"Fall unconscious for me."

Yano's stone fist knocked a female ranger unconscious, completely disregarding the beauty lying on the ground. After looting her money pouch, he happily gathered his spoils and ran back.

Although the boss had said all these spoils would go into the national treasury, at least he could still get a share.

Earning a few dozen gold coins to send to Lola, letting the children eat well—whether they wanted to become knights, mages, or adventurers like him in the future, he would support them all.

"And the telescope the boss wants, I'll have to ask Lola to send one over from Jade City."

Yano passed through the thick fog wall and returned to the little black room.

"Boss, here's another guild identification badge."

He quickly put down the collected money and carefully fed the special magic organ into the little slime's mouth.

The little slime just blinked but didn't speak, as if Chen Yu's consciousness wasn't here temporarily.

...

Sunlight poured over the fortress construction site deep in the swamp. Chen Yu stopped his building work.

[Devour Digestion Lv.5 triggered—Lizard Tail Severance characteristics completely recorded, acquired talent Magic Stripping Lv.1]

[Devour Digestion Lv.5 triggered—Dark Viper characteristics completely recorded, acquired talent Stealth Lv.1]

[Resilient Carapace Lv.3→Resilient Carapace Lv.4]

Magical creatures like the dark viper existed within his swamp territory. Like those thieves from Rusty Key, they were assassins skilled in hiding and ambushing.

But because they were relatively rare, he had only now gathered enough to meet the threshold for nurturing the talent.

With just a thought, Chen Yu's body seemed to fade into the shadows, his presence slightly diminishing.

However, since the talent was only Lv.1, plus he was standing in bright sunlight with open visibility, he could still be easily detected.

Even moving would reveal flaws.

It could only be said that the future looked promising, but there was still a long way to go before becoming a great master of stealth.

As for "Magic Stripping."

It was a talent belonging to a creature not native to the swamp.

Lizard Tail Severance...

Let him check the book.

Chen Yu hopped back to the tree house, opened the magical creatures illustrated guide in the adventurer's handbook, and after looking for a while, finally found information about this little thing.

Lizard Tail Severance.

An extremely alert and timid small reptilian magical creature, commonly found in mana-rich areas, at least deeper in the mountains.

Prefers warm, humid, and concealed environments, often nesting in rock crevices, tree root caves, or crystal clusters.

Once encountering predators or lethal danger, it chooses to sever its tail to survive, leaving behind a mana-rich tail to attract the predator's attention, thus achieving escape.

It could be said to be quite an intelligent magical creature.

As for how the mana on the tail came about, this brings up the miraculous talent "Magic Stripping."

This little thing had actually evolved the ability to split mana from its magic organ during its long evolution.

It gave Chen Yu a strong sense of déjà vu.

Wasn't this just "talent forgetting"?

Treating useless talents as mana to split off, attracting predators to escape.

"Magic Stripping" cutting itself.

It was simply a genius-like miraculous talent.

According to the Lizard Tail Severance's cutting method, being conservative, it could probably cut about thirty times before the magical creature talent would completely fail.

And in most Lizard Tail Severance's brief lives, those that managed to cut ten times were considered unlucky.

Was this thing useful to him?

Somewhat useful, but not much.

However, Chen Yu was curious—could this thing strip a complete talent?

It seemed the original owner of the talent, the Lizard Tail Severance, also used "Magic Stripping" to gradually shave off bits of the talent itself until the talent completely failed.

What would happen if he stripped a complete talent all at once?

What if he stripped other talents instead?

This talent seemed to possess a certain charm that made him unable to resist curiously exploring it, and he indeed planned to try it out.

Chen Yu's gaze moved, finally resting on "Pain Desensitization Lv.1" on his panel.

"Pain Desensitization" was probably the most useless talent among those he had acquired, though its owner was quite spicy and tasty.

He attempted to manipulate that miraculous power of "Magic Stripping," delving into the complex magic patterns, like a doctor holding a scalpel, acting instinctively and precisely.

