Mutagen

<strong>Day 29 – 1:25 AM – Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

Despite the limitations that the [Mental Crystals] had, Mark felt satisfied. At his will, the dimmed crystals entered the [PsyCrystal] embedded on his wrist once more. Inside, the two crystals would recharge to be used next time or until Mark chose someone to inherit the psychic abilities inside those crystals.

As Mark pulled out the katana from the dead infected's body, Hallie and the others had gone out of hiding and ran towards his location. After all, the danger has passed and they could not hold themselves back from their urges and curiosity at the aftermath of the fight. Not to mention that they all saw the final part of the battle albeit the scene was still rather dark with only the [Physical Crystal] in the background, the [Lightning Bolt] and the [Light Beam] being the unstable sources of light.

Still, aside from Hallie and Nicole, the others still held themselves back from clamoring around Mark. After all, aside from the two girls, the relationship of the others from Mark was rather complicated. In the best words, it was like employer and employee but at worst terms, master and slaves. It was already fortunate that Mark was not the type of person to work them to death just because they offended him at the start.

In the latter members of the group, only Jollene was in closer terms next to Hallie and Nicole since Mark was personally teaching her how to fight and make use of her acquired ability.

"Hey Mark. You're not some kind of returnee right? Tell us the truth!"

Those were the first sentence that came out of Hallie's mouth as she stood in front of Mark. She came here while holding Merlot with her left arm while her right hand held her scimitar shaped sword.

"Don't suddenly spout nonsense. If I had really gone to another world, I'd rather not return here."

Mark said while glaring at Hallie.

Beside Hallie was Nicole holding Ruby with both arms. She did not speak but was looking at Mark with glimmering eyes. It was very likely that she was both amazed and envious about Mark's abilities.

Jollene who was holding her wakizashi also came forward and spoke while staring at the dead fused infected.

"Boss, its dead already, right?"

The moment her question ended, Mark, Hallie and Nicole was jolted by her words while the supposed to be dead body of the fused infected suddenly twitched.

With a puff of black mist, Mark disappeared and appeared beside the fused infected and stabbed his katana several times like a madman. On the other hand, Hallie also approached the body in a panicked manner and helped Mark by dismembering all the limbs of the infected with her sword. Nicole also wanted to help but she had no weapons with her and could only watch by the side.

When the corpse twitched while Mark and Hallie jumped into action, the others hurriedly retreated in fear that the infected was still alive. If that was the case, they would be in grave danger of they stayed in their place. They could only watch Mark and Hallie decimate the body even though it finally stopped moving.

After confirming that the body was really dead, Mark, Nicole and Hallie glared at Jollene making her step back in fright.

"Just what are you doing chanting that cursed magic spell, huh?!"

Hallie bellowed.

"Wha-? I-… Whhaatt?!"

Being suddenly bellowed at, Jollene was confused and did not know how to react. She did not even understand what Hallie had just said. After all, she just asked a question, right? What cursed magic spell?

Seeing the confusion in her face, Huey filled her in.

"Jollene, you know. In movies and other stories, if someone asked if the supposed to be dead enemy was already dead, it turned out the opposite most of the time and it ends up with the protagonists undergoing a perilous situation."

"That's…"

Jollene felt troubled. After all, the moment she finished her question, the supposed to be dead body made some minute movements.

Mark did not say anything. Instead, he kicked the large torso of the infected making it lay on its back and cut off the middle of the fused chest. He felt some sensation when he stabbed there just a moment ago before the infected really died.

After cutting off the section where the three bodies fused, he found another body. It was of an infant and its body was securely covered by the three bodies outside. Looking at it, Mark's attacks paralyzed the body but did not kill infant inside which made the body twitch as it tried to control the supposed to be dead body. Luckily, he jumped into action as fast as possible or it would been dangerous.

Double tapping? It did not enter Mark's mind. He already destroyed three heads at the same time. Who knew that there would be a fourth body inside? Besides, in a fight against bosses, there was only the <strong>rule of three</strong>, not four!

The chapter of testing his abilities came to an end and while he dumped the cleanup to the other men, he made his way to the broken part of the wall. As he thought, it was the wooden part of the temporary wall that was broken through. Since it was still late in the night, he made some temporary repairs while he planned to finish fixing the wall tomorrow.

For the temporary repairs, he tied up dozens of thin wires made of [Blood Metal] to block the broken part of the wall. Furthermore, the wires were not circular ones but flat with one side made rather sharp. He tied up the wires while the sharp edges faced outwards. The wires would not do any damage if someone touched form inside the base but there was no need to mention what would happen if someone tried to force through from outside the base.

After he fixed the wall and the cleanup was done, everyone returned to rest. It was questionable if the others would still be able to sleep because of what had happened in the middle of the night but Mark really wanted to rest. Due to the usage of his blood to fix the wall, he felt rather sluggish and even though it seemed nothing from the outside, there were still the side effects of excessive use of the ability he received from Freed. It was due to the fact that his body was still not familiar to the movements of the psychic movement ability.

