The pig faced man looked absently at Rohan for a moment.

"...Like you do with Origin Crystals. Most natural treasures are like that."

He’d been so transfixed on the fact that Rohan and Elane had shown up with such a priceless treasure, that he’d completely forgotten that they were newbies to this whole business. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Well, Rohan was. Elane could have told him how to absorb it as well, if he’d bothered to ask her instead.

Rohan took a deep breath and picked the Lava Hellebore up with a shaky hand. Even he, someone who’d already evolved multiple genes and Genetic Armaments already, felt nervous holding this treasure.

’I’m really about to absorb something probably worth billions...’

That kind of money could change his life overnight, but he wasn’t too keen on trading away such a useful treasure. After all, with his progress, he might be on track to earning that kind of money regularly in a few years time.

’This isn’t just about money either. Money is nothing without the power to keep it and sustain a peaceful life.’

Absorbing the flower now was an infinitely better investment in his future than selling it.

"Here I go." He exclaimed seriously.

Even Elane grew nervous watching Rohan from the side. Even though it wasn’t her that got to enjoy the benefits from it, she would be able to enjoy them indirectly thanks to the increase in Rohan’s strength, meaning they’d be able to hunt stronger beasts and obtain better genes and Genetic Armaments.

The pig faced man looked on with curiosity, in all his years of being an appraisal expert, he’d seen plenty of people absorb their treasures after finding out their usage, but this was the first he was seeing someone do it with such a valuable one — one that would guaranteed an instant rank up to his chosen gene at that.

For him, being a D rank Awakened with a C rank gene was quite a rare sight in the Federation, but even rarer than that were F rank Awakened who had an E rank gene.

They were few and far between, only the children of the main family of the big houses were able to enjoy such a privilege, and that’s because their family forked out a hefty sum to buy them an E rank gene outright.

For people like Rohan who’d earned the E rank gene themselves? That was practically unheard of, though his status was still a little lower than the legendary Awakened who’d taken down an E rank beast themselves and absorbed the gene dropped from their own kill.

It was people like them that became the heads of the big houses and high figures in the government, perhaps even having a chance of reaching S rank.

Rohan tightened his grip on the stem of the flower and closed his eyes.

Then he willed the vast power flowing through the treasure to move.

At first, nothing happened, which was a slight concern for him.

For a brief second, an ugly thought cross his mind, ’Maybe I made a mistake? Does this not work for me?’ After all, he only knew that the guaranteed rank up was taking normal Awakened into consideration.

Would the Lava Hellebore act the same since he had his Evolution Gene?

But the next instant, the Lava Hellebore finally responded to his action.

Warmth.

Not the scorching, aggressive heat that he’d expected from something of the Molten element, but a rich warmth that spread from his palm in contact with the flower like liquid sunlight.

The petals of the flower began to glow brighter, and their molten hues intensified until the whole room was bathed in the same orange-red light that caked the interior of the beast nest where it came from originally.

The pig faced man instinctively, stepped back, while Elane leaned in despite the increased heat, staring with wide eyes at the treasure in Rohan’s hands slowly beginning to break apart.

She almost had a heart attack when she saw it start to crack apart, but then she reminded herself that absorbing these treasures wasn’t like genes or genetic armaments where they would fuse into your body, but were like Origin Crystals where it would lose all of its lustre and energy and crumble.

The petals were the first to go, melting into streams of glowing light that flowed into Rohan’s skin. Then the stem softened and collapsed in on itself, becoming threats of fiery light that wrapped around his forearm and sank into him as well.

His whole body tensed.

The sensation was unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

When he absorbed the Origin Crystals, the energy rushed through him greedily, especially if he used the Evolution Gene to do so, like feeding fuel into an already burning furnace.

When he absorbed his Firestone Skin gene, even that didn’t quite feel this way, as it felt more like forcing something foreign into his body and forcibly fusing it with his own genome.

This was like neither of those.

Once the Lava Hellebore was no more and had fully dissolved in Rohan’s hand, he could finally begin the process they were all waiting for.

’Go! Flow towards my Firestone Skin!’

With a target locked, it was like the floodgates were finally opened. The gentle warmth inside his body suddenly skyrocketed in temperature, and started rushing into every cell inside Rohan’s body to target his F rank Firestone Skin gene.

As it had already been completely assimilated into his genome, the energy from the Lava Hellebore had to penetrate every single cell inside of him in order to completely target every last trace of the gene.

After all, unlike Genetic Armaments, absorbing them was a serious choice due to the process being irreversible.

That was a major reason why people would be so frantic to obtain the treasure that Rohan had just absorbed, as it was one of the only chances possible for them to evolve their already absorbed genes.

"Ghh—!"

Rohan’s knees buckled under the increased pressure and heat/

Elane took a step forward, but the pig faced man raised an arm to stop her.

"Don’t interrupt," he scolded, eyes transfixed on Rohan’s transformation. "If it’s accepted a target, breaking the process now could ruin everything."

That as all Elane needed to hear to force herself still.