Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

Chapter 92: Extracting Racial Talent

As the last river crab waving its massive claws was beaten to death barehanded, the noisy shoal finally fell silent.

With Cecilia’s spell-based battlefield control support, the cleanup efficiency was astonishingly high.

This was a muddy and wide shoal, with nearly forty armored corpses lying across it.

Counting the ones they had cleared earlier at another stone beach before coming here, today’s quota of fifty exterminations had already been exceeded.

Lance put away his kite shield. With a thought, the semi-transparent panel visible only to him instantly unfolded.

【Monster · Stone-Shell River Crab LV4 (Racial Talent Extractable)】

【Detected that this species belongs to a low-tier foundational monster without class levels. Its core biological traits have been extracted, and human racial adaptive conversion has been activated (filtering out all limb mutations and deformity options)】

Seeing the specially marked small text in the parentheses, the tension in Lance’s heart finally eased.

Although this had also been the case in the game from his previous life—obtaining talents through biological research would not alter the player’s appearance—

This was, after all, a real otherworld.He had genuinely been worried that this occasionally unreliable system might give him a giant turtle shell on his back.

Since the system guaranteed “human adaptive conversion,” there was nothing to hesitate about.

Lance directly chose extraction.

【Extracting… Racial Talent obtained: Mineral-Rock Symbiotic Skin… Converting to human adaptive talent…】

【Finalizing Racial Talent: Stonehide Membrane (White)】

【Description: The toughness of your skin membrane will be comparable to tanned and treated cowhide.】

【Effect: Your natural base armor level +1, Constitution cap +1, Strength cap +0.5】

At the moment the text appeared—

An indescribable itching sensation erupted across the surface of his entire skin without warning.

It wasn’t painful, yet it drilled deep into the nerves, as if countless ants were crawling in and out of his pores. The surface of his skin even faintly heated up.

Lance gritted his teeth and endured it. This transformation lasted for about half a minute before slowly receding like a tide.

He raised his hand and examined it carefully.

On the surface, his skin still retained its original healthy wheat tone. It had not turned grayish-white, nor had any stone-like abnormal keratin layers grown.

But he extended his right hand and pinched his left arm hard.

The sensation at his fingertips was unbelievably tough!

To verify the effect, he drew a small skinning knife from his waist and lightly sliced across the back of his hand.

The blade, sharp enough to easily cut ordinary human skin, slid across his hand—

Leaving only a faint white mark.

It didn’t even break the skin.

“At least a whole tier increase in defense…”

A sharp gleam flashed in Lance’s eyes.

This kind of natural armor providing physical damage reduction was practically tailor-made for him.

After all, many techniques of Azure Dragon Ultimate Style came with massive recoil force. With this layer of skin membrane, not only would he be more resistant to damage, but the self-inflicted strain from using unarmed combat techniques would also be greatly reduced.

He opened his attribute panel again.

【Strength: 6 → 6.5】

【Constitution: 7 → 8】

Looking at the shifting numbers, an uncontrollable joy spread across Lance’s face.

Just the attribute bonus from this talent alone would save him at least thirteen gold coins’ worth of Troll Amber Potion, plus half a bottle of a strength-type potion.

And this was an increase to the “cap.”

This meant the enhancement came from an elevation of his life essence, directly raising his physical limits to a higher level.

Even a low-tier monster like the Stone-Shell River Crab, which could be found everywhere, could yield such a practical talent.

Lance subconsciously turned his head to look toward the deep forest terrain nearby.

Within this entire Copper Creek Forest, how many kinds of monsters were still hidden?

What about those high-tier magical beasts possessing extraordinary power?

Or even the legendary Dragons soaring across the skies?

If he extracted all of their talents—

What kind of terrifying monster would his body ultimately be stacked into by this inhuman system?

Just thinking about it made Lance’s blood boil with excitement.

“Senior!”

At that moment, a clear voice interrupted his thoughts.

Cecilia jogged toward him across the slightly damp sand.

By now, the sky had been dyed orange-red by the brilliant evening glow.

Lance withdrew his thoughts and naturally extended his right hand.

The girl understood immediately and raised her hand.

“Smack!”

The two completed a crisp high-five midair.

This was a unique gesture Lance had recently taught Cecilia over the past few days to express celebration.

“A great harvest!”

Lance said with a smile.

He looked around the messy shoal and let out a long breath of relief.

To be honest, after grinding Stone-Shell River Crabs for several days straight, he felt like throwing up just from seeing anything that walked sideways.

But this not only marked the end of Cecilia’s internship task, it also meant that his own initial accumulation phase had finally been completed.

At that thought, something suddenly stirred in Lance’s mind.

“Cecilia, come here.”

He beckoned, his tone relaxed.

“Let’s take a photo together.”

“A photo?”

Cecilia tilted her head, clearly confused by the unfamiliar term.

Senior often used strange words.

But out of trust, she still obediently walked to his side.

Lance then took out a crystal-clear thin crystal sheet from his belongings.

“This is… a Panoramic Card imprint crystal?”

Cecilia’s eyes lit up.

Of course she recognized it. At the academy, several of her well-off classmates were very fond of collecting such cards.

It was said that many Bards made a living from this—traveling across the continent to capture rare imagery, then selling the rights to the Cartographers Association, earning a fortune through subsequent sales commissions.

The rarer and more magnificent the recorded scene, the higher its value.

“That’s right.”

Lance shook the crystal card in his hand and explained.

“Let’s record this together. After all, we probably won’t come back to this place again.”

“We won’t come back?”

Cecilia froze for a moment, a trace of disappointment appearing in her tone.

Although these days of rolling in the mud and exterminating river crabs were monotonous and even a bit dirty and tiring—

She had found them quite interesting.

But on second thought, this didn’t mean the internship was over. She was still following Senior.

With that realization, her mood visibly brightened again.

She moved closer to Lance and found a suitable position.

But at that moment, she suddenly seemed to realize something and abruptly turned her head to stare at Lance’s face.

“Um… Senior.”

Cecilia blinked her beautiful eyes and said hesitantly,

“I’ve never actually seen what you look like.”

“Is that so?”

Lance paused.

He subconsciously touched his cheek before realizing.

Out of caution and habit, whether in town or in the wild over the past few days, he had always worn that large hood, keeping himself completely covered.

He had indeed never shown his true face in front of Cecilia.

Lance let out a soft laugh.

“Well, perfect timing.”

He raised his hand and casually pulled back the hood over his head.

As the fabric slid down, neat black hair was revealed.

It was a young and handsome face, with clean and well-defined features.

That distinct youthful aura was displayed before the girl without reservation.

Cecilia’s mouth opened slightly as she stared, momentarily stunned.

So Senior was this young?