Another reason why he was hurrying to return was because of the [Blood Children]. For some reason, they were calling unto him. With the exception of Merlot and Ruby that was with Hallie and Nicole and Miracle who should be sleeping and Oracle who was behaving differently right now, the other [Blood Children] were clamoring about something and were calling unto him.

"My Lord, is something wrong?"

Amihan could not help but ask as she noticed Mark's hurried actions.

"The kids are calling me for some reason. Though it confuse me a little why they feel rather excited and envious. Oracle felt happy for some reason though."

Mark replied with a rare confused expression on his face.

Amihan also did not know what to say. Her Lord did not know what was happening not to mention her who lacked a lot of knowledge due to being a little sylph in the mountains.

When they returned inside the room, it was rather noisy. They could hear squishing sounds echoing across the room as every single [Blood Children] with the exception of Miracle were jumping up and down inside their crib.

The gas lamp that Mark lit up before they left to deal with the intruders still lit up the room.

Mark and Amihan hurriedly peered inside the crib and both of them froze.

Inside the crib, there should be six slime shaped [Blood Children] and Miracle who was shaped like a baby. Each of them had the same clear bloody color on their bodies. Now however, there were five red [Blood Children] clamoring while surrounding a single clear almost transparent colored [Blood Child].

Determining his connections to the [Blood Children], Mark felt that the transparent [Blood Child] was surely Oracle. However, that was not the most shocking part. At the side of Oracle, was a sleeping baby girl. Not a gelatinous blood colored one but a normal looking baby.

Ignoring the clamor of the [Blood Children], Mark hurriedly picked up the baby. She felt soft to touch and the sensation of skin was real. Nevertheless, Mark was sure that the baby he was holding in his hands was actually Miracle.

He could not fathom how this happened.

It was then that he noticed something. There were two things missing in the room. The two [Physical Crystals] Mark acquired from the airplane incident which contained the Mutator abilities and characteristics of the twin sisters, Melinda and Melanie, were missing. The two marble sized crystals that were supposed to be carefully placed on the small soft cushion by the table beside Amihan's pillow.

He then froze once more as he tried to recall. When he was disoriented from pain, he tried to reach out towards a blurry source of light but that source he tried to grab fell somewhere instead. Was that source of light perchance…

Mark felt a headache and looked once more at the two [Blood Children] that had their appearances changed.

As a [Blood Child], they had bodies made of gelatinous blood. Even Miracle that had bones and the shape of an infant was no exception. Yet now, Miracle had a body made of flesh. He remembered that Melinda's ability had something to do with flesh either. Was this perhaps a certain miracle had happened? For the odd chance that the [Physical Crystal] that came from the mother fell unto the sleeping child and gave the little baby the body that her mother was not able to give her.

Another was Oracle. With her body that was now clear semi-transparent body, it reminded Mark of Melanie's body whose skin, flesh, organs and bones were all see through and semi-transparent like a ghost. Now, those characteristics of the mother were acquired by her child by accident.

And that accident was caused by himself…

Mark shook his head.

Although it might have been an accident, Mark was sure that it could also be a twist of fate for the two. There were a lot of coincidences that happened this time and the abilities and characteristics from the mothers were acquired by their children.

Mark started to wonder if what characteristics on the bodies of the two changed.

He picked up Oracle from the crib and gently put Miracle on the bed. When Mark took Oracle from the crib, it caused more clamor from the other [Blood Children] for some reason and Mark could feel envy from them while Oracle was emitting an aura of smugness.

These little critters were having a drama of their own. Mark could not help but smile.

Using his connection with Oracle, he urged her to turn a small portion of its body to metal. There, she extended a transparent tentacle which fell down on the bed after it metallized. Picking up the metal, Mark was amazed.

CLANK! CLANK!

Mark flicked on the metal with his finger creating the clinking sounds and even tried to bend it which made him sure that it was metal. However, it was as semi-transparent as glass. Amihan flew towards it and looked at the opposite side and Mark could see through it. It was like glass but as sturdy as [Blood Metal]. No, that was wrong. It was a [Transparent Blood Metal].

The appearance of this metal made Mark's heart throb and he fervently looked at Oracle. This was a really rare expression for him. He knew that a lot of possibilities opened up because of this kind of metal from Oracle.

He almost laughed like a madman but he held himself back. The excitement he felt was rather uncanny that he even forgot that he was feeling sluggish and nauseous.

His mind flicked into work mode and took out some paper and pencil. Under the dim light of the gas lamp, he started designing things. It was despite the fact that Amihan was already pulling his hair and yelling at him to sleep.

Tomorrow, a lot of things would be in store for him to work on.