Code Collector

'Lake Warden killed. +10 EXP'

'Lake Warden killed. +10 EXP'

'Lake Warden Code gained.'

…

The voice of the woman repeated in Allen's mind like a broken record. While he kills more and more beasts, the other remaining ones would screech louder. Right by the lakeside, a deafening collective war cries of the beasts echoed. The woman's voice would slowly be overtaken by the loudness of the creatures that after Allen successfully kills a beast, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

He had finished half of the beasts, but they didn't show any signs of backing down. He now started to worry about his safety. The boy was afraid that his stamina wouldn't last long.

He didn't even know what triggered them. Screaming in front of the lake, or any other lake for that matter, couldn't possible anger these beasts.

They were part of a colony of freshwater dwellers. From Allen's very limited knowledge of beasts, colonies protects their queen from threats. They group together and form a large team agaisnt the intruder and would not stop until either the threat was killed or everyone would be slaughtered.

Allen didn't even know why but guilt had consumed him after he saw the pile of dead creatures in front of him. He was afraid that he unknowingly provoked them and now they were dying because if the misunderstanding.

With a heavy sigh, Allen switched his weapon with the stone hammer. He raised it right above him, making the beasts step back from him. They were now murmuring unknown words to each other while watching Allen lift his weapon.

When they were at a safe distance, Allen screamed and slammed the hammer into the ground. It created a powerful shock that made the earth around them shake.

Crack.

Allen gasped after hearing the sound coming from him. The feeling of fear swallowed him after he heard the bones in his arms break. His eyes widened. He didn't feel any pain, instead he felt a numbness that he couldn't explain.

Maybe that was why the creatures could only take a step back as they watched the boy charge himself with the power from the hammer. They knew how powerful it was, and judging by how they were only Basic grade beasts, they knew the capabilities of a Rare grade.

But this hypothesis was also uncertain. His first weapon was also Rare grade, but the beasts still charged at him. They didn't even fear the hint of fire in the blade of the weapon.

"Fire," Allen whispered to himself. The reason why they were so confident on his first weapon was because of their elemental advantage from it. They had the water element, meaning they could easily overpower flames.

This was one of the basic principles of becoming a Hunter, elemental advantage. The thought slipped in Allen's mind completely.

Though, since they were only beasts after all, they couldn't distinguish the wide gap between the powers of the elements. As long as they have the elemental advantage, they charged mindlessly.

"Damn it!" Allen cursed after waking up from his thoughts. He stored his weapon back, and tried to find a way to escape while the creatures were still stunned by the hammer's display of power.

When he saw a small path in the woods, Allen ran straight to it. With one last glance at his previous camp, the boy bid farewell to it. Growth requires saying farewell. "Thank you."

–

Even though his job requires him to kill a lot of beasts in the future, his conscience didn't allow him to slaughter an entire colony. Plus, his arm was broken and his stamina was running low. It was a dangerous spot for him if he tried to force it.

Allen reached the deep forests not long after. He took a glance at his map and watched the path he took. He was still going the right way to reach the next camp. If he just followed the map for a few more days, he will arrive there without any more worries.

Now, he has to focus on recovering his arms. It was baffling for him how he wasn't able to feel anything even after his bones cracked. The adrenaline rush from the fight had long since passed, but his awaited painful sting didn't come.

Allen lifted his right arm, gasping when he didn't feel any pain. He gulped and used both hands to pinch the opposite arms. He didn't feel any pain either.

The boy immediately went to the logs in his interface. There, a smirk formed in his lips before it formed an O.

'Primordial Snake Exclusive Ability unlocked.'

'Hyper Regeneration I activated.'

Allen couldn't help but clap his thigh in amusement after reading the notification. It was ridiculously overbearing of the Snake to even provide him an ability to heal instantly.

Broken bones, even a slight crack, would take months to heal and function like it previously does. But Allen just took a couple of minutes run, and his broken bones of both his entire arms, were healed completely.

A feat like this was incredible. Now it was very clear to him how the Bearers became overpowered. They were pampered by the Primordial Beast Codes, treated like kings and queens.

With the thought of him ascending quickly, Allen got too excited. In his interface, he moved to the Codes tab.

[ Lake Warden Spear ]

Type: Weapon

Grade: Basic

Effect/s: (none)

[ Freshwater Gills ]

Type: Skill

Grade: Basic

Effect/s: Active - When activated, the user can breathe under fresh water for 10 minutes.

"Wow," Allen whispered to himself after seeing the description of both Codes. From his logs, he killed about twenty-nine beasts. That was a lot.

From the twenty-nine beasts, he got eight new Codes, five for Freshwater Gills and three for Lake Warden Spear. Repeating Codes would still occupy one Code slot, so he wasn't too worried about having duplicates.

But what intrigued him was the small icon on the side. Allen was curious if the Crafting Table would also work on Codes, and since he has so many, he grinned and opened it.

"Time to experiment!" Allen cheered excitedly.

He dragged a Freshwater Gills Code on each of the boxes in the Crafting Table. It had five slots, so the number of Codes he had was just right.

Putting in the final Code on the final slot, the boxes glowed. The light passed through the lines and reached the bottom box where it glowed like it usually does. When the light died down, an icon appeared.

The icon for the Freshwater Gills was of a fish's gills that was in a close up photo. After the merge, the icon on the bottom box was of three bubbles stacking on top of each other that were decreasing in size.

[ Underwater Bubble ]

Type: Skill

Grade: Rare

Effect/s: (1) Active - When activated, the user can breathe underwater for thirty minutes.

(2) Passive - When the user is sumberged underwater, the speed and strength is increased by 8 (activation of Effect 1 is not required).