That first fight against the E rank Nature Ant set the tone for the rest of the day.

What followed was less of a hunt and more a drawn out montage of the two of them moving through the wilderness like a pair of problems the local ecosystem simply wasn’t equipped to deal with.

They crossed long stretches of ground over the day, forced their way through thick undergrowth that even with Elane’s Enhanced senses it was hard to see through, and followed every faint sign of beasts every time either of them detected it.

And they found plenty.

Over the span of the day and even encroaching far into the dead of the night, they’d hunted over 30 more beasts in their over 200 kilometre journey so far.

Unfortunately they didn’t encounter any more E rank beasts, as they were still too close to Erenhot for them to crop up more often, as occurrences like their encounter with the Nature Ant was quite rare that close to the city — beasts like it had long been driven farther and farther away as the population of Awakened grew in the area.

However, they did score a good amount of Elite tier beasts, which fattened their coffers nicely. With the surplus of Origin Crystals they had, the duo had even started to use some of the Elite tier Origin Crystals in their cultivation of their genome — which provided a much more streamlined efficiency than the Ordinary tier ones they’d been using all along.

After running some simple calculations in his head, Rohan made the realisation that if he exclusively absorbed Elite tier Origin Crystals instead of Ordinary tier from this point on, then instead of the 5 months he predicted it would take to reach E rank, it would take a little over 6 weeks!

’At our current pace of hunting, that might actually be in the realm of possibility as well if we can keep encountering more Elite beasts.’

9 weeks in total to reach E rank was sure to put his speed up there with the elites of the Federation who relied on their status and pampering from their powerful families or organisations to rank up.

’Using Elite tier Origin Crystals is a little over 3 times faster than Ordinary tier. If this same pattern continues for using Commander tier Origin Crystals...’

It was terrifying to think about.

Wouldn’t he be able to reach E rank within 2 weeks??

That was just absurd! And he didn’t doubt that there were some hidden powerhouses out there who were able to achieve that — though they would have long reached the upper ranks by now.

’It’s a good lesson to teach me not to become complacent just because I have my Evolution Gene. There can always be someone out there who is stronger, even without having the same advantages.’

Over the day, Rohan handled the majority of the fighting, not because Elane was useless now or any horrible reason like that, but because he wanted to take every chance he could to get used to the changes in his strength.

Learning to incorporate the Molten element into his attacks was a completely new feeling to him, as beforehand he’d never had any experience with an element at all, so he literally had to start from scratch.

Right now, all he could achieve was increasing the output of molten lava all over his body when his Molten-stone skin was active, doubling the amount of lava that would stick to the enemy whenever they landed an attack on him.

’But I’m sure that with enough practice, I might one day be able to use the Molten element far more effectively, and not just for defence.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Rohan felt something brewing within him over the past day.

He could sense that his lava flowing all over his skin was roaring to let loose — just he didn’t have the control or skill to be able to utilise it yet.

In time he was hoping to be able to combine the molten element into his attacks, he just had to find a way to infuse the element with his spear.

’Or is it a problem of compatibility?’ He thought worriedly to himself.

Rohan hoped that wasn’t the case, as it would mean he’d need to find a new weapon that better matched his changing fighting style.

Either that, or he’d have to search for another treasure like the Lava Hellebore to change the spear’s properties, but the likelihood of that happening again were slim to none.

***

By the time the night full of stars had taken over the sky, the first day of their hunt had come to an end for them. As much as they’d have liked to continue hunting day in, day out for the whole four remaining days, that just wasn’t realistic for them right now.

They still had to eat, drink and take care of their bodily functions. And so they took the chance when the forest was at its quietest to sit down for a break and go over their loot from the previous day.

"Our bags are practically overflowing by this point, I don’t think we can carry more even if we do encounter any more beasts!" Elane exclaimed.

"Hmm. That’s true, I guess we should also take this chance to absorb some of our surplus and give us that little bit extra strength while we have a moment to ourselves."

Of the thirty kills they had over the past day, only one of the beasts dropped a Genetic Armament, and there were no additional genes after the E rank Nature Ant was taken care of.

The Genetic Armament wasn’t anything special either. It was dropped by an Ordinary tier boar beast, and was a dagger that took the shape of the boar’s tusk. It wasn’t something Rohan wanted as it didn’t fit anywhere in his fighting style, but Elane did choose to keep it rather than sell it as once it was upgraded to Elite or even Commander tier, it would make for a good backup weapon for her if she found herself in a situation where she couldn’t use her bow.