Bringing his arm close to his face, Lohan sniffed himself, puzzled by the scent the girl had detected that gave away his position, but he couldn’t smell anything.
Only after activating [Chemosensory Aptitude] did he sense a faint trace of Mana being exhaled by his body, mainly due to the use of [Umbral Mimicry].
’Damn, I thought I was hiding well, but was I actually exposing myself even more?’
The amount of Mana in that body was so low compared to his Slime body that he hadn’t even noticed it before.
’Does she have some ability to sense the smell of Mana like I do?’ He thought in surprise, raising the danger level she posed.
To possess such a keen ability, she would need to have a Base at least at the Rare level in Elysium and a relatively high rank, and someone like that, in a group like this that already had combat experience, could be dangerous to him.
Deciding to avoid hostility, Lohan first deactivated the [Umbral Mimicry] and actively withdrew his own Mana into himself.
As a Slime, Lohan could use [Structural Stability] even within a human body to control his own body in a way that would take other people years of practice to achieve.
Once he understood how to apply this in the real world, his rate of improvement in training skyrocketed even further, as he could activate any muscle he wanted, pushing those muscles to their limit with far less effort, and used [Efficient Digestion] to nourish those muscles as quickly as possible.
The ability to control one’s own body like a Slime, which had a simple and basic structure, might not seem all that surprising or terrifying, but in a body as complex as a human’s, the power to control oneself with such precision was on a whole other level.
With his hands raised to indicate he posed no danger, Lohan approached the group slowly.
Sure, with magic within him, even those raised hands could generate [Ice Spikes] to attack at any moment, but for this group of people, seeing the way he approached was more reassuring.
Lohan was dressed entirely in black, with a cheap protective overcoat—very common in the Lower Zone—covering his body; even though the fabric was thick and bulky, one could still tell he had a well-proportioned physique.
At 1.81 meters tall (5’11"), Lohan was tall, but not intimidatingly so.
His face was covered by the most common and cheapest protective and filtering mask in the Lower Zone—precisely the mask Lohan had mocked in his college class for failing to meet the safe filtration threshold for the population.
This mask was like the gas masks he’d seen in movies from the other world: entirely black, with two circular filters over the mouth and two eye slits.
Seeing through it was terrible, but it was what people had to wear to survive in this place.
Although he looked scary to anyone else, to this Lower Zone gang, Lohan seemed like just a normal person.
"I didn’t mean any harm," Lohan said as he approached, his eyes fixed on Skye, but with his perception skills running at full throttle, analyzing everyone there.
Skye looked at him suspiciously, feeling not the slightest bit of intimacy toward his appearance, but sensing something strange about how she could no longer smell that slightly bitter scent he had been giving off just a few seconds ago.
"Then why were you watching us like a pervert?" She furrowed her brows and crossed her arms in front of her, taking a step to stand in front of Oliver.
The little boy was still a bit dazed by all the events, but as he looked at the man approaching, a vague sense of familiarity arose in his mind.
The people on the motorcycles didn’t stand still, revving their engines slightly, causing a light gust of wind in that alley, which made both Skye’s hair sway in the wind and Lohan’s clothes follow the same movement, while neither of them let it affect them.
Sighing, Lohan formulated a response. "Honestly, I didn’t even want to get involved in this. I was coming from the bus stop and saw a group of men dragging a little boy into the alley. Seeing that, something inside me screamed that I couldn’t just let it go, so I came to see if I could help."
Hearing his answer, instead of feeling impressed, Skye started laughing. "Hahaha, did you guys hear that?! Looks like the Lower Zone is going to have a hero now. I feel so safe... what about you, Jenny? Do you feel that way too?"
From one of the flying motorcycles, another woman’s laugh rang out; this one had a deeper, harsher voice, speaking with even more disdain than Skye. "Yeah, Skye, I think now that this hero is on the loose, I’ll finally be able to walk my dog outdoors without a care in the world."
Hearing their mockery, Lohan rolled his eyes, fed up with it all.
’Honestly, I owe these people nothing. I’ve already shown more than enough sincerity by approaching them without showing any hostility. If that’s how they want to treat me, then they can go to hell.’
With that thought, Lohan didn’t even bother to respond and turned around, leaving the alley.
"Wait, where do you think you’re going? Do you think I don’t know you were with those rats? I smelled something different on you, come back here... hey, I’m talking to you!" Skye started speaking arrogantly, until he realized Lohan wasn’t even listening and was already almost out of the alley.
--Fweeeet!
Realizing he wasn’t going to stop, Skye curled her tongue inside her mouth and let out a loud whistle.
Hearing that whistle, without a single word needing to be spoken, two motorcycles broke away from the flying formation and in an instant passed over Lohan, blocking his path out of the alley.
"I didn’t say you could leave. Come back here and behave yourself." Skye said with disdain again.
This time, Lohan didn’t even feel indifferent anymore; a rage built up by the attitude of the people in this world began to rise in his chest, compounded by the arrogance and domineering nature Skye was displaying, causing him to clench his fists tightly just as Frank had done. But instead of feeling helpless and hesitant, the battle instinct honed to the limit over the past few days in Elysium kicked in.
Without him realizing it, his mindset suddenly shifted to that of [Predator], observing these people and analyzing how he could deal with them as prey.
’Fuck all this bullshit about hiding my own strength; in this dark alley there are no cameras, no one here has seen my face or knows who I am... I’m training to become stronger in Elysium not just for the money, but for freedom. Freedom that the power that world gives me, freedom from being forced to follow foolish, arrogant, and authoritarian people like that girl.’
With his mind made up, Lohan stopped hesitating.
Knowing no combat stance, he did what he knew best... activating dozens of evolutions at once, ceasing to be a weak and vulnerable creature, to become the hunter with dozens, if not hundreds, of monster kills to his name.