Chapter 111

  Jake tinued hunting for mana for some time, using Mana Vision to locate mana items. Initially, he gathered all types of mana ables but then opted to focus solely on the rger ones like shards and ks. By that point, he’d collected nearly forty thousand mana points. Mana Vision proved to be aremely useful perk. With the amount he’d collected, he could already afford to purchase a couple of skills from the Geic Development Interface. However, the skills designed for Evolution Stage 2 had quite demanding requirements. He o level up a few more times to upgrade his attributes before he could purchase any of them.

  Jake entered another building to find the top floor teeming with mutants. There were also several replication pods hanging from the ceiling. Dealing with the mutants didn’t take long. Ohe st of them was taken care of, he turned his attention to the replication pods. He stepped to the closest one, cws poised for attack.

  Through the transparent co could be seen a mutant of the walker breed in the process of being developed. Jake gazed inside for a moment, and when he was about to ssh his cws at the pod, a system notification fshed through his mind.

  New Mutation Research!

  Objective: Analyze replication pods with five different types of mutants within.

  Difficulty: Hard

  Reward: Mind Reader (Unon Ability)

  Accept: Y/N

  It was the sed time Jake had entered a quest of this type. The previous quest had tasked him with analyzing three different mutants being developed in replication pods. As a reward for pleting the quest, he’d earhe Bded Tentacles ability.

  This quest was very simir to the previous o required him to analyze five creatures instead of three as before, and its difficulty was hard. Other than that, this quest didn’t differ from the st one.

  The reward was an ability called Mind Reader. Jake wasn’t sure exactly what it did or how it worked, but judging from the name alohis ability seemed quite iing. It was of the unon rarity, too, which meant it would have frades avaible for unlog instead of the usual three.

  Jake accepted the quest and gazed into the pod in front of him. He anticipated a message saying that the first mutant type had been analyzed to appear in his mind, but to his surprise, it didn’t happen. Perhaps he o wait a bit longer? He tio stare into the pod, watg the mutant being created i was in the early stages of development, but he could already tell it was going to be a walker.

  Finally, a notifierged in his mind. Only it wasn’t the one he’d expected.

  You have already analyzed this creature.

  Well, that was disappointing. It turned out that he had to find pods with mutants he hadn’t analyzed before. Although it was a new quest, the creatures he’d analyzed during the previous mutation research quest couldn’t be ted again. He’d previously analyzed three types of mutants being developed in replication pods: a walker, a leaper, and a shambler. Therefore, he now had to locate pods produg mutant types other thahree.

  Jake walked around the room, peering into each of the pods. However, every pod in the room taiher a walker or a leaper. He waited. Wheants emerged from the cos, he dealt with them and then checked the pods once more. After releasing the fully developed mutants, they sealed shut and began to create new ones. However, when Jake peered into them, he saw they were in the process of creating walkers and leapers again. He decided to wait a bit longer.

  When a fresh batch of fully-developed mutants emerged, he quickly killed them all and examihe replication pods again. To his dismay, they were once again produg walkers and leapers. Losing patience, Jake tore the cos to shreds with his cws. It seemed that these particur replication pods could only create walkers and leapers.

  He searched through the other floors, but there were no more replication pods anywhere in the building. It sucked. He’d pleted the very first mutation research quest pretty quickly because he was able to find pods with three different creatures within the same building. His current quest, however, was definitely going to take loo plete. It seemed he would o visit multiple buildings taining replication pods before being able to plete the quest.

  For the hour or so, Jake bed through several buildings, looking for those taining replication pods. Since he didn’t have any means to locate replication pods in advance, he couldn’t know which buildings had them and which didn’t. Thus, he simply had to rely on luck, choosing buildings at random.

  At first, he used Mana Vision to locate mana ables so he could kill two birds with oone: collect mana and e across replication pods in the process. However, ter on, he decided to stop looking for mana items for now and fully trate on pleting his quest first.

  He would jump to a building, thhly search it for replication pods from the top floor to the first oheurn to the roof ao another building. He moved very quickly, disregarding any distras, not even b to kill any mutants he entered uhey impeded his progress.

  At some point, he located a pod where a ssher was being created. He analyzed the creature, causing his quest to finally progress. A little ter, in another building, he found two more different types of mutants being created in replication pods: a chaser and a whipper. After analyzing them, he quickly destroyed the pods to prevent the mutants from being released.

  After a few more trips to different buildings, Jake discovered another one filled with replication pods on one floor. In one of them, he located a ype of mutant he hadn’t analyzed before. The creature being created ihe pod was massive, stretg the fines of the co almost to the point of rupturing. Jake identified the creature being developed as a bloater, a mutant capable of spewing torrents of acid.

  Creature analyzed. The status of mutation research has been updated.

  He closed his eyes and summohe quest menu. The active oood at the top of the list, with all the pleted quests listed below. He focused on the current oo check its status.

  Status: In Progress (4 of 5)

  Only oant type remaio be analyzed before the quest would be plete. Jake struck out with his cws at the pod before him, shredding both the co and the underdeveloped bloater. He then examihe other pods hanging from the ceiling, but all of them tained mutant types he’d already analyzed. Despite this, Jake remained in high spirits. He only o locate one more pod with an unanalyzed mutant to finish his quest. It wouldn’t be long before he found it. He was on the brink of pleting the quest.

  After returning to the rooftop of the building he currently occupied, Jake took a moment to look around and gather his bearings. He chose a dire, but before he could proceed, he heard a familiar sound from behind him. Gng over his shoulder, he saw a helicopter flying over the rooftops.

  It was the same chopper that had attacked him some time ago. At the moment, it was too far away for him to worry about. The two octs of the helicopter weren’t just flying around the city for no reason. Instead, they appeared to be searg for something. Jake couldn’t help but wonder what they were looking for.

  However, what humans did was not his . Pig a dire away from the bck helicopter, he resumed his search.