Chapter 186: Slime Talent

The carriage wheels rolled across the dirt road while the cabin swayed slightly.

Lance curled up in the innermost corner and glanced around to both sides.

Everyone else in the carriage was resting with their eyes closed. No one paid him any attention.

So he simply focused his thoughts and summoned the panel visible only to himself.

【Magical Beast Slime LV4 (Racial Talent Extractable)】

The progress bar was already full.

Without any hesitation, Lance directly issued the extraction command within his mind.

【Extracting… Converting into Human Adaptive Talent…】

【Solidifying Racial Talent for you: Mucus Coagulation Factor (Green)】

【Description: The highly viscous body fluid traits of Slimes have been perfectly replicated into your hematopoietic stem cells. Your blood structure has undergone mutation, becoming extremely adhesive and highly sealing in nature.】

【Effect: Physique upper limit +2. When suffering piercing wounds or bleeding-type injuries, your blood will rapidly coagulate at the wound site into a high-toughness “gel blood scab,” forcibly reducing blood loss speed by 65% while creating a sterile physiological environment for subsequent deep self-healing, increasing recovery speed by 50%.】

The instant he confirmed the extraction.

A strange sensation violently spread outward from deep within Lance’s bone marrow.

It was not intense pain, but rather a numb itching sensation mixed with soreness and swelling, as though certain substances inside all the bones throughout his body were being forcibly altered.

He could clearly sense the blood inside his veins suddenly becoming thicker and hotter.

Every beat of his heart pumped that heavy, scorching flow toward every limb and organ in his body.

Lance clenched his back teeth tightly and pressed his back firmly against the carriage wall.

To avoid attracting attention, he forcibly endured the urge for transformation sweeping across his body and did not even dare breathe too heavily.

Fortunately, it did not last long.

After more than ten seconds, the heat and soreness gradually faded away and completely fused into the depths of his muscles and bones.

Once the bodily transformation finished, Lance slowly exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

Finally catching his breath properly again, he refocused on the panel and carefully examined the talent description.

After reading it, the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a helpless bitter smile.

As expected.

Trying to reach the heavens in a single step by farming low-level monsters and obtaining that kind of absurd Slime regeneration where they could endlessly reconstruct themselves after being shattered was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Under the panel’s “Human Adaptive Conversion” rules, the exaggerated regenerative abilities of those amorphous creatures had been reasonably transformed into a supportive talent focused on enhanced blood coagulation and wound healing.

Still, even if he had not obtained “Limb Regeneration,” this was still a genuine Green Talent!

One had to know that Slimes were universally recognized across the continent as complete trash-tier magical beasts.

The last time he extracted a Green Talent from Goblins, it had only happened because the dragon blood within his body forcefully interfered and assimilated the trait, producing a lucky mutation through pure coincidence.

But this time, the Slimes had managed to forcefully produce a Green-quality talent purely through the strength of their racial characteristics alone.

The potential of this regeneration ability truly deserved respect.

It seemed that if he wanted genuine “Super-Speed Regeneration,” he would have to wait until after becoming a Professional and then kill some higher-tier Professional-level creatures in the future.

Like mutated trolls or Hydras.

Even so, Lance was actually quite satisfied with this “Mucus Coagulation Factor.”

Setting aside the +2 Physique bonus, just the effect reducing blood loss by 65% was absolutely a life-saving divine skill.

Previously, if he had his artery sliced open or his abdomen pierced in battle, he could directly die from hemorrhagic shock within seconds.

But things were different now.

With this layer of “gel blood scab,” even if he suffered severe penetrating injuries, the wound would still be forcibly sealed shut by the viscous blood.

As long as the bleeding stopped, he could continue moving. This was practically equivalent to half an “immunity to lethal damage” tyrant-body effect.

Combined with the final 50% healing acceleration, deep blade wounds exposing bone that would originally require over half a month of recovery would probably scab over and regrow flesh within only a few days now.

Although it still could not compare to the visibly apparent regenerative speed of trolls, the foundation had at least been firmly established.

As long as he continued farming this type of magical beast in the future, he would eventually be able to steadily stack the strength of his regenerative abilities higher and higher.

……

Click.

Lance used the spare key to unlock the oak door and entered the house.

Ryan had already mentioned two days ago that he would be preparing ritual items and had deliberately left the door unlocked for him.

Hearing the noise, Little Black and Doubao, who had been dozing beside the fireplace, instantly perked up their ears.

The two fluffy little creatures wagged their tails and immediately trotted over, circling around Lance’s boots while whimpering ingratiatingly.

Lance bent down and vigorously rubbed them around, casually kneading their dog heads several times before quickly standing back up.

At this moment, he felt as though a raging fire were burning inside his stomach.

The talent enhancement he had just completed inside the carriage had not only altered his blood structure, but had also massively consumed the basic energy reserves stored inside his body.

So the first thought in Lance’s mind after returning home was rushing straight toward the kitchen.

He urgently needed to find some high-calorie food to fill the hunger gnawing at him.

