Yeoman stared at the shadow pouch in his hands. It was barely as large as one of his palms, yet inside of the pouch, there was an elf. The skeletons had planned to lure all the elves out of the village, but evidently, their plan had failed due to the elves’ vigilance. Thanks to that failure, Yeoman had to endure a bombardment of arrows on his way to the tree, and he had been trapped by a magical net made of wood. At that moment, he debated on teleporting away, abandoning the whole plan, but he didn’t think he’d ever get another chance at the Fruits of Knowledge if he did, so against his better judgment, he teleported towards the tree instead. Having his sense of fear dulled by the zombie fungus helped too.

Yeoman had no clue if trapping someone would work, but he figured it would, given the [Shadow Pouch (Unique)]’s item description. As for whether or not it was committing murder…, Yeoman hadn’t thought that far ahead. He reacted purely on instinct, and now that he actually had time to think, he was seriously confused about what to do with the elf in the pouch. If he let her out, she’d kill him. If he kept her inside, she’d die. Since his teleportation was now on cooldown, his only route of escape was through the air. He couldn’t release her and fly away, not if he didn’t want to be shot down.

Yeoman exhaled. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that. The elves wouldn’t be distracted by the skeletons for too long. The Tree of Knowledge was a lot bigger than Yeoman had expected, finding ripe fruits was going to be a challenge. He was standing on a branch near the top of the tree; logically, it should’ve been one of the smaller branches, yet it was still the same width as his bed at home. The leaves were gigantic too, the smallest ones the size of an umbrella. Yeoman scanned the tree. His gaze landed on a green, pear-like fruit. He flew over and grabbed it, plucking it off the branch.

[Obtained Unripe Fruit of Knowledge (Junk)]

[Unripe Fruit of Knowledge (Junk): Has a slightly sour taste. Perfect for making pie.]

Yeoman’s brow furrowed, and he tossed the fruit inside his shadow pouch. Perhaps it’d be useful one day despite the aliens deeming it as junk. Yeoman frowned and jumped into the sky. When he was still en route to the tree, he had seen a few golden glints. As he flew higher, he was able to see more of the tree’s branches and leaves. A golden flash caught his attention, and Yeoman flew towards it. There was a round, golden fruit hanging off a branch. It reminded Yeoman of a Korean pear. He raised his hand and plucked it.

[Obtained Fruit of Knowledge (Epic)]

[Fruit of Knowledge (Epic): Eating this fruit unlocks a gene of the consumer’s choosing. Four thousand points will be granted to the consumer—only to be spent on the aforementioned gene. The consumer will not be able to spend any additional points in said gene unless it is unlocked normally through the evolution system.]

Yeoman exhaled and closed his eyes. He focused on what he could hear, trying to determine if the elves were returning soon or not. His heart had stopped beating, but it was still mentally racing. He had never shoplifted before, but he had witnessed his friend pilfer a chocolate bar from a grocery store when he was younger. At that time, he thought his friend was going to get caught, and his adrenaline had spiked through the roof. It was the same feeling now—almost. His heart wasn’t pounding in his ears, and his body wasn’t shaking from the nerves, but there was still a sense of dread lingering around his stomach. The elves could come back at any second. Yeoman opened his eyes, stored the fruit in his pouch, and flew back into the air, determined to leave, but a golden glint caught his eye. It was close, just seven or so branches away.

Yeoman leaned over, changing his course. He snatched the fruit and pumped his wings, flying away from the tree. He wasn’t greedy. He knew to quit when he was ahead. On a certain forum section of the front page of the internet, he would’ve been dubbed paper hands for choosing to take his profit of two Fruits of Knowledge instead of risking it and staying around for more. Yeoman’s brow furrowed as he flew higher and higher, getting further away from the tree. Each Fruit of Knowledge was worth a free unlock and four thousand points. The two remaining missions were only worth a combined total of twelve thousand five hundred points. As long as he ate three fruit before getting caught and killed by the elves, it’d have been worth it—but only if he selfishly disregarded his party. Also, Yeoman had no idea what would happen to his items if he died, and he really didn’t want to lose his teleportation ring.

Having made up his mind, Yeoman continued flying away from the tree. He wasn’t going to go back to the skeletons’ swamp. They’d probably escort him to Lindyss, and his lie would be exposed. While flying away, Yeoman munched on the Fruit of Knowledge he had obtained. He couldn’t enjoy the flavor of the rotten one, but this ripe one was different. It was plump and juicy, and he had to slurp at the fruit to prevent its liquids from traveling down his arm. It tasted like a mixture of kiwi and mango. After a few more bites, Yeoman was transported out of the sky and into the black dimension with the phylogenetic tree of life.

[Consumed Fruit of Knowledge (Epic)]

[Unlock a gene and spend 4,000 points in it.]

Other than not having any potential side effects, a non-rotten Fruit of Knowledge also gave an additional two thousand points. Once again, Yeoman was in a dilemma. What should he unlock? He thought back to his encounter with the elf archer. Without the teleportation ring and shadow pouch, he would’ve lost. Was there a trait from any animal, plant, or fungus that could’ve made a difference? In fact, there was, and it was pretty obvious too. Camouflage. If the elf hadn’t seen him approaching, would he have been shot at and forced to use his teleportation?

