Mutagen

<strong>Day 72 - 8:12 AM - Moutain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

The night had passed after Mark spoke to the tribe elder. He decided to let them stay. Having a Seer in his base was not detrimental to them. In fact, an existence like the elder was more reliable than his [Clairvoyance] that would be activated without his control.

Although the elder's [Clairvoyance] was a bit obscure in its predictions, it was more active than his. That was what he needed.

He and Mei also listened to the elder tell their origins. Unlike other psychics that managed to gain their abilities accidentally like Mark and Jaeya, her [Clairvoyance] ran on the blood of their family. Before the current Seer faced their death's door, they needed to pass on their ability as a Seer to a successor. The successor should be a female direct descendant from the Seer's family and should be of adult age.

That should be the normal way for them to pass on the leadership of the tribe and their Seer. The female child of their family would become the Seer while a male child would take on the role of the Tribe Chief. Unfortunately, there was no possible successor for the elder right now.

Her children all passed away during their journey from Baguio towards this place. They died along with other members of the tribe when they were attacked by mutated animals several times in their journey.

Sadly, the only ones left in the elder's family were her two Grandchildren. The little boy, Gani, was just an eleven-year-old. As for the granddaughter, Mayumi, she had just passed her seventeenth birthday three months ago. Both of them still did not fit the right criterion for the positions that should have waited for them.

However, as they intended to go under Mark's leadership, Gani would not become the tribe chief anymore. As for Mayumi, she would still need to inherit the elder's position and become the next seer on her next birthday.

Thus, the elder still needed to wait for several months before she could pass on peacefully.

That was right, the elder might be avoiding the topic since her grandchildren were around. However, Mark could tell.

Her time in this world had long been over. The aura of death was rather too strong around her. However, it seemed that not being able to pass their position as a Seer prevented her from passing on.

Somehow, Mark had the thought that it was rather similar to folklore stories about Aswangs and Mananggal. There were stories about them where Aswangs would not be able to die of old age or sickness if they did not give their powers to a successor.

It might be similar, but, Mark could not sense that kind of atmosphere from the elder. There might be some similarities. Nevertheless, the elder and her grandchildren were surely human. If not, not only Mark, even Amihan would sense it.

With those in mind, Mark stretched his back as he helped with moving the things out of their vehicles.

The supplies and weapons they got from the mansion, the things they brought from Bay City, and most importantly, the gaming consoles Mark brought back from different places.

Prioritizing the gadgets he had, Mark and Mei moved them into his house.

As Mark had thought, the night here in the mountains was way colder than in the city. Especially last night, everyone had to adjust to the drop in temperature. Nevertheless, it was a rather comfortable night. Since the [Blood Children] had not seen Mark for a long time, they had been longing to be around him. As such, their warm bodies served as a heater for him, Mei and the girls.

The bed he prepared was large, yet it still felt cramped because of that.

Even right now, while Mark was working, the [Blood Children] were around watching his movements. They were thoughtful enough not to disturb his work. Well, aside for Alaula who would still jump towards Mark if not for Crimson holding her back.

After moving the things out of the vehicles, Mark with a small team from his group would go out to retrieve the supplies they left with Chaflar. There was also the supplies left behind at the mansion. They also needed to pick those up as soon as possible.

"Master, where should I put these?"

Odelina stopped by to ask while she held a large box filled with things Mark collected.

"Put it inside the first room on the right after entering."

Mark replied.

The contents of that box were things he collected from the remains of the animals, insects, and even mutated infected, they encountered during the journey. It was only reasonable to put these items inside his workshop.

Since Mark, Mei and Odelina focused on the things they had inside the [Exceed: Personnel Carrier], they finished early. Odelina went off to help with moving out things from the other vehicles.

Mark, on the other hand, was troubled about three things. Two of the three lay down unconscious inside three cages in front of him and Mei.

The first one was Vem. This embodiment of lust was brought back by him without really thinking too much about it. He just found her as an interesting creature and nothing else.

Second, there was the [King Type] infected. It was glaring at Mark while lying down inside its cage. Its throat was already hoarse from screaming and growling that were was no voice coming out of its mouth anymore. Probably, Mark would observe and experiment on this guy before actually killing it.

The third one was nothing else but the Water Bug he caught from Laguna Lake.

While Mark was looking at the unconscious water bug, someone wandering around passed by which Mark immediately called.

"Annica, come here for a bit."

The girl was amazed about the place that early in the morning, she was wandering around looking at almost everything. She even entered every place she could enter. Of course, she knew that there were places that she could not enter and did not force herself to. As Mark called her, she skipped toward him.

"What is it, big brother?"

"Can you tame this one?"

Mark pointed at the Water Bug. He was not sure if she would be able to and how she would react to this creature. After all, it would not be surprising if she was afraid of cockroach-like insects like this water bug.

Unexpectedly, she crouched in front of the cage.

"Can I touch it?"

She turned to Mark and asked.

"It's fine. I made it unconscious so even if you tear off its legs, it won't attack."

