Chapter 39

  Jake ran through the devastated city. As a survivor, he’d hardly ever run when simply expl the city. Now that he was a mutant, moving at a stant brisk jog felt more natural than simply walking. He moved with ease, running swiftly and easily, without getting tired at all. He leaped over cracks in the road and vaulted over rusty car frames, feeling the cool air brushing against his skin. To his amazement, he found himself relishing being a mutant far more than he had thought he would.

  Every now and then, he entered some stragglers—only ex-human walkers so far. He dealt with them without even b to slow down, simply dashing past them and sshing their throats with his cws. He felt like he was now the most dangerous predator in this new world. However, that wasirely true. At least, not yet. A walker was the weakest type of mutant. Jake was well aware it would be premature to bee overfident. While he handled walkers with ease, he knew he would o exercise more caution when fronted with more dangerous types of mutants.

  At some point, he realized something. His hands couldn’t remain transformed into cws stantly. After a while, they reverted to their normal human-like hands. This had occurred a few times by now, but thankfully never during a fight. He noticed that his cws ged bato hands after a period of inactivity from bat. With a thought, he could morph them into cws again, but as he ter discovered, the transformation process depleted some of his mana.

  Then, ahing crossed his mind. He was beginning to feel tired. Fatigue was creeping in, wearing down his body. He couldn’t move as swiftly as before or be as agile as he once was. When fag off against walkers, dodging their attacks became more challenging. His movements had slowed down, aruggled to fight at his best. Soon after, he also felt a hunger-like sensation stirring within him. It puzzled him. For a moment, he couldn’t figure out how he could ease his hunger without even having a mouth.

  Then it hit him. He uood what it all meant. He checked his stats and saw he had less than 250 MP left. Unlike humans, he didn’t need food or water. He was a magical creature, and the only thing he needed for survival was mana, the magical energy stored in marbles, shards, and other mana ables. His body was stantly ing the mana tained in his body. The more active he was, the quicker his body devoured the magical energy within it. Certain as, such as morphing his hands into cws, also depleted some mana. Currently, the small amount of mana remaining in his body was solely used to keep his body funing. However, he could no lht at full strength or move as quickly and be as agile as before.

  Jake couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when he ran out of the 200 MP that still remained in his body. He had a grim feeling that he would simply die. Being a magical creature, he couldn’t survive without mana.

  After ing to such a clusion, Jake set about bing high-rise buildings for mana ables. Those items were hard to find—he’d learhat when he was a regur survivor. They spawned in various pces at random, with a low spawn rate. He hoped that being a mutant might make it easier to locate them, perhaps granting him some skill that would aid him in finding them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

  It took him some time, but he eventually stumbled across a mana bead in one of the buildings. As a survivor, he’d o s an item with his PDA to get its stats. Now that he was a mutant, he could do so with just a thought. He picked up the mana bead from the floor and issued a mental and to dispy its stats. They immediately emerged in his mind.

  Mana Bead: 100 MP (on)

  Jake remembered that as a survivor, he had o mentally trigger the ption of the mana stored in a mana able. He was about to do just that when he actally squeezed the bead in his hand harder thaeo his great surprise, it easily crushed in his grip, shattering into smaller pieces. Jake was amazed by it. Mana ables were virtually iructible. As a survivor, he had tried numerous methods to break a mana able before he finally learhe correct way to extract the mana from it. A mana able could withstand even a bst from a powerful shotgun. However, as it turned out, as a mutant, he could break a mana able without any trouble at all.

  Ohe mana bead in his hand shattered, the bluish magical energy it tained drifted outward. Since Jake hadn’t given a mental and to e the mana, he expected it to dissipate, maybe disappearing into thin air. However, something else occurred instead. His body seemed to draw the magical energy into itself. It flowed through his obsidian-bck skin, vanishing into his flesh. Immediately after, a notification appeared in his mind.

  You have just absorbed 100 MP.

  Jake dropped the transparent pieces of the shattered, y bead to the floor. One hundred mana points weren’t much, but they were better than nothing. Still, he needed much more. He exited the building and tinued his searore mana ables. Soon, he found a mana marble taining 250 MP. Then, he was fortunate enough to discover a mana shard with 500 MP. Each of these items was of on rarity. Jake crushed every mana able he found to immediately absorb the magical energy they held. Ohe amount of mana in his body exceeded 250 points, his movements became fast and agile again, and he was back to full strength. Mana served as both sustenand currency for him. When he had enough mana inside his body, he could move swiftly and fight at full strength. However, it also funed as currency for acquiring new skills and abilities. Therefore, he o e mana wisely and sparingly.

  By the time evening fell, he had collected more than a thousand MP. After that, he decided to call it a day. Entering a building to spend the night, he quickly discovered that uher living creatures, he didn’t o sleep at all. With enough mana inside his body, he could operate at full strength for twenty-four hours straight. heless, he chose to rex for a brief moment and refle everything he had learned about surviving as a mutant thus far.

  He definitely o uand how much mana his body used each day. So he decided to dedicate the few days to determining how much mana his body ed in both active and idle states and calg the total mana he needed daily.

  Afterward, Jake chose to explore the building he was staying in. While iing one of the rooms, he noticed long scratches across a wall. He wouldn’t have given them another look, but a system notification suddenly emerged in his mind.

  New Hunt!

  Objective: Track down and sy ae ex-human walker.

  Reward: +1 to Body, +1 to Cws

  Accept: Y/N

  That’s iing, Jake thought. It was the very first time he had received a quest as a mutant. He accepted it.