I took a deep breath before I stepped forward towards alpha of the pack of the Nightshade Porcupine's. And as I entered the clearing, the alpha looked up from the thick grass it was eating at.
And it bristled with it hissing in warning as it turned away and pointed its large bed of quills at me. With it's body being around the size of a small horse. There was quite a large field of toxic quills being pointed at me.
"Keep looking at me then." I muttered though I noticed I was right about the Nightshade Porcupine's harem of smaller females in it's pack weren't going for me as I approached so confidently and agressively towards the alpha.
Then as I got close to the Nightshade Porcupine alpha it went to push itself towards me with it's thick bush of toxic quills. So I stepped to the side quickly and smashed my Desert Scorpion Spear into the brush of quills.
'Damn, I can't stab past all the quills, and they are like four feet long as well.' I mused before I tensed and with a prolonged 'thud' I pushed my body to it's current limit and I kicked the ground six times in just a second to launch myself at high speed to the side.
The Soru made me blur to the side at great speed and I saw as the Nightshade Porcupine's face went tight in suprise as I bypassed it's thick maze of spikes and then I swiped the end of my spear at the monster's face.
The sharp and jagged poisoned tip of my Sacred Blood Desert Scorpion Spear carved a bloody gash across it's face, making it hiss again as it backed stepped and then swung its side around to bring it's quills at me.
But then loud thud, a powerful blast of water exploded, hitting it in the face as it turned its quills towards me.
I smiled at the sight of Mio getting the water arrow's to hit directly into the face of the alpha, and I side-stepped before stepping close to the alpha, and with a crunching noise.
My spear broke through several shorter quills, and the alpha screamed before its scream turned into a pained gurgle as I slammed the spear through its side and into its chest.
I pulled my spear out of the alpha and hopped away from it as it attempted to backpedal into me in a rush. "Focus on the smaller ones now! My spear is heavily poisoned so it will be dying now!" I called out to Mio
And with Mio's help, I turned on the lesser Mutant tier Nightshade Porcupine's and with the alpha being slow naturally due to it's nature and the toxins/wounds. It could only exasberate it's wounds as it tried to chase me as I killed the other half dozen Nightshade Porcupines.
[Mutant Tier Nightshade Porcupine killed- Consume to gain 1-10 Mutant Geno points.- Mutant Tier Nightshade Porcupine Armor, Beast Soul Gained.]
Out of the six Nightshade Porcupines I killed four of them. And I managed got one beast soul out of them! But after a couple of minutes, it took for us to kill the lesser Nightshade Porcupines.
The alpha was huffing and twitching as my Sacred Blood tier scorpion spear's toxins were wreaking merry hell inside of it.
"Jake, you go ahead and get the last hit in. I won't try to steal a Sacred Blood Beast Soul from you haha." Mio said happily as she checked the surrounding's for any interlopers or other beasts.
I nodded and then I came around and slammed my spear through the skull of the paralyzed Nightshade Porcupine alpha's head making it go stiff with the Sanctuary's System going off in both of our ears.
[Sacred Blood Tier Nightshade Porcupine killed- Consume to gain 1-10 Sacred Blood Geno points.- Sacred Blood Tier Nightshade Porcupine Armor, Beast Soul Gained.]
I blinked at getting the Sacred Blood version of the monster's beast soul and I said with a wry smile. "Well, I got the Sacred Blood beast soul armor... I can't use it though, I already got a better for me suit of armor at least. And you don't want to wear a heavy suit of armor that has poisoned spines do you?"
Mio's face twitched before she shook her head and said with amusement. "Just sell it in the Iron Legions channels. Qin Xuan won't let you miss out, and heck maybe you can use the contribution points to pick out a decent offensive Geno Art."
I nodded slowly, though I was also considering my future. Although this spear was Sacred Blood tier, it wouldn't be able to evolve it past the First Sanctuary level's Super tier. Which was at best entry-level Sacred Blood of the Second Sanctuary level.
So, combined with my One Piece martial arts and Haki. My best bet was to pick up a sword-based Geno Art to practise sword-based haki. And of course, a set of fist and movement Geno martial arts.
Despite how great the One Piece martial arts and the martial arts in particular from Garp I inherited. They didn't fit this world's power system and wouldn't allow me to unlock any Gene Chains.
"Yeah, that's for the best... Though, we certainly got a good haul to get through now." I said with a smile as I looked at the stack of Nightshade Porcupines we set up to let them bleed out.
Mio nodded, though she looked a bit concerned as she added. "Yeah. This is a good bit to get through, should we move to a cave or- No here in the flat land's there aren't any caves. Well, there is an outcropping over there we can use!"
I looked over past the sea of thick and tall grass towards she pointed and in the distance I could indeed see a large triangle of grey stone poking up.
