Chapter 145
Bullets whizzed past him like angry hors as he charged toward the two survivors. Jake didn’t even bother to dodge the rounds. He felt some of them hit him in various parts of his body, but they inflicted minimal damage. Enhanced Durability made his body incredibly resistant to damage while Enhanced Regeion healed minor injuries in no time ft—even in the middle of a fight.
He smmed into one of the survivors, sending him sprawling to the ground. Immediately, Jake pivoted toward the other survivor and, with a powerful yank, disarmed him. Gripping the man’s head, Jake closed his eyes and activated Mana Vision. The human before him turned into a brilliant glow, indig that his body held a substantial amount of mana.
However, when Jake attempted to extract mana from the person, nothing happened. It firmed his suspis. He had gathered the information he needed, so it was time to move on. He didn’t want anything else from the two survivors, so he opened his eyes and forcefully shoved the man in front of him. The survivor stumbled backward, colliding with the first one, who had just gotten back up on his feet, and they both tumbled back to the ground.
Jake left them struggling on the ground, trying to disentangle from one aurning around, he took off running, and by the time the two survivors finally got up arieved their ons, he was long gone. As he tio explore the city, he mulled over various thoughts in his mind.
There was a slight possibility that he couldraore accurately, steal—mana stored inside humans at all. However, he dismissed the thought. After all, if he couldn’t do it, what was the point of Mana Vision revealing which humans held mana within them and in what quantities? So he was quite sure he could steal mana from humans—he just o learn a specific ability or perk to do that.
Jake found himself w what the humans thought of him. If Anton and Enid—the two survivors he had retly saved—survived long enough, they might spread the word about what had happehe same went for the two survivors he had just ied with. When they entered others, they might ret their meeting with him and the details surrounding it. He was already aware that numerous stories about him were making the rounds. Survivors specuted about him endlessly, f all sorts of assumptions, unsure of what to really make of him.
These two stories would only deepen the fusion. Survivors would never fully uand what was going on in his head—why he killed some survivors, like the first group Elena was in while saving other humans, like Anton and Enid. To them, he would always remain a plete mystery, leaving them uain about what to expect if they were unlucky enough to cross paths with him. They wouldn’t know if he was an enemy or an ally. Even Jake was unsure of how he truly regarded humans. While he tried to avoid frontations with them, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight back when ered or provoked.
Ohing was clear, though. Many days ago, he had been eager to demonstrate to the survivors that he was intelligent and not so different from them, at least on the inside. But he had moved past those delusions. He reized that he was fually different from them, both oside and within. It was better for him to stay away from humans, for the good of everyone involved.
He also had no iion to expin his motives to humans anymore. For one, he had learned long ago that unig with them wasn’t easy. For another, he didn’t feel the o do so. Although his path crossed with humans every now and then, his needs and goals were vastly different from theirs. Therefore, most of the time, he simply tried to avoid any kind of iion with them.
Jake spent the several days adhering to his usual routine—hunting for mana and XP while searg for elite replication pods and doing his best to steer clear of frontations with Los Demonios and roups of survivors. During this time, he leveled up several times, progressing from level 56 to level 61 and gaining a total of 25 skill points.
First of all, he increased the ranks of some of his abilities and skills that had reached 100% by that point, making them even more powerful and useful than they already were.
Bded Tentacles: Rank I → Rank II
Smashfists: Rank I → Rank II
Enhanced Reflexes: Rank I → Rank II
Enharength: Rank I → Rank II
Enhanced Regeion: Rank I → Rank II
Feral Instincts: Rank I → Rank II
Enhanced Durability: Rank I → Rank II
Following that, he spent several of his skill points to acquire upgrades for some of his skills and abilities. He used one skill point to obtain the fourth upgrade fravity Leap, which allowed him to drop with greater power at any moment after jumping. He khat this upgrade wasn’t particurly useful on its own, but it was necessary for other abilities to fun, which he was sure he would acquire at some point.
He also acquired all the upgrades for Cloak. Being an Unon ability, it had frades avaible.
Cloak: Rank I (44%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Reduces the time required for the illusion of transparency to fully engage. Cloak adapts more effitly when you move quickly. Greatly lowers the risk of malfun duriients. When Cloak is active, you are difficult to detect even with special tools.Thanks to the first upgrade, it now took less than a sed for the illusion of transparency to activate once he used Cloak. The sed upgrade allowed the ability to keep pace with him when he ran, making him difficult to detect with the naked eye even when he moved quickly. With the third upgrade, Cloak rarely got turned off, even during intetles with mutants that involved lots of erratients. As for the fourth upgrade, he hadn’t yet seen any survivors using special tools to detect hidden objeutants, but he was certain that, at some point, they would acquire such tools, and when that happehis upgrade would prove invaluable.