Hearing that, Annica puffed her cheeks like a squirrel.

"Do you want me to tame it or kill it? Don't say something like that to animals and insects when they did nothing wrong, alright?!"

Mark was scolded by the young lady.

He could only shrug his shoulders.

"Alright, I won't do it anymore."

"Good!"

Annica replied puffing out her almost nonexistent chest with a proud look.

Mark could hear Mei trying to muffle her giggles beside him. It seemed that she did not have a bad impression of Annica and found her antics rather amusing.

"So," Mark spoke ignoring the muffled giggles. "Can you tame it?"

To that question, Annical tapped the Water Bug in different parts of its body as if trying out something. Finally, with a complicated look, she turned to Mark and replied.

"I can probably try first. You see, I never tried taming an insect. My pets are either birds, mammals, reptiles. Mutated insects are very troublesome to catch and most of them had uncanny ways to protect themselves. It's dangerous for us to keep one before. Also, the intelligence of insects is way lower than animals. We never encountered one smart enough to form a relationship with humans."

That was reasonable. Mark could not help but nod. He also noticed that fact. Compared to Mutated Animals, there were more Mutaed Insects that were proven to be more dangerous.

"Alright, I will leave that guy to you. Don't worry, I guarantee that this guy is among the smarter ones from the place I caught it."

"Really, if that's true, then it will be easier."

Annica replied with a happy expression. She was also eager to try to tame an insect for the first time.

After another hour, the preparations were finished. Mark and those capable of driving all went out bringing the slaves that were left from the battle yesterday. As they were given some food during the night out of pity, they looked better now.

Unexpectedly, about half of the slaves decided to stay. There were just twenty-three slaves left. From Mark's estimate yesterday, there should be around fifty slaves. It seemed that most of them ran off during the battle. Among these twenty-three, ten kneeled in front of Mark to let them stay.

He decided to let those slaves in. They were sincere enough in his view. Of course, he made them know that a wrong and ill move would cost their life in this base. They better behave and listen to those that manage the base.

As for the remaining thirteen, they had no plans to join Mark who they saw slaughtering people without batting an eyelid. They knew about the military settlement in Infanta and would rather go there. Mark would not stop these people. He let them ride out of the forest until the highway.

From there, however, they were free to leave on their own. They were not Mark's people. He had no reason to escort them further from that. However, Hallie and the others convinced him to at least give them weapons to protect themselves till they reach the settlement.

Since that was not a problem, Mark agreed and gave them some crossbows, arrows, spears, and swords. As for a vehicle, they should try finding their own. Mark and his group had no vehicles to spare.

Reaching the highway a few minutes after twelve, the slaves left. Some of them were somehow reluctant. Nevertheless, it was already late for them to change their mind. Thus, all thirteen of them made their way towards the next town and look for a vehicle they could use.

After splitting from the slaves, Mark and his group made their way to the place they left Chaflar.

As soon as they arrived, they immediately went to load the things inside the vehicles. Fortunately, without the body of Gar'Vlam and Eimee inside the [Exceed: Disintegrator Fortress], they had a lot of space to spare inside the modified lorry. They managed to load everything into the vehicles and did not need to go back here anymore.

Aside from that, Mark and the others were rather happy after arriving here. It seemed that to make up for yesterday where Chaflar was caught sleeping, the dragon caught several animals instead of eating everything it saw.

Unexpectedly, it caught a pair of male and female mutated cows, a male mutated grebe, and a hen about the size of a german shepherd. The animals were trapped shivering inside a house guarded by Chaflar. These poor animals would surely shiver at a sight of a dragon.

Mark was not mad at Chaflar at all about yesterday. However, it seemed that Chaflar was really afraid that he was angry. He could not help but commend the dragon for its work making it feel relieved.

Thus, not only they managed to retrieve the supplies, they would go back with livestock to raise.

Nevertheless, looking at the animals, anyone would surely tilt their heads.

The grebe looked fine even though it was larger than its normal counterparts. However, the pattern on its feathers and its color surely resembled some depictions of a Vegavis.

As for the cows, although their color was the same, their horns were unbelievably as large as a bull and was shaped like a ram's. Their fur was also on the longer side though still short to be the same as yaks.

For the chicken, aside from being as large as an adult german shepherd, its tail feathers were rather longer than it should be. It was also as white as snow. It would be hard to see it if it was placed in a white painted background as its beak and comb were also white. Only its eyes had a reddish color similar to a starling.

With the threat of Chaflar, it became awfully easy to make the animals board the vehicles. They all seemed to be in a sad mood as their freedom was taken away from them. Nevertheless, for sure, Mark's base was safer for these animals to stay.

Returning back to the base through a bumpy ride, everyone had another reason to rejoice.

The base awfully needed livestock to increase the variety of food and nutrition everyone could intake. This timing was the best for everyone.

For tomorrow, Mark planned to go out with the same team once more. This time, they had to retrieve the supplies they left at the mansion.

Nevertheless, it seemed that they had some uninvited guests to meet there.