The Ancient Genes

A silence enveloped the surrounding. Only the sound of the river flowing remained. It took a while for everyone to process what had actually happened.

"F*ck! What a psycho!"

"Did that really happen?"

"I think so."

Rene looked at Kaiser who was breaking out in a smile for some reason.

"Have you gone insane. The kid is dead.", Rene said with a frown.

" Do you think so?", Kaiser asked with a smile.

"I believe it.", Rene replied.

" We will see.", Kaiser replied.  He didn't believe that Max was dead. Even though it was impossible, the expression on Max's face wasn't the one of someone who was about to die.

...

On the other hand, the Iron Back Rhino fell along with Max.

It growled while staring at Max in resentment. Beasts had strong instinct and it too must have noticed that something bad was about to happen.

"Haha...what are you looking at? Come and kill me if you can.", Max teased the beast as he accompanied it alongside.

The Iron Back Rhino was really infuriated and opened its mouth for a breath attack.

"Shit!"

Max immediately spread out his wings and pushed himself above avoiding the attack by a hair's breadth.

"What a stubborn bastard..", Max mumbled and slowly descended.

"Boom!!!"

The beast crashed into the water producing a thundering explosion sending water to a height of 20 meters.

"Even a savage beast will turn into a meat patty after plummeting from that height."

"May your soul rest in peace and your core in my hands.", Max prayed before jumping into the bloody water and looking for the beast's core.

After 15 minutes….

" Hahaha...Found it!!"

Max took his hands out of water with coconut sized core which was giving a yellow gleam.

….

Max returned to the river side with a wide smile on his face.

"What a great day! I found my way out and a savage beast core too. Lucky day…"

Max planned to call it a day but he realised that there was still quite a bit of time left until sunset.

"Well then, I will go for a round two. I feel close to having a breakthrough. Besides, there ain't many days left.", Max took out his spear and dashed towards the forest while humming a song.

….

Max returned around the dusk with a hole on his shoulder. He cursed after each step.

" F*ck! I almost died. Where did it come from?"

Max's mood was completely destroyed by a Savage beast. It was a wasp and Max was lucky that it didn't pursue Max for long or with Max's flying capability, he would have been doomed.

Max followed his usual routine and took out his clothes before entering into the river.

After having a bath, he got out and proceeded to his training.

"I feel that my skin is turning into stone but when I look at it, it looks fluffy and shiny like that of a girl. Don't tell me that I would turned into a girl after mastering the Ancient Manual.", Max mumbled as he looked at his skin.

Max could clearly feel that his skin was becoming tougher and tougher while this feeling seemed to be moving further into his body as he continued to practice.

After practicing for a while, Max felt the connection with flow energy decreasing.

" Huff! Why is there a limit on the amount of energy that can be sensed at once? This is really complicated. But thank God, I found an alternative."

Max then took in a deep breath before taking out all the cores.

"Let's begin then…."

Max took one of the smallest cores from one of the ferocious beasts and it immediately started to melt releasing all the mana inside it.

….

"Haha...I can feel it. The spirit energy has increased a lot. Savage beast cores is really what I need now to speed up my practice.", Max laughed hysterically after absorbing all the cores.

Max got up from the rock and clenched his fist. He could feel that his strength had increased a bit.

" Everything seems to be going smoothly. Now only if I could figure out how to use Sera's power. It would be really nice.", Max mumbled before releasing a sigh.

He then proceeded to enter his spirit world. 

All this time, Max had a question on his mind. But he didn't know how to get his answers.

 What happened to his body when he entered the spirit world?

Did it disappear from the real world or was it just his consciousness entering it?

When Max was busy contemplating this matter, he felt a tug at his pants.

"Wait a second, I am busy Juju…", Max said without even giving it a look.

" Aeow!"

"Aeow!"

"..."

"Hm….when did it changed its voice?", Max looked towards his feet in confusion.

He remembered this guy was always making a weird " khukhu" sound.

But when Max looked at the black cat-like creature, he felt a jolt through his entire body.

"Crap! I forgot the shadow leopard's cub. They might die alone without their mother's warmth on this cold night."

Max immediately jumped out of the Spirit world and began dashing towards the waterfall. He had clearly forgotten About the three cubs in his happiness from obtaining the core of the Iron Back Rhino.

"Wait!!!"

Max immediately pulled his breaks and skidded up to 7 meters while digging the earth.

"F*ck! Why was the cub in my spirit world?"

Max immediately entered the Spirit realm and found Sera running around. Juju was the one behind her leading the three little cubs. It looked like they were all playing a game of tag.

"What the hell is going on here? Will someone tell me."

Max went up planning to get some answers. But in the end, he just raised his hands in defeat.

Making Sera understand stuff like that was even more difficult than surviving in Orena.

After giving up, Max did some tests and concluded that the Shadow leopard's existence in his Spirit world had something to do with Sera.

"First, Juju and now them. Is Sera's ability related to beast's?", Max mumbled.

There was a bit of expectation as well as excitement in his voice.