Devouring Dragon Heir

The ant colony in the park was immense, a sprawling network of tunnels and chambers beneath the soil.

Klaus took a small bottle, filled with a potent, fast-acting insecticide he had purchased, and meticulously sprayed its contents inside several of the main holes of the soil mound. He worked systematically, ensuring thorough coverage.

After he was done, he stepped back and waited. It didn't take long. Soon, one by one, many ants struggled out of the contaminated holes, their tiny legs twitching erratically, and died on the spot, succumbing to the poison.

Their bodies, no bigger than grains of rice, piled up around the entrances to the now-doomed colony.

The people enjoying the park initially paused, curious, and looked at what Klaus was doing, a strange man in a Hawaiian shirt spraying chemicals into the ground.

But after seeing the immediate and widespread death of the ants, and his rather detached demeanor, they simply concluded that he was a maniac with a peculiar hobby of killing insects.

They quickly dismissed him as an eccentric and went back to their activities, giving him a wide berth.

Once the initial wave of ants was dead, Klaus produced a small, sturdy canvas bag. He then used a stiff brush he had brought to simply sweep their tiny, lifeless bodies directly into the bag.

He continued this process, systematically collecting every dead ant he could find.

The rest of the visible soil mound, representing the surface structure of the colony, was then destroyed by him using a thick stick he had found, breaking it apart to expose more tunnels and, consequently, more ants.

The newly exposed bodies were also diligently collected in the bag. He had killed so many ants that the bag was filled up to the brim, weighing a surprisingly dense twenty kilograms.

After he was done with the ant colony, he proceeded to hunt many other types of insects and small creatures throughout the park and surrounding areas.

He used his nets to swiftly capture flying insects like dragonflies and various types of beetles. For crawling insects, he deployed his pesticides in targeted areas. He even managed to catch a few lizards and chameleons, which were harder to spot but relatively slow-moving once located.

As an alternative to the highly sought-after shapeshifting ability he had read about, Klaus had specifically targeted chameleons. He thought that perhaps he could absorb something from them that he could at least use for basic stealth or camouflage, even if it wasn't true shapeshifting.

He then visited other public parks in the locality, moving efficiently from one green space to another, and repeated the same meticulous procedure of insect and small reptile extermination and collection.

Everywhere he went, people gave him weird, suspicious looks, some openly staring.

When some of them, emboldened by curiosity or concern, asked him directly about what he was doing, Klaus, without missing a beat, offered his prepared explanation: he was collecting insects to brew Chinese medicines.

He knew that "China" wasn't a country in this specific world's current geopolitical structure, but he also knew that Chinese culture, including its ancient medicinal practices, was still prevalent in historical records.

People knew that such a country did exist before the cataclysm hundreds of years ago. Chinese medicines themselves were not very prevalent in current society, but people at least knew about them due to their peculiar, often exotic choice of ingredients.

After his seemingly legitimate, albeit strange, explanation, the attitude of people towards him subtly shifted. Their suspicion turned into a mix of respectful curiosity and polite distance.

They seemed to view him now as a dedicated, albeit unconventional, practitioner of ancient arts.

Klaus did not mind a thing about what people said or thought. He had only one singular goal in mind, an almost obsessive drive: to milk this city of all its readily available insects and small creatures.

He even harbored long-term plans of how to systematically eradicate complete species of certain insects from local areas, if it proved beneficial for his growth. Some observers might have concluded that he was genuinely obsessed with this rather unusual activity.

He completed every nearby park within a significant radius and then returned to the inn he was staying at as dusk settled.

He first carried all the heavy bags, filled with thousands of dead insects and a few reptiles, directly to his rented room, securing them inside. He then came down to eat, his stomach growling from hours of sustained activity.

While he was eating his meal in the dining area, which was sparsely populated at this late hour, he overheard snippets of conversation from a few other patrons.

They were discussing the latest news in town, specifically about the upcoming selection process for the Guardian Academy.

According to his previous memories, which occasionally surfaced from his past life's knowledge of web novels and his current world's general understanding, the Guardian Academy was established as the premier institution for preparing exceptional and genius hunters.

Its ultimate purpose was to defend the Blue Planet against the potential invasion of extraterrestrial races, a threat that lingered in the background of this mana-infused world. The Guardian Academy was the only institution of its kind, an elite, single-location facility.

The minimum criteria for joining the academy were having B-rank talent and exceptional genius in combat or magical arts.

However, higher-ranked individuals S rankers and above were so rare and powerful that they were directly admitted into the institution without needing to undergo the standard selection process.

