I Became an Ancient All-Host Lifeform - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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008 The Will of a Hunter

Screee-ow!

Realizing that the Nyanya Punch was useless, Cham Tiger let out a grotesque cry.
Then it wheeled around and tried to come straight under the cart.
Damn. At this rate I’m finished.
I activated Instant Acceleration on top of Survival Instinct.

Whoosh!

I burst free from beneath the cart with explosive speed.
But waiting for me outside were the workers, who’d been thoroughly enjoying the spectacle of my standoff with Cham Tiger.

“Ah! A rat! Catch it!”
“Damn rodent! You’re the ones who gnawed holes in those sacks—do you have any idea how much grief you’ve caused us?”

Blast. I’m terribly sorry, really! We have to eat too, you know. Still, with this many sacks around, couldn’t you spare a little?
It seems the world of “living together in harmony” is still a distant dream.
The workers stopped what they were doing and rushed toward me.
But could they keep up with my skill-enhanced speed?

“Whoa! What’s that thing moving so fast?”
“That damned rat…!”

…Well, I am a rat.
I darted between the converging workers and slipped into the Warehouse.
The Factory Yard was an option, but I judged it would be disadvantageous.
Both Instant Acceleration and Survival Instinct have limited durations, so fleeing to open ground would leave me exposed.

Ker-thud!

Cham Tiger chased me into the Warehouse.
Behind us, the workers’ laughter erupted.

“Haha! That little bastard’s got moves.”
“Ha ha ha! Go at it, our Cheese! That’s right—you’ve got to earn your keep.”

Then the foreman spoke up.

“If you’re all done watching, get back to moving those sacks. You lot need to earn your keep too!”

From the tone of things, it didn’t look like the workers would join in.
A small mercy, at least.
But I’m not out of danger yet.
The real problem is that rotten Cheese at my heels.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

I bolted forward frantically, squeezing through narrow gaps between the Feed Sacks.
I was managing to stay ahead, but the distance between us wouldn’t grow.
The combination of Survival Instinct and Instant Acceleration was formidable, but this creature’s speed was nothing to dismiss either.

Screee-ow!

That chilling cry sounded from behind me again.
Damn. It definitely used Leap.
At this distance, it’ll catch me in seconds.
If I keep running like this, I’m just a snack for a cat!
I stopped dead in my tracks and pivoted left.
Cham Tiger, unable to overcome his momentum in midair, rocketed forward in a straight line.

Screeeech!

Not bad, huh? My footwork?
I may be what I am now, but I used to have some moves back in the day.

Screeeow!

The moment he lost sight of me, Cham Tiger thrashed his front claws wildly even as he sailed off in the wrong direction.

‘Damn! This stubborn bastard!’
Slash.

His razor-sharp claws grazed across Gyusik’s tail.
A thin line of blood welled up; the tip of the tail stung.

‘Insane…. What kind of reaction speed is that?’

He’s throwing Nyanya Punches at me even while flying through the air. He’s every bit the natural predator of mice. But there was a problem.
My mental stamina to control Gyusik’s body was running dangerously low.
My head throbbed with a dull ache, and dizziness threatened to pull me under at any moment.
On top of that, the duration of Survival Instinct was nearly spent.
The moment the skill wore off, we’d become cat food.

This wouldn’t work.
It was time to trust Gyusik and only take direct control at critical moments—more efficient that way.
Gyusik was a coward among cowards, and I didn’t trust him for much, but at least the little fool was good at one thing: running away.
I handed control back to him and gave the order.

‘Head for the Cham Vat! Your favorite slop is waiting for you there! Move!’
Squeeak!

Gyusik bolted immediately.
I’d worried for nothing—he expertly dodged Cham Tiger’s relentless pursuit, weaving and cutting with surprising grace.
Better still, he didn’t just run straight for the vat; he used the terrain to twist and tangle Cham Tiger’s pursuit line.

‘Oh, look at that psychological warfare. This isn’t the first time he’s run for his life, is it?’

At every critical moment, he used the environment to shake off his hunter. It was masterful—like watching a seasoned survival streamer toy with their pursuers.
The kind of instinct you only develop when you’ve survived the unsurvivable.
I’d underestimated him.
Gyusik had hard-won experience—years of evading Cham Tiger with nothing to his name.
And he’d done it without Instant Acceleration.
Now that the skill was his, it was as though he’d grown wings.
Thanks to Gyusik’s performance, we reached the massive Cham Vat with time to spare.

