Chapter 143

  Over the several hours, Jake searched the city for replication pods. Unfortunately, every time he found some, they produced only regur mutants. To advance his quest, he o locate pods that created elite ex-humans.

  It took him a while to finally e across such a pod in one building. The co didn’t look much different from the regur pods surrounding it, but when he looked inside and summos description, he lear was in the process of developing ae walker.

  Tress his quest, he o analyze ae wraith instead. He decided to wait. Replication pods selected mutants for development at random, so after the co finished creating the elite walker and released the mutant, there was a small ce that the oo be developed would be a wraith.

  However, Jake quickly realized that mutants developed ie replication pods were created at a much slower rate than those created in regur replication pods. Regur walkers and leapers took only a few mio grow from a single cell into fully developed creatures, while rger mutants like shamblers and whippers took somewhat longer.

  But in trast tur mutants, elite ex-humans took much lohan just a few mio develop. He spent at least a quarter of an hour in the building, but there were hardly any visible ges in the elite mutant developing ihe co. Judging by the rate of development and the current stage of the f creature, Jake figured it would take a couple more hours for the mutant to be fully created.

  Staying in the building for two hours would be a waste of time. Most mutants developing in regur replication pods were low-level walkers and leapers, which provided little XP. Therefore, he would hardly gain any experience if he remained in the same building, sying low-level mutants that emerged from the pods every few minutes.

  Besides, it would be best to spend the wo hours searg for other elite replication pods. If luck smiled on him, he might find some more. So he decided to leave for now, having memorized the location of the building. In a couple of hours, he would return to check if the replication pod had finished developing the elite walker and if it had started w on a ype of mutant.

  He spent the wo hours searg the city for other elite replication pods while sying all the mutants in his path. Gunfire rang out from different ers of the city. Occasionally, the roar of powerful engines could be heard as well. However, Jake mao avoid getting into any more fights with Los Demonios.

  Whenever he heard the rumble of a earing his locatioivated Cloak or performed a Gravity Leap, ging to the side of a nearby building before climbing through one of the windows. He stayed cealed until the vehicle passed out of sight, then resumed his journey.

  Every so often, the sound of rotor bdes scything through the air could be heard as a helicopter flew over the rooftops. However, the aircraft were too high up to be a . He only had to worry about them when traversing the city from above. Now that he was at street level, the Demon helicopters posed no threat to him.

  Jake tinued his search through the city, taking down every mutant in his path, aually, he leveled up to 56, gaining 5 skill points to allocate. Not willing to stay out in the open while allog his skill points, he decided to hide. After all, with the arrival of Los Demonios, the city had beuch more dangerous and active than it had been before.

  Initially, he sidered entering one of the buildings, but then a different idea came to mind. He performed a Gravity Leap toward the front wall of a nearby building. Upon impact, Adhesive Secretion activated, allowing him to g to the surface. He crawled a couple of floors up the wall, resembling a giant i in his movements. Then he paused and activated Cloak. A few seds ter, the disguise ability made him appear transparent, rendering him pletely invisible to the naked eye.

  Now it was time to allocate his skill points. This time, Jake chose not to raise any of his attributes. Instead, he opted to trate on improving his skills and abilities.

  He then remembered his iion to upgrade the Mana Vision perk, so he decided to do it now as well. He summos stats with a thought and checked them out.

  Mana Vision (Rank I) (on): Allows you to see nearby sourana.

  Raise to Rank II: Y/N (Cost: 1 SP)

  It was a on ability, so it could be upgraded only two more times, up to Rank III. He used two of his skill points to upgrade Mana Vision first to Rank II and then to Rank III. After pleting the upgrades, he examihe perk once more.

  Mana Vision: Allows you to see nearby sourana, such as ables, mana clouds, and other types of ste.

  Rarity: on

  Rank III: (MAX)

  After upgrading the perk to Rank II, Mana Vision now allowed him to see something called mana clouds. With the upgrade to Rank III, he also acquired the ability to detect different types of mana stes, although he wasn’t quite sure what those stes were.

  He had three more skill points, but he decided to hold off on allog them for now. He first wao test out the upgraded Mana Vision perk. He dismissed the information and, with his eyes still closed, activated Mana Vision.

  He saw several bluish lights materialize in the distance. However, he identified them as mana ables. He didn’t spot anythihat could be identified as mana clouds or other types of mana tainers, which suggested there were none in the viity. Perhaps they were just rarer than typical mana ables. He figured that sooner or ter, he would e across some.

  After that, Jake decided it was time to return to the building where ae walker had been developed in one of the pods. A couple of hours had passed since he left the building, so the replication pod should have finished developing the walker and started w on another elite mutant. Deactivating the Cloak ability, Jake crawled down the front wall of the building and took a moment to get his bearings. Once he identified the right dire, he set off at his usual brisk jog.