According to the chatter he overheard, the selection for the Guardian Academy was about to start in approximately one month.

Klaus listened idly, but did not pay much attention to the news. While he recognized the prestige of the academy, joining it was not in his immediate plans. His current priority was rapid growth, not public recognition or structured training.

Klaus finished his simple meal and went back to his room. On the floor were several large sacks, now securely tied, filled with insect bodies.

He felt much safer performing the Origin Absorption in private rather than in public, where his unique skill could be exposed.

So, he had carried back all the dead insects, along with the two or three chameleons he had killed, rather than absorbing them on the spot.

He started with the ants, deciding to test the limits of his skill by attempting to absorb the contents of the entire sack altogether.

He focused his will, and the Origin Absorption skill activated, a soft, ethereal hum filling the room as the thousands of tiny ant corpses in the bag began to dissolve into pure energy, funnelling into him.

Klaus had killed approximately 3,000 ants in total, and the subsequent change in his skill panel was quite significant. Once the Herculean Strength skill's counter reached 900, a system notification chimed.

HERCULEAN STRENGTH (D >> B)

Effects: Physical stats increase by +200% of the current stat.

Klaus noticed several key things. Firstly, the skill had jumped a rank, from D to B, a qualitative leap. Secondly, only 900 or so ants had been absorbed to trigger this rank-up.

The rest of the ants in the bag, the majority of the 3,000, had not been absorbed to enhance this specific skill. He deduced that a saturation point for the skill's direct absorption enhancement had been reached. No more ants could directly improve Herculean Strength at its current B-rank.

He still had a feeling, however, that there was more to it. Even though the skill itself was saturated, some residual traits or raw physical stats should still be attainable through the absorption of the remaining ants.

He focused his will on the unabsorbed bodies of the ants within the bag, and a more detailed information panel opened in front of his eyes. Even he was surprised by the specifics and options he saw.

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Black Ant (Mortal)

Available Skill: Herculean Strength (D) (Saturated for skill enhancement)

Available Stats: Physical (Conversion Rate: 1000:1 ie 1000 units of ants to 1 Physique point) Available Traits: Null

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This panel provided detailed information about what was left to absorb from the ants. It seemed he just had to will it to open such a specific information panel in front of him.

There was also a conversion rate clearly displayed, indicating that he could convert the raw essence of the remaining ants into direct physique stat points.

Since the rest of the ants couldn't provide more skill enhancement or unique traits, he decided to convert the remaining ant mass into raw physique points. He mentally confirmed the action. The remaining ants, roughly 2,100 of them, dissolved. His Physique stat updated.

Physical stats - 7 (initial) + 2.1 (from ant conversion) = 9.1

With his base physique now at 9.1, the B-rank Herculean Strength skill's 200% increase was then applied.

Physical stats - 9.1 (base) + 200% (of 9.1) = 9.1 + 18.2 = 27.3

His updated physique was now 27.3.

Indeed, a 200% increase in a physical stat at B-rank, while powerful, was likely balanced in a world where direct leveling was rare and individual skills were the primary means of growth. This was a qualitative leap, not an immediate insurmountable power spike.

He looked at the rest of the insects in his other bags. First, he examined the two or three chameleons he had caught. He opened their individual info panels.

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Species: Chameleon Available

Traits: Null

Available Skills: Camouflage (D) (Required kills for skill acquisition: 100)

Available Stats: Physical (Conversion Rate: 1000:1 units of mass/essence to 1 Physique point)

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His gaze focused on the Camouflage skill, and further information about its effects appeared as well.

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Camouflage (D)

Effect: Able to blend into the immediate surroundings and become almost invisible to the naked eye.

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Klaus had expected the skill to be a bit higher-ranked, given its potential utility, but then he came to understand a few things from the description. The skill, while useful for visual concealment, could not hide his heart rate, his breath, or his heat signature.

Therefore, it did not provide complete, comprehensive stealth. He could effectively escape detection from normal humans in various environments, but highly sensitive predators, or other awakened individuals with keen sensory abilities, would still be able to find him with their enhanced senses.

Also, this time, a numerical count did not start at the side of the skill name, unlike with Herculean Strength. This indicated that the Camouflage skill, once acquired, was not upgradable through repeated absorption, or at least not by absorbing more chameleons. It would remain a fixed D-rank skill.

So, since acquiring the skill would require 100 chameleons, and he only had a handful, he then proceeded by converting them to stats. But since the chameleons he caught were very less in number, almost in single digits, their combined essence yielded no discernible increase in his stat points; the amount was too small to meet the conversion threshold.

Next, he looked at the few hundred dragonflies he had caught...

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