‘I’ll finish this. Good work, Gyusik.’
Squeeak!

I took control of the body again and climbed boldly up the vat’s entrance.
Fortunately, the distance Gyusik had created gave me a safe window to scale it.

Whooooom—!

From below, a massive grinder spun with a horrible, earsplitting roar.
All I had to do was lure him down here. That oversized furball would be shredded to ribbons.
But in that instant, my spine went cold—

Screech!

Behind me, I heard Cham Tiger’s cry.

‘Damn, it’s already made it this far.’

I immediately used Instant Acceleration to dodge Cham Tiger as it came down on me from behind.
The beast landed precisely where I’d been standing, its eyes flashing.
Whew. I thought that was the end for me.
I’d thought I’d put considerable distance between us, but it had used Leap to bound straight up onto the top of the Cham Vat in one go.
Having missed me again, the creature settled into a hunting stance.
Atop the massive Cham Vat, our eyes met.
The beast swayed its tail and began to growl low.

Ooooogh…!

We faced off for a moment on top of the enormous vat.
The instant one of us moved first, this wretched cat-and-mouse game would be over.

‘If I embrace death, I shall live. If I cling to life, I shall die.’

Calling to mind the Will to Survive, I held my ground and fixed the creature with an unwavering stare.
A moment taut with tension hung between us.

Whoosh—!

I went first, pushing off the ground without hesitation and leaping.
Straight down into the belly of the great Cham Vat.

Screech!

Cham Tiger followed, using Leap as well.
Damn. So the presence or absence of a skill really does make that much difference.
Cham Tiger was faster than me, who had jumped in first.

Slash!

Its claws raked across my hindquarters.
Gah… is this the end?
The instant sharp pain lanced through my rear, a message appeared in my Status Window.

[Critical danger detected. Your skill Lizard Tail activates.]
Screech?

I knew I could count on it!
I had Lizard Tail, obtained from the Ancient Dragon’s Bloodline Factor.
Just as I’d anticipated, it was the skill to shed my tail and escape in the direst moment.
The moment Lizard Tail activated, my entire body became transparent for the briefest instant, and Gyusik’s tail dropped clean off.
As a result, Cham Tiger found itself with nothing in its jaws but the severed rat tail.

Whoosh. Tap.

‘Safe.’

In the meantime, I managed to slip safely through the void and squeeze into a square ventilation gap in the opposite wall of the Cham Vat by the narrowest margin.

Screeeeech!

Cham Tiger, meanwhile, had failed to account for its own massive bulk as it gave chase through empty air.

Bang!

His head slammed into the ventilation grate with brute force.
The gap was wide enough, but the beast couldn’t squeeze through. Maybe he should have watched his weight.

Meeeeowwww!

Cham Tiger’s anguished roar reverberated through the entire Cham Vat.
Now all that remained was to watch this mangy creature get shredded by the grinding mechanism spinning at the bottom of the vat.
Maybe I’d grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

Grrrunnnngh….

But from outside, instead of Cham Tiger’s screams, there was only the indifferent whir of the grinder.
Huh? Why’s it so quiet? What’s going on? Something’s wrong.
I crept cautiously toward the entrance.
Through the gaps in the ventilation grate, I could see sharp claws jutting through.

‘Persistent bastard….’

Just as he was about to plummet into the depths of the vat, the beast desperately stretched both front paws and gripped the gaps in the grate with all his might.

Screeeow!

From below, he was thrashing, clawing his way back up.
Cham Tiger, “Rotten Cheese.”
You are a true hunter, I’ll grant you that.
The obsession for prey, the refusal to surrender.
A model of vermin control, truly.
Your qualities as a formidable hunter deserve respect, but unfortunately, I have no intention of watching quietly from the sidelines.
Farewell.
I approached those two front paws barely clinging to the cliff’s edge. Then, with Gyusik’s front teeth, I drove them mercilessly into the beast’s feet.

[Using skill「Plague Fang Lv. 1」.]
Crunch! Screeeeeee—!

