Mutagen

<strong>Day 20 – 9:32 AM – Unknown Mountains</strong>

Two shadows of different sizes were running between the trees, jumping over the rocks and around the tall grasses. The one running in front was obviously a human while the one running behind was a two and a half meter bipedal animal.

The person in front was no other than Mark. This was his third day since he woke up here in the mountains and the second day since he arrived at the village. He was now wearing clothes he found in the village but that was not all. Around his body, several reddish black armor covered parts of it. His chest was covered with a metal chest piece secured by a leather strap on his shoulders and back. A pair of vambrace covered his forearms and shins were covered with greaves of the same color.

In fantasy settings, what he was wearing could be considered as an incomplete light armor set since the thickness and weight of the armor was only enough to protect against attacks without hindering his movements. Where did he find the armor? He made it using his [Blood Metallization] ability. It was one of the perks his blood abilities gave him. Not only that he could create armor and weapons, but he did not need heat or any blacksmithing skills for this.

Mark only needed to visualize and shape his blood before he slowly turned the blood to metal retaining the shape. It was also possible to make the whole thing altogether but the visualization of such complex things was hard. Due to that, he made things part by part and attached the parts together using the same method. The only problem was that the blood supply he had was not enough to make a complete armor and thus, he had to hunt animals and harvest their blood to complete it.

Attached to his right arm was some sort of foldable crossbow while his left hand held unto a reddish black katana sheathed in a metallic sheath. On his back was a backpack sewn with various metal parts and was currently filled with the things he found on the way like berries, edible plants and even carapace of large evolved insects. These things were what he spent time on yesterday aside from searching things on the village.

At this moment, he was running away not because he came into danger but the animal running behind him was too cunning to fight directly. By the appearance of the evolved animal behind him, it should be a Philippine Long-Tailed Macaque. Its body changed too much that it looked more like a gorilla with a tail though. Looking at its behavior, it seemed that it evolved to a feral type of animal that would attack anything that it saw.

These kinds of near threatened monkeys were commonly found in Palawan in South-western Luzon, a large part of Visayas and the forests in Mindanao. Seeing this monkey made Mark think of the possibility that he actually travelled over the sea to get to a mountain area in those regions. That would be a huge problem if it was really the case. Mark wished that he was totally mistaken.

This morning, he started to survey the areas around the village up to two or three kilometers away. He was currently in the north of the village where he found one of the now grass covered pathways going out of the village. At about two kilometers away and about an hour of treacherous walk though, he encountered this large beast.

He tried fighting it at close quarters and trying to slash it with the katana he made but even though the animal had gone feral, it seemed that it did not totally lose its danger perception. Despite its large body, it moved agilely avoiding his slashes and even his [Blood Whips] that he used to sneak attack. As an animal that lived in the forest, it was too efficient in using the forested terrain to its advantage. That was why Mark was running at this moment.

Mark was not trying to escape but he was luring it to the village. Since the monkey was adamant on chasing after him, Mark was sure that he would succeed. Once they arrived at the village clearing, the monkey would surely lose its terrain advantage and it would also lessen the effort Mark needed to make in order to bring its dead body back to the village. It was hitting two birds with one stone.

The monkey's body was quite large and should contain a good amount of meat. Aside from that, it could also give a large hide he could use after tanning. Mark might not have thought of making leather from its hide if not for the fact that he found tanning equipment in one of the houses in the village.

As for how he knew about this, he was a zombie apocalypse enthusiast. One thing most enthusiasts recommend to do at a zombie apocalypse was to flee to the mountains. At that time, those survivors could only rely on the things they could find in the forest for their needs like food and water and those things also include leather to make things such as clothes or even leather water pouches.

After a long time of running and enduring the deafening growls from his back, Mark finally arrived at the plains near the village.

When Mark stepped out into the clearing, the large monkey stopped chasing and hesitated to follow. That was then Mark attacked it once more to provoke it and once it was angered, Mark started running again.

At a distance away from the forest, the battle ensued. Without the help of the forested terrain, the money lost its advantage. It was still able to dodge Mark's slashes and the attacks from the [Blood Whips] but then, the folded crossbow on Mark's right arm made clicking noises while its body was pulled backwards and its limbs opened up as if being pulled by springs. The thin metal string then stretched tightly.

