Mutagen

<strong>Day 241 - 11:10 AM - Barangay Bagawines, Municipality of Vallehermoso, Province of Negross Oriental</strong>

While Mark was spending his time in Mount Canlaon, definitely not resting, the battle on the northeastern coast of Negros Oriental continued.

The scale of the current battle was not comparable to yesterday. After all, not only that the [Infected] not arrive in groups, but they also did not have someone powerful and intelligent like Sinogo to command them.

Although the arrival of the [Infected] seemed endless, they could be dealt with using careful planning and clever tactics. Furthermore, as long as they did not let the [Infected] congregate too much, the remaining warriors from Mount Canlaon could still overwhelm the [Infected] with numbers.

Of course, they would still struggle against large ones, especially those that could be classified as [Behemoth Class Infected].

Fortunately, the largest one that appeared so far was a mutated dog about four meters tall. It was not classifiable as a [Behemoth Class Infected]. However, it sure was a big dog, considering it appeared to be a mutated Chihuahua with acidic puss-filled boils and rot-covered limbs.

But well, it was not surprising that any [Behemoth Class Infected] had yet to arrive. Their large bodies made them slower. Although some of them might appear here, it would be far later than the other types of [Infected].

...Or unless the [Infected] that already arrived mutated into a [Behemoth Class]. Although this itself would be a valuable thing to witness, considering nothing was known about how these giant [Infected] mutated and came about.

Would the [Behemoth Class Infected] grow gigantic in a short time after reaching the prerequisites to mutate? Or would they need some time? It was something that most of humanity had yet to know.

For now, the weirdest kind of [Infected] were not the gigantic ones but those [Aquatic Infected] that rose from the waters.

And these [Aquatic Infected], the [Infected] water creatures, were the primary target of the sweep.

It was Mark's suggestion that the [Diwatas] of Mount Canlaon agreed to.

In popular media back before the apocalypse, zombie stuff mostly focused on either humans or land creatures. It was very rare for things about undead water creatures to be the focus.

But in fact, undead water creatures were just as deadly, if not more.

In this matter, Mark had a reason why he suggested aiming for the [Aquatic Infected].

The reason was predictability.

[Mutagen's] strongest aspect was its ability to mutate the [Infected] using things in the environment as catalysts.

An [Infected] drenched in Muriatic Acid could mutate into an [Infected] with highly corrosive skin. The [Infected] trapped in flames might become highly resistant to it instead of burning to death, or worse, it may gain traits that would involve heat and fire. Even [Infected] police officers and military soldiers that were highly exposed to gunpowder were observed to turn into highly-explosive types of [Mutated Infected].

But also due to this aspect of [Mutagen], one could deduce the possible kind of [Infected] one could encounter in particular areas.

For example, hospitals. The [Mutated Infected] found around hospitals were those that had diseases or chemicals as catalysts, making the location very dangerous due to the huge variety of [Infected] present. Around gas stations, one could find highly volatile ones. In locations where fires occurred, [Infected] with high-temperature bodies were likely wandering.

Some locations or even the general description of the place could point out what kind of [Infected] was present.

But how about the waters? The sea or the oceans?

No one would know what kind of things were hiding deep on the ocean floor. Not to mention the water itself contained many things in it.

Thus, no one could predict what kind of [Mutated Infected] would pop out of the water.

Maybe, it could only be a [Mutated Turtle] with a bunch of plastic straws stuck on its nose. But it could also be a [Mutated Turtle] that swallowed barrels of highly radioactive waste.

The predictability of the [Mutated Infected] that came from the waters was near zero. While the species of the [Mutated Aquatic Infected] could be predicted in certain locations, the kind of mutation they had was still impossible to predict.

One would only know what kinds of mutation an [Aquatic Infected] had when they encounter it. And most of the time, that kind of encounter was deadly.

Even if Bay City and Corregidor Island, the people stay away from the waters and the coast because no one would know what kind of [Infected] might appear when no one was watching.

The same logic was applied in this situation.

Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental were two provinces on Negros Island. There were mostly rural areas on the Negros Island, with a few sporadical cities far away from each other.

Around Mount Canlaon and the areas east of it, there were no large cities nearby. The closest one might be San Carlos City, which was around thirty kilometers northeast of Mount Canlaon, and it was a rather small and undeveloped city.

With this information, it could be deduced that the variety of [Mutated Infected] that mutated thru chemical catalysts that could appear nearby was pretty limited. It was even more likely that those with advanced mutations were those that handled pesticides and herbicides used in farming in agricultural areas. And farming areas were rather... a lot in this island, occupying around 2,280 square kilometers of its entire 7,844 square kilometers area.

But those [Infected] coming from Tañon Strait... Who knows what [Infected] they might be...

Not to mention that... Sinogo himself came out of this very same strait. Even his [Infected] army came out of this strait and caused a lot of deaths in yesterday's battle.

That was why it was better to weed out the [Aquatic Infected] first than the other [Infected] the moment they came ashore.

And in fact, they already encountered a few weird ones.

