Even though his n had failed, Krune wasn''t disheartened at all, looking at the Blood Essence Crystal in his hands. His heart had been thumping ever since the moment heid eyes on it. Even though he was a mortal, Krune was still able to judge based on his two centuries of experience in obtaining treasures that the Blood Essence Crystal was beneficial to him.


    In such a manner, he captured Monster Geckos, dragged them to a cave each, made them consume the massive fruit while dislocating their arm joints, and patiently watched them. Just like his first attempt, not one of them managed to evolve, dying in the process.


    ??


    Without any hesitation, he tied their tails to their respective wilting bone trees after cutting the tip. And as a day passed in such a fashion, Krune sprinted from one cave to another, collecting all the Blood Essence Crystals.


    At present, he had 10 of them in his hands. He first ced them in his cave and hunted for 10 more Monster Geckos, killing two, sometimes three, every day. He dragged them to the 10 caves once more, cing one in each.


    In the ce covered by bone powder, he nted a new bone tree branch that he had broken out from the forest. And, once he watered them using the blood in the Monster Geckos, the bone tree branch began to grow.


    Krune observed that even when some blood spilled on the bone powder, there was no reaction from it. It seemed that it had truly lost all life the moment it wilted, bing no different from dust. Once he finished supplying blood to all the bone tree branches, he let them grow to a normal height first before supplying it with the blood of a live Monster Gecko. Only after that would it begin to grow the massive fruit.


    He then scouted his surroundings, noticing that the cases of injuries among the Monster Gecko vige had increased. They were now in a state of unrest. Simrly, the second vige was also rmed.


    Krune noticed that even though they were all Monster Geckos, they had mild differences in their appearances. That was why when he hunted from the second vige, he always ensured there was a witness of his hunt.


    This was to instigate a war between the two viges. Only through that would he be able to target their leaders. Otherwise, it wasn''t possible. He had been going about with this n from the day he decided to target the second vige.


    Laying down the traps was just to further destabilize their mental states. After all, they were monsters and weren''t sentient. So, he nned to make use of their advantages against them, turning them into disadvantages instead.


    Upon seeing that his surroundings were clear, Krune returned to his cave, picking up a Blood Essence Crystal and the remaining Water Essence. He arrived before the pool,ying down all the tools he had created until now beside it.


    This way, the moment something turned amiss, he was ready to operate himself and protect his life. Once he was done with all preparations, Krune sat beside the pool and held a Blood Essence Crystal in his hand.


    Using his Neon Radiance, he looked at it, observing that it was a pristine blood-red crystal, perfectly smooth and almost see-through. He was anxious, making a double-check of his surroundings to see that he had indeed prepared everything at his disposal.


    "Here goes nothing." He gulped it immediately, feeling difficulty in swallowing it for a moment as he downed some water, flushing the Blood Essence Crystal into his stomach. Within a couple of seconds, a burning sensation emanated from his stomach and permeated throughout his body.


    Instantly, Krune felt his heart beat faster and faster, as if it wanted to increase the speed of blood flowing through his body. Simrly, to keep up with the higher rate of pumping, his lungs contracted and expanded faster and faster. Krune took deep but rapid breaths, supplying enough oxygen to his heart.


    He could feel his entire body heat up, brimming with vigor. And, without his control, his Neon Radiance activated, brightening up the entire cave as if it was directly under the sun. The brightness he unleashed was beyond what he was capable of normally.


    He had surpassed his limits in its emission. Krune could feel the Blood Essence Crystal dissolving in his stomach before eventually flowing through his blood. This way, the immense energy in it flowed through his blood, being used in ce of his stamina when Krune activated his passive abilities.


    He could feel his cells were now drunk with energy, brimming with power. Eventually, he felt bloated, as if his body was about to burst. Without any hesitation, Krune emitted the Neon Radiance from throughout his body at its maximum intensity, one that had already surpassed his maximum during normal times.


    As he kept up with it, Krune could feel that the bloated feeling no longer increased. Instead, he was still feeling bloated. With that, he ran to the nearby chamber in his cave, picked up the Whale Tooth Sword and began swinging it, intending to tire himself as much as he could.


