Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"There is a lab nearby inside the mega-dungeon. It must be full of demons but some features must still function," said Yuri, excited, "Let's head there with the snake, I can go through the Hunter Awakening Method less nervously if I am in a lab."

"Sorry to douse your excitement but the demon can't be taken into rooms. It is weak in the sunlight but strong otherwise," said Mark.

Yuri frowned, then sighed. "A pity. I wanted to bring it there to increase my chances a bit."

Mark looked at his brother. He blinked, saying help me woo her with his eyes. "I think if we destroy the ceiling of the laboratory, the sunlight won't be an issue. Right, brother?"

"Indeed, that can be done," Bale nodded after some deliberate thinking. As long as the snake had sunlight on it, it would be lethargic.

…

Mark and Yuri walked into Yuri's first Lab. The one Mark had seen her use first, at least. It was under a sewage drain and it was where she designed her mecha—the place had already been devoured by the mega-dungeon.

Spider demons filled the entire place but they were weak enough that Mark could kill them all with his physical strength alone.

Bale watched from the side and used his Super Strength once more.

This time, Mark got a better sight of the ability. Bale was punching the air in front of him but that alone generated enough power to completely and utterly decimate the ceiling into debris exploding into the air.

Super Strength accumulates physical power even in the atmosphere?

Mark protected Yuri from the falling debris, gulped, and thought.

Super Strength seemed to make the air in front of the man more tangible before he punched.

Damn, such a good feeling it must be to punch all your problems to oblivion, he thought. Somewhat envious of the ability.

Now that the ceiling was gone, the sunlight filtered in and brightened the place. Yuri finally had access to her old lab and even if they let the snake in now, it wouldn't be out of the light. As long as it was in the light, it was going to be a weak thing and easy to be bullied.

Walking around the lab with Yuri, she dug out a certain tailpiece on the floor and there was a whole hidden room underneath it. The place was virtually untouched by anything other than dust, no demons had gotten into it, and it was full of equipment and some bottles of black recovery water.

Yuri smiled melancholically, her cute face somewhat emotional. "This is a secret room I left behind just in case I had to hide from demons inside the mega-dungeon someday. A last resort emergency bunker of sorts."

Bale raised his eyebrows, his bronze face disinterested. "You are a cautious woman, Scientist," he said.

Yuri shrugged. "I am not like you men who could get violent to save your own skin—I am rather weak, you see. In fact, some days ago, just a demonstration of a fire ability nearly burned me unconscious."

Mark broke the rest of the tails acting as a ceiling to the underground bunker lab, and jumped into it, he destroyed the rest of the ceiling and let the whole bunker be filled with sunlight. Yuri jumped in next, followed by Bale who had a tight hold over the snake's neck.

It had never been allowed to leave sunlight.

Yuri took out a big battery from the side and pulled a small liver to her side. The monitors in the little underground lab flickered on and displayed motionless graphs.

"Watch and learn how I do it, this is the simple demonstration of the Hunter Awakening Method. Get me some of the snake's blood." She took a test tube from a small box to the side and threw it to Mark. "Pour the blood into it."

Bale squeezed the snake's head and it writhed silently in pain. The A-Ranker's fingers buzzed and dug into its skin; a drop of green blood dripped out of the thick, night-like scales of the snake. Mark collected the drop into the test tube.

Yuri took the tube in her own hands and squinted. She explained, "Hunters are not some unique species of humans created on our world. Hunters are not created naturally out of nowhere either. That is the crux of my discovery of this method.

"A Hunter is a cheap copy of a Demon. When a demon is burned to death by the Hunter World's Will, it isn't just throwing away all the energy and demonic tricks the demon used to have.

The Hunter World would choose a human with a somewhat similar genetic structure to the dead demon (a very, very minute similarity) and bless that human with one of the demon's abilities and all its energies, and that will turn that human into a Hunter."

Bale had wide eyes. "The Demons are the origin of all Hunters?"

That made so much sense yet it was so ironic. Hunters—most of them—hated demons to their core. Many sought vengeance and used Hunter Abilities to achieve it; the fact that all of that was attained from the power they gained from their very own enemies.

"Indeed, Hunters are not some divine souls blessed by a fantasy God. I've scientifically proven that myth to be false."

Yuri's black, gem-like eyes shimmered. She suddenly changed. Focused, she became. Entered she did, her zone.

Using a small syringe, she absorbed a microscopic amount of the demon blood. Then looked at it intently.

"What I basically plan to do is: I will artificially modify a normal human being's genetic structure to be a bit similar to a demon. That's not really too good for them but after modifying their genetics, we will immediately throw the demon out into the world and the Hunter World's Will should kill it. Guess what happens after that."

Mark said with awe. "When the Hunter World's Will begins to choose a person to become a Hunter, it would of course choose the one with the most similar genetics to the dead demon."

Yuri nodded. "Exactly, Ma—cough. I mean, it's almost magical."

Mark sweated inwardly. She had almost said, Mark. He could see Yuri herself gulp.