Mark let his back face the monkey for a moment till the crossbow was ready. This made the monkey think of charging forward. At its charge, Mark then spun clockwise with his outstretched right arm pointed at the monkey's face. The monkey's eyes dilated as it saw the unfamiliar object at its opponent's arm but it was too late for it to dodge.

Mark clenched the fingers of his right hand pulling the metal strings connected to the rings on his fingers.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Three reddish black bolts were released heading straight for the monkey's forehead. The monkey still tried to dodge causing the bolt to the left miss but the other two bolts still hit the monkey. The two bolts immediately took the monkey's life and with a loud thud, its large body fell down like a marionette without strings.

After that, he dragged the large body back to the village to process it.

The village was as the same as before aside from a few changes. Around the village, there were several pairs of wooden posts with strings tied low between the posts. The strings were then connected to another string that extended into the house Mark was staying at. At the end of the strings, there were several empty cans hanging at the window of the house.

It was the alarm system Mark made yesterday using the colorful threads he found at some of the houses. There was even some that were still attached a loom with unfinished tribal tapestry.

Aside from those, Mark also moved everything that could be of use from the other houses into the house he was using.

After returning, he left the monkey outside and entered the house to segregate the contents of his backpack. He put the edible plants and wild berries in different baskets while he put the bag with the other things inside the bedroom. Well, there was only three rooms inside the house anyway, a small living/dining room, a small kitchen with a fire place used for cooking and a small bedroom only enough for a family bed and a single cabinet to store clothes. The cabinet and bed were even hand made with just wood and bamboo. There was no soft mattress but only feather filled pillows and rough blanket.

Mark then found a place to hang the body of the monkey. He knew that a body of a deer was needed to be hanged for some time for the meat to tenderize and before butchering. Since the temperature in the mountains was not too high, he was not worried about the body to spoil even though he was not too sure that deer tanning methods would apply to an enlarged monkey.

He then proceeded to stab his [Blood Whips] on the monkey's body to absorb its blood.

Mark could only do this at a maximum of one and a half meters. That was the best length he could efficiently control the maximum number of blood whips he could use which was six. He could make one of the whips longer by reducing the number of whips but it was also harder to control. If Mark was to describe how it felt like at those times, it felt like having one of his arms elongated unreasonably making it hard to use. The sensation he also had when he was controlling the [Blood Whips] was as if he had several more arms. After all, the [Blood Whips] were not a sentient being following his commands but rather, a part of his body.

When he finished with things, it was already in the afternoon and he prepared to make lunch with the meat of a large Rice Field Rat he hunted yesterday. It was to say, the meat of evolved animals were far tastier than their normal counterparts. The existence of this rat also made him think that there was a rice field nearby, probably, on the other side of the eastern mountains. It was just that those mountains were too farther than the ones in other directions.

'Hmm?'

Mark noticed something when he entered the kitchen once more.

The basket of wild berries was missing. It was strange since he was sure that he was the only person in the village. If the culprit was an animal, it would not take the whole basket with it unless it was an evolved animal with some intelligence. Still, it was impossible for Mark to not notice it if that was the case since there was several strings scattered around house specially the back.

Mark picked up a berry on the earthen floor.

Unfortunately for the culprit, the basket had a hole in it. It was fine if the basket was left on the surface since the hole was on the bottom but if it was lifted up, the berries would start to fall one by one. He was not mistaken. The culprit left a trail of berries when it escaped. Unexpectedly, the trail went over several of the strings he set up without triggering it.

'Was it flying?'

Mark followed the trail of berries that was on the ground. Even though the distance between the berries was around one to four meters away, it was easy for Mark to follow it. The trail took quite a distance into the forest.

Soon, he heard a voice. It sounded like a young girl on the verge of crying.

"Uwahh!!! Open up!!! Why can't I enter anymore!!! Where am I going to sleep!!! You stupid tree! Open up! I promise I won't leave anymore!!! Waahhhh!!!"

Mark moved stealthily towards the source of the sound and he saw the basket of berries thrown on the ground in front of a large tree scattering the wild berries on the ground.

Several feet above the basket, there was a small humanoid girl about seven inches in height flying using her pair of fluttering see-through wings. Her dress was made of flowers and leaves. She was currently hitting the trunk of the large tree with all her strength while shouting and crying.