    It was like he was on drugs. No matter what he did, he didn''t tire out easily. Though, Krune realized that it was only because of the boost from the Blood Essence Crystal. His body was still bing physically exhausted. The moment its effects wore off, he would copse in exhaustion and wouldn''t be able to move for a long time.


    So, after understanding it, he realized what the Blood Essence Crystal truly was. "It''s a concentrated mass of the energy in our physical body. Or in other words, a condensation of muscr energy."


    Krune trained for two hours like a maniac when he felt the energy from the Blood Essence Crystal eventually wear off. He immediately ran towards the pool and jumped into it, noticing immense exhaustion set at the moment the effects wore off.


    The exhaustion was to the extent he almost lost consciousness, feeling unbearable pain all over his body. Thankfully, he jumped into the water, feeling a bit rxed as he drunk it, gulping it down until he couldn''t drink any more water.


    The healing property in the water alleviated his strained muscles little by little as Krune fell asleep, only waking up after half a day had passed. He woke up groggily, feeling a splitting headache when he noticed his body was feeling brisk.


    Krune clenched his hand into a fist, feeling that his strength had increased a tad bit aspared to the day before. The improvement was staggering, something he would need a couple of weeks to obtain.


    "Just this alone makes this an amazing treasure for mortals." Kruneughed, finding a path that he could proceed upon now to develop himself in this dangerous ce. Now, he was no longer afraid of the Monster Geckos. Rather, he saw them as a tonic that would boost his growth.


    Though, that didn''t mean he nned to go on a massacre. It didn''t conform with his ideals. He only nned to kill based on his needs, no more, no less. It was a simple rule of survival of the fittest. It was what he had been following all his life until now, and that was what he nned to do from here on out as well.


    Krune soon exited the cave, hunting some Monster Geckos from the second vige while in the presence of some witness, driving a wedge between the rtions of the two viges. He used them to grow the bone trees, returning to his cave as he consumed another Blood Essence Crystal and trained himself like mad.


    When he was done, he rested in the pool, healing his body slowly. He determined that he could only consume a Blood Essence Crystal every three days for maximum benefits. Before that, his body would still be damaged, and the effect would drop. Moreover, he would injure himself further and would require even more time to heal.


    If he dyed beyond three days, then it was simply a waste of time. So, Krune maintained the time correctly, using some of his resting time to hunt the Monster Geckos. The Monster Geckos needed to eat daily. With that, groups of Monster Geckos roamed through the forest daily at regr intervals to harvest the ripened fruits.


    With such a schedule, this gave Krune a lot of opportunities to hunt them. Moreover, during one of the times when he spied the first vige, Krune noticed that when a female Monster Gecko gave birth, it usuallyid 6-8 eggs.


    On top of that, it seemed that the time period for her toy the eggs was short, only spanning around two months based on his observation. "But if their fertility is that potent, then their poption should have exploded massively by now."


    Thinking as such, Krune passed the foggyyer one day, now being able to see using the sunlight. He noticed that there were indeed a lot of Monster Geckos on the Primary Landmass. It seemed that they had a tradition to follow, the cause for their controlled poption.


    Every month, arge batch of Monster Geckos that had matured would leave the Primary Landmass and head into the ocean above to hunt for fish. The bigger the fish they hunted, the stronger they were, and the greater they wereuded.


    And that basically determined if they had a chance of bing a Mutant in the future. But it wasn''t as easy as that. After all, constantly swimming in the ocean surface touching the Primary Landmass''s face were dangerous predator fishes that were massive and dangerous.


    So, most of the Monster Geckos lost their lives in this way. Though, that also meant that the survivors were praised all the more. At these times, the survivors would drag in massive fishes that they had killed in the waters.


    Most of the time, they would only eat the fishes a little to celebrate their victories before dropping them whole on the bone trees. After all, eating the fruits on the bone trees was more beneficial to them than eating the fish. Hunting them was just one of the traditions they followed.


    "So, that''s why their poption hasn''t snowballed out of control yet," Krune muttered before descending through the foggyyer, arriving at the bottom of the Primary Landmass, returning to his cave to train.