to register some increase in his powers. What he saw there made his jaw drop. System changes had been made overnight that gave flat changes to his skills in ways he'd never imagined.

Name: Rook

Essence Storage: 53 [ units of essence can be stored ]

Essence Strength: 8 [ units of essence can be used for a minute- Max]

Attack: 18

Agility: 22

Defence: 17

Gene Level: E

Gene Skills: Agro Agility [ lvl 2 ]

Affinity: None

It had leveled up. His skill was leveled up; Rook wondered if it was due to the genes of those rats. He smiled as he closed his panel, all ready to try out his newly improved ability.

He carefully circulated his essence from his heart down through his entire body. When activated, surge upon surge of momentum misbalancingly pushed him forward. His speed doubled that of last time, where he was close to supersonic speed, and air had become really a real barrier cutting into his skin.

More amounts of essence inside the body compensated against this friction, so he easily managed this kind of speed.

Knowing well that this was going to be a real challenge, Rook pointed his newfound strength toward the dome of the rats. Neither the new power was going to guarantee success, nor fears and overconfidence were going to help him.

"In this world I can't die, so why not try?" He braced himself to charge at that upcoming challenge, knowing he would be subjected to huge mental pressure for him to survive.

He crossed great distances according to the map on his system panel. Every time he was teleported to this pocket world, he always ended up at some Different spots in this vast grassy landscape added trouble into his journey.

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Their rat population had increased by half, and Rook had conceived a plan to sow mayhem far and wide. He whistled loudly, and instantly all rats within earshot turned toward their group.

Their heads jerked up, noses twitching, as their eyes scanned for the source of the whistle. As those lean-eyed gazes alighted on Rook, their faces contorted into snarls, baring long, ugly, glistening fangs.

"Oh, what nice teeth you have," Rook jeered, then turned and ran. Blood-lusting, the rats surged after him. He did not use full speed, just keeping ahead, making sure they wouldn't lose his trail.

The devilish smile that spread across his face told it all as he led the horde to a specific location.

Rook's plan was almost perfect, but there was one glaring absence: the leader rat was missing. He pressed on, regardless, with about ninety percent of the rats roaring after him and black eyes glinting with malice.

The rats, as if they felt there was something wrong, slunk off a bit after traveling some distance. It was at this that Rook began taunting them—performing silly gestures and loud shouting. His antics infuriated the rats all the more, and once again, with exaggerated rage, they started chasing him

. Even Rook, however, who was so boastful, felt his heart heavy with fear; droplets of sweat trickled down the body from exhaustion and nervousness.

A few meters further on, Rook vanished from their sight. The rats skidded to a halt at the end, quivering noses trying to locate their friend. There was abruptly a very strange noise, and their ears twitched.

Before they could turn to react, their heads were neatly severed from their bodies. A dark figure moved amongst them, slicing through the horde like a knife through tofu.

From afar, Rook watched the slaughter with his improved eyesight. The surge in the essence's strength had enhanced all his senses, his vision included, and he could see every detail of what was happening.

His heartbeat was hammering, both joyful at victory and relief. His head processed the image with ease, another indication of the widening reach of his abilities.

He could clearly see a dark figure completing its gory work; the bodies of the rats collapsed in lifeless heaps. In all this tumult, Rook finally realized that both of his plans had succeeded: he lured and killed the rats and identified the beast that previously killed him.

It resembled a mantis with its arms like long pointed scythes. It was iridescent green, like jade, and very fast. Gusts of wind cut across the grass, like when a lawnmower is passing.

Rook charged toward the mantis, but he was so close that in just a few seconds it blurred the area and struck its blade at him. He could barely stay away from it and flew toward the dead rats, not bringing himself face-to-face with the creature.

The mantis covered itself in essence—a furious, sharpening gesture—over the result of his dodging. Flames of essence danced around its form, making it all the more fearsome.

Rook's heart was racing as he gathered up the gene crystals from the fallen rats, shifting them to his white dimension. "Just one more," he muttered, his eyes fixed on the final crystal.

The mantis, enraged by the carelessness of Rook, moved in a velocity churning a tailwind and streaked through green light. The mantis cut across just as Rook was going to reach for that final crystal, and its scythe sliced into his neck smoothly.

Rook's fingers brushed the crystal as he was whisked away back to the white dimension, though his face had set into its final expression of resolve, his emotions preserved in that moment of death.

His vision hazed, and the last he saw was a mantis standing before him, its body glowing with a fiery essence. He crashed into blackness, but he knew he had succeeded, even if at the cost of his life.