Chapter 26: Refinement Limit

Translator: Lordbluefire 

The enemy that blocked the black-rune graystone beetle had died. Hence, it immediately let out an excited cry.

After that, it stared at the new enemy, Lu Yuan.

The black-rune graystone beetle screeched in anger once again as it swiped its claws at Lu Yuan. He then lifted his sword and blocked the attack.

Keng!

The sword and claw collided. When Lu Yuan felt the heavy strength behind the claw attack, he couldn’t help but lift his eyebrows.

!!

(Still okay. It’s within an acceptable range.)

He moved forward and turned his body, borrowing its force to arrive at the black-rune graystone beetle’s side.

After that, the sword in his hand slashed out horizontally, arcing through the black-rune graystone beetle’s Stoneskin.

As a result, a dull sound echoed and the Stoneskin was sliced open, leaving behind a wound on the black-rune graystone beetle’s body.

The Bugclaw Sword was after all an elite-grade genetic armament. In addition to Lu Yuan’s strength, a black-rune graystone beetle would find it hard to completely block this attack.

This was the first time the black-rune graystone beetle had suffered physical damage, so its body trembled as it let out a sharp screech. Its movement then became even more chaotic.

Its sharp twin claws danced around wildly as they attacked Lu Yuan, who then evaded the attack while performing a counter-attack.

As the battle continued on, more and more injuries appeared on the black-rune graystone beetle’s body.

Although its injuries weren’t deep, a large amount of black-greenish blood flowed out, dyeing its body a black-greenish color.

Moreover, the continuous injuries caused the black-rune graystone beetle’s movements to become somewhat stiff. Its attack was no longer as fierce as before.

It was naturally increasingly convenient for Lu Yuan to evade.

A few moments later, he dodged one of the black-rune graystone beetle’s claw attacks and took the chance to plunge his sword into the beetle’s eyes, penetrating its brains.

“Jiji!”

The black-rune graystone beetle shrieked sharply as its body fell onto the ground. Its short legs convulsed continuously as its vitality gradually faded from it.

After looking at the corpse on the ground, Lu Yuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and dispelled the Blackiron Body.

In this battle, he had consumed more than half of his spirit energy. However, his battle achievements were plentiful.

He had killed four kobolds and an elite-grade ferocious beast.

(I can only say that it’s as expected of me!)

(My strength is superbly strong!)

A white light flashed from the corpse of the black-rune graystone beetle and at the next instant, the white light became spirit crystals.

Things were different when compared to the graystone beetle. The black-rune graystone beetle actually dropped a total of 20 spirit crystals. It was 20 times more in comparison!

Furthermore, another ball of white light also floated out from the bug’s corpse and hovered above it.

Inside the white ball of light, there was a somewhat simple and crude-looking gray-colored armor.

Lu Yuan’s eyes brightened. It was a genetic armament!

Although the drop rate from elite-grade ferocious beasts for common-grade genetic armament wasn’t considered too low, this was a first for Lu Yuan after all. Hence, he was still very happy about it.

Lu Yuan picked up the ball of light, and the relevant information about the genetic armament was transmitted to his mind.

This genetic armor was called gray beetle armor and was formed from a fusion of graystone beetle’s armored shells.

Because it was a common-grade genetic armament, it merely provided a pretty good boost to the user’s defense. It wasn’t the same as elite-grade armaments that could enhance strength.

The style of the armor looked very crude, only providing protection for the shoulders. For the majority of other important body parts such as the chest, knees, etc, it was empty.

Lu Yuan was even suspecting that the beetle who produced this armor was slacking off.

No matter what, the important body parts had to be protected because there was a chance that it might save the user’s life.

In any case, this was the first time he obtained a genetic armament from killing an elite-grade ferocious beast. Hence, Lu Yuan didn’t have too high of an expectation.

It was enough as long as it could be used.

In the past, just with the enhancement from the Bugclaw Sword, Lu Yuan’s body already found it tough to endure it.

Now after he recorded and engraved an extraordinary gene, his body became much stronger than before.

Besides, this armor was just a common-grade one. The enhancement it provided wasn’t that great so Lu Yuan could still equip it.

With his will, the gray beetle armor was absorbed into his body. The armor was the same as the sword. It transformed into an illusory shadow and floated in the surroundings of the genetic chain.

Lu Yuan immediately felt that his defensive prowess had increased by a certain amount.

However, his original defensive prowess was already very great so the enhancement couldn’t be considered a lot.

After thinking about it, the armor appeared on his body and protected some of his important body parts.

Lu Yuan lowered his head and looked.

(Mn…it does look a little ugly.)

He would swap it out the moment he received new armor.

After that, Lu Yuan collected the black-rune armor shell from the back of the black-rune graystone beetle, while he also went to collect the spirit crystals and the materials from the other four graystone beetles.

Lastly, he went to pick up the items dropped by the four kobolds upon their deaths.

Maybe because the kobold team hadn’t entered for very long, their gains were nothing much.