Yeoman already knew which animal was the master of camouflage, and it wasn’t the chameleon. According to the Japanese man’s document, it was the cuttlefish. Compared to the twenty seconds it took a chameleon to change its skin color, the cuttlefish took less than one. Not only could the cuttlefish change the color of its skin, but it could also change its texture. It could easily disguise itself as a piece of coral, a line of seaweed, or a hermit crab, and it could even hypnotize fish by turning black and white in a repeating pattern.

Yeoman nodded and scrolled through the phylogenetic tree of life, searching for the cuttlefish within the countless number of images. If it weren’t for the extra ability of the Fruit of Knowledge that allowed him to unlock any gene, he wouldn’t have considered obtaining camouflage, at least, not this early. As for whether or not camouflage was even useful, of course it was! A lot of apex predators had camouflage. Tigers’ stripes helped them blend into the tall grasses in the regions they lived. Polar bears were white to blend in with the snow. Sharks had white bellies and dark posteriors to blend in with the darkness from above and with the sun from below. With the cuttlefish’s skin-changing ability, Yeoman would be able to blend in with any environment.

It took a while for Yeoman to spot the cuttlefish since the aliens didn’t have a system built in to help locate animals on the tree of life; at least, if a system did exist, Yeoman didn’t know about it. The cuttlefish was close to squid and octopuses, leading Yeoman to believe they needed to be renamed. Yeoman tapped on the cuttlefish image and unlocked it.

[Unlocked genus Sepia.]

Yeoman scratched his head. Unlike adding muscles or bone density, the cuttlefish’s camouflage ability came from multiple factors. Did he have to pick all of them? “Err, unlock genus Sepia camouflage?”

[Adding genus Sepia muscles.]

[Adding genus Sepia chromatophores.]

[Adding genus Sepia iridophores.]

[Adding genus Sepia leucophores.]

Without warning, Yeoman was back in the sky, his wings mid-flap. Evidently, there were four different parts to the cuttlefish’s color-changing ability, and each of them had cost Yeoman a thousand points. It was a shame. Other than being able to camouflage, some species of cuttlefish were highly venomous as well. Yeoman was planning on obtaining their venom sacs too since the gene was already unlocked, but it seemed like he’d have to save that for another day. All that remained of the Fruit of Knowledge in Yeoman’s hand was a core, but unlike an apple’s core, there weren’t any seeds, so Yeoman stuffed the core into his mouth as well, not letting a single bit of the fruit go to waste.

At that moment, Yeoman felt a thump in his chest. Had the Fruit of Knowledge restarted his heartbeat? No, it hadn’t. There was the end of an arrow sticking out of his body, and a hot sensation flooded his ribcage. Yeoman leaned to the left and flapped his wings, flying higher into the sky. Three more arrows flew past, and he only heard them zipping by after they were a few feet above him. It was a good thing he had fled instead of getting greedy; otherwise, he might not have been far enough to avoid those arrows with a simple lean. Yeoman zigged and zagged while soaring higher and higher. At the same time, he willed himself to turn blue. The color-changing ability came surprisingly naturally to him. His muscles flexed a little, and his skin turned the same shade of blue as the sky. It was like magic—no doubt, that’s what the elves on the ground thought it was. Even the green fungus marks and leaves on his body had turned blue as well. Too bad his shirt and pants were such an obvious target. More arrows flew towards him, but as Yeoman got higher and higher, the arrows became slower and weaker.

Yeoman made sure to avoid being underneath the arrows as they slowly drifted back down. He wasn’t going to let himself get caught by the same trick twice. After a few minutes of dodging and ascending, he made it out of the elves’ firing range. His original plan had been to teleport back to the adventurers’ guild after obtaining the fruit he needed, but as usual, his plans went awry. There was still another week before he could teleport, but it didn’t really matter now that he had escaped successfully. Yeoman flew away from the elves’ village, but didn’t head straight north. He flew in an eastward direction to avoid flying directly over the skeletons’ swamp. They probably couldn’t shoot him down, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

After half a day of flying, Yeoman finally remembered something important. There was still an elf trapped inside of his shadow pouch. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t remember. He was too fascinated by his color-changing abilities to pay attention to anything else. He could change the texture of his skin by contracting individual muscles. Although he could create bumps and spikes on his arm, resembling coral, they couldn’t actually scratch anything. They looked sharp, but when touched, they were squishy like flesh.

Yeoman wasn’t sure where he could land to examine the elf though. He was far enough away from the village and swamp to avoid the undead and elves, but he didn’t know what lived in the random patches of land beneath him. What if that plain-looking cliff to his right housed a dragon? Yeoman wasn’t going to take his chances. He continued flying for three days and nights until the forest was no longer below. Then, he landed in a field. Yeoman took the shadow pouch out of his pocket and grimaced as he reached his hand inside. When he grabbed something that felt like an arm, he pulled, dragging an elf out, the pouch expanding to accommodate her size. After the elf’s legs came free, the pouch shrank again, and Yeoman dropped the poor woman onto the ground, readying both hands over the pouch’s lips to trap the elf again if necessary.

