Mutagen

<strong>Day 22 – 5:38 AM – Mountain Village, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

The sun was far from rising but the sky had already brightened to some degree. Mark stepped out of his house ready to go and do his explorations. After killing the tiger last night and storing it at one of the houses, he thought of making these people work early. At least for dismantling the unused houses to scavenge usable materials for the base he planned to build.

Looking at the sky at northeastern forest however, it was better if the newly arrived people avoid going out of the houses for today. It looked like that the three men last night made a mess at the hive of the hornets. Even though it was several hours already, he could see a lot of human head sized hornets flying around the forest looking for the intruders or possible intruders. Considering that these oversized insects had developed higher intelligence than their normal counterparts, it would be likely for these hornets that the intruders last night were humans.

In that case, if they spotted these people here, it would be a disaster. If he could, he should find a way to deal with those oversized hornets as soon as possible.

Walking in front of the house where he saw Huey came from last night, he pushed the door open. There, he saw the five people who seemed to have decided to stay in one house due to the incident last night. They had no idea whether the village was really safe or not making it better if they stuck together.

Looking at these people, it seemed that Huey and Trisha did not rest properly since they were worried about Jollene who was still unconscious. On the other hand, the other two men were sleeping with their back on the wall while holding unto their weapons.

'That's dangerous.'

Mark thought. If they were holding guns, it would be better since guns nowadays had safety levers but holding onto melee weapons was not really something to be recommended. If they got surprised and agitated after waking up, it would not be strange if they suddenly swung those weapons at the nearest person to them.

"Boss." Huey greeted with respect. "Are you going out?"

This guy noticed that Mark was fully equipped with his armor, backpack and weapons. It seemed that Huey was worried that they would be prone to danger if he left.

"Nicole's condition is different from your sweetheart so I have to search for medicine. I'm just here to tell you all not to go out of the houses too much and if you're going out, be fast and discreet. The giant hornets in the forest are agitated." Mark said to Huey and the first sentence made him blush slightly. Mark then looked at the other woman. "Trisha, right? I'll leave the pot of fish soup at my house. Just heat it and fill your stomachs."

He then looked around the room. It seemed that his voice also woke up the two men.

"Any of you know how to dismantle animal bodies?"

Mark asked though he did not really have any expectations. Unexpectedly, the tall man who was called Ed raised his hands with a bit of hesitation.

"My family owns a dairy farm back at our hometown. Before I went out to Manila to study, I help in processing the body of male calves to make beef."

"Good. I'll leave the body of the tiger to you. It's on the house I told you people not to use. The tools are also there. Dismantle it and be careful of not damage the hide. Is that clear?"

"Uhh, yes B-Boss."

After telling them what to do, he went back to his house to pick up the still sleepy sylph. He told the same to Hallie who also did not sleep due to her taking care of Nicole despite the fact that she needed rest herself due to her wound. He left the village then afterwards.

His goal now was to investigate both the source of the red blobs and the barrio upstream while looking for medicine.

"Say, you don't know about the barrio upstream?"

Mark asked Amihan on his shoulder. After all, the little sylph knew about the town past the mountain but did not mention the barrio that seemed to be closer.

"I haven't been there. Also, the forest that way is a territory of an annoying person. If not for you my Lord, I won't even try to go near there."

Amihan grumbled.

"Annoying person?"

"Yes! He's very annoying duende! He keeps calling me wife every time he saw me and always told me that he wanted a baby from me! Pwe! That's why I don't go into his territory and run away every time I saw him!"

Looking at her aggrieved face, it seemed that she was really annoyed with the guy. Mark on the other hand felt amused. He did not know if they would encounter that guy but the possibility was high. If Amihan's ability to hide herself from the eyes of mortals was affected by Mutagen, it was likely that other creatures with the same ability were also affected.

Anyway, he had no plans to deal with that guy. If he gets on the way and disturb him, killing him would be easy. In folklore, one of the things that made it hard to get rid of spiritual creatures was because they could not be seen. But if even these creatures were affected by Mutagen, that advantage was taken away from them.

***

It took almost three hours of walk and Mark finally had a glimpse of the barrio from the riverside. He saw another pathway before with what seemed to be a plantation up the mountains but Mark was sure that it was not the place he wanted to go and passed by it. According to Hallie's description, the barrio was beside the river and the crashed plane was suspended over the river like a bridge.

