The Gene Gamer

"Ding ding ding" the alarm quickly went off in succession. Cylius being the one who turned it off, went up from his bed before getting dressed. 

He didn't meditate yesterday, instead, he chose to sleep. 

Three hours later, within the spaceship. 

Made out of highly advanced technology and various rare minerals and resources, this spaceship wasn't comparable to the first one they had. Not only could it use low energy to perform a wormhole travel, but it could also hide its energy and not get detected by high tier creatures. 

Even if it encountered a fourth-tier creature, it had ways to escape from its detection. 

In this mission, they will be sent to their respective mission area in this spaceship. They would have a private single-person spacecraft they would use to complete their own mission. 

There were missions that required the student to go to several planets; fortunately, they would be all within a single galaxy. As the spacecraft also contained the wormhole technology, there was no worry about spending most of their mission time traveling through space. 

As the school only looked at the mission completion, they could use all means to complete it. Using their background or cheating by making another person do it, the school didn't care. They would be satisfied as long as the mission was completed.

The planet he was entering was a red and blue planet, one third of it was radiating a bright red color and the others were normal. A blue sea and a few continents.

Setting off from the atmosphere, he took control of his aircraft before diving in. 

As a thin layer of barrier rose from it, the spacecraft wasn't damaged at all during the process of entering the planet's lowest layer of atmosphere. 

Where there is spiritual energy, there is life. As this planet had a rich amount of spiritual energy, there was bound to be life in here. 

After the monster universe merged with our universe, spiritual energy prospered, resulting in many planets having life. Although there weren't any complicated lifeforms like animals having born, single-celled lifeforms definitely existed. 

It would only be after millions of years would they have species like humans, and that's considering the help of spiritual energy. 

But this didn't mean that the monster universe didn't have it. Due to having spiritual energy from a long time ago, most of the monster universe had life. 

Although the amount might differ, all planets of the monster universe had spiritual energy and rune strings, meaning almost all of them had life and there were rare occasions of there being none. 

This planet was a spiritual planet and life existed on it. His mission objective was collecting a kind of precious resource. 

The precious resource he had to collect was the 'Crystalized Elemental Essence'. He had to get 50 grams from each of the basic four elements. Fire, water, wind, and earth. 

They only existed in the most extreme of environments and was usually protected by elementals and various monsters. Just to get a single grain of it, he would have to fight with a powerful monster or a bunch of elementals coming at him.

.....

On the border of the lava sea.

The vast lava sea was just in front of him, stretching as far as his eye can see. The temperature was very high here, at a level where ordinary lifeforms can't even exist anymore. 

Not mentioning existing, they would be burned alive as soon as they get close to it within a kilometer. 

Perhaps, only within an environment like this would special beings be born. 

This planet was divided into three seas and three continents. Two seas made out of water and the other being a lava sea. While the lava sea might look magnificent and just contacting with it could burn a person alive, geneticians had already surpassed the limits of a mortal. 

They were superhuman. 

Although the lava sea might be hot and very dangerous, comprehending any fire related rune could make this seemingly powerful lava sea useless. It was mortal lava after all. No matter how much it got hotter, once a person got a grasp of its source and intent, it would be easy to not get affected by it. 

The current Cylius could traverse this sea effortlessly. Only what was dangerous was the lifeforms contained within. Those that have survived within his extreme temperature was sure to be powerful. 

For example, the large school of fish a hundred kilometers from here, each of them had the strength of a peak first-tier, yet, all of them was eaten by a single carp that was in the second-tier. 

Peak first-tier seemed to be the lowest form of strength here. 

Extending his perception, he searched for the crystalized fire essence. As third-tiers lived within this planet, he had to be indiscriminate with his search. If he was to accidentally alert a third-tier, he would have a hard time escaping from them. 

As soon as he closed his to search, he found what he was looking for. The essence had a unique aura as if it was the purest form of fire. It was constantly disrupting the surrounding environment; very catchy to sensitive beings like him, thus, requiring almost an instant for him to find. 

Roughly judging, it was a gram or two at most. Fortunately, from how the turtle wasn't afraid of exposing it, it seemed like it wasn't rare at all. 

