"So this is the Superior Gold-grade serum that Baron Morin brewed from the formula he found in the wreckage — Corpse-Stitcher?"
Ryan stared at the murky green first-stage gene serum floating in his folding space, his brow furrowing. "And what the hell is this 'Combat Physician' transcendent class supposed to be..."
Clearly, the description accompanying this serum lay well beyond the limits of his current knowledge.
From what he understood of the transcendent classification system, surgeons and doctors were meant to awaken into support-oriented "healer" classes. And those healer offshoots — witch doctors, voodoo priests, and the like — leaned toward the caster classes.
Yet the label on this serum claimed Corpse-Stitcher was a physical-enhancement serum?
And there was an entirely unfamiliar term attached to it: the "Combat Physician" transcendent class.
Physical body enhancement, close-quarters brawling like some kind of martial artist — was that really meant to describe a surgeon's role?
But once Ryan actually read through the detailed stats listed for this gene serum, his gaze froze in place.
Numbers were the clearest possible point of comparison.
Corpse-Stitcher (Superior Gold) Strength +(220-285)%; Resilience +(113-145)%; Neural Response +115W; Sense Enhancement +3N; Cellular Activity +300%; Miscellaneous attribute range +(21-24)%...
"How could a single first-stage gene serum produce amplification this insane?"
Ryan's whole body trembled with excitement.
On its own, the number meant little — but a direct comparison made the gap undeniable.
Among the best Black Iron-grade serums a rookie could redeem with points at the Weasel Bandit Gang's storehouse, the stats read as follows:
Master Thief (Black Iron) Agility +32; Strength +(110-130)%; Perception +1N; Night Vision +1K; Neural Response +70W; Miscellaneous attribute range +(36-41)%...
(Note: W, N, and K are all unnameable units of measurement unique to this world. "Miscellaneous attributes" refer to attribute increases irrelevant to the serum's intended class — for example, intelligence or elemental affinity showing up on a strength-type serum. The lower this miscellaneous number, the purer and more potent the serum.)
Both were first-stage Gene Lock serums, yet the amplification gap between the two was like night and day.
Which meant...
If Ryan currently had a maximum arm strength of 100 kilograms, taking Corpse-Stitcher would boost his strength to at least 320 kilograms in short order.
If his body's natural growth potential for strength was strong enough, it could even approach the serum's theoretical ceiling — 385 kilograms!
Whereas taking Master Thief would only bring his strength up to somewhere between 210 and 230 kilograms — a considerable shortfall.
Same person, same talent, same first-stage Gene Lock unlock — yet taking a different-grade serum produced nearly double the strength gain!
And what's more, after breaking through with a gene serum, the effects would continue developing over an extended period — with an additional (100-650%) tiered growth potential building on top of that...
The gap in combat strength would snowball, growing larger and larger over time!
...
"No wonder a single Gold-grade serum formula could be traded for the title of an Imperial baron. So this is just how vast the gap in effectiveness between serum grades really is!"
Ryan had previously had no real concept of just how much serum quality varied — only now did he grasp how enormous the gap between grades could be.
Ordinary commoner-class transcendents typically only ever had access to Black Iron-grade serums. Only a handful of major powers even possessed one or two Silver-grade formulas, treasured as family heirlooms.
As for Gold-grade formulas, those were exclusively controlled by the imperial royal families and the highest tiers of nobility — treated as strategic assets.
"No wonder the nobility in this world remains so entrenched — with a gap this massive in serum quality alone, it's nearly impossible for a commoner transcendent to ever climb the ranks..."
Staring at the green serum in his hand, Ryan's whole body trembled slightly with excitement.
Boss Quinn himself had only reached his current level of strength — far surpassing others at the same stage — because he'd happened to obtain a single Silver-grade serum when he advanced to third-stage Demon Hunter.
If Ryan took this "Superior Gold-grade" serum himself, purely in terms of physical attributes, he'd immediately be able to stand toe-to-toe with veteran Awakened Ones.
And once the serum's effects had fully absorbed, he might well possess enough strength to completely dominate others at the same stage!
...
Just this single Superior Gold-grade serum alone would have made this entire venture worthwhile.
"According to Morin's notes, that airship wreckage might still contain other high-grade serum formulas — perhaps even the full legacy of some advanced Serum Master?"
The gleam in Ryan's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Clearly, this "Combat Physician" class had no lineage in either of the two great empires — which meant any further advancement formulas could only be found in that airship wreckage...
Having grasped the potential of Corpse-Stitcher, Ryan immediately realized the real treasure among Baron Morin's belongings wasn't this "small fish" in front of him — it was that airship wreckage itself!
