Chapter 65
Jake spent the rest of the night sc the city in searana. By the time the m sun began to bathe the streets in its light, he’d accumuted about five thousand and five hundred mana points, which wasn’t bad at all. This amount alone could sustain him for a couple of days, or even longer if he reduced his usual level of activity. He had enough mana to unlock at least one more new ability, but he chose not to do it for the time being. He had retly acquired Swords and Bded Tentacles, so he first wao test them out in bat. After he got the hang of using them, he could acquire another ability.
There were some skills avaible for purchase in the Geic Development Interface as well. Unlike abilities, skills were passive, but Jake decided not to spend any more of his MP for her. For his current level, the five thousand MP he currently possessed wasn’t all that much. He could easily deplete more than half of this amount in a single day if he engaged in overly eic activities, like stantly running through the deserted city and battling mutants on end. With each level-up, his body and abilities required more energy to support his increased capabilities on a daily basis. Therefore, he should manage his mana reserves very wisely.
As m arrived, survivors began to emerge from their hideouts to begin a new day of sging and fighting mutants. Jake’s keen hearing picked up the sporadic sounds of gunfire eg from different parts of the city. Given this, he opted to halt his searana ables for the day. During the night, he’d explored many buildings, having found and used quite a lot of mana items. The immense size of the city re impossible for Jake to explore every part of it in a single night, so there were still numerous locations withiy that Jake hadn’t visited during the night. However, with the survivors now roaming the streets too, if he tio searana, entering them would be unavoidable. Jake wao avoid getting into fights with them as much as possible. Not that he was afraid of them or anything. Quite the opposite in fact—he was well aware of how easily he could dispatch human beings. But the only thing he would aplish by doing so was waking up his inner beast—and that was something he wao prevent from happening. His dark impulses had to be kept in check.
Jake made the decision to postpone his searana and wait for anhtfall. At midnight, the system would refresh the world, respawning mutants and replenishing it with valuable items once again. That was the best time to searana. During the daytime, he could focus on fighting mutants to gain XP, and the best pce to do so was the sewers, at least for the time being. The system should’ve respawned all the mutated rats and bear-alligators called devourers in the underground tunnels, so there would be plenty of XP for him to gain below the city. Sc the city for MP at night and hunting sewer monsters for XP during the daytime seemed like a solid pn to him. For now, it appeared the most productive way to gain mana and XP. And after he made his way to a new location, he would e up with a different pn.
However, before heading to the se of the city that granted access to the sewers, Jake wao test out his retly acquired abilities on some weaker types of mutants. He jogged through the city until he ced upon a high-rise building ied with walkers and leapers. None of the survivors had found and cleared this pce during this m yet, so it was brimming with mutants. Jake extended bdes from both his hands aered the main area on the first floor, spotting replication pods hanging from the ceiling here and there. The pce acked with mutants, a sight that excited him a great deal.
Once ex-humans ihe room spotted Jake, they rushed toward him from every dire. The first oo reach him outstretched its hands to grab him the sed he was within reach. One of his bdes flicked through the air, chopping off the mutant’s hands at the wrists. Jake then jumped aside, and the mutant, carried by its momentum, fell forward. The mutant struck the floor head first with enough forash its own skull open like an overripe melon being hit by a sledgehammer.
Another walker leaped at Jake. He sidestepped its attack as one of his bdes struck, opening up its guts. Purple, gore-smeared strands spilled from the gash across its stomato the floor, coiling around the creature’s legs. Caught up in its owrails, the walker awkwardly tried to turn and reach for him again. A sed swipe of his bde took the creature’s head from its shoulders to send it boung along the floor.
Jake blocked the swiping cws of another walker with one of his bdes, severing some of the creature’s elongated fingers in the process. The walker recoiled back from him. Jake shoved one of his bdes through its heart. The creature looked down at its chest, then Jake yanked his bde free, and the walker colpsed, dead.
The cws of yet another walker shed out, swiping toward him. He easily dodged the attad tered with one of his swords. His right bde fshed through the air, sinking into the flesh of the creature’s arm. Bone ched, and the mutant’s arm was severed from its body close to the elbow. The arm flopped wetly onto the floor as the creature s him in fury. Jake pressed his attack, closing in for the kill. His left bde shed out, catg the creature across its throat and opening it up. The mutant’s foul blood spttered over him before the ex-human colpsed.
Jake quickly looked around, hearing howling and screeg sounds in the distahere were no more mutants in the room, but somewhere iher parts of the building lurked several more mutants. He could hear the pounding of their footfalls verging on his spot. Jake tio stand in the middle of the vast room. He didn’t have to wait long. Several more ex-humans emerged from different corridors and charged at him all at once.
The first oo reach him outstretched its cwed hands toward him. Easily evading them, Jake attacked, his right bde entering the creature’s stomach. He then jerked the bde upward, opening up the creature from the sword’s point of entry to the edge of its sternum. The mutant twitched on his bde, trying to tear free of it as spittle flew from its lips, thrashing around more in rage than in pain. Jake jerked his bde free of the mutant’s body. The ex-human flopped onto the floor, making a grab for his ankles despite the amount of damage he’d inflicted on it. He quickly fi off with a powerful stab through its skull and then spun toward two more walkers as they lu him.
His bde split open the nose of one of them and then sshed into the sed walker’s snarling mouth on its back swing. The bde of his sword removed several of the walker’s many razor-sharp teeth and part of its open lower jaw. The creature stumbled, tumbling bato the floor. The other walker shook off the pain from its mangled nose and came at him once more. The bde of his sword ehe underside of the monster’s . Its tip emerged through the top of the mutant’s skull, sealing its mouth shut aroying its brain. He yahe sword free from the mutant, and its body colpsed to the floor. Jake instantly spun to face the other walkers that came at him.
He tio fight the remaining ex-humans until there were no more left.
Multiple enemies killed. +325 XP
Jake had killed twe ex-humans in total without breaking a sweat. The floor was littered with mutited bodies of the dead mutants. Among them, there were a feers, while the rest were walkers. He brought up his swords to take a look at them. They had proved to be quite effective ons. In one of the future fights, he was going to transform one hand into a sword and the other into cws to test out the effectiveness of this bination. Also, he hadn’t yet utilized his bded tentacles in bat and was eager to see how it would perform in one of the fights.
After destroying all the replication pods hanging from the ceiling to earn some additional XP, Jake exited the building and headed for the sewers.