As the lethal venom of plague seeped through the wound, Cham Tiger’s eyes rolled back in agony.
The strength holding up his front paws began to drain away, slowly but steadily.
But even this wasn’t enough to send the mangy creature down into the abyss.

Screow!
‘Oh, going to make a desperate stand, are we?’

Without hesitation, I began gnawing away at his sharp claws one by one, barely clinging to the edge of the ventilation duct.
Compared to the hard shell of the Gore Roach from before, this was child’s play.

Meow, meowwww…!

With each claw I gnawed away, the strength supporting him faded rapidly.

One, two, three, four….
How much longer could he hold on?
Screow!

Finally, when only two or three claws remained, even those gave way under his massive weight.
Cham Tiger could only slide helplessly from the ventilation duct.
Once again, the cat’s shrieks echoed through the entire Cham Vat.

Screeeeeeeek—!
Crunch-crunch-crunch—!

Soon came the magnificent sound of bone and flesh reducing to powder in the grinder’s merciless embrace….

Whirrrr….

Only the indifferent grinding noise remained.
I lay gasping at the far end of the ventilation shaft, my breath coming in ragged gulps.
That had been far from easy.
The level gap was brutal enough, but fighting a top predator—a cat monster—made it all the harder.
Still, the harder the fight, the sweeter the reward should be, right?
Moments later, messages began cascading across my Status Window.

[You have defeated ‘Gluttony Shadow Cat lv 8’.]

‘Phew, finally it’s over.’

Then the rewards I’d been desperately waiting for appeared one after another across the Status Window.

[Your main body’s Level has increased. lv 2 → lv 5]
[Your Host ‘Gyusik’s Level has increased. lv 3 → lv 6]

‘Oh. Three levels in one go. Killing Cham Tiger was definitely worth wagering my life for—the return is substantial. But surely this isn’t all, is it?’

Despite the shocking cascade of level-ups, I remained unmoved, scanning for the next reward.
A golden burst of sparkles erupted, and the notification appeared.
Admittedly, a bit excessive with the visual fanfare.

[Achievement unlocked! You have obtained the Achievement ‘Reversal of Food Chain’.]
[‘Reversal of Food Chain’: In combat against a higher predator, your overall attributes increase.]

Ah, so there’s an achievement system too!
Fair enough—a lowly rat like me taking down a top predator deserves a reward like this.
Thanks to it, I now have a powerful passive skill that’ll serve me well whenever I face higher predators in the future.
And there’s still one more crucial reward remaining.
Genome Points! With three levels, surely I’ll get three points to match, right?
With three points, I could acquire most of Cham Tiger’s traits and techniques!
I imagined Gyusik armed with Silent Footsteps, Leap, and Dark Vision.
With that loadout, calling Gyusik an ‘assassin rat’ wouldn’t be exaggerating at all.
Immediately after came the notification for the core reward I’d been most anticipating.

[You have acquired Genome Points. (Current Genome Points: 1pt)]

‘…What? Just one point?’

I checked the Status Window message again. Seriously? I leveled up three times and only get one Genome Point? This has to be a joke.
Hmm…. No, wait. The fact that it’s called ‘Genome Point’ and not ‘Skill Point’ must mean something.
Regardless, Genome Points are clearly rarer than I thought. They’re a precious resource not to be spent carelessly.

Gyusik is ultimately just a temporary host I’m using for early survival anyway.
It makes sense to save Genome Points for when I eventually migrate to a stronger, more powerful monster later.
Of course, if a situation comes along where I must use them on Gyusik, I’ll have no choice but to spend them.

After tallying my rewards, I carefully surveyed my surroundings.
A single claw from Cham Tiger’s final thrashing lay scattered at the edge of the ventilation shaft.
I made my way toward the claw left behind by Cham Tiger.
Rest in peace, Cham Tiger. The will of a magnificent hunter you showed me—I’ll carry it forward.

[Using skill ‘Predation’.]

I had fought hard for this victory—I wasn’t about to waste any of the spoils.

Crunch, crunch. Gulp.

[You have acquired the genetic material of the Gluttony Shadow Cat.]

With that, I’d successfully collected every last bit of Cham Tiger’s genetic material.
The beast had possessed many useful skills and traits—I’d have to graft them onto an S-Rank Host once I secured one.
Good. Now it was time to head for the Breeding Grounds.
The Monster Cage Farm awaited us!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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