"I don’t know..." He finally responded to Elane once he came out of his thoughts.

"Well, why don’t you give it a try? We have all these extra Origin Crystals, so why not?"

Her excitement wouldn’t let up — the idea of having just as strong of a defence as Rohan, as well as the added bonus of the strength boost it’d give her, made Elane ecstatic.

Rohan looked down at the small red orb resting in his palm.

Even with the low light inside the tunnel, it was easy to tell the thing was a gene.

Elane’s encouraging words continued to ring in his ears.

’Can’t you evolve this into another Firestone Skin gene?’

Honestly, it was an exciting thought.

And precisely because of that, Rohan didn’t want to jump at it too quickly.

He’d learned enough during his time as an Awakened to know not to jump the gun on things like this and celebrate before the race even started.

Just because they wanted this Worker Ant gene to turn into a second Firestone Skin Gene didn’t mean it would.

Still...

There was only one way to find out.

He raised his head and glanced back through the tunnel behind him. The beast nest remained just as quiet as ever. ’I don’t think anyone’s noticed our presence so far, so there’s not much harm in taking an extra minute to perform this experiment.’

He let out a low breath, his own adrenaline starting to rise.

"Sure. Let’s try it."

Elane brightened immediately. Her grin looked more vibrant than he’d ever seen it before. ’Wait, did I always notice such details about her?’

Rohan shook those thoughts away and concentrated.

"We do it fast and quietly. Don’t let out any shouts of excitement if this really works! It’d be a shame if our plans fall apart because of something silly like that."

Elane nodded and followed his lead.

Rohan crouched down with his back against the wall while Elane went over to fetch the hidden Lava Hellebore. Now that the Awakened in this tunnel were taken care of, there wasn’t any further need to hide its presence and vibrancy.

’We have more than enough Origin Crystals for this experiment, all thanks to these guys.’

Six Awakened were killed so far, and each person had between 5 and 7 Origin Crystals each, so their haul was very nice indeed.

Elane settled down beside him once she returned with the formidable flower in tow, knees drawn up slightly and her eyes completely transfixed on the small red orb nestled in his hand.

She nudged his arm to urge him to hurry up.

"Try not to be so eager," Rohan quietly laughed and whispered.

"I’m watching history happen!"

"You’re watching me spend expensive resources on an experiment..."

"Exactly!"

Rohan shook his head and picked up the first Origin Crystal.

It dissolved into a transparent powder almost instantly.

"...It’ll take me a while to get used to that." Elane muttered in silent amazement.

"Every time I see that, it feels unfair."

Rohan glanced at her.

"Unfair to who?"

"Everyone else."

"..."

The red colour drained from the Origin Crystal in his palm into his body with a rush, and Rohan witnessed as the percentage next to his Evolution Gene rose from zero once more.

A smug smile formed on Rohan’s face while he picked up the second Origin Crystal.

Then the third.

And the fourth...

One after another, they vanished into dust as his Evolution Gene’s storage climbed.

[Name: Rohan Roy]

[Rank: F]

[Talent: Evolution Gene (Normal(F) - 100%, Elite(F) - 14%)] 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

[Genes: F rank Firestone Skin (Elite)]

[Genetic Armaments: F rank Horned Rabbit Spear (Elite)]

"There," he murmured. "It’s full."

Elane immediately perked up.

"Now the gene!" she ushered.

Rohan rolled the small gene between his fingers and studied it for a second longer.

He still had no real clue what its evolved form would become.

Elane’s fingers crossed while she watched fervently from the side.

"Let’s see what you turn into."

Rohan closed his eyes and focused.

The Origin Energy contained within his Evolution Gene began to stir, drawn by the new target to evolve like water finding a channel down hill. Warmth gathered in his palm and then surged into the red orb.

The Worker Ant Gene flared.

The process only took a few seconds to complete, and Elane practically jumped on top of Rohan in anticipation.

"Uh... Sorry..." The mood suddenly turned awkward as she quietly lifted herself from atop him.

"Cough... What is it then!? Tell me, you’re killing me with this suspense right now!!"

[Worker Ant Gene(Normal) has evolved into Worker Ant Gene(Elite)]

Rohan sighed.

Just the name alone practically confirmed it, but he checked the visual image it projected into his mind just to be certain.

’Wow! That’s a big change!’

Despite not seeing what they were hoping, Rohan was still amazed by the change to the Gene’s abilities the evolution had caused.

’Before, those hot stones it produced were a minor inconvenience at most even for newbie Awakened, but now they are basically the equivalent of fragmentation grenades!’

Such a huge boost in strength was absurd, even for an evolution from Normal tier to Elite tier.

’Though they are nowhere near as effective as the Hollow Tide Bursts.’

If they were, then that would just break all the known conventions of the Awakened world. Those Hollow Tide Bursts were one-time use items — if a Gene of the same rank and tier allowed an Awakened to produce projectiles with the same effectiveness, the whole Federation would turn itself over to get their hands on it.

"Did it work??"

Elane was growing impatient, and urged Rohan on.

Rohan let out a sigh, which wasn’t a good sign to Elane. "Unfortunately not. It seems my Evolution Gene has its limits after all. Maybe it can’t just completely transform one type of gene into another."

He handed the gene over to Elane so she could have a detailed look at the thing.

After a few dozen seconds of her face twisting and turning, she eventually relented.

"Although it’s still powerful, it’s just not what I am hoping for my first gene."

Rohan agreed. She could do better.

"Though at least we increased the selling price of this thing. It’s worth ten times what it would be as a Normal tier Gene, at the very least. This is a profit even with losing 7 Origin Crystals in the process."

She moved on quickly.

"Whatever, let’s head over to the next tunnel before they figure out what’s going on!"