That brought him to the current place which fitted the description. He saw what seemed to be wide dirt road with rows of houses beside it. Further away, he could see the body of the large passenger airplane that crash landed. It seemed that the body of the plane was mostly intact with only the wings broken. He could not see the tail part of the plane from his position though due to the trees blocking his view.

"Amihan, hide the sounds and the smell in the area."

"Yes."

Mark whispered to Amihan on his shoulder. It was because he could see some infected wandering the dirt road. It was quite unexpected for him since the barrio was basically beside the forest. These infected should have been attacked by the feral animals and insects already. Unless…

There were dangerous existences in the barrio that deters the evolved animals to wander in the area.

This was something Mark noticed after he spent time in the village. Evolved animals, specially, non-feral ones seemed to have become wary of approaching the village even by mistake. Most animals that wandered into the village were normal animals that had yet to evolve. Even the huge monkey the other day hesitated to approach the village in not for his provocation.

Another proof of this was why did the tiger did not attack the village waited until people left the village before attacking. It was obvious that the tiger had been stalking their group after they escaped from the initial attack on their camp but it did not wander into the village to search for its prey.

And the reason for this, it could not be any clearer. He came to that realization when he dealt with the tiger last night after Jollene managed to step into the clearing. When he appeared, instead of attacking, the tiger actually tried to run away. The reason why evolved animals did not wander into the village was because they were feeling the danger Mark could bring unto them.

To think about it, most of the evolved creatures attacking him on the way were enlarged insects and feral animals. As for the others especially the non-feral evolved animals, they would stay away. Like how the grebe panicked yesterday after it realized the threat it was facing.

If the animals deemed that this place was dangerous for them, then Mark should be careful.

Drawing his katana, Mark used the thickets and sneakily attacked the two infected close by before retreating. He did this so he could have a better view of the barrio without getting detected. The two headless bodies along with the decapitated heads plopped down onto the ground spurting blood. Mark looked at the blood and felt that it was a waste but he did come here to gather blood but for other things.

'Wait… Blood right?"

Mark realized something and took out a metal enclosed bowl from his backpack. Opening the lid, it was the red blob he had a mental connection with. He threw the blob beside the two bodies and commanded it to extract the blood using his mind. After he felt some response that seemed to be delight, the blob dragged itself to the bloody neck of one of the dead infected. Two tentacles sprouted from its gel like body and pierced the necks of the dead infected.

It was way slower that how he saw his savage consciousness squeeze out blood from his enemies but it was better than nothing. At least not all the blood was wasted. Furthermore, playing with the blob last night gave him some interesting discoveries.

Another infected man seemed to have noticed the blob moving and approached. Mark was already ready to jump out of hiding if the blob was attacked but unexpectedly, the infected man really attacked! It tried to lunge at the blob but before it could, the infected's neck had already been severed with its head flying away. Its bloody neck coincidentally landed next to the blob and the blob let out a delighted jiggle as the blood of the third infected splashed unto its jelly like body.

Mark on the other hand frowned. It seemed that the infected could tell that the blob was alive.

Peeking over the corner of the nearest house, he counted the number of the infected.

'About twenty I think.'

"Amihan, stay here and guard the red blob. I'll clear up the infected quickly."

"Huh? Ah! Yes!"

Amihan shakily replied. It seemed that this little sylph was afraid of the infected since it was the first time she saw them. Her reaction was not surprising since even normal people would feel afraid not to mention someone like her who was a recluse. Also, the scene in front of her was very bloody and not for the faint of heart of someone naïve like her.

"Hah…" Mark sighed. "Never mind, just hide. I'll just take care of the infected faster."

"No! No! I'll guard! I'll guard it!"

The little sylph realized that she was too shaken and shook her head to clear her it up. Since Mark asked her to guard the red blob, she should do it.

Her attitude made Mark commend her in his mind. He then went to deal with the infected at this part of the barrio as fast as he could. This was just the outskirts but there was already this number. He did not know how big or how many people in this barrio were so it was better if he did not attract all the infected in a single area.

Headless bodies littered the short dirt road three minutes after. Since he was doing the clearing quickly, he also used his [Blood Whips] to some extent. With the infected out of the way, he finally managed to see the main area. The dirt road he saw first was actually a branching road out into the river.

However, seeing the main area, he had mixed feelings in his eyes. This place was not just a barrio…

It was a freaking tourist stop.