After a moment of thought, and considering Yang Mali's offer. I came to a pretty straightforward observation. This Sanctuary? Even for the lowest level was extremely dangerous.
As a human, I was outmatched in strength, and other biological features the other creatures of this Sanctuary had... What the hell was I going to do when a flying scorpion could turn itself invisible and with a single injection of its stinger could kill a man with all stats up to Mutated rank fully filled out?
I needed allies, and with my One Piece body, I could use Haki to do... So damned much to make my life so much easier. I just needed my body strengthened and the resources and area to train in Haki.
So, I slowly nodded and said. "Alright, I will join in Qin Xuan's forces. Are there responsibilities, I need to worry about?"
Yang Manli smiled with victory across her face knowing she no longer owed me a huge mental debt from helping deal with Han Sen's groping incident. And she reached into a side bag and then tossed me a silver sash with her saying. "Tie that around your wrist, it marks you as one of us. As for responsibilities..."
She put a finger to her lips and said. "The Qin forces don't have forced quota's but we do have a process in which you turn in Beast Souls and along with Mutated meat for internal points that you can use to redeem for other beat souls, more meat, and of course most importantly... Hyper Geno arts!"
I blinked as I didn't expect that and it seems she got to my surprise as she chuckled and said. "Yes Jake, lady Qin is both wise and generous to those who follow her. She has paid a great price through her family connections to get access to several Hyper Geno Arts so those who contribute to the group. Even if they come from a poor background can make something of themselves!"
'While also tying them to her forces as well.' I mused as I highly doubted Qin Xuan would be so kind as to have higher grade Hyper Geno Arts that could be used for a long time.
With Hyper Geno Arts being basically martial art cultivation methods that would allow humanity to absorb higher-quality genes of a certain elemental alignment. And make them far stronger in combat, allowing them to actually match beasts who were naturally so much stronger than humans.
But... Any Hyper Geno arts is better than none. So I smiled and said calmly. "Alright, I see that I am going to be working hard. Though, out of curiosity, how much points is a Hyper Geno Art inside the club?"
Yang Manli tilted her head to the side and said with a wry expression. "Honestly, I can't answer so easily. The prices range wildly, but at least a single Sacred Blood, Beast Soul is a good place to start off at in terms of value for a decent Hyper Geno Art."
I considered that, and realized with my Geno Gem, I could literally evolve the Beast Souls inside myself so it was only a matter of time for me to evolve a Beast soul to that point. "Alright, thank you for the invitation Yang Manli, I will check in when I am done hunting and eating."
The dark purple-haired beauty gave me a measuring look before she simply hummed in thought before she turned on her boots and began making her way back the way she came. Back to the Black Steel Shelter from the look of things.
'Whelp... Time to get back to eating.' I thought as I went back to stuffing my face with all the fish I captured as I worked to fill out my Ordinary and Primitive Geno stats.
"Ordinary, Primitive, Mutated, Sacred Blood... And Super." I muttered at the end as I thought about it. I knew that even now I had zero chance of killing a Sacred Blood creature unless I triggered a giant rock slide, or collapsed a cave on it, or something to that effect.
Supercreatures were just in a whole other league with how powerful they were. Their flesh was so strong that Sacred Blood, Beast Soul's couldn't even pierce their flesh to say nothing of their supernatural abilities...
It was basically needed for you to go after their young, or do something crazy like killing them when they were busy giving birth or something.
'Whelp, time to get back to work... I wonder if I can use the snakes skin and bones to reinforce my nets though?' I mused as I took the skin and bones I wasn't going to eat and began tying the thin and bendable bones of the snake into the netting to reinforce the knots.
I also used a sewing kit, I had in my small medkit to stitch the skin on the outer edges of the netting with the Mutated snake's skin. So even if the Mutated rank snake's skin was still juvenile and not fully strengthened, it would still help keep the net together.
Once I finished eating as much food as I comfortably could, which filled out my Primitive, and Ordinary points by twenty-two points and thirty points respectively. I went back to the large river.
But... It didn't take me long to realize why everyone didn't use traps to snatch large amounts of river life easily as I froze at seeing a fucking massive turtle calmly eating the dead tree I knocked into the river.
It wasn't merely a 'big' turtle. It was literally, with no exaggeration twice as tall as an elephant and its shell and legs were covered in thick spikes that protected all of its flesh. 'That... Is a Sacred Blood creature. Time to piss right on off.' I thought as I quietly backed the hell away and went further down stream to where the water was more shallow.
So hopefully there wasn't another goliath-sized creature that should shoot a beam of compressed water to cut me in half from its mouth.
Having visited Florida in my past life while living in America, I did have some idea of how to do a cast net so after putting some hooks into the side to catch on the other hooks within the snake skin edge. I prepared to do some net throwing.
