Chapter 726: Guinea Pig.

Another day arrived.

As he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, Dante searched for the desire to get up, but there was none. He could find none. Closing his eyes, he decided to go back to sleep until...

-There you go.-

-Just lie down there.-

-What’s one more day gonna change?-

With an annoyed sigh, he pushed himself up and went about his usual routine. Today was the first of July, so he had to drop another one of them Genome corpses at the BEO’s door, but that was for tonight.

’Oh, right...’

It was only now that he realized he was out of dead Genome, leaving him with no choice but to deliver one of the three who’re still alive. As he went through his options, he realized that he didn’t feel like letting them go just like that, but he had already made the deal.

’Damn it...’

Today, the black market deliveries were on the light side, but to Dante’s surprise, something he failed to anticipate happened. While most of the shipments come from criminal organizations, this last on in particular came from a regular company. He had noticed something odd when he picked it up, which is why he stayed behind to check on who would pick it up, and that’s how he found out.

It did make sense for things to get to this. Secure, same day delivery that goes through most borders unnoticed, and to top it off, the risk of it being stolen or going missing was next to none. Of course corpos would go with it whenever they had to move something they didn’t want to be see.

Going back to the Red Oni Club, Dante listened to Carlos’s daily report. Once again, their members had been attacked, and things weren’t looking good this time. More bounties appeared a of late, so the attacks were getting worse. The whole matter was starting to get on his nerves, so he asked Volcan to monitor the NIMs of all Inferno members and inform him when they get attacked.

Of course, Dante didn’t plan on jumping in to their rescue every time. He had already decided to use this opportunity to weed out the weaklings and strengthen the survivors, but to stop the annoying flies from coming back, he was going to pick them up after they make their escape and add them to his stock of guinea pigs. That required him to drop everything he was doing every time, but it wasn’t like he had much to do.

~[ ]~

Having grown use to Merry and Wolf daily visits, Dante couldn’t help but feel something was missing when they didn’t show up. Unlike him, they were technically employed, so they couldn’t just come hang out when they feel like it.

Dante decided to use that time to help Bella with her training. In just a short time, she was starting to get the hang of her RST and was now able to use it in combat, although when executing very specific actions. It would be a while before she’s able to chain more than one so it might be a while before she could bring out the most from the hand to hand combat skills she was forcing Oliver to teach her in secret.

Speaking of Oliver, the blond bastard was already en route to mastering Soul Manifestation. Though the power he could generate stopped at Level 4, he was now able to keep his ability active for ten straight minutes. His fighting skills improved drastically as well, and though he still couldn’t get a win against him, Dante was starting to struggle during their spars as much as when he’s sparring with the the white haired wolf.

Apparently, the only step he had left is learning to create a Soul Weapon. Unfortunately, their expert on the secret martial arts had no idea how to get there, and from what he could remember, the process was apparently so difficult that fewer people could master it, even among those who have already mastered the first stages of Soul Manifestation.

"Something tells me he will do it." Riot said, a frown pulling on his brows. "That bastard was a monster."

"Yeah, I can already see it happen." Dante said.

It was almost as if the blonde bastard was the protagonist of some movie speedrunning something the antagonist took decades to achieve. It wouldn’t be strange if they found out that he already got his Soul Weapon by the end of the week.

"Forget about the runt for now." Riot said. "I know I already said it, but I really am not comfortable with this?"

"Yeah yeah, if you don’t like it, we can get you your old heart back."

"That’s not the point!"

Walking deep into Hollowgrid, Dante and Riot made their way to Larry’s Workshop. Another thing Dante had scheduled for that day was Riot’s heart surgery. The doctor was already waiting for them by the time they arrived, so right after walking inside, the big guy went to prepare himself.

Dante wasn’t the one who would be lying on the operating table, but he wasn’t going to be wasting his time in the waiting room, either. Following Larry, he took a laser bath then put on some scrubs then walked into the operation room as if he were just another doctor.

"Huh? What the hell are you doing here!?" Riot was quite shocked when he saw him come in.

"To observe." Dante answered. "I already told you there is something I want to try, right?"

"Goddamn it... I already said I don’t want to be your guinea pig..."

"Just shut up already. I own you, remember?"

Riot clearly had a lot more to say, but instead, he gritted is teeth and turned away.

"Let’s get this over with."

Sounding completely disinterested, Larry placed the gas mask on the big guy’s face and pumped him full of anesthetic. Turns out Riot was quite resistant, so it took him a while to be knocked out.

Most people would struggle to believe that the big guy was mostly flesh and bone, considering his tank-like build and the way he moves. Nevertheless, reality has proved that he was still human, which is why he bled when the doctor first cut him.