The Gene Gamer

Although the creature was considerably strong for Cylius to notice it, due to the sudden ambush and the power difference, the monster was quickly killed before it could retaliate. 

Thinking about this, he suddenly stopped as he went down to get some water. From the sight of the river, it was obvious that many creatures would be waiting for prey to appear. 

Beasts and monsters would gather around water sources. This was definitely true as Cylius could feel various gazes fall upon him. But judging from the quality of the vegetation and water, there shouldn't be many powerful beasts around here. 

So few that they could be counted on two hands. 

Although he was rather cautious of them, it didn't mean that he was afraid of them. With his dimensional rune, he could escape through a space hole at any time. He was also sure that his strength was to be reckoned here, so he boldly went to the river. 

Just as he was getting water, a giant crocodile lunged at him, intending to swallow his upper half. However, Cylius wasn't fazed as his arm turned illusory. 

Before anyone knew, an arm was already sticking out of the crocodile's head. After that, the arm turned illusory once again before Cylius walked out of there in a calm pace. 

"Bam!" the huge body of the crocodile fell to the ground as blood started gushing out, dying the water red. 

Danger really lurked everywhere within this island. From what he saw, he was only in the outer areas of the jungle meaning that only weak creatures inhabited this place and the quality resources within were much worse than the ones in the center.

But he had already encountered an unintelligent peak first-tier monster meaning that the resources here were enough for a creature to reach this stage without any effort. 

If it didn't require much effort, the intelligence of the monsters here would be lower compared to those in barren places since it meant that they were just stuffed with various resources.

Although this meant he was less likely to encounter powerful intelligent beasts, it also meant that the number of powerful beasts would be much more than the places he had been to and that a more powerful and intelligent creature would lead them. 

If the creatures were intelligent, they are less likely to follow another beast's orders which was how he got into this statement. 

Just as he was rushing to the outer areas of the island, he heard a large crash in the direction of the east. Curious as to what was happening, he quickly jumped to the top of a tree before going in the direction. 

After going for some distance, he stopped. 

There, he saw a giant being that was hundreds of meters tall facing another giant. Right now, they were only staring at each other without clashing but Cylius could feel the disturbance of elementals in the air, ready to clash with each other and fight for supremacy. 

The surroundings were a mess as the place was utterly destroyed with a giant hole in the middle. 

One of the giants closely resembled a human just that their size was different and there were weird black scales covering his body. There was also a golden pendant hung on his neck that seemed to especially shine under the sun. With a purple glow in its eyes, he looked extremely savage. 

The other one facing him was a giant monkey with a hairy body and a set of sharp teeth. Its eyes seemed to seeth in fury as it pointed at the other before saying something. 

"Human, you have disturbed this lord's sleep and has dared to steal the Blood Flame pendant and kill my descendants! You will receive your punishment today!"

The other didn't respond to the monkey as it got into a fighting position. 

As if sensing that the other wasn't going to escape, the monkey snorted as it also got ready to fight. 

In no moment, the monkey threw out a punch which the giant also did the same. The fists clashed as an invisible shockwave spread through the air. A faint black-colored membrane spread from Cylius's body as it protected him. 

It was obvious that the giant was at a disadvantageous position, as his body immediately flew from the brute force of the monkey. Landing on the ground, the surrounding environment was ruined as the giant spat out a mouthful of blood. 

However, instead of a gloomy expression, his face currently had a slight smile that even seemed to mock the monkey. 

But at that moment, the golden pendant suddenly emitted a scarlet red color as it separated into three parts. One of the parts went above the giant's head and floated there, seeming like a halo. The other two each went to the giant's wrists. 

Each of the pendant parts had blood-red runes carved onto them as they shined bizarrely under the light. 

The giant seemed to go under a complete change as a scarlet red flame suddenly burst out of his body, burning the jungle wherever it went. Right now, he appeared just like a god of war.

After seeing the change the giant went through, a trace of confusion and doubt appeared on the monkey's face as a question surfaced into its mind.

'How did this human make a bond with the pendant so quickly? Before, I tried to make one with it countless times, however, it never seemed to accept me and all of it ended in failure. The more and more the monkey thought, it became more enraged as it let out a loud roar. 