For example, a giant [Infected Crab] with a greenish-black exoskeleton and green glowing veins around its body. When Mei shot through its shell, its blood splattered on the sand, which exploded into corrosive vapor. The vapor did not seem to harm the crab, but everything else around it, like a slithering [Infected Eel] as large as a phyton, was melted almost immediately.

Luckily, they dealt with the crab from a safe distance. If they fought it up close, the situation might have turned ugly.

Another one seemed to be a [Mutated Nudibranch] as large as an adult tiger. It was yellow with black stripes on its body. The moment it saw enemies, it began spitting out poisonous gas around its body as it approached its prey.

There was a lot more strange [Infected] under Sinogo's command yesterday. However, it was hard to pay too much attention in the battle of that scale, not to mention that Sinogo hogged most of the attention.

Putting yesterday's events in the back of their minds, they focused on eliminating the [Infected] before them, one by one.

***

<strong>Day 241 - 11:10 AM - Margaha Valley, Mount Canlaon, Municipality of Murcia, Negros Occidental</strong>

Back in the mountain, Mark sat in front of the double burner stove he put on the table. He was cooking rice and a simple stew for lunch. Everyone else in his group was participating in the battle outside, leaving him to be the only one to cook this time.

Well, Mei and Aephelia would gladly volunteer to do this. However, Mark decided to do this on his own. Furthermore, the two were needed more in the field with their abilities.

Behind Mark was Magwayen, curiously watching him cook food.

"Humans of this world sure developed far from the time we are there."

Magwayen remarked, looking at the stove with interest.

"It's just a cheap stove. It's nowhere near the pinnacle of technology in the current time." Mark replied, not looking at Magwayen at all. "If this is something interesting to you, just how do people in your world cook food?"

"Over some fire, how else?" Magwayen replied with a sigh. "Not that much different from how people cook food when we are still in this world."

The answer Mark received finally made him turn to the Visayan Goddess of the Underworld. It just meant that the people of her world were still in the tribal stages despite the thousands of years that passed.

But did time there pass by at the same speed as Earth?

Before Mark could ask that question, it seemed that Magwayen already read his thoughts.

"Time in this world and in ours did not differ that much. Although time in our world passed a bit faster than this world."

If that was the case, the technological development in Magwayen's world was absurdly slow, if not nonexistent.

"Do people in your world use magic?"

Mark asked.

"Only a select few," Magwayen replied. "It is limited to Shamans and Oracles in which there could only be one in a few tribes and in each generation."

Mark felt a bit confused. If the people in Magwayen's world could use magic, he would be able to understand the lack of technological advancement. After all, over-reliance on magic could likely lessen the need for technology unrelated to magic. But this was not the case.

Before the two could continue their conversation, a portal opened up nearby. There, Mei and the others appeared, returning from their mission.

"We're back!"

Jaeya exclaimed, carrying Theo. She could have returned home already, but she was enjoying the rare chance she could spend outside and decided to stay a bit.

It was the same for the sisters Bella and Donna. After telling the rest of their group that they would be out for a bit, they stayed here to help. However, their true intention was to see what kind of people they joined, which was not that surprising.

And, of course, Aephelia, who did the same and played a vital role in controlling the [Infected] to fight amongst themselves.

"Papa!"

Miracle and Abbygale greeted Mark, with Iola following behind the two.

"Master!"

Amihan also greeted Mark in high spirits.

"Gege, is lunch done? We'll help if it's not."

Mei asked, looking at Mark, who was currently cooking.

"Almost done," Mark replied, stirring the pot with the stew. "You all should go clean yourselves up first. It should be ready after all of you are done."

Mark could not help but say that. After all, everyone just finished fighting the [Infected]. Even if not all of them were blood-covered, they would still be a bit sweaty or dirty.

Especially Miracle and Abbygale... It seemed that the two managed to kill a bunch. Their clothes had a lot of bloodstains, which was not surprising since the two fight enemies in close combat.

"Master, sorry to leave the lunch to you alone."

Aephelia apologized.

"It's fine," Mark shrugged. "Just go wash up already."

"Girls, let's go," Mei urged their daughters. "We can eat after cleaning up."

"Bro," Jaeya approached Mark. "I'll leave Theo here, alright?"

Jaeya then let Theodore sit down at the table without even waiting for Mark's reply.

"Just stay there. Mommy will be back later."

And as if he understood Jaeya, Theodore quietly sat down on the table, barely moving. Well, it was more like because the baby was still afraid of Mark and would not dare offend him.

The women then left to take a bath in a secluded spring nearby. This spring was where the [Diwatas] take their time relaxing under the moonlight, and it was unheard of for other people to use this spring. Yet, the women of Mark's group were allowed to do so because of their deeds.

Unfortunately, Mark, Chimetrice, and even the baby, Theodore, were still not allowed there. It was not surprising, but it was not plainly because of gender. It was just the spring was not just some regular water spewing spring but had magical properties that were beneficial to the [Diwatas]. These properties could be disrupted by males, however, because their magical frequency was different from females.

After the girls returned, they had a fulfilling lunch as they began talking about their plans for the next few days.