Genesis Code: The Genetic Awakening-Chapter 38: Solo Dungeon Dive (4)

’Shit!’

Caleb cursed and moved quickly, dodging the streams of acid with agile spins. His moves gave three beetles enough time to close in, their spiked legs aimed straight at him.

"Not a chance!" he muttered, using his momentum to deliver a series of swift kicks that shattered their tough exoskeletons.

The beetles were sent crashing into their companions, while he grabbed one with his weapon plunged into it and used the monster as a shield.

As a bright flash of light built to a blinding peak, Caleb shut his eyes, holding the trembling, bleeding beetle in front of him.

’Hopefully, this only works through sight,’ he thought, pushing his domain sense further out to cover the entire area.

The light illuminated everything like a miniature sun, turning the space into a glaring white void. Even the other beetles froze momentarily, overwhelmed by the brightness. Caleb let out a silent sigh of relief.

’Thank goodness I was right.’

Although the flash blinded his vision, his domain sense allowed him to perceive his surroundings without losing focus.

’From now on, I’ll rely on my senses,’ he resolved, preparing for what was to come.

The beetles screeched as the blinding light began to fade. However, their expectations were shattered when, before the light completely dimmed, Caleb was already in motion, tearing through their ranks with even greater speed and ferocity.

His attacks were relentless, each strike slicing through the beetles’ joints with precise accuracy. The larger ones, noticing the massacre, let out piercing screeches and charged at him.

"Too late!" Caleb smirked as he noticed them moving in. He was finishing off the last of the smaller beetles when the larger ones shot another volley of acidic fluids his way.

With his heightened senses, Caleb anticipated the attack and dodged effortlessly. He closed the distance in an instant, spinning his blades as he lunged at the first beetle. One blade sank into its lower belly, tearing it open and drawing a shriek of agony.

Another beetle leapt at him, its spiked legs aimed to impale. Caleb countered with a powerful back kick, sending it crashing into the distance.

’If I rely on my senses, these creatures are only dangerous because of their acid,’ Caleb thought with a grin. ’That blinding flash, though—it’s an effective crowd control skill.’

He darted around the remaining beetles, slicing and crushing them with ruthless efficiency. In just a few minutes, the entire swarm was reduced to lifeless fragments.

"That was fun," Caleb muttered, his breath steadying as he stepped into the cavern. Finding a spot, he sat down to catch his breath and rest.

Caleb’s fight left him questioning his domain sense. He couldn’t help but wonder if many others had a similar ability. If they did, dealing with the cavecrawler beetles would have been far easier.

"But how does it actually work?" he mused, glancing at the bleeding monsters around him. The stench of their blood and entrails was overwhelming, even through his mask.

"Eyes perceive light through photoreceptors and rods, allowing us to see colours," he murmured. "So, how does domain sense manage to do this—and even outperform regular vision?"

He hadn’t given it much thought before, chalking it up to the magical nature of the world he was in. But the scientist in him couldn’t ignore the question any longer.

The simplest explanation would be magic. However, his domain sense wasn’t fueled by mana—he had almost none to begin with. Instead, it was an adaptive mutation of his natural senses.

Closing his eyes, Caleb extended his domain sense, scanning the cavern and the faint lights within it. Colours appeared just as vividly, if not more so.

’Maybe the mutation modified my brain to associate specific light wavelengths with colours,’ he theorized. ’That way, even without seeing the light directly, my brain interprets the wavelengths based on what I sense.’

It was the most plausible explanation he could come up with, given his limited understanding of light and perception.

’Wavelengths...’ The word lingered in his mind, sparking a deeper train of thought. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something significant about wavelengths—something he was missing. But for now, the answer remained out of reach.

’Let’s put a pin in that for now,’ Caleb thought as he stood up. ’I need to set up a lab once I’m out of here.’

He grabbed one of his short swords and walked over to the fallen beetles. It was time to reap the rewards of his efforts.

’Ugh, I hate this part’, he sighed, crouching beside one of the beetles. ’Why can’t they just dissolve into light particles and disappear?’

With a grimace, he retrieved a gleaming, blood-soaked core from the creature. As expected, energy pulsed faintly from the core.

[Mid-level monster core]

[Attribute: Light]

[Foreign energy detected]

"No surprise there," he muttered, though he couldn’t help but wonder about the attribute.

The first core he ever harvested had been marked neutral, but at the time, he hadn’t given it much thought since he was in a hurry.

"System, what does the attribute tag mean?" he asked, wanting to confirm his suspicions.

[Attributes define the type of abilities monsters possess. Monsters with purely physical abilities are neutral, while those with magical abilities carry the attribute corresponding to their powers.]

"Interesting. But is this useful to me?"

[Attributed cores can be used in artefacts and weapons designed for specific attributes.]

"So that’s a no," he muttered, shaking his head as he placed the core into his storage. "Remove the foreign energy signature as usual."

He wasn’t in a rush to absorb the mana contained within. Even though these cores were higher level than the first one he’d acquired, he doubted they would be enough to make a dent in filling his mana core.

Sometime later, he retrieved all the cores and washed his hands.

"Now then, let’s see how fancy those light abilities are..." He grinned in excitement as he scanned one of the monsters, bringing out a holographic copy of its genome.