Chapter 110

  For a moment, Jake remained where he was, staring into the distance where the chopper had just disappeared. He was deep in thought. Irospect, whewo people aboard the helicopter noticed him, he could’ve waved at them. Sihey didn’t immediately attack him, he could’ve attempted to demonstrate that he was an intelligent being, not a mindless creature like the other ex-humans.

  However, at that time, the thought to unicate with the two of them hadn’t even crossed his mind. Now that he was refleg on it, he uood why.

  Sure, he could unicate with humans, but it wasn’t all that easy for him to do. There was a time when a group of survivors he’d entered tried to kill him, even though he raised his hands and shook his head, doing his best to express his reluce to fight. Only one of them, a young woman named Elena, took notice, while the rest disregarded his attempts to unicate and opened fire on him. Survivors saw him as a terrifying monster with a strange body and menag, emotionless eyes. Now that he’d evolved into the form, he looked even more frightening than before.

  So, while he’d previously wao vey to people that he wasn’t just a mindless mutant, he now realized he no longer cared about it. In the initial days following his transformation, he’d really wao demonstrate his intelligeo others. In his very first endeavor to unicate with humans as a mutant, he tried to show Isra and her panions that he was an intelligent being like them. At that time, it’d appeared important to him for some reason. However, it was no lohe case.

  He didn’t care what survivors thought about him anymore. He no longer cared if they deemed him just a mindless monster and had no iion to vihem otherwise anymore. He no longer had any desire to unicate with them. After all, he now had very different goals and needs from those of humans. So there was simply no reason to go out of his way to vince every single survivor he met that he was se.

  Besides, as he’d retly learned, he was a monster. While a fragment of his humanity remained, he reized that he was at least fifty pert a monster, and he’d fully embraced his monster nature by now. So there was no point in trying to vince humans he wasn’t a monster while he actually was, and he saw no reason to needlessly i with them anymore.

  Giving the matter no more thought, he surveyed the area. High-rise buildings surrounded him, some reag the same height as the buildiood on, while others loomed much higher. Before tinuing his journey, he wao cheething.

  He closed his eyes and summohe perk menu. He currently had two perks at his disposal: Enemy Appraisal (Rank II) and Mana Vision (Rank I). The first one allowed him to view basiformation about mutants or humans, including their attributes, skills, abilities, and whatnot. Jake was already familiar with how Enemy Appraisal worked, so he shifted his attention to Mana Vision. He’d retly acquired this perk but hadn’t had the ce to check it out yet.

  Mana Vision (Rank I): Allows you to deteearby sourana.

  Raise to Rank II: Y/N (Cost: 1 SP)

  This perk seemed to be extremely useful. Jake opened his eyes and attempted to use it. However, nothing happened. As far as he knew, perks were activated with a sihought. He pondered for a moment, w why the perk didn’t work. A realization dawned on him. He shut his eyes and tried to use Mana Vision once more. This time, the perk worked.

  He saw blue glowing lights materialize before him. He made a slow three-sixty, notig plenty of them around him. Jake immediately realized the strange radiant lights indicated the locations of mana ables. Some were positioned far below him, likely at street level, while others appeared to float in the air at differes, suggesting that these mana items were located on various floors of different buildings.

  Some of the blue lights were about an in diameter while the others were much smaller. Initially, Jake thought the size differendicated the distao the sourana. However, he soon realized he was mistaken. The distao the mana sources was actually indicated by their brighthose lights that were farther away were dimmer.

  So the differen size of the glowing lights indicated the size of the actual mana ables. The tiny lights, resembling dots, likely represehe smallest mana ables like beads or marbles, holding 100 and 250 MP respectively. The rger lights could represent shards and ks, corresponding to 500 and 1,000 MP respectively.

  Jake tio slowly pivot until he pleted a full circle. The glowing lights that were far from him were barely visible. He couldn’t see the distribution of mana ables throughout the ey. Acc to his calcutions, the Mana Vision perk had an effective range of about five hundred yards. Raising the perk to the Rank would likely increase the diameter of its effective range.

  Anyway, this perk was undoubtedly very useful. Thanks to it, finding mana ables would no longer be any trouble at all. By using Mana Vision, he would be able to collect mana quickly and would always have enough amounts of this precious energy for both sustaining his magical body and acquiring new skills and abilities.

  Jake turoward the blue glowing light. It hovered somewhat lower than his current position. The light was quite small, indig it was either a bead or a marble. After itting its location to memory, Jake opened his eyes. In front of him stood another building, and the mana able he’d just located should be on one of the lower floors. He ran across the rooftop and leaped toward the building.

  He discovered that the staircase was pletely destroyed. With all the steps missing, the staircase had been turned into ay shaft running all the way down to the first floor. However, there were pieces of rebar protruding from the walls, providing plenty of handholds. Stepping to the edge of the doorway, he jumped down and grabbed hold of the piece of rebar stig out from one wall, breaking his fall.

  Dangling from the piece of rebar, gripping it with one hand, Jake closed his eyes and activated Mana Vision once again. The glowing light indicated that the mana able he was after was located roughly two floors below him. He opened his eyes and proceeded with his dest down the shaft, using his legs to push off the walls, leaping from one handhold to the . Occasionally, he shut his eyes to verify the location of the mana item.

  Finally, he desded to the same level as the mana able. He pushed off the wall, letting go of the piece of rebar he held on to, propelling himself to soar across the shaft. Twisting his body in midair to align with his trajectory, he smoothly glided through the open doorway and nded on his feet, stig the nding.

  For a moment, he listened, but no sound reached him. This building, or at least this floor, appeared to be devoid of mutants. He used Mana Vision once more to orient himself, then turned in the correct dire and began searg for the mana item. It didn’t take him long to find it: the mana item was in one of the rooms, lying on the floor amid piles of debris. As he’d anticipated, it was a mana bead taining a meager 100 MP.

  After using Mana Vision once more to firm there were no more mana ables in the building, he returo the shaft. He jumped toward a piece of rebar, grabbing hold of it. He effortlessly pulled himself up onto it, maintaining perfect bance as he perched on it. Spotting another piece of rebar above him, protruding from the opposite wall, he jumped up and grabbed it with both hands.

  He tio asd the shaft, climbing without any trouble whatsoever, thanks to all the agility and acrobatic skills as well as upgrades to them he’d acquired in the past several days. Within a couple of minutes, he was ba the roof. He activated Mana Vision to pinpoint the mana able, situated a couple of high-rises away from his current position. Opening his eyes, he sprinted across the roof and leaped to the building.