The kitchen felt rather empty.

After rummaging through everything for a while, Lance finally found a bulging kraft paper bag hidden beneath the deepest pile of pots and bowls under the stove.

He pulled it out and tore the paper bag open in one motion. A fragrance of seasoned meat instantly rushed into his nose.

Leaning closer for a sniff, he confirmed it was high-quality dried meat.

However, just as he pulled several pieces of jerky from the bag and prepared to devour them, his movements suddenly paused.

Using the light shining through the window, he examined it more closely.

He noticed several bite marks on the rock-hard jerky.

The marks looked somewhat human, but also resembled canine teeth.

Lance lowered his head and glanced at the two little dogs circling eagerly around his feet.

He immediately understood.

This was probably the snack Ryan had bought for Little Black and Doubao to chew on.

“Woof!” Little Black barked once, staring fixedly at the jerky with its tail spinning like a propeller, clearly craving it desperately.

Lance coughed dryly and forced out a somewhat awkward smile.

“Sorry about this, little guys.”

Squatting down to negotiate, he said, “I’ll requisition this bag for now. Tomorrow morning I’ll absolutely buy two new bags to compensate you.”

When someone was starving badly enough, who still cared about dignity? Human food or dog food, as long as it filled the stomach, it was fine.

Back in his previous life, some of the takeout food he had eaten probably would not even have been touched by dogs.

Lance stood up and directly grabbed a handful of jerky, stuffing it into his mouth.

The tough meat was forcefully chewed apart as he gulped it down with cold water from a water jug.

Honestly, the flavor was pretty good.

Within only a few minutes, he completely devoured the entire generously portioned bag of jerky.

As the large quantity of food entered his stomach and began digesting.

Only then did Lance finally feel the intense hunger gradually receding somewhat.

Satisfied, he exhaled a long breath and rubbed his stomach while preparing to sneak out of the kitchen.

But the moment he turned around, he suddenly collided face-to-face with a figure that had appeared at the stairway corner without him noticing.

Ayla stood there.

Those large amber eyes were currently locked firmly onto the empty kraft paper bag in Lance’s hand.

At this moment, Ayla felt like overturning the entire table in fury.

That bag of jerky was something she had painstakingly hidden away!

Ryan had bought it from the market yesterday specifically to use as training rewards for Little Black and Doubao.

But Ayla had considered herself extremely clever at the time.

She had planned to secretly hide the jerky while nobody was around, then later tell Ryan that she had already “kindly” fed the dogs.

That way, she could quietly claim the entire bag of snacks for herself without anyone noticing.

With that bag of jerky.

Whenever Ryan threatened her again, she would finally have enough confidence to say “no.”

Just moments ago, she had secretly taken a tiny bite before the front door suddenly opened.

To avoid being discovered, she had hurriedly stuffed the paper bag behind the kitchenware.

But who could have imagined that in the blink of an eye, every last piece would end up inside this hateful Dragon-blooded’s stomach?!

Ayla was so angry that her chest puffed up and down while her cheeks bulged like buns.

Yet she did not dare explode in anger, nor could she reasonably demand compensation.

If Ryan discovered that a dignified Azure Moon royal werewolf had secretly been fighting two dogs over snacks…

How could she ever hold her head high in this house again afterward?

Even though canine demi-humans had the word “canine” in their name, they absolutely were not actual dogs!

She simply could not afford that humiliation.

But just swallowing this grievance silently?

The fury in her heart surged more violently the more she thought about it.

So angry! This was enough to drive a wolf insane!

Standing at the kitchen entrance, Lance looked at Ayla’s expression as though she wanted to swallow him whole and found himself trapped in an awkward dilemma.

Although he had no idea what bizarre thoughts were furiously running through the werewolf girl’s mind.

His sharp eyes noticed that the fluffy tail behind her was currently swishing left and right so quickly it nearly produced afterimages.

The smell of gunpowder in the air surged sharply upward.

Oh no.

Lance’s heart skipped a beat.

The dog treats he had randomly found earlier could not possibly have belonged to this little princess, right?

“Good afternoon.”

Lance forced out what he believed was a friendly smile and attempted to redirect the situation.

“Uh… I just got back from handling some business. Where did Uncle Ryan go today?”

Hearing that, Ayla took a deep breath.

The more she endured, the more cheated she felt. The more she retreated, the angrier she became.

Adding in the humiliation of being hung from the ceiling beam previously…

Ayla made her decision: beat him up.

She would let him witness the strength of a genius from the Azure Moon royal family.

Then afterward, she could threaten him into buying delicious food to compensate her.

However.

As a noble royal, she would still display her magnanimity after beating someone up.

She carefully sized Lance up.

This guy clearly followed the path of a close-combat adventurer, and his clothing was extremely plain, making him look completely poor.

Who knew which fallen Dragon-blooded family he came from.

He probably had not mastered any advanced combat skills either.

When the time came, as long as he provided her with tasty food and drinks.

She would not mind casually teaching him a tiny bit of the combat skills unique to the werewolf race as compensation.