So I nodded and with a grunt of effort I worked to pull the corpses of our kills towards the rock outcropping with Mio helping as well.
Once we got to the large outcropping, which thankfully was a dead zone without any grass in the general area. I began peppering the Nightshade Porcupine's which I had to be very careful in doing so due to their highly toxic spines.
"So you think we can use these spines for anything?" Mio asked curiously as she sat down on a raised rock after checking around it to make sure their wasn't any scorpions or snakes.
I hummed, and after a moment, I flicked the alpha's large, red and purple quills with my knife before I said. "Yeah, with their stiff nature... I could probably make a pitfall trap for monsters to fall into it and land on them maybe."
I shrugged as at this point, such traps weren't worth my time for now, as I was already full on normal and primitive geno points anyway.
Mio and I continued with some more relaxed conversation with Mio sharing some more about her family while also telling me how her family in Rias and Runeas were doing.
"Hmm, so Rias and Runeas are far out to the west now? Why- Wait, is it because Runeas is still obsessed with camel beast souls and such?" I asked incredulously.
Mio helplessly nodded saying with a sigh. "Yeah... And Rias got dragged into it as she didn't want to hunt with Qin Xuan and Yang Manli."
"Hmm, I have a hunt with those two in the next couple of days as well. We are going after a Sacred Blood tribe of monsters." I mused while understanding why Rias didn't want to get into such trouble.
But then again... Just me and Mio killed a Sacred Blood creature! So we were doing great, obviously.
Finally after half an hour, I de-skinned, removed the quills, and otherwise cleaned up the Nightshade Porcupine's remains and seeing as we were in the field in a very hostile area I just wrapped them up thickly in foil before starting a fire so I could bury the cuts of meat in coals so the scent of the cooking wouldn't enter the harshly blowing plain winds.
As we waited for the meat to cook, Mio and I sat down beside one another with our backs to the large boulder's flat wall, so we got something to relax against.
"So, besides the hunt with Yang Manli... Jake, I was curious if you were going to take part in the planet-wide youth tournament for the people entering the Sanctuary for the first year?"
I raised an eyebrow before I remembered in canon how Han Sen in his identity as 'Dollar', which was a stupid plot point that always bugged me. He casually stomped through the tournament before randomly. A fucking wounded Shura alien teleported in front of his path that he also slayed while in his Dollar disguise.
I hummed at the thought before I nodded and said honestly. "Yeah, I plan to join a college, so if I win the tournament, I can get access to the best colleges and get more resources," I admitted that, although the Jade Skin Sutra was great.
It also required some resources to train.
Mio lifted up her legs and rested her chest and arms on her knees before she chuckled and said easily. "You should tell Qin Xuan and Yang Manli that. Qin Xuan would love to use you as an advertisement for her team if you do well."
I nodded freely as I didn't lose anything from having Qin Xuan sponsor me for the tournament. "I will talk to her in a few days when we go on the hunt." I said before we both went quiet as we just waited for our food to cook and allow us both to recover from our spent energy.
Then after a while, we got the food out of the coals and we quickly ate as much mutant tier beast meat as possible. In which I gained an even fifteen mutant genes due to the whole losing out on Geno points by eating too much of the same species.
"Damn this is good." I muttered as I could literally feel my stomach rumbling as the highly energy rich flesh of the Sacred Blood tier meat filled my stomach.
Mio groaned a bit and said softly. "Yeah... Nothing can beat Sacred Blood meat, even if someone didn't participate in it's kill and can't get geno points. Just the meat itself is a tonic to strengthen the body."
Mio despite her having a very human frame unlike myself who had a bit of a One Piece stomach going on. Even she managed to force down close to five bombs of meat that made her cup her stomach as she dozed in place.
Myself? I ate literally half the damned small horse sized thing and I just basked in the Sanctuary system dinging in my ear. [Sacred Blood Geno Point Gained!]
Over and over within my ear until I ended up with six points.
'Hmm, I need to find some more Sacred Blood creatures... Thankfully due to Mio's map I can easily do so.' I mused and I threw a look at the beautiful red head beside me.
And I coudn't help a glance at how her tight Mutant tier scale armor was form fitting around her very ample chest.
But it's not like I was able to see any cleavage nor did we have a chance to get freaky so I just refocused as Mio rubbed her stomach before she said quietly. "How about we get moving back into the forest, we can go hunt down a pack of Wind Striding Wolves and Fire Fang Lions to get more mutant geno points."
Seeing as I already had eighty Mutant geno points currently. Going to hunt down a couple more pack style beasts would be a good way for us to fill out the rest of my geno points.
Mio then explained how the wolves and lions we were going to hunt were strictly Mutant tier creatures and ran in small packs so there wasn't a chance to have any Sacred Blood creatures.
