Mitch's Mynt started decreasing. From 1.47 to 1.35, to 1.21, and finally stopped decreasing at 1.07.
"{Blessing of Divine Dreams}."
Suddenly, the DNA in the skill window started warping on itself. One by one, the building blocks got replaced, remaking the entire sequence.
On the surface it looked the same, just a little bit longer. But if one looked closer, there were some differences in how the atoms and molecules reacted with each other; they were much more stable than what normal DNA should be.
Mitch felt drained, yet ecstatic. He realized what he had done, but the results stunned him.
He had manipulated the strong force and electromagnetism of the rat's DNA. It hardly made any sense, yet the results were clear as day.
"Hmm? What happened?" Compared to Mitch, the changes eluded Katherine.
"It doesn't matter. What's important is that this change will be the gateway to my success. But I'm not done yet. I have one more thing I need to do."
Taking a few deep breaths to stabilize his condition, Mitch closed the rat's Gene Tree and focused on the rat itself.
"{Blessing of Virility}."
The rat suddenly turned vigorous. Its eyes opened wide, and its toes started curling.
Giving his work a nod of approval, Mitch carried the rat to the nest's opening. He kept staring at the rat, ignoring the fact that his Mynt had reached 0.87.
When at the entrance, Mitch released the rat and let it run into the nest.
"Now, we wait."
"You want to tell me why you decided to use over two months worth of Mynt?" Knowing that Mitch was many times smarter than her, she did not dare complain. After all, she had no plan to begin with, let alone a backup plan like Mitch seemed to have.
"You will notice the results of this by tonight, Katherine. By the way, could you tell me how long that blessing would last?" This would be a vital part of his plan.
Although a few hours was enough for his plan to count as a success, the longer it lasted, the better.
"I think it will last a few days at most. You did use a lot of Mynt for a mere rat, so it better be enough for you to feel satisfied. Otherwise, I will haunt you in hell forever."
As far as Katherine was aware, what Mitch had done was a form of desperate struggle. She might be able to approximate how long the blessings would last, but she had no idea what they did.
Well, not the Divine Dream one at least. "Blessing of Virility" had a pretty self-explanatory concept.
"Do not worry, Katherine. If everything goes according to plan, we might see a source of Mynt even larger than the one Madeline was providing us with. Before she went into hibernation, that is."
She remained skeptical, yet Katherine could only relent. What use was there to nag Mitch when there had been no time for his plan to bloom?
"So, what's your plan now? Hailey is in hibernation, the rat molester is on the loose, and happy couple one and two are in their pit. Do you have any other plans for how to generate Mynt?"
"Let me tell you this, Katherine. If my plan proves to be successful, I will have reinvented society, but for rats. In which case, any other plan for generating Mynt will become irrelevant."
Even his plan for Madeline would become moot, and he could finally focus on strengthening his personal army. He still had no idea about what would be happening in ten years, but the sooner he started, the better.
As for now, he needed to eat.
He couldn't eat either of the ants or the legios. Any increase in his Mynt consumption could be the difference between his plan succeeding and failing spectacularly.
Instead, he started munching on the fruits he had picked on his way back from the river.
Even though fruits and vegetables increased his Devouring progress, it was negligible in comparison to meat.
"Does this mean that this power system follows the theory of biomagnification? Vegetation somehow generates the energy or nutrients necessary to advance in strength, and the concentration increases the further along the food chain one goes…"
If that really were the case, then scavengers, like rats and hyenas, should slowly become the strongest races on the planet, comparable to even the ants.
"How did the ecosystem even come to this? The bottom-dwellers in the food chain have suddenly become the apex predators, while the legios are killing each other the moment they don't wake up. I really have to set things straight before I leave this world."
He kept making plans for how to proceed from here on when he reeled back.
"Speaking of, how do I even leave this world?"
He had barely thought about it before.
Before even incarnating, his first thought was to destroy his own body.
But by the time Katherine denied that speculation, he was too caught up in a multitude of stressful situations to actually sit down and think.
"Oh, that's easy. You can even do it right now if you want to. But I wouldn't recommend it. You might not have to make a new body to incarnate in, but transferring your body between dimensions takes energy."
"Energy, which I don't have right now… That's fine. I'm still far from done with my plans for this world."
Finishing the last of the fruits on the plate, as well as confirming that he had not grown stronger, he cast one last look at the nest entrance.
He heard a tumultuous sound from inside, confirming that things were pretty hectic down there.
"With the peasants now confirmed to be on their way, let's continue working on the nobles. Then, I have to find a way to solve the situation with our queen. Would it be fine to have a rat queen and then a queen of the entire planet?"
As he said, Mitch was still far from finished with his plans for this world.