If he could find that wreckage, he might be able to obtain second-stage, third-stage, fourth-stage... Gold-grade, or even higher-grade gene serums.
With amplification this powerful, imagining what "Combat Physician" could become at higher stages was genuinely thrilling!
Brute force working miracles, a surgeon who fought hand-to-hand... this might well turn out to be an absurdly powerful class!
"I really have hit the jackpot this time..."
Ryan's eyes shone with light.
A year of misery, and finally... the protagonist's halo had descended upon him!
For the first time, he glimpsed a real path toward becoming a top-tier powerhouse — and his interest in whatever treasure remained in that airship wreckage grew even more intense!
The map leading to the wreckage was already in his hands — if he could just solve the problem of the toxic mist, that treasure would be his!
...
Though this Corpse-Stitcher serum offered no boost to agility — not particularly well-suited to a thief's path — that hardly mattered to Ryan. Advancing along the thief class had never been his top priority to begin with.
This "Combat Physician" sounded, in every way, far more tempting.
To avoid arousing old Pisces's suspicion, Ryan didn't immediately consume the serum to advance.
Instead, while setting the serum aside and sorting through the rest of his loot, he discovered something else among the plunder — an item Baron Morin had carefully sealed inside a mithril-lined iron case.
Opening it, he found a yellowed sheet of paper.
Touching the material, it felt something like parchment, or perhaps some kind of animal hide.
A faint, ancient, mysterious aura emanated from it — clearly something with age, as if unearthed from the ruins of some long-dead civilization.
"Something Baron Morin took such care to preserve — it must be no ordinary object..."
The moment Ryan looked at it, he found himself drawn to those strange characters, something like cuneiform script from his past life, his brow furrowing immediately. "This looks like some kind of ancient script..."
At once, his AI Core chimed with an alert.
[Ding! Unknown text/pattern detected. System automatically scanning and recording...]
The AI Core automatically recorded data like this all the time — Ryan had grown so used to the alert that he barely registered it.
He picked up the parchment scroll and, inside the silver case, found some additional notes documenting the scroll's origin and some information about the ancient script.
Sure enough, Baron Morin's habit of keeping detailed diaries had saved Ryan a great deal of effort.
"Over the past few years, I've studied the treasures I recovered from the wreckage, and discovered that whoever inhabited that wreckage used not only 'Nemoral Common Tongue' but also this ancient script to record certain highly sensitive, high-level information..."
"I found this ancient scroll inside a shattered safe within the wreckage, alongside the very gene serum that saved my life. From the looks of it, this must have been something of great importance to whoever owned that mechanical city."
"I suspect it's likely some extremely high-grade gene source power cultivation method — one of a very elevated tier — and quite possibly a technique exclusive to the 'Combat Physician' class..."
"In my years since arriving in the Ormar Empire, I've never given up trying to translate the contents of this script. Using my status as a baron, I've combed through countless ancient texts in Steelburn Fort's noble library, and discovered this script once appeared in an ancient ruin — a script scholars call the 'Monkel Civilization,' a branch of the ancient demonic tongue..."
"Unfortunately, with so little material to work from, my translation progress has been painfully slow..."
"..."
Ryan looked over Morin's notes, then back at the parchment scroll, his expression turning slightly strange.
A branch of the ancient demonic tongue?
This scroll seemed to be entangled with the secrets of some ancient demon god...
But there was no way to decipher it.
This misty world's civilizational history spanned countless ages, and buried within its dust lay innumerable lost ancient civilizations.
Just among the ancient scripts unearthed from various ruins, the Ormar Empire's official (incomplete) records alone counted over five hundred distinct types.
Aside from a handful whose descendant civilizations had left behind reasonably complete linguistic traditions, the vast majority of scripts left behind by long-vanished civilizations survived only in scattered fragments.
Calling them "scripts" was almost generous — they were more like undecipherable mysterious symbols.
And this "Monkel script" was one of these as-yet-undeciphered ancient languages...
Neither of the two great empires had officially deciphered this script, and Baron Morin hadn't dared expose the item to the official Scholars, so he'd been forced to work through it alone, at an agonizingly slow pace.
Deciphering the script of a long-extinct civilization required not just gathering scattered fragments of ruin data from all over, but cross-referencing enormous quantities of textual material, along with an exceptionally keen aptitude for linguistic decoding...
This monumental undertaking, even for those Scholars who'd awakened enhanced memory and erudition abilities, would likely require an entire lifetime of dedicated effort — or perhaps the accumulated work of multiple generations — to have any hope of completing the translation.
For an ordinary person, it was an utterly impossible task!
But...
For Ryan, who possessed an AI Core, this kind of work was as effortless as breathing!