And with my agreement, we set off quickly to go hunt those creatures.
Even as I did so, I coudn't help but wonder beyond the danger of hunting said creatures, why did it take years for people to hunt down creatures here in the Sanctuary to max out even their Mutant geno points.
Then it hit me that most people simply couldn't eat as much of an animal as I could. So a lot of it was wasted, hence they didn't get as many Geno points per kill. But there was also just the fact that most people only went out in large hunting parties.
So they didn't get as much of a share as I did, even if I shared the meat with just Mio.
-
'I wonder if I can do more martial arts and start the Jade Skin Sutra now with the Sacred Blood Geno points and having maxed out my Mutant Geno Points.' I mused as Mio and I made our way back back into the Black Steel Shelter.
Our hunt only took up the majority of the day so it wasn't like we needed to camp outside or anything. Though Mio clearly wanted to call it quits as she stretched and said excitedly. "I can't wait to get into a shower. Alright! Jake, thank you a lot for the help, and be careful on the hunt with Qin Xuan and Yang Manli!"
I nodded and with a small smile I added. "Make sure to tell your family you got some Sacred Blood Geno points. Having more family support in your clan will be good."
Mio actually pouted before she shook her head wryly. "It's more complicated than that... Due to this generation of my clan being almost entirely girls, the clan is scared to invest in us, seeing as we will almost certainly marry into another family."
'That's true.' I thought helplessly before I said with a smile. "Well, you just gotta snag some talented guy with no major background who will marry into your clan then."
Mio raised an eyebrow before snorting and saying teasingly as she folded her arms under her prodigious chest. "Oh are you volunteering then?"
And I just realized how I made that sound so I just chuckled awkwardly with Mio giggling at seeing me realize my verbal trip-up. Then she smiled and said with a knowing smile.
"Well, I will consider your advice then. Anyway you be careful on your way home. Oh and make sure to sign up for the World Youth Tournament as well... Don't forget!" She finished with some force as though she needed to remind me.
I rolled my eyes and said with some humor. "Alright, alright, Mio, you have a good night. I am heading home as well."
With that, we separated. And I went through the teleporter, and without anything notable, I got home without issue.
-
After washing up and getting recollected, I activated the Jade Skin Sutra and began watching the nude form of a model practising the sutra and listening to the explanation of it.
'The Jade Skin Sutra is part of the Xue clan's Frost Sutra, but this is a simplified version of it given to one of the heirs for him to practise before he began using the main pathway. But the issue is that at its core, the Frost Sutra is on the wrong path.' I mused as I knew from later canon that this was the case.
The Frost Sutra would drive it's user's mad as they accumulated too much cold energy, when instead the user was supposed to accumulate yin energy to refine their bodies.
"The Jade Skin Sutra will help my body become much more flexible, slightly more durable, but also gain a lot more stamina. At least for now, before I begin unlocking Gene Locks in the Second Sanctuary." I muttered with a cool exhale, leaving me as I felt the Jade Skin Sutra working.
Then, as I began winding down from doing the motions and controlled breath method to activate the Jade Skin Sutra. My phone bleeped with myself raising an eyebrow as I had messages from both Yang Manli and Mio, who just messaged me.
From Yang Manli, it was just a confirmation for me to go on the hunt in the next couple of days. But from Mio it was some small talk, though attached was a picture of her sending a selfi in her PJ's that had a good bit of cleavage exposed.
And thus began the flirting but it was a weird mix of primal caveman flirting and more modern shitposting flirting as I didn't hide my talents in hunting and being able to provide for Mio and my future accomplishments.
But I also didn't hesitate to meme on Mio who brought up Runeas and Rias, her cousins who fucking failed hard at their hunt to the far west and both got hurt by scorpions as they were hunting in the desert for camel's for Runueas and her obsession.
"Heh... Makes me wonder if Rias and Runeas are going to ask Yang Manli and Qin Xuan to pull together another hunting party with me again." I mused before my lips twitched as I realized that with all but my Sacred Blood Geno points filled.
Well, also, I was missing Super Geno points, but still, those two were going to be deadweight unless I actually carried them and helped them get stronger at the rate I was gaining strength.
"Hmm, on my day off tomorrow, I should test to see how strong I have gotten, though with the added Sacred Blood geno points." I mused before I sent Mio a message telling her I was going to sleep so I could get to the training gym early.
And then Mio messaged me quickly. [Wait!!! What gym you going to? I want to see how strong I have gotten as well with my Mutant geno points being maxed out.]
I sent her the gym's name and address along with the time I was going to be there with a mental shrug as having a friend at the gym could be nice... And hell, the thought of Mio in some tight yoga pants made any inconvenience well worth it.