Genetic Engineer in a Tamer's World

Kale hung from the jagged crevices of the rock wall, his fingers straining against the rough stone as the heat from below rose in suffocating waves.

He looked down at the islands of charred earth and the rivers of flowing lava, where dozens of fiery salamanders moved with a slow and predatory grace.

His muscles burned with a deep fatigue, yet the analytical gears of his mind were already grinding through the variables of their current predicament.

He turned his head slightly to look at Neo, who was clinging to his shoulder with its obsidian claws. The hydra’s three heads were alert, its six golden eyes reflecting the incandescent orange glow of the chamber.

Kale gritted his teeth, feeling the heavy weight of the Mythical Will pressing against his consciousness like a leaden shroud.

”Sorry buddy, but it seems fate is a bitch, and we have no choice but to risk it all,” Kale whispered through a parched throat. He felt the creature’s muscles tense in response to his words.

”Either you awaken that transformation trait, and both you and I return to the surface far stronger, or we die in this hole. There is no other choice left for us.”

Neo did not show a single trace of fear in response to the grim declaration. Instead, the hydra let out a low, vibrant hiss of excitement from all three maws, its necks arching with a draconic arrogance that seemed to thrive under the pressure.

The beast was not just ready for the hunt; it was hungry for the power that resided within the molten depths.

Kale scanned the floor of the chamber once more, his enhanced senses searching for a gap in the salamander patrols. He identified a small, isolated outcrop of black stone that was currently being avoided by the majority of the Alpha-rank creatures.

It was a precarious landing spot, but it was the only viable entry point into the furnace.

With a final, grounding breath, the Tamer and his Beast released their hold on the wall and glided down. Kale used a focused burst of mana to stabilise their descent, his heels hitting the charred ground with a heavy thud that vibrated through his mended ribcage.

They landed silently, immediately pressing themselves against a large obsidian boulder to avoid detection.

The temperature in the lower chamber was far worse than it had felt from the tunnel above. Kale felt as though he were swimming in a pot of boiling water, the dry air scorching the membranes of his throat with every inhalation.

He immediately activated his mana reserves, coating his skin in a thin, shimmering layer of energy to deflect the worst of the radiant heat.

They moved like silent predators amidst the ground of flowing lava and absolute blackness. Kale navigated the terrain with surgical precision, his daggers drawn and his Hexarion physiology absorbing the environmental data.

He prioritised stealth, knowing that a confrontation with the entire army of salamanders would result in their immediate deletion.

They targeted a single, isolated Flame Salamander that had drifted too far from its pack near a small lava pool. Kale blurred into motion, appearing behind the creature while Neo lunged for its throat. The hydra’s maws snapped shut with a wet crunch, and Kale’s mana-enhanced dagger pierced the creature’s central nervous node before it could even release a cry.

Neo immediately began devouring the creature’s body and its core with a predatory greed that was frightening to behold. As the hydra consumed the fiery flesh, the red patterns on its scales began to glow with a dull heat.

Kale watched the process, his mind recording the biological shifts occurring through their shared soul bond.

This was the only real method they had for adapting to the fiery, scorching environment of the tomb. While Neo’s draconic foundation and Octagon trait allowed the beast to withstand the temperature somewhat, Kale was having a much harder time adjusting his human frame.

He had to use massive amounts of his mana reserves to deflect the heat and keep his internal organs cool constantly.

However, as Neo continued to adapt to the environment through the repeated devouring of the salamanders, a change began to occur within Kale.

Because they both shared the Absolute Affinity trait and the deific soul tether, the biological data gathered by Neo began to flow back into Kale’s own system.

He felt his skin toughening, and the sensation of boiling water slowly receded into a manageable, albeit intense, heat. It was a form of shared evolution that bypassed the standard limits of his current rank. Each time Neo devoured an Alpha-rank salamander, the fire affinity displayed on Kale’s retina shot up by a significant percentage.

The Flame Salamanders in this tomb seemed to possess the highest affinity with the purest of fire, likely refined over thousands of years by the proximity to the Mythical Will. It was a genetic goldmine for a creature like Neo, which possessed the potential for all elements but lacked the active fuel to wake them.

Their silent hunting continued for nearly an hour, a systematic slaughter that left a trail of hollowed-out carcasses in their wake.

Neo was becoming more efficient with every kill, its movements losing their terrestrial clumsiness and gaining a fluid, predatory lethality. Kale felt his own Beast Force pathways humming with a renewed density as they harvested the cores.

However, their streak of silent hunting eventually came to a sudden and violent end. A low, rumbling growl echoed through the chamber, and Kale’s senses flared with a scarlet warning. A Ravager-rank Salamander, nearly five meters long with a hide of molten stone, emerged from a large lava fountain.

The creature was not alone; it was leading a massive swarm of more than sixty Alpha-rank flame salamanders that were rushing toward Kale and Neo with a unified purpose.

The stealth phase of their mission was over, replaced by the raw necessity of survival. The Ravager beast let out a shriek of command that made the very air in the chamber vibrate with heat.

[The Nemesis Hydra has reached the threshold of 50% Fire Affinity.]

[New Skill Unlocked: Flame Absorption (Passive/Active).]

[Through this skill, the specimen can now convert external fire elemental damage into raw Beast Force.]

Kale saw the notification flash across his vision, and he felt a surge of hope despite the encroaching army.

Neo let out a roar of its own, its scales now shimmering with a faint orange light that danced between the emerald green. The hydra seemed to grow larger, its draconic aura pushing back against the heat of the pack.

Countless long-range fire attacks were hurled towards the two, as they began to run for their lives across the charred islands.

Blasts of concentrated lava and tongues of deific flame rained down around them, turning the ground into a chaotic mess of melting minerals and steam.

Kale used his daggers to deflect the closest strikes, his mana reserves draining at a frightening rate.

Unfortunately, the farther they ran ahead into the depths of the chamber, the more oppressive the environment became.

The air was now thick with volcanic ash and toxic fumes that sought to choke the life from Kale’s lungs. The temperature spiked again, reaching a level that threatened to overwhelm his mana shielding despite the shared adaptation.

Finally, they reached a dead end at the edge of a massive black cliff.

Below them, a dizzying drop revealed countless streams of liquid lava falling from the ceiling and walls like a series of hellish fountains.

These streams merged at the bottom, forming a wide and raging orange river of molten rock that flowed toward the inner sanctum.

They stood at the precipice, the heat from the river below rising like a physical wall.

Behind them, the Ravager rank salamander and its pack of fifty Alpha leaders were closing the distance, their eyes glowing with the certainty of a kill. The stone beneath Kale’s boots was beginning to crack under the intense thermal stress of the pack’s approach.

Kale looked at the orange river and then at the approaching monsters, his mind quickly calculating the survival percentages.

Facing the Ravager and fifty Alphas in his current state was a 0% chance of survival; they would be torn apart and incinerated in seconds.

Jumping down into the river of fire was equally insane, but there were a few small stone islands scattered amidst the flow.

”We have to jump,” Kale shouted over the roar of the lava fountains, his voice sounding desperate but resolute. He grabbed Neo and pulled the hydra tight against his chest, feeling the heat of the creature’s newly awakened fire affinity.

They were faced with the choice of certain death by the pack or a slim chance of survival in the river.

He chose the slim chance, for he was a survivor, and he would not let a tomb be his end. With the pack of salamanders mere meters away, Kale pushed off the edge of the cliff and plummeted toward the molten orange river.