He also acquired all frades for the Adhesive Secretion skill.
Adhesive Secretion: Rank I (23%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Allows you to stiost any kind of surfabsp; Increases the strength of your adhesive, so there is now barely any force that detach you from a surface. You ow break the adhesive at will, increasing the fluidity and speed of your movement. When someoouches you, you ooze adhesive fluid from the point of tact, effectively ensnaring your ehe first three upgrades basically improved the overall effectiveness of this skill. The fourth upgrade was more iing, but Jake wasn’t sure how often he would actually use it. After all, regur survivors hardly ever attacked with bare hands, usually relying on firearms instead. However, this upgrade might be useful in battles against certain types of mutants.
With all his skills and abilities upgraded to the avaible ranks and every upgrade acquired, Jake spent the rest of his skill points to boost his attributes.
Body: 50 → 55
Mind: 55 → 57
Magick: 60 → 62
At some point, Jake finally fihe Wraith mutation research quest, unlog Morph Disguise. This ability appeared ihird se of the Geic Development Interface titled Evolution Stage 3: “Apex Maion.” Since Jake remained in Evolution Stage 2: “Savage Ast,” he didn’t have access to the skills and abilities listed ihird se. Still, he could view the description of the Morph Disguise ability, even though he couldn’t acquire it yet.
Morph Disguise: This ability allows you to take on the appearance of the st human whose mind you have accessed using Mind Reader. You ge your exterior to match that of the human, and while adopting this appearance, you also retain some of the person’s memories and knowledge.
Rarity: Epic
Upgrades: 0 of 5
Requirements: Body 125, Mind 135, Magick 140, Mind Reader (Rank IV)
Cost: 125,000 MP (Note: You o evolve into Stage 3 “Apex Maion” before you acquire Morph Disguise.)
This ability was truly remarkable! With it, he could disguise himself as a person and walk among them ued, blending in as if he were one of them. It would certainly open up a world of opportunities for him!
However, Morph Disguise came with an exceptionally high ore than double the MP he currently possessed. It was safe to assume that all skills and abilities avaible in Evolution Stage 3: “Apex Maion” would be equally expensive. Moreover, this ability relied on Mind Reader to fun. He would o upgrade Mind Reader to Rank IV before he could use Morph Disguise.
It got him thinking. The skills listed in the First Se of the Geic Development Interface were on, while those in the Sed Se were Unon. He assumed the Third Se tained Epic skills. Since Morph Disguise ic, it fell uhe Third Seeaning he must evolve to Stage III to access that se and purchase Morph Disguise. He had been able to upgrade on skills to Unon upon evolving to Stage II, which meant that all his Unon skills would be eligible for an upgrade to Epice he reached Stage III, and probably so on—at least, if Stage III wasn’t the final stage of evolution. Judging by its name aloage III might actually be the final stage of evolution, but sure enough, he didn’t know that for sure yet.
Anyway, Jake wondered what the requirements were for evolving into Stage 3: “Apex Maion.” As soon as he asked the question in his mind, the answers popped into his head.
Requirements for evolving to Stage 3
Level: 75
Attributes: Body 70, Mind 70, Magick 70
Skills:
Enhanced Senses - Rank III
Enhanced Agility - Rank III
Enhanced Intelligence - Rank III
Enhanced Reflexes - Rank III
Enharength - Rank III
Enhanced Regeion - Rank III
Feral Instincts - Rank III
Enhanced Durability: Rank III
He realized he wasn’t too far from meeting the requirements! He just o level up to 75, increase each of his attributes to 70, and raise some of his skills to Rank III. So, it wouldn’t take him long to fulfill the requirements and evolve into Stage III. The thought filled him with excitement. He could hardly wait to transform into the form!
He then took a moment to examine all his current stats.
Name: Jake Turner
Race: Ex-Human Morphus
Evolution Stage 2: “Savage Ast”
Level: 61
HP: 100%
XP: 1,165/7,750
SP: 0
MP: 61,575
Body: 55
Mind: 57
Magick: 62
Cws: Rank III (23%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Swords: Rank II (21%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Bded Tentacles: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Mind Reader: Rank II (15%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Smashfists: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Gravity Leap: Rank I (36%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Cloak: Rank I (44%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Enhanced Senses: Rank III (21%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Enhanced Agility: Rank III (26%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Enhanced Intelligence: Rank III (27%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
Enhanced Reflexes: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Enharength: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Enhanced Regeion: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Feral Instincts: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Enhanced Durability: Rank II (0%) (Upgrades: 3 of 3) (on)
Adhesive Secretion: Rank I (23%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Unon)
After that, Jake resumed his journey.