But just as I threw out the net I had, and it hit the water. I heard a loud crash in the forest behind me. And I whirled around to see a large, probably three feet tall alligator, with thick muscles and black scales rushing towards me.
I frowned as I knew this was going to be another Mutated creature. One that was fully grown and capable of some tricks along with being a good deal more intelligent and cunning than other simple animals.
First, I got away from the river as I didn't want my back to the river and the gator to force me into it as it chased me. Then I headed towards a thicker part of the forest with my body crashing through the foliage and shrubbery.
With that, I turned and I smiled seeing the alligator's stubby legs not at all enjoying trying to push through thick vines and shrubs even though it clearly had the bodily strength to do so.
I then mentally equipped the Soldier Ant armor to give me a bit more protection even if it was still just an Ordinary rank armor set. I also took out the Scorpion Spear, which my Geno Gem was getting close to evolving to a Primitive Geno Beast Soul because of the way the spear was changing color.
'Do I fuck with this?' I thought...
And then I stiffened my spine as I had the advantage in terrain and mobility, if I bitched out of this hunt then I would bitch out of more opportunities.
I waited for the alligator to get close... And then I backstopped as it lunged with its head tilting sideways to snatch its massive mouth onto me.
But that was also my plan, I had so many damned videos of country idiots dealing gators I knew a very important face about alligators biology. They had fantastic bite force and could death roll to tear limbs from their victims.
But in reality, their ability to force their mouth open was actually far weaker. So as the gator got itself back in order from failing its lunge I first stabbed the gator right in its sensitive snout making it violently hiss and throw its head up in pain.
Then I wrapped my tangled-up netting around the gator's head and then with a quick motion tied up the knotted netting around its motion with a simple fold-over knot. Wasn't like I actually tied a full knot over the gator's mouth.
Just got a weak knot that would hold for a hot minute.
'Ok, mouth secure... Time to go for the weaker part.' I thought as I frantically got away as the massive gator hissed violently and began death-rolling across the forest floor with its spiked scale-covered back crushing wrist-thick trees and rolling across the foliage with very loud noises ringing out.
I switched the spear to the Saber Tooth Dagger, which I also bought from the guy earlier, as I waited for the gator to get tired from its death rolls to get the netting of its face.
And after a couple of minutes it seemed to get exhausted... So I grabbed a large thick stick and then smashed the stick into the gator's head making it hiss loudly and begin death rolling all over again in a hyper-aggressive motion that sought to crush me and the forest itself as it tried to get the netting off its face.
I repeated the process onto the gator several times, with the gator actually realizing I was only smashing it on the head, going out of my way to even push it from off its side so I could smash it across its head.
So it did the worst thing it could possibly do in frustration and hatred of being smashed across the skull with the biggest stick I could find.
It laid on its back and adamantly refused to roll over even with me using the stick to push it onto its side... Allowing me to move onto my next plan. I came up with the dagger and it being upside down meant it couldn't see me.
And in one swift motion, I stabbed both the poisoned spear and saber tooth dagger into its soft underbelly that wasn't covered in thick scales.
The gator let out a terrible hiss with its long tail whipping about with it cutting a nearby tree in half. But even as the Gator tried to roll onto its side...
I left the spear embedded into its stomach for a reason. As of now with the spear buried in its organs, it literally couldn't stand up on its feet or get the momentum to death roll with how the shaft of the spear stopped any such extensive motions.
'No matter how strong the animals is. It's still an animal and has to follow some rules of anatomy.' I thought with exhaustion. I could feel my arms shaking with strain of smashing a massive log more than a stick that did literally nothing to the monster.
And now... It was just a waiting game.
As I watched coldly as the gator killed itself with the spear delivering its scorpion-brand toxin directly into its body until the Gator stopped moving as it realized it was fucked.
But I didn't rush off to kill it... I literally just got some wood together and began building another large fire as I waited for the spear and its toxins to do the gator in.
And five minutes later, as I was getting the fire to a healthy roar I couldn't help an ecstatic chuckle as I heard in my mind.
[Mutated Tier- Obsidian Scale Aligator- Consume to acquire 0-10 Mutated Geno Points] [Gained Mutated tier- Beast Soul- Obsidian Scale Macuahuitl]
I blinked as I summoned my new Beast Soul... And I realized it was an Aztec-style war club/sword with the main body being made out of the gator's bones, and the edges being lined with reflective sharp scales that looked like obsidian.
'Huh... The gator's scales on the top are as sharp as broken obsidian and even when I was bashing it across the head, none of the scales broke or anything.' I mused as I collapsed next to the great beast and I realized I needed to start fucking eating this huge damned thing.
"Gonna try to get like five or six points... And then I am going to cart this back and sell the damned thing. I am not going to eat like three tons of fucking gator just to maybe get another two or three points." I grumbled as I took a breath knowing I had a lot more work ahead of myself.