Chapter 146

  Jake sshed the cws on his left hand across a chaser’s throat, tearing it open and causing a fountain of blood to pour out. The skinless mutant took a couple of steps toward him before colpsing to the forest floor, dead. Even before it hit the ground, Jake was already dealing with another mutant, which was a ssher.

  With his right hand, which was transformed into a smashfist, he blocked the mutant’s bde before immediately striking back. His huge fist easily broke through the ex-human’s chest, killing the mutant instantly. Jake spun around, looking for more mutants to kill, but there were he forest floor around him was scattered with the numerous bodies of various ex-humans he had just defeated.

  Multiple enemies killed. +1150 XP

  It was the day after he examihe requirements for evolving into Stage III. The day before, after he learned he wasn’t all that far from reag the point of evolving into the form, he had decided to level up as fast as possible. He couldn’t wait to meet all the requirements and evolve into Stage III: “Apex Maion”.

  As always, he spent the m hours hunting mutants in the sewers. He hadn’t bothered buying the Increased XP booster because he wao serve his MP and purchase some of the skills and abilities from the sed se of the Geic Development Interface a little ter. While he hadn’t leveled up yet, he retty close to gaining another level.

  After clearing the sewers, he returo street level. Instead of climbing to the roofs, he decided to roam the streets instead because he wao find some challenges or quests to plete, which could usually be found at street level. Challenges and quests were the fastest way to gain XP and MP, as well as obtain other rewards like unlog new skills and abilities.

  After wandering the city streets for a couple of hours, Jake came upoy park. It had bee so rown with vegetation that it now resembled a dense forest. The st time Jake had been there, he had entered the Dark Void anomaly that had drawn him in and transformed him into the morphus.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if the mysterious anomaly was still there. He doubted it because every time the System reset the world, everything ged—items and mutants respawned, quests and missions were repced with others, and so on. The same applied to magical anomalies. With every world reset, they either shifted to new locations, got repced, or vanished entirely.

  Still, out of curiosity, Jake decided to ehe juhe city park had bee and see for himself if the Dark Void was still there. He wasn’t sure what he would do if it was still present, though, but he figured he would decide once he actually found it. So he ventured into the deep foliage, and that’s where he received the hunt quest he was currently uaking. Not long after stepping into the heavily rown city park, he came across a tree lying on the ground, looking as if it had been wrenched from the earth by some colossal creature.

  As Jake moved in for a better look, he was suddenly offered a hunt quest. The objective was to track down ae mutant called a wood golem. The difficulty level was rated as Hard, but fortunately, there was no time limit, which was a relief. Jake wasn’t a fan of time-sensitive quests and challehe reward for this quest was quite impressive—10,000 XP and an Epic ability called Ground Strike. This was the sed Epic ability he had entered, the first one being Morph Disguise.

  If he successfully pleted the hunt quest, he would have two Epic abilities ihird se of the Geic Development Interface, which was really exg. Jake now wao evolve into the form even more than before. However, he didn’t let his excitement cloud his judgment. He o trate on the quest. If he failed it, he wouldn’t gain the ability.

  For the several minutes, Jake navigated through the vegetation-choked city park, battling every group of ex-humans he entered along the way. Trag the elite creature turned out to be a very easy task. The wood golem he o sy had to be quite big because the tracks it left in the ground were rge and easily noticeable. Here and there, Jake also found rge broken branches and, at times, eveire uprooted trees scattered across the ground, violently torn from the earth. The wood golem had to be incredibly strong.

  All the tracks led toward the ter of the city park. Jake followed them until the trees opened inte clearing. He immediately reized the area—it was the same spot where he had entered the Dark Void during his time as a human. However, there was no sign of the anomaly now, which wasn’t all that surprising.

  In the middle of the clearing, where the Dark Void anomaly had oed, now stood a massive creature. Jake took a moment to exami. The mutant resembled a goril in posture, standing on all fours. Its arms were much longer and thicker than its legs, huge and powerful—almost as thick as tree trunks. The creature’s skin appeared to be made of wood bark, and here and there, small branches with green leaves sprouted from its body in various pces.

  Whatever this creature was, it didn’t resemble an ex-human mutant at all. It looked more like some kind of magical being, as if plucked straight out of a fantasy video game. The creature faced him, its glowing red eyes locked onto his. It could definitely see him but made no effort to charge. Its mouth was slightly open, revealing jagged, poieeth. While these sharp facial appendages resembled teeth, they were more like extensions of the creature’s body itself than actual teeth iraditional sense, much like his own.

  Jake then summohe description of the creature.

  Wood Golem – Level 65 (Elite)

  Special abilities:

  Minion Summoning – The mutant summon several minions to its aid.

  Pursuit – The mutas a target and pursues it relentlessly for some time, disregarding any other distras.

  Earthquake – The mutant stomp the ground with great force, causing a small earthquake.

  He also used his Enemy Appraisal perk on the Wood Golem to identify its weaknesses.

  Wood Golem – Level 65 (Elite)

  Body: 75

  Mind: 65

  Magick: 70

  Elemental weaknesses: Fire, Explosive

  Unfortunately, he cked any means to deal fire or explosive damage. So, Jake figured he would have to rely on his cws and other ons to inflict as much damage on the golem as possible until it was finally defeated.

  He jogged across the clearing, quickly closing in on the wood creature. It observed him without moving for a little while. Then, as he reached the midpoint of the clearing, the golem suddenly opes jaws wide a out a deafening bellht before charging at him.