"Snip..."

Chen Yu hallucinated the sound of scissors cutting, and when he came to, he found "Pain Desensitization Lv.1" gradually fading, disappearing from the panel.

It actually succeeded!

This talent was truly miraculous.

But the Lizard Tail Severance severed its tail, while he used his gel to wrap the cut magic patterns into a ball, expelling it from his body. It fell to the ground and bounced springily a few times.

Chen Yu hopped over, suspiciously staring at the "slime tumor" on the ground.

He secretly swallowed saliva—why did he feel like this thing looked delicious?

"Could this thing be very nourishing?"

He looked around, caught a poisonous frog from the forest, and decided to test whether this slime tumor could be eaten.

Who would have thought that as soon as the poisonous frog landed, it was attracted to the slime tumor. Like a starving ghost that hadn't eaten for days, it used all its limbs to voraciously swallow the slime tumor.

Immediately after, a miraculous scene occurred.

The tumor instantly melted, integrating into the poisonous frog's body. The frog's surface instantly flowed with a gray mana glow, as if it had eaten a powerful tonic. The way it looked at him changed, carrying a hint of provocation.

Oh, eating my stuff and getting cocky.

Chen Yu sent a gel strike that knocked the poisonous frog so disoriented it couldn't find north.

But the poisonous frog seemed to have undergone some transformation, as if it couldn't feel pain. As soon as its eyes cleared, it croaked and ran off.

Huh?

This discovery seemed to open up a whole new world for Chen Yu, his round eyes lighting up.

This stripped talent gel ball could be used by others?

...

Rusty Key guild hidden base.

Guild leader's office.

On a sofa draped with faded velvet, a pale-skinned man dressed like nobility lounged lazily.

After watching the guild member reporting intelligence leave, the man curled a playful smile at the corner of his lips.

"My dear guild leader, it seems the little bugs under your command aren't being very obedient."

"They actually disobeyed orders and went to the dungeon."

Behind a large oak desk sat a lean man with thick knuckles.

This was the Rusty Key guild leader.

Holding a cheap cigar between his fingers, his voice was calm amid the swirling smoke:

"Rusty Key has always been a loose organization hiding in the shadows. Every year there are a few disobedient rats, either dying stupidly in ruins, or being hanged by night watchmen on gallows... It's normal."

"This land never lacks desperate people tired of living, wanting to gamble for tomorrow with blades."

"Especially after the Winter Year, the shadows of the ruins camp always quietly gain plenty of fresh blood fleeing from the kingdom's heartlands."

The noble-like man lounged lazily on the sofa.

"Then, dear guild leader, how do you plan to deal with these lost lambs?"

The guild leader extinguished his cigar in the brass ashtray on the desk, producing a slight sizzle.

"If they die inside, that's fate. But if they get captured for ransom... that's another matter."

"If Rusty Key still wants to establish itself in these ruins, we not only have to go, but we must beautifully capture 'Miracle' Yano and bring him back."

"Bring him back to show the guild members, to show everyone in the ruins camp—this is the consequence of angering Rusty Key."

He paused, his tone brooking no argument, "Shadow Fang team has already gone, led by Yurian."

The elegant man seemed quite satisfied with this name, nodding slightly, "Shadow Fang... their efficiency has always been good, but..."

He changed his tone,

"How's the transaction with those green-skinned shorties going? The situation hasn't been great recently. The kingdom's hounds have sharp noses. Human trafficking... tsk tsk, with that charge, even the gallows would be too light."

The guild leader pulled a smile devoid of warmth.

"Why panic? Don't we have our 'enthusiastic' Mr. Moriarty? All 'traces' point to him—a lone wolf blinded by gold coins, bold and reckless."

"When the situation tightens further, he'll naturally flee from justice, or... meet with an accidental death."

"The kingdom knights need an explanation, we'll just give them a perfect one."