Rook's face lit up as he scrolled through his first skill: Agro Agility. He jumped around like an excited rabbit, not able to contain his feelings of joy. The skill name flashed across his system panel, beckoning him to click on it. When he did, detailed information of the skill showed up.

"Agro Agility: Derivative skill of the Fanged Rat gene. Said to greatly raise one's agility with use of the user's essence when activated."

"Yes! This is exactly what I need right now," Rook shouted, his excitement echoing across the open field. "Agro Agility!"

With the ability invoked, he could feel the surge of essence from his heart, welling up through his body, charging him to his fingertips. His legs were light, strong. "Let's run," he muttered, dropping into a runner's stance.

As soon as he started to run, the earth blurred under him. His legs were going so fast—far faster than he had expected. If it was lust at first, it quickly turned to fear as his brain grappled with the impossibility of his speed.

"What's this sh*t skill?" he cursed, his words barely audible over the roaring wind that whistled by. The grass beneath his feet was flattened from the force of his speed. Rook's fear grew. His mind raced as fast as his legs. "Mommy, how do I stop this?"

Panic raced through him, but he willed himself to think. An idea came to him: if he had some control over his flow of essence, perhaps he could control his speed. He remembered the technique he'd learned earlier that let him be so effective with his body. He closed his eyes and concentrated on sending essence to his brain. His thoughts cleared, sharpened.

"All right, send some more to my legs," he ordered himself once again, and the surge pounded into him once more. His speed was now increasing exponentially; in a matter of seconds, he had traversed hundreds of meters. To him, everything around became a blur, but he was still in strong control.

"Alright, let's try slowing down," he thought, slowly drawing the essence away from his legs. He lost some of his speed, the ground beneath him coming back in focus. Finally, he skidded to a stop, breathing heavily.

Rook's heart thumped in his chest as excitement and relief washed into him. "That," he whispered to himself, a wide-eyed grin creeping across the front of his face, "was intense. But I think I got the hang of it now."

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Rook ventured deeper into the grassy land, his confidence surging. He wasn't afraid of losing any essence since Agro Agility infused his legs only with it. The rat's skill did so to its whole body. But even more so, his essence reserves doubled.

The further in he got, the more silent it became. Rook stopped, holding the energy in his legs, and looked around. He could see movement, like the rats from before, but there was none actually in view.

"Is it that the spawn rate for the beasts increases after the first one has been killed?" Rook mused. He suddenly thought about how the cotton beasts multiplied on him after he killed the first. Clearly, he remembered there was only one in the beginning, but a few days later, and a few kills, and the numbers were very different.

A rat lunged out of the tall grass, directly at him. Rook sidestepped easily, ducking his head to the side. His new strength made this attack quite simple to avoid. He was bit in the back from behind by another rat, however.

"Damn it! I will kill you!" Rook yelped, wincing from the pain. More rats swarmed around him, hitting him all at once. He had not expected them to be so well-built.

Yet, he didn't fall back. He returned fist for fist and did so at blindingly fast speeds. Every punch he chucked sent the rats flying; they were too weak to deal with his enhanced strength. Some rats fell down with serious internal injuries, and their pained cries ran across the quiet field.

The leader rat stood up from alleys in bushes, radiating power everywhere, as one might feel chills down Rook's spine. Fear attacked him; he did not want to die because of the inability to fight these beasts. He became desperate—energized with Agro Agility—feeling the flow of his essence through his legs. He took to running, trying to get away from this swarm of rats relentlessly attacking him. Some blocked his way in front, their eyes glowing in malice.

Without any hesitation, Rook prepared half of his essence in his fists and lit them up with the Flames of Essence. He advanced on the two rats that wanted to block him, hitting them with all his might. The impact shatters their heads; then, by the speed of his momentum, he smashes them sufficiently.

What could have been an hour-long fight was suddenly over in a few seconds. The bodies of the beasts liquefied and turned into gene crystals, but Rook didn't have time to collect the loot—the leader rat, with a massive gash in its face, was still after him.

He ran for what felt like an eternity, adrenaline coursing through his veins. Soon enough, the rats stopped the chase. "See you, pig-fat rats! I'll kill you when I see you again," Rook declared as clearly as he could in the silence.

Just then, a dark figure floated in front of him. Before Rook could do anything at all, a sharp pain surged forth from the neck. Shocked, he gazed downward at blood that came out, gushing like a fountain. His vision blurred, and accompanied by the sound of a collapse, the world faded around him. All those two gene crystals that he had gained floated in the air and rushed at sonic speed toward the lifeless body of that boy, digging into his chest.