The elf wasn’t moving. Yeoman inched closer to her and nudged her side with his foot. She didn’t react. Yeoman exhaled and lowered the pouch. He crouched down and placed his hand on the elf’s neck, checking for a pulse. There wasn’t one. Yeoman sighed and scratched his head. He hadn’t meant for this to happen. No one was supposed to die. It sounded a bit hypocritical seeing as he could’ve taken a risk and landed somewhere earlier to check on her, but it was too late now. Since she was dead, Yeoman would have to make the best of the situation. If the two previous stages were anything to go by, bosses always dropped good loot. Yeoman turned the elf over and took the bow off her back.

[Obtained Longbow of Aeris (Rare)]

[Longbow of Aeris (Rare): Once a month, the wielder may call upon the will of Aeris to bless their arrow. Aeris’ blessing increases the strength and speed of the arrow. The time between blessings may be shortened by giving offerings to Aeris’ soul; she is particularly fond of sweet things.]

Yeoman gave the bow a onceover before storing it into his pouch. Cody would probably make good use of the bow even if the blessing sounded a bit weak. Yeoman picked up the wooden spear in the elf’s hand next.

[Obtained Wooden Spear (Common)]

[Wooden Spear (Common): A spear made of wood.]

The disparity between the two items was a bit … large. Yeoman stuffed the spear into the pouch as well. Since he had the space, he might as well put it to use. Yeoman examined the armor that the elf was wearing. It was made of wood, and it seemed to have grown around her. It didn’t look possible to remove, at least, not without magic. No matter which way Yeoman flipped the elf, he couldn’t find any seams or openings in her gear. As for the quiver of leaves, it was growing out of the armor, seemingly inseparable from the wood; there weren’t any arrows inside of it. However, Yeoman did find a ring made of bark on the elf’s finger. He took it off, and a purple light flashed from his wrist.

[Obtained Patrol Leader’s Ring (Epic)]

[Patrol Leader’s Ring (Epic): Allows the user to cast Nature’s Fury once a month. Shares a cooldown with other magic tools. This is a set item.]

[Nature’s Fury: Increases the wearer’s strength by 4% for every tree around the user within a three-hundred-meter radius. The effect caps at 500%. This effect duration depends on the number of trees within the effect range: one second for every tree up to a maximum of 125 seconds.]

[Nature’s Accessories Set: 1/3]

[Nature’s Accessories Set Effects: ???]

Yeoman’s eyes bulged. In a forest setting, this ring was completely broken, a six-times increase in strength! If Yeoman had fought the elf fairly, there was no way he’d be able to beat her, not if she used this ring’s ability. The only bad part about the ring was the long cooldown duration—and the fact it was a ring. Not counting that cursed ring the fairy had given him, which was more like a tattoo, Yeoman now possessed a total of three rings. As for the fact it was part of a set of accessories, Yeoman assumed he needed to obtain the other two accessories first before he could see the set effects.

“Admiring my things?”

Yeoman flinched and jumped away. The elf wasn’t dead! Yeoman reached into his bag, pulling out his iron mace, readying it in front of himself. The elf didn’t move, and Yeoman leaned to the side, looking around his weapon.

“I used up all my mana and energy surviving in that hellish environment,” the elf said. As she spoke, her lips cracked, and red droplets of blood glistened as they pooled into beads around her mouth. The elf licked her lips, sweeping up the droplets with her tongue. “If you’re going to kill me, now’s your only chance.”

Yeoman exhaled. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said. “This was … just a misunderstanding.” He glanced around. “If I left you here as you are right now, would you survive?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then.” Yeoman made up his mind. “Goodbye.” He never planned on killing the elf in the first place. It wasn’t like killing her would give him anything. Maybe he’d obtain an elf gene fragment, but he wasn’t willing to slaughter a defenseless woman for a fragment. He had taken her stuff, and quite frankly, he thought it was already quite a haul. Since that was the case, Yeoman turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Yeoman glanced at the elf. “Yes?”

“Can you leave me some food and water?”

Yeoman rummaged through his shadow pouch. It was then that he knew he had forgotten something. He hadn’t bought any food. Well, there was still the unripe Fruit of Knowledge. Who knew it’d come in handy so soon? He took it out of the pouch and placed it by the elf’s side. He pulled out the flask with the water array and realized he didn’t have any cups either. He glanced around, looking for something to pour the water into.

“You can leave some water into my quiver.”

Yeoman glanced down at the elf’s waist. Just because he didn’t know how to remove the quiver didn’t mean the elf didn’t. Yeoman tilted the flask, emptying the whole thing into the quiver made of leaves. “Is that fine?”

“I suppose I should thank you,” the elf said. “If, you know, it wasn’t for the fact you were the one who put me in this situation in the first place.”

Yeoman scratched his head. He had nothing to say to that. “I’ll be going then. Take care.” He wasn’t going to stick around and wait for the elf to recover. He preferred not to have his ass kicked, and if he stuck around, he was sure it would be kicked.