Along with the rage, the feeling of jealousy had sprouted within his heart, jealous at the fortune this human had. 

Swinging his arm at the giant, flame appeared on his whole body, seemingly want to devour everything within its path. But it was obvious that compared to the scarlet red flame, this flame was like a dormant rabbit before the fierce lion. 

The giant once again met with the punch with a punch, but this time, it wasn't him who was sent flying. It was the monkey!

The giant immediately gave chase as he jumped to the direction where the monkey was sent flying. Appearing right above him, he directed his punch as the monkey which sent it directly to the ground. 

"Bam!" a huge hole was created on the ground. 

"Impossible..." the monkey said in a low voice as he tried to stand up but what faced him was a fierce kick from the giant in the face. 

"You dare!" after the giant's kick was a loud roar from the monkey that immediately burst out with immense strength and sent the giant flying. The monkey's facial muscles constantly twitching as he emitted intense flames. 

Even as the giant was in the air, the flame of the monkey was still on his body, without being extinguished by the scarlet flame as it burnt him.

However, it was obvious that the monkey suffered more loss than the giant as one-third of his hair had been burnt as it seemed like his left arm had even completely got devoured by the intense scarlet flames. He looked very pitiful now. 

Although there was rage within its eyes, fear seemed to overwhelm it more as it chose to escape in the end. 

"I, Grior shall never forgive you!" said the giant as he looked on as the monkey's silhouette turned into a blur before disappearing from his field of vision. 

They were second-tier creatures. The monkey lord was a peak second-tier who had a rune comprehension of 80% while the giant was only 25%. 

Compared to the monkey lord, he wasn't even worth mentioning but with the treasure, he was able to beat such an existence.

For Cylius now, he would lose to the monkey and it was even a question whether he would be able to escape. Although the giant was now injured and he wanted to take possession of the artifact, he wasn't as idiotic as to think that he would succeed. 

This giant was a student of the Quintamore academy like him. 

It seems like Cylius had underestimated the world of the geneticians. He thought that with his talent, he would be labeled as the most talented young genius along with Fanton, Farold and Garen. 

However, all of the things he had thought of were clearly idiotic. He had calculated everything wrongly from the beginning. 

First, the people of this world genuinely didn't care about them, orphans, so they sent out weaker people. They were stingy basically. 

Second, he had underestimated the rate of advancement of the people. This was due to the orphans originally having lesser talent and resources from the others which resulted in him comparing himself to weaker people. 

He had to take into account that the parents within the world right now would try their best to let their children take as many resources as possible from birth which resulted in them having more favorable conditions for their genes to awaken. 

Them training their body was like using their lifeforce as fuel, burning it up in order for their body to be more suitable for the genes. The other children didn't need to do that. They could simply eat or drink resources that could strengthen their body. Some expensive drugs could even make their children have an innate gene although it would be not so strong. 

Thirdly, there was the possibility of these people training in other techniques. For example, they could train their body using martial techniques that could result in an extraordinary physique. 

He has heard that there were even techniques that allowed them to sense elementals and spiritual energy within the air and control it. Other than that, people could also train in spiritual techniques if they had enough talent. 

With the spiritual cultivation, they would be able to face the paranormal world of spirits. The secondary layer of this world. 

If the first layer could be defined as the material world, then the second layer was the spirit world. Spirits of various sizes and shapes would live there. It was like, the wandering souls that would be sucked into the Gate of Reincarnation sooner or later. 

Soul is an existence that is originally pure and unintelligent. Int its primitive state, it would be very clear and was an excellent cultivation resource even for fourth-tier lords. 

However, it was very hard to find them. Not only would they be polluted by the human brain once it reincarnates in a person, but it would also be polluted by the elementals when it comes to the surface. 

Children that have trained in these spirit techniques might be able to absorb and refine some to strengthen their spirit, leading to the obtaining of various superpowers such as telepathy and psychokinesis. 

Parents acted as powerful backers that benefitted their children greatly and them, orphans didn't have it.

When he had found out about this, only a single thought surfaced in Cylius's mind at the time.

'I wasn't an extraordinary genius. I was only 'a genius'.'