Fortunately, Cylius didn't sense any third-tiers there. Only a semi converted fire turtle guarding it. Not to mention stealing it, he could directly snatch it from the turtle while killing it in the process. 

He was lacking spirits to research his spirit on anyway. 

Diving in to the lava sea, his body immediately glowed in a dark void like color as a strong ripple spread to the surroundings before his body disappeared. 

With both of his strength and vitality being 10, he could directly shatter a hill without any injuries on his body. 

Even though it was hard to move within the lava, with his strength, he easily did it. 

After a few minutes, he lightly landed on the seafloor and began walking towards the cave where the essence was. 

With his eyes, it was no problem seeing within this red lava, the red lava was as clear as the water in front of him. 

Sensing his presence, a giant turtle, with the size of a hill came out of the cave as it opened its mouth at Cylius, seemingly wanting to tell something. Cylius, who didn't know the native language here didn't understand any of it but still continued heading towards the turtle. 

"Human, what are you here for" finally after a few tries, it spoke the soul language which made Cylius immediately understand it. The soul language was the most basic language and any lifeform could understand it. No matter their race or intelligence, they would be able to understand it. 

It came from their soul after all. 

In reply, "I am here to take the Crystalized Fire Essence" Cylius said. 

Hearing Cylius' reply, the tense turtle immediately relaxed as he replied back. "So human, you should know the conditions as well?" 

Suddenly confused by the situation, Cylius squinted his eyes as he asked what the condition was. 

"So you don't know what the conditions are? Why did you come here then? To snatch my previous Condensed Fire Essence?" The turtle was surprised as the relaxed body of his turned tense again, ready to strike. 

Cylius, knowing that things had turned to the south, immediately struck. This turtle wasn't powerful anyways; he could take it down if he tried. 

Jumping towards the turtle, he coated himself with the dimensional rune even more as he turned to condense the nearby dimensional strings into a sword. The turtle also in defense, opened its mouth wide as it breathed a flame breath, directed towards Cylius. 

Ten minutes later. 

Cylius was standing atop the turtle's body, looking coldly towards it. The turtle grunted painfully as it lowered its head. The once magnificent shell of it was broken into pieces and the powerful legs of it had been cut into pieces. It was now unable to move, hence, it could only lower its head. 

"My lord, as my entire family had been killed and the family heirloom was stolen, I bore an intense grudge towards him. Although I wanted to catch the killer, he was too quick and cunning so I was unable to catch him. Therefore, this humble self had sent out a word that people who have brought his head would be rewarded with a high tier Condensed Fire Essence." 

Nodding his head, a spear appeared within his hands as it thrust downwards. The turtle who had no strength now, even if it had noticed, it had no power to evade the attack; it could only watch on as the spear pierced its heart, killing it. 

After killing it, Cylius jumped down from the turtle's shell onto its head. Extending his hand towards the top of the turtle's head, the circles within Cylius' eyes began to spin as it glowed with a black light. 

A few seconds later, the circle stopped spinning as the black light also retracted back. Feeling like the spirit was grasped by him, he held it tight before pulling his hand.

As Cylius pulled his hand, a large spirit was pulled out of the turtle's body. The spirit was shining with a red glow, and the inscribing on it, it was radiating a strong aura.

After pulling it out, Cylius immediately sealed it within a container specifically used for spirits. He was going to study it later. 

.....

Cylius was now holding a red crystal the size of a grain within his hands. 

The crystal was shining brilliantly while affecting the surrounding environment. Whether lava or not, everything was secluded from it as a small forcefield spread from the crystal, repelling everything from it. 

Everything but Cylius' hand.

As it was a crystalized fire essence, the fire strings surrounding it were also plentiful. 

Like what he had guessed, this crystal was indeed one gram. 

But things didn't stop here. When he got near to this place, he sensed that there was another bunch of crystalized fire essence here. The turtle was just using one gram as a reward so he only let its aura spread out as he hid the others. 

Within his pouch, there were another two crystals like this, meaning it was 3 grams in total. This turtle was indeed considered rich for people of his grade. 

Crystalized Fire Essence wasn't some trash you could encounter on the streets. It was special. Only second-tier and above were allowed to hold it as even getting into contact with it can turn a first-tier into ashes.