Super Gene

Han Sen’s eyes flashed like lightning as he turned to face the thing coming out of the sand.

It was a humanoid form made of rock. It rose and immediately smashed a fist of stone down toward Han Sen.

Han Sen quickly retreated so that the rockman’s fist hit the sand. The sand shot out in a miniature shockwave around the creature’s fist.

Stone was clearly its element, so the creature would have difficulty casting power outside of its body. However, the creature was quite adept at using its power to reinforce itself, so its physical strength was extremely impressive.

As the rockman swung at him again, Han Sen deployed his Jadeskin Battle Body. Then, he threw a punch to meet the rockman’s own.

Pang!

Han Sen’s jade fist came against the rockman’s stony knuckles, which released the sharp cracking noise of stone hitting stone. The rockman’s giant fist and arm were shattered by Han Sen’s punch, scattering broken chunks of rock across the sand around them.

Han Sen quickly followed up his punch, hitting the rockman repeatedly. After a few blows, the rockman’s body had become nothing but rubble on the dunes.

“Xenogeneic Duke hunted. Rock Demon: xenogeneic gene found.”

Han Sen didn’t obtain a new beast soul, but that didn’t bother him. He rummaged through the rubble of his fallen foe until he unearthed a mud-colored crystal.

“Xenogeneic Duke Rock Demon gene obtained.”

Han Sen picked up the crystal and resumed walking through the desert. Now that Jadeskin had its first gene lock open, he could borrow power from the planet itself. The ability was proving to be quite useful. He stood on Planet King Kong and recovered the energy he had spent when he took down the Rock Demon.

Han Sen walked one hundred miles, and during that entire time, he only encountered two Rock Demons. Xenogeneics were annoyingly rare on the planet, but because of that, there was little in the way of risk. It would just take longer for Han Sen to collect what he needed.

Han Sen could fly very quickly, so he took to the air to speed things up a bit. He traveled across the desert until he saw a black fog choking an area in front of him.

Han Sen thought it might be a sandstorm or a gathering of dark clouds, but there was something about it that didn’t feel right. The planet’s atmosphere was too thin to form real clouds or sandstorms.

The black fog came closer, and Han Sen realized that instead of being composed of sand, it was actually a vast cloud of stoneflies.

The stoneflies looked almost exactly like ordinary flies, but their bodies were composed of black stone. They were a common low-level xenogeneic that was commonly known to reside on Planet King Kong. They were the only xenogeneics on the planet that could attack in a group.

Dong dong… dong dong…

Killing them was pointless. Most of the stoneflies were Barons, and it was very rare to find one that was even a Viscount. None of the Royal Guards cared about stone fly xenogeneic genes.

As the stoneflies came closer, Han Sen heard a weird noise coming from their midst. It sounded as if there was something larger hovering in the middle of the dark cyclone of insects.

There were so many of the stoneflies that they hung over the ground like a black cloud. As a result, Han Sen couldn’t see what lay within.

“This is a truly amazing number of stoneflies. It isn’t common to see this many of them, according to the chronicled history of Planet King Kong. Why are they here? What drew them here?” Han Sen wondered.

Han Sen was wearing his Galactic Lobster Armor, which would protect him from even King class creatures. Han Sen wasn’t worried about the insects in front of him, so he walked right into the hordes of stoneflies. He wanted to see what he would find in the middle.

Even if there was a King class xenogeneic, Han Sen would be able to battle it within the dark cloud. If he could kill a King class xenogeneic, its xenogeneic gene would be a great reward for him, as well.

The number of stoneflies within the swarm was truly mind-boggling. Han Sen strode through the swarm, and it sounded like a rainstorm as the stoneflies pelted his armor.

The stoneflies weren’t trying to attack him, though. There were simply so many of them that they flew into Han Sen’s armor by mistake.

Han Sen made his way through the stoneflies, and after a while, he saw a blurry shadow in front of him. The closer he got to the shadow, the more stoneflies there were. The shadow soon resolved into a beast with four legs. It looked kind of like a tiger or a lion.

But that shadow was so obscured by the stoneflies that Han Sen couldn’t see even an inch of its skin. Other than a rough outline, the creature’s form was hidden. Han Sen could only tell that it was twenty meters tall and thirty meters long.

The xenogeneic was now approaching under the blanketing stoneflies. The stoneflies raced furiously around it. The xenogeneic passed close by Han Sen, but it continued to walk without showing any sign of wanting to attack him.

Han Sen frowned. He moved his leg and a Petrify shockwave spread out around him. Although stone element xenogeneics had a strong resistance to the powers of petrification, the stoneflies were simply too low-level to withstand his attack.

Han Sen’s Petrify shockwave spread out, petrifying many of the stoneflies on contact. They fell down from the sky.

The stoneflies upon the xenogeneic also became petrified, and they began to fall to the ground one by one. As that creature continued to walk, its real face became visible.

It was a wolf made of blue metal, but for some reason, it had been sorely injured. Blood coated the creature’s entire body.

The stoneflies had swarmed around the wolf, trying to dine on the blue blood that was oozing freely out of its body.

Blergh!

The blue metal wolf suddenly coughed twice. It continued to hack as it moved forward, strings of blood hanging from its mouth. Many of the stoneflies buzzed down around its head, clearly drawn by the blue blood that was now staining the sand.

Han Sen sent out another wave of petrification, but the hordes of stoneflies stretched far beyond the reach of the attack. Seconds later, they had descended to cover up the blue metal wolf’s body once more.

The blue metal wolf barely seemed to notice the stoneflies. It only continued to walk without rest. Every step it took left a giant pawprint in the sand.

“I am way too lucky. I’ve met an injured King class xenogeneic. It might even be half-deified.” Han Sen was so happy. The blue metal wolf looked badly wounded, and Han Sen believed that it was weak enough to be killed easily. He drew out his Thunder God Spike and Ghost Teeth Knife. He was going to strike at the injured metal wolf.

Just as Han Sen was about to attack, he heard a scream from the sky.

That scary scream was like a shockwave spreading out from some point above him. Countless stoneflies exploded under the pressure of that fierce scream. In moments, the hordes of insects that had covered the entire sky were reduced to nothing but a whiff of dust.

Han Sen’seyes widened. A stone dragon soared across the sky, flapping its wings. It swooped down from the sky, extending sharp claws toward the injured metal wolf.

The stone dragon’s body looked like black jade. Its wings cut the air like sharp stone blades, and they glittered with a fractallic light. It was a strange sight.

“A King class stone xenogeneic?” Han Sen frowned as he gripped his weapons tighter. He stared at the giant metal wolf and readied himself to fight. “Trying to steal stuff from me, huh? I’ll tell you right now that you don’t have what it takes.