CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 24: ABILITY ABSORPTION

"...Did you get it wrong? Where would a demon get meat?"

Yan Luo took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Maybe that meat is human..."

Demons consume humans; even though the Swift Claw Falcon doesn’t often eat them, it will if it finds some.

Unlike demons, humans dissipate into Magic Power upon death. Although corpses decompose rapidly in the Abyss, they can exist for a brief time before that.

It might even be that some unlucky hunter was killed by the Swift Claw Falcon, and it ate his flesh.

"Maybe I didn’t describe it clearly enough."

Sasa tilted her head, explaining, "The demon meat I’m talking about isn’t actual meat from a demon, but some kind of ’meat’ that materializes after a demon dies, condensed from Magic Power."

Hearing this, Yan Luo sighed in relief.

If that’s the case, it’s not so bad... No, wait, what’s so good about it!

Yan Luo raised an eyebrow, "How did that meat end up in the Swift Claw Falcon’s stomach?"

If the Swift Claw Falcon had seized it from a hunter’s collection, that would be one thing, but if it was its own ’collection’...

"That I don’t know." Sasa shook her head, poking the piece of meat extracted from the Swift Claw Falcon’s stomach with a knife. "But hunters used to have to use [gathering] engravings or inscribed tools to collect materials from demons. Now they can obtain them just by killing demons, so maybe if a demon kills another demon, it can get similar substances?"

Yan Luo fell silent again.

Sasa turned back, continuing her dissection and research on the Swift Claw Falcon.

After observing the macroscopic structure, she planned to study the microscopic structure next.

A demon’s body is also made up of cells, though these cells are formed by Magic Power.

Sasa activated the Magic Power conduit on the experiment table to infuse Magic Power into the Swift Claw Falcon’s excised tissue, and then, an astonishing sight occurred —

The piece of tissue emitted faint electrical sparks!

Even Sasa was startled.

It took her a few seconds to recover, raising her goggles and rubbing her eyes.

Sasa turned to look at Yan Luo and asked, "Yan Luo, are there any demons in the Dark Forest that have electrical discharge abilities?"

Awakening from his distant thoughts, Yan Luo glanced at Sasa and then lowered his head in contemplation.

Moments later, Yan Luo replied, "There are five types of demons in the Dark Forest that can use electrical discharge, among them..."

Yan Luo was just about to explain in detail which demons had electrical abilities when Sasa interrupted him.

"Is the Swift Claw Falcon among them?"

Yan Luo found it strange but answered truthfully, "No, the Swift Claw Falcon doesn’t have electrical abilities. Their flight speed is indeed fast, but it’s based on aerodynamics, having nothing to do with electromagnetism."

Sasa responded with an "Oh" and then looked back at the comatose Swift Claw Falcon on the experiment table, unexpectedly saying, "Yan Luo, do you think it’s possible that demons in the Abyss can absorb the abilities of other demons?"

Suddenly, Yan Luo stood up, hitting his head hard against the roof with a "thud," causing him to crouch down, clutching his head in pain and gasping.

After a while, Yan Luo looked up at Sasa and urgently asked, "What did you discover?"

"A research finding that could probably earn an A-grade rating!" Sasa replied, her gaze never leaving the Swift Claw Falcon, as the previous piece of tissue had dissipated into Magic Power. She cut another piece of tissue from it, stimulating it with Magic Power again.

This time the results confirmed that Sasa wasn’t mistaken; the Swift Claw Falcon’s cells indeed emitted electrical sparks.

Unless this Swift Claw Falcon was a mutated type, or all Swift Claw Falcons had undergone a similar change, it was almost certain that this Swift Claw Falcon had absorbed the abilities of other demons.

"I need more demons," Sasa said to Yan Luo.

Without a word, Yan Luo opened the car door and went out, beginning his hunt.

Every five to fifteen minutes, Yan Luo returned with a demon for Sasa, but since she couldn’t research them all at once, she had to anesthetize and pile them up off to the side.

As crucial evidence, the Swift Claw Falcon wasn’t killed by Sasa, nor did she allow Yan Luo to eat it.

