Inside Rohan’s mind, an introspective image of his Firestone Skin gene lighting up life a furnace developed, giving him a visual aid for all of the changes currently happening inside his body.

Through the pain, a smile formed on his face.

’That’s handy.’ He thought, knowing that it was rare for the stingy Origin Realm to give him a helping hand by letting him see what he was going through.

It was impossible for his current F rank self to be able to analyse and examine his own body down to the cell level without this help, so he would never know if things were going how they were supposed to until it was too late otherwise.

His body jerked as the flower’s power poured into it. He felt the familiar structure of the gene shift, harden, and deepen all at once. It was still his Firestone Skin, still recognisably the same ability, but he could feel the power it contained rapidly skyrocket by the passing seconds.

And beneath all that, there was something new to it — the molten element, producing a smouldering pressure that both changed the properties of his defensive armour from a hard stone-like substance to a more malleable molten substance, but also allowed him to adapt to the still rising internal body temperature.

’Holy shit, this level of energy and power is fucking crazy!’

It was after the transformation took place that things really started to kick up a gear. It seemed the process flowed in stages, where the transformation of the gene itself actually took place while it was still F rank, and now that it was over, all of the remaining energy left behind by the treasure rushed into his genome all at once, forcibly pushing the gene to the next rank.

Rohan paid extremely close attention to this, as he would likely have to go through the same thing in the future when he used his Evolution Gene to evolve a gene or genetic armament to the next rank.

’Keeping a note of how this works could be helpful.’

But, just as he was starting to get a feel for it, the energy reserve ran out, and the process had ended on the spot.

The light in the room vanished, and the flower was completely gone.

Not even a pile of dust remained.

Rohan stumbled backwards half a step, chest heaving and his hands now empty, and he noticed a string of notifications appearing before his eyes.

[F rank Firestone Skin (Elite) has been altered by E rank Lava Hellebore (Commander).]

[F rank Firestone Skin (Elite) has become E rank Moltenstone Skin (Elite).] 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Rohan’s pupils widened.

He stood there, panting while he looked at the notifications.

’I officially have E rank defence now, and not just Ordinary tier either... Unbelievable.’

It was safe to say that he was basically invincible against most F rank Awakened and beasts with this evolution.

Unless he faced off against a Commander tier... ’No, I reckon I could take down an F rank Commander tier easily with this upgrade.’

Speaking of Commander tier, he was neither surprised nor disappointed that he hadn’t unlocked that 1% chance of his gene also evolving to Commander tier. He’d already exhausted an insurmountable level of luck just obtaining this treasure, so the basic element change and rank up was more than he could ever ask for.

Perhaps the only beings at F rank that could rival him now were those who were in similar positions, who also had E rank genes or Genetic armaments at F rank, or those terrifying beings beyond even Commander tier.

’That reminds me, I still don’t even know what tiers lie beyond that.’

He quickly shifted his attention to the pig faced man.

’Someone like him probably knows, though.’

"Hey, what are the tiers beyond Commander tier called?" Rohan suddenly asked.

But he noticed that neither he nor Elane reacted instantly to his question.

Both their gazes remained transfixed on him, staring him down like perverted lechers.

’What the hell is up with the— Oh wow...’

Rohan was about to curse them out of their stupor until he caught a glance at his reflection in the small window on the door.

’Holy cow... I look pretty cool!’

His skin was no longer the pale white he normally was, nor the rock textured mess that his old Firestone Skin was either.

Now, his skin was a mixture of charcoal black and ash grey, but the most alluring and amazing aspect were the flowing molten ridges of orange lava flowing all over his body.

It made him look like a being straight from the depths of hell.

But all of a sudden, the pig faced man seemed to have finally registered Rohan’s question, and almost fell backwards on his chair on a fit of shock.

"What did you just say??? Did you ask what lies beyond Commander tier!? Don’t tell me you..."

Rohan stopped his train of reasoning before he got carried away.

"No, it’s nothing like that. I was just curious after thinking over the kind of power I now have." He responded.

"Phew, you had me thinking you’d just somehow evolved your gene to Supreme tier — which is the next rank after Commander tier, by the way." He looked visibly relieved when speaking.

Which confused not only Rohan, but Elane too.

"Why do you seem happy that I didn’t do that?" Rohan questioned.

"Trust me, you don’t want to have to think about those kinds of things right now. Supreme tier is so far beyond not just you, but even me, that there’s no use mulling over it. Information regarding the Supreme tier is tightly guarded in the Federation."

’Even now, he still didn’t give me a straight answer. What’s so mysterious about the Supreme tier?’

"Besides, I flat out refuse to believe that this treasure could have even entertained the possibility of pushing your gene not just to Commander tier, but Supreme tier. You don’t understand the difference in level between those two tiers, even though its only one tier above. A single Supreme tier existence could wipe out an army of Commander tiers. I’ve even heard rumours that Supreme tier beasts could cross not one, but two whole ranks of strength... Imagine that, an F rank beast being on par with a D rank Elite? Just the thought alone is terrifying."

"..."

Rohan was speechless.

’Okay, maybe I don’t have capabilities beyond Commander tier just yet...’ Now that he thought about it, that was a bit arrogant of him to overestimate his own ability like that.