The Ancient Genes

"Boom!"

Max felt an intense shock from the impact. The moment the collision occurred, he realised that all the bones in his body shattered.

Blood instantly rolled out all of his orifices and Max felt the sky turning upside down. His skin instantly rotted away and began to fall due to the poison.

'F*ck.... Is this really it?'

The thought appeared in Max's mind for a moment. Max felt that he was going to die. But the moment he closed his eyes, his life flashed by in an instant.

All those moments. He realized that he had always been treading on a close line. 

If he hadn't given up at that time, why would he give up now?

"F*ck! It ain't over yet…"

Max used his wings and got his feet back onto the ground. His wings which were out melted within seconds.

"Ahhh!!!!!"

Max screamed as he skidded throughout the forest area.

Within a few seconds, he couldn't feel his hands anymore. He felt as if they had melted away.

The second layer of the Ancient Manual was rotating at full force and vapors of flow energy had started to emerge out of Max's body.

"Bang!"

Max felt a huge impact and he realized that he had flown all the way over the river and smashed into the rocky cliff.

His body slowly fell down with a thud and Max could see with his blurry vision that the Water Cobra hissed furiously but it didn't dare to enter the river area.

Max looked at his hand and realised that his bones were out. A bit of his flesh was still hanging there, but it had turned black.

Max's body was only a bit better than his hands. His bones were expelled in several places and he was dying fast.

A smile formed on Max's face. He had done his best. Now, it was time to see whether he could survive or not. If he could make a breakthrough, he should be able to survive, if not it was the end. After all, the third layer of Ancient Manual spoke.

"Refining the life Force"

"Life is everything. Without it, there is nothing. As long as it exists there is not a true defeat, but only a victory. But the moment it disappears, the true defeat appears."

   —— Arkansas, the First Human God.

What Max understood from it was that as long as he had a bit of life remaining within him, he wouldn't die. This layer should grant him a surviving ability.

And that along with his low level regeneration would become an important skill in his arsenal.

Time slowly trickled away…

Max could feel the barrier to the next level crumbling and then with a bang, he felt that he had entered a new realm.

The Flow energy seeping through his skin turned cold and Max felt that it had become thicker; still far from becoming liquid though.

For the first time, Max felt the energy moving through all his veins before ending up at his heart and he felt something being lit up like a flame in his heart.

'Is this my life force…'

Max could feel it being extremely feeble and it could disappear at any given moment with a puff of air.

Even though Max had broken through, it didn't mean that he didn't feel any pain. 

'I feel like even a mosquito bite can kill me right now.'

At this moment, Max realised that his life force was drifting away.

'What's going on? This…'

"F*ck!"

Max suddenly realised that it was the poison from the Water Cobra.

The poison was eating away his life force and if not treated, Max could see himself not leaving this place forever 

Max immediately called out Sera and she appeared. Even though Max didn't want her to see him like this, he didn't have much of an option.

He needed the antiseptics and all the basic antidotes even if it could only slow down the poison for a bit. It would give him some time to think his way out.

He expected her to be a bit terrified after looking at him. But to his expectations, she reacted very differently.

She looked at Max with teary eyes but not due to being terrified. Max could feel that she was shedding tears for him.

"Don't worry Sera, I am fine."

"Could u get me the first aid kit?"

"Umn.."

She vigorously nodded her head and disappeared for a second before returning with his first aid kit and Juju.

Max was surprised for a second, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Even though it was surprising that Juju could come out to the real world; right now he needed to look after himself.

Sera looked at Juju with puppy eyes and he seemed to understand something.

"Khukhu!"

Juju began to move towards Max and he felt a fright. 

"This isn't time to play Juju.You will end up killing me." Max mumbled in his feeble voice.

But Juju ignored his pleas and crawled onto his body before giving him a proper bite.

Max felt a piercing pain on his right thigh.

'Sh*t! I am done for..'

But what Max thought never happened and instead, he felt the poison in his body being sucked away at a rapid rate.

Max looked at Juju a bit dumbfounded. He never expected it to be anything more than a pet. But it turned out to be a life saving creature.

"Damn! Juju...I will let you stick around my leg as much as you want. I will even play with you from now on," Max mumbled as tears began to flow out of his eyes.

He was finally saved.

After the poison was sucked out, Max was mummified by Juju and Sera's joint effort.

 ….

A few hours passed and the pain eased a bit.

Max realised that if he didn't go now, he might not be able to make it in time.

He slowly began to crawl. This was his only option. He couldn't even stand right now. His hands didn't have any flesh. Every part of his body except the chest and stomach area which he had guarded was in the worst condition possible.

He could only crawl and roll in order to move and that was painful enough to send him screaming to death.

But Max gritted his teeth and kept on moving forward. His wounds burst apart. But Max continued to move. He was already out of danger, and had confirmed that he could go on.

More than two hours passed and Max finally managed to crawl up to the cave covered in sweat and blood.

"It's painful... it's really painful.." Max mumbled before moving forward.

By the end of the day, Max finally reached his destination just on time.

The humongous gate with the words "Trial of God" stood before him.

At this moment, a laugher sounded out from all the directions.

"Hahahahah!!! Good! Very Good!