Groundbreaking

Yuri's lab was unusually silent today. 

Blue light illuminated the entire hall, and everything had a sterile smell to it, unlike the usual neutral scent. 

Mark was seated in a room with a different smell from all of that—the smell of blood. Dona was eating ice cream at his side while a bunch of pigs squealed all around the room.

Choi Sung—the arrogant C Rank Hunter with the broken sunglasses—had brought the pigs and several other animals here just earlier this morning. 

The young man seemed to have decided to flatter the intelligent demon; there was a truckful of animals inside the lab now. He was working like a slave for Mark.

Yuri was incredibly averse to animals, so she opened a huge empty room in the underground lab and shifted all the pigs, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, and everything else into it.

Right after that, she cleaned the entire lab using multiple methods. The sterile smell and the blue light being one of the many methods.

…

Mark had killed some of the pigs, and his total number of Soul Spheres was at an all-time high—apparently, even pigs had souls that a Demon could eat. 

At its best, every pig only gave him around a single Soul Sphere, but killing enough had given him a pretty good amount. 

[23.9 Soul Spheres]

Mark smirked. "Dona, time for the test."

"Gah?" Dona tilted her head.

He used all his mental focus on Dona and tried to elevate her Physique and Mind using the Soul Spheres in his hand. He could see her Stats anyway, so maybe he might even be able to elevate her stats.

Since he could not increase his stats before he became a Tier 1 existence, maxing out his allies seemed logical. He looked deeply into her stats.

_

[Dona Marcus]

[Tier 0—Demonling]

[Physique: 3.0/3.0]

[Mind: 3.0/3.0]

[Resistances: Fire Resistance (Low), Physical Resistance (Low), Mental Resistance (Low)].

[Bloodline: Flame Bloodline]

[Demonic Tricks: Soul Devourer. Fireball (Low), Fire Shield (Low), Delayed Explosion (Low).]

_

No matter how hard he tried to increase her stats like his own, it didn't work for her. He frowned. He was disappointed every day, at least once, these days.

Sighing, he moved to a particular animal and looked at it seriously.

The creature was only as wide as his hand, very fluffy, and quite cute to look at. It had been brought here along with all the other animals that Choi Sung brought here. It had been specifically ordered to be arranged.

Mark had had another conversation about his insect-enslaving abilities with Yuri. 

It was a dwarf hamster. One of the smallest creatures said to be capable of being loyal to a human master by none other than the mad scientist Yuri herself.

Yuri still didn't know that he could input thoughts into anything that was not an insect—and of course, the Scientist didn't know that Mark would die if he was at least 5 meters away from a Dungeon Heart Seed either. 

She had spoken about the Dwarf Hamster in passing, and Mark had asked Choi Sung in a call to bring it anyway. This was seemingly just one of the random assortment of animals the Hunter had brought into the Scientist's eyes; even if she had suspicions, it didn't truly matter.

He looked at the hamster seriously, and it looked back at him cutely. He petted it lightly. Dona was still handcuffed to him, so she was close by. Moving her hand closer, she tried to snatch the hamster.

He slapped her hand away gently.

The horror in the hamster was clear.

But this hamster was not here to be eaten. He wanted to try to make it loyal to him so that he could plant a Dungeon Heart Seed on it.

Heart Input!

Survival. Food. Favorite foods. 

Its mindset was not as simple as Dona's, surprisingly. It had way more things it was considering. Favorite foods, hating cold temperatures, and a bunch more of such things. But it was far from being even nearly as complex as a Human.

Mark smiled in curiosity. This seemed fun.

"You feel safe around this creature who is petting you now," he whispered into its mind. Immediately, his perceptive eyes found a loosening of the hamster's muscles.

He couldn't help but be excited.

Something was finally working!

From then on, no matter what he did to the hamster, it didn't so much as make any sound of discontent. It was very chill around him, and he kept it atop his head and walked out of the slaughter room.

Taking out the phone he left to spy on Yuri if she did something she shouldn't, he sighed inwardly, seeing that she had done nothing like that. 

He was too paranoid; Yuri was a very reliable partner. 

He sighed inwardly and closed the door behind him.

He was back in Yuri's main lab. 

It was full of a sterile smell due to many cleaning chemicals. The Scientist had cleaned the hall after the animals passed by. She seemed somewhat like a clean freak, but it truly could affect her research. So, one couldn't blame the woman.

He searched for her smell and walked around a particularly glassy machine while checking the news on his phone. Something caught his eye. 

The Trio Hunters Defeated Their First Demon!

The trio was already a threat he would have to be incredibly wary of. 

Tsk.

Mark's golden eyes dimmed slightly.

He found himself facing Yuri's back. The hamster rolled around above his head, but he kept it in place with a simple hold.

I need to Evolve. 

He wasn't here to spend this leisurely life. He had goals to achieve.

Dona tried to touch the hamster, but he was worried about her intentions, so he stopped her—at least, until Dona mimicked himself and petted the hamster curiously without hurting it.

"Wow, aren't you getting smarter?" he smirked and gently slapped Dona's butt. She wiggled it as she walked beside him in her white t-shirt and trousers. 

He looked towards Yuri once more but didn't head towards her. He was still waiting for her to give him the complete Tier breakthrough information, and apparently, it would be ready in a day if her words could be trusted.

When he had asked her previously, she had said that evolving required something like an intense situation for the Demon to face. But it was still rather unclear.

What did evolving entail?

Why the intensity?

How did that come into the picture?

She was researching that even now. Even though it was still not completed. When it gets completed, he would have a way clearer picture of his path forward.

He looked at what she was doing now.

The scientist had lowered her goggles and seemed to be in extremely deep thought as she looked into a microscope at his… jizz. She sometimes stirred it around with a gloved hand and even mixed her saliva into it.

Indeed, one man's jizz is another woman's treasure.

"Come on, Dona, let's befriend our Hamster!" he petted the hamster and went around to do something productive. He wanted to add that Dungeon Heart Seed into the hamster.

Throughout that day, he treated the hamster to many kinds of its favorite food—which had been brought along with the many food stocks Choi Sung brought for the other animals.

Unlike Dona, he couldn't just tell the hamster that he was a good mate-candidate to make it loyal to him. That only worked on Dona because Mark was indeed a good mate for her. However, that was not the case with the hamster.

Mark was not a hamster.

He had to take it a bit slow.

When it ate, he added another Heart Input: "You feel happiest when the demon feeds you." From then on, it really liked to eat from his hand.

When it was sleeping above his head, he added the thought, "I love to sleep above this head." 

And then, it never left his hair unless he made it leave.

Mark was chuckling all throughout. 

It didn't seem far now.

As the night closed in, he felt a sort of ascetic calm settle over him and got ready to add another Input; he heard the sound of a bottle shattering. 

His eyes immediately focused on Yuri.

The woman was trembling.

"What happened?" he asked.

She stumbled on her steps and walked towards him with a sweaty face. "I've made groundbreaking results. It's… impossible to believe." She paled and leaned against the wall. "This changes everything."

Mark frowned. 

What was this groundbreaking research result?