Chapter 40

  Survivors received missions through radio broadcasts. Sure enough, since he was a mutant now, he received quests in a different way. These quests appeared to be triggered by specific events, such as stumbling upo traces left by another mutant.

  Jake closed his eyes and attempted to access his quest menu, or whatever it was called. It worked—in his mind appeared the quest menu. It currently dispyed only one quest, the one he had just received.

  Type: Hunt

  Objective: Track down a ae ex-human walker.

  Reward: +1 to Body, +1 to Cws

  Status: In Progress

  It was the same info he’d just seen when he spotted the scratches on the wall. Aside from the status of the hunt, no additional details were provided. Thus, the objective was straightforward and simple—to hunt down and eliminate ae walker.

  Elite mutants were basically more powerful versions of their regur terparts. As a survivor, he’d once had to deal with ae whipper, a pretty formidable foe. As a reward for defeating it, he’d received a rare assault rifle, which he’d been using until losing it during the fight with the beefed-up leaper just before being drawn into the Dark Void. Now that he was a mutant, rewards for pleting quests differed as well. Upon hunting down the elite walker, he would gain one increase in Body and another in Cws.

  He wasn’t certain what aspect of Cws would be enhahough. With a mental and, he accessed the information on his Cws ability. Having already read its description and by that point being well aware of hoorked, he saw o reread it. Instead, he focused just on one particur line of text.

  Upgrades: 0 of 3 (on)

  He was aware that each of his skills and abilities was currently of on rarity and had three avaible upgrades. Having deyed studying them earlier, the time had now e for him to delve into the task. With a mental and, he expahe list of avaible upgrades.

  Ability: Cws

  Upgrade Options (on):

  1 - Strengthen Cws to cut through solid materials like metal. Cost: 1 SP

  2 - Extend Cws by two inches for increased reach. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Signifitly reduce transformation time from hands to cws. Cost: 1 SP

  To get an upgrade, he needed a skill point. So, perhaps, he would be given a free upgrade for Cws after pleting the hunt. Nice. Jake opened his eyes, and all the info disappeared. Looking around, he noticed another set of scratches on the wall across the room o the staircase leading to the upper levels. Climbing one flight of stairs to the half-nding, he spotted another series of long scratches extending along the wall further up the staircase. Quiing his pace, he bounded up the steps, taking several at a time.

  The scratches led farther and farther up. Instead of following them tinuously, Jake stopped on each floor to search for loot. In one of the rooms on the fourth floor, he found a mana k. After pig it up, he squeezed it in his fist, extrag the magical energy and ing the preana. In a rge room on the seventh floor, he came across a group of mutants, mainly walkers. Sihe scratches led farther up the staircase, he knew his target wasn’t among this group. heless, he decided to take care of them. He could definitely use some more XP. There was never enough of it.

  As soon as Jake ehe room, one of the walkers caught sight of him. Without giving it a ce to alert the others, he swiftly darted toward the group, making almost no all. With a powerful ssh, he nearly severed the head of the mutant. It plopped onto the mutant’s shoulder, attached to its neck by a few remaining strands of flesh. Just as another ex-human spun around, Jake dug his cws into its throat and tore out a huge k of flesh, causing a fountain of blood to pour from the nasty wound. He ducked uhe arm of another walker as it shed out at him. With two of the cws on his right hand, he pierced the mutant’s eyeballs, drilling his talons so deep into its head they peed its brain. He yanked his cws out of the mutant’s head and swung them at the st mutant’s face, leaving long bleeding gashes across it. With the cws oher hand, Jake sshed the creature across its stomach, causing the steaming iio spill out of the mutant’s body.

  Multiple enemies killed. +40 XP

  Having taken care of the ex-humans, he searched the room for loot. Despite its size, the room was empty except for some scattered debris. Roaming around, he noticed a familiar item in one of the ers. Using his cwed hand, he retrieved it from the floor and summos description with a thought.

  Magical Scroll: Push (on) (Cost: 100 MP)

  As a survivor, he could learn magic spells from scrolls. He wondered if he could do the same as a mutant. He morphed his cws bato normal hands so it was easier to unroll the scroll. He had to wait a few seds for the transformation to plete. While it wasn’t all that long, he wished it had takeime than that. Iain situations, timing could be critical.

  After examining the mysterious symbols written on the a piece of paper, he issued a mental and to learn the spell from the scroll, but, as, nothing happened. He tried a few more times, but no luck. He either couldn’t use magic at all—which he could hardly believe sidering he wasn’t just a typical mutant but rather a magical creature—or he could learn magi some other erhaps magic spells would bee avaible for purchase in the Geic Development Interface ter on.

  Jake followed the scratches up the staircase until he reached the door that led to the roof of the ten-story building. The setting sun had already dipped below the high-rises, casting a gloomy light in the air. Despite the diminishing light, Jake could still see pretty well. His night vision wasn’t perfect, but he could definitely see in the semi-darkness much better than an ordinary human. He also was fident his sight would further improve after he increased the Rank of Enhanced Senses.

  In the middle of the roof stood a mutant. Jake summos description with a thought.

  Ex-Human Walker – Level 10 (Elite)

  Special ability: Flurry of Swings – The mutaers a frenzy state, swinging its cws violently for a few seds.

  Jake studied the mutant for a moment. It was much rger and more muscur than a typical walker. The ex-human was bare-chested, with ragged pants cropped just below the knees, resembling shorts. Its cws were signifitly lohan those of a regur walker, reag a length of at least six ihe mutant’s lower jaw hung opeo its extremely rge yellow teeth, preventing its mouth from fully closing.

  The elite walker gazed at the darkening sky, seemingly captivated by the unfolding twilight. When Jake took a few more steps closer to the ex-human, it detected his movement from the er of its eye. It spun to face him, emitting a threatening roar to assert its dominance. Jake wasn’t impressed. The elite walker surpassed him by a few levels, but it didn’t bother him much. With a thought, he morphed his hands bato cws. He paused briefly, waiting for the transformation to fully finish before dashing toward the enemy.