There were only a total of 112 spirit crystals and a similar number of graystone armor shells.

This caused Lu Yuan’s initial hope of obtaining more gains to be dashed.

He could only force himself to barely accept it.

Lu Yuan only left the battle area after putting away all the items.

…

At an area in the Graystone Forest that was a certain distance away from the battle area, Bertha Vimy glanced behind her. After seeing that no one was chasing her, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

After that, she gritted her teeth as a malicious expression appeared on her face. She then tightened her grasp on the longbow in her hands.

“That damnable human, he actually dared to attack me! It’s impossible for me to forget this grudge!”

She flipped her palm and a transparent crystal appeared.

This was a communication crystal, something that could be purchased from the shops in the cities of the Land of Origins. It cost a considerable number of spirit crystals and could be used for communication within a certain distance from the city’s location.

Bertha Vimy injected her spirit energy. With an intention, the transparent crystal began to glow white.

The white light flickered and very soon later, a scene appeared within the transparent crystal.

It was a kobold with black skin and fur.

He had a loom of respect on his face as he looked at Bertha Vimy.

“Third Missy, is there something you need to contact me for?”

Betha Vimy gnashed her teeth.

“My training team has been attacked. Other than me, all the others have died.”

Upon hearing this, the black-skinned kobold started. His eyes were wide open.

“All dead? What about Lajin? Did he also die?”

“I’ve said that everyone is dead!”

Betha Vimy frowned and raised her voice somewhat impatiently.

The black-skinned kobold hurriedly lowered his head.

“Yes, Third Missy! Which corporation’s force did you encounter?”

“No, it is just a human.”

“A human? Third Missy, weren’t you training in the Graystone Forest? How can a single human have the strength to annihilate your entire team?”

The black-skinned kobold had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“I also want to know the answer. How are you guys doing your job? Why isn’t this human included in the information about experts of the Sandstone City? You guys took my father’s money yet handed in work of such quality? I’ll be speaking to my father about this matter!”

Bertha Vimy spoke in rage.

“Third Missy, please calm your anger…this is our mistake, please allow us to make up for it.”

The black-skinned kobold hurriedly spoke.

“Hmph! I want revenge! I want to cut that human into ten thousand pieces. You guys better send more people. He is very strong, do not allow him to escape!”

“Third Missy, please relax, I will immediately gather our men!”

The black-skinned kobold hurriedly spoke.

“Hmph! I will wait here for you all!”

When Bertha Vimy heard these words, the ice-cold look on her face dissipated somewhat.

She enunciated her words slowly before cutting the communication.

As she looked at the transparent crystal, she recalled the humiliation once more. Hence, she clutched her longbow and gritted her teeth.

“Eldest brother and second sister’s training were very smooth, but why did I encounter something so troublesome? Damnable human, just you wait! I’ll make you regret offending me, Bertha Vimy!”

…

As Lu Yuan traveled, he also absorbed the spirit crystals. There were a total of 130 plus crystals, and Lu Yuan only needed a short time to absorb over 100 of them.

At this moment, the lower part of the genetic chain in his body began to glow with resplendent white light.

The refinement rate had reached roughly about 8%.

However, Lu Yuan discovered that the efficiency of his refinement via absorption of spirit crystals became lower and lower.

Moreover, he could faintly feel some pain in his body.

Lu Yuan suspected it was because he had absorbed too many spirit crystals in a short amount of time, causing his refinement speed to be too quick. These factors should be why such a situation appeared.

After all, other than him, were there any other probationary gene fighters who could absorb over 100 spirit crystals in ten minutes and use them to refine the genetic chain?

If his speed was known by others, everyone would surely be frightened to death.

Even if his absorption speed could keep up, his body wouldn’t be able to endure such quick refinement speed.

Right now, he most probably had reached the limit of refinement within such a short period. If he continued to refine his genetic chain, he felt that his body might crumble apart.

He had to slow down.

Furthermore, even if he didn’t use spirit crystals to refine the genetic chain, he could still absorb them.

He could give the energy to the evolution cube and make preparations for the Blackiron Body’s evolution.

Lu Yuan made an estimation. The amount of spirit energy he needed to evolve an elite-grade gene to the boss-grade was roughly 5,000 spirit crystals.

The quantity was so high that it sounded ridiculous.

However, there would only be gains if there was effort.

Using a few thousand spirit crystals to exchange for a breakthrough was an extremely profitable transaction.

Lu Yuan absorbed another ten-plus spirit crystals. However, he suddenly paused when he thought of something.

Oh right, he still couldn’t afford to offend any corporations yet. (Maybe, they might come and find trouble with me, I should prepare some trump cards.)

Lu Yuan saw that there were only twenty-plus spirit crystals remaining, hence, he decided to stop absorbing them.

At the same time, he increased his speed and ran toward the exit of the Graystone Forest.

As long as he departed the Graystone Forest, the people from the corporation could try and find him there however they wanted.