The Swift Claw Falcon was placed in a cage by Sasa. To ensure its survival, Sasa even threw in a few harmless-level demons with it.

Sasa understood well how threatening a dangerous-level demon could be, so she only untied the strings around its beak and re-tied the ones around its legs and body.

Even having lost a wing, the Swift Claw Falcon still had the ability to easily kill an ordinary person. Even with an exoskeleton suit, Sasa dared not be careless.

Sasa’s energy was limited each day, and after conducting five rounds of dissection and research, her daily quota was exhausted.

As for the remaining demons, Sasa didn’t allow Yan Luo to eat them all; instead, she had him release them.

However, it wasn’t a genuine release.

Yan Luo set up a series of fences, placing those demons that couldn’t easily leap over them inside.

Sitting in the car, Yan Luo calmly continued to swallow and consume the remaining demons while observing the situation within the fence together with Sasa.

Not being a professional anesthesiologist, the demons inside the fence regained consciousness at different times.

Those waking up earliest attempted to escape, but quickly realized they couldn’t get out.

After realizing they couldn’t escape, the demons turned their attention to the others still asleep.

A bug, whose wings Yan Luo had broken, suddenly jumped and landed on a rabbit, opening its mouthparts to bite at the rabbit demon’s body.

"A cicada-like creature, resembling a cicada, with its only weapon being its mouthparts, which are like pincers. A light bite can break a person’s skin, but it’s fragile itself. Most known individuals are harmless-level, with a few ordinary-level ones, and no dangerous-level individuals have ever been discovered..."

Yan Luo introduced the demons inside the fence to Sasa, informing her of their respective abilities.

This knowledge was essential for Sasa’s subsequent research.

To determine if demons could absorb the abilities of other demons, one must first understand what abilities they originally possessed.

Yan Luo could recount the information on these demons as if listing familiar things, prompting Sasa to sigh, "No wonder you’re called the ’Mobile Library’ or the ’Walk-in Encyclopedia’ in the Hunter’s Guild, remembering even the information on harmless-level demons."

Typical hunters wouldn’t bother to memorize information about harmless-level demons, or even ordinary-level demons.

Demons of these two levels pose little threat to hunters, so not investing effort to memorize their information is understandable.

As time passed, the demons within the fence gradually woke up one by one.

If they had united, they might have had a chance to overthrow the fence, but the problem was there was no reliance among demons, let alone cooperation.

A brutal fight broke out among the demons, with each one having to battle the others simultaneously. The scene was so horrific that even Sasa couldn’t bear to watch.

When only three were left, Yan Luo got out of the car, intervened in the battle, capturing the ’winners,’ and dismantled the fence.

Sasa’s energy hadn’t fully recovered, and since the time required for demons to absorb abilities was unknown, Yan Luo separated the three demons and locked them up in the [Demon Preservation Box].

Once inside, unless it’s a dangerous-level demon, escaping such a box is impossible.

For safety, Yan Luo also pulled up the partition between the driver’s cabin and the trunk. Even if the demons in the trunk broke through the preservation box, the partition could provide some protection, giving them time to respond.

And so, the first day of Yan Luo and Sasa in the Crimson Abyss came to an end.

Yan Luo didn’t fall asleep immediately; instead, he started the armored vehicle and headed to the backup campsite.

When the armored vehicle reached the backup campsite, Yan Luo activated optical camouflage, making the vehicle ’disappear’ into the air.

Closing his eyes, Yan Luo soon drifted off to sleep.

He wasn’t sure how long he slept; in any case, he was woken up by Sasa.

Sasa wanted to check on the demons, but she didn’t dare go alone.

After all, she was just a regular person without combat training, even with an exoskeleton suit, unable to fully exploit its features. A single misstep could lead to her death.

Since he was awake, they might as well take a look!

Yan Luo turned around to open the partition, only for a black shadow to leap out from the trunk, lunging at him as soon as he made a gap.

Catching the shadow casually, Yan Luo glanced at it twice, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.

The shadow attacking him was one of the ’winners’ from the previous fight, the cicada-like creature.

It had escaped from the [Demon Preservation Box]!