Mutagen

<strong>Day 261 - 9:42 AM - Eastern Outer Area, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Province of Quezon</strong>

Leaving the farming areas at the northern side of the base, Mark made his way toward the outer wall.

Mark observed the four-meter-tall wall made mostly of compact mountain rocks supported by sturdy [Blood Metal] supports and foundations. It was such an impossible-looking structure since the rock walls appeared to be one giant stone that naturally encompassed the whole base. Even its base extended far underground. If a person that knew nothing about the rock wall saw it for the first time, they might even think that this wall should have predated the existence of the Mountain Base, even though the truth was the exact opposite.

Although it was impossible using normal means, creating this outer wall was possible with magic and psychic powers.

These rock walls were made by Louis Morgan. An office worker from New Jersey and the [Inheritor] of the [Geomancy Psycast]. With his ability to control any form of stone, mostly sedimentary rocks, the outer wall that surrounded the base was created. It was initially a rough wall at the start. However, while Mark was busy with things outside, Louis Morgan diligently trained his recovering ability, refining the outer walls. He made the walls not only look better but also studier. Along with Ed constructing the [Blood Metal] foundations and supports, the outer walls became not any less sturdy than the inner walls, mostly made with [Blood Metal].

Together with Laelaps, Mark climbed up the stone stairs leading up to the top of the outer walls while responding to the greetings of people he passed by with a silent nod.

The outer wall was around three meters wide, allowing two to three people atop the walls to walk side by side. It was actually a bit wider than the inner wall, just around two meters wide.

Mark looked around. One would find it odd since only a few guards could be seen on lookout duty atop the walls. Instead, there were metal posts with bells hanging on them located above the outer wall in fixed intervals. There was also a wall-mounted arrow and needle shooters for each guardpost.

Since there was an obvious lack of human power to guard the settlement, this system was implemented. If a lookout spotted a threat, the lookout was to ring the bell and use the wall-mounted weapons to neutralize or delay the aforementioned threat.

Besides, there was no need for extremely tight security along the walls.

Mark looked outside, over the railings. The outer walls were not the first line of defense, after all.

Further outside was a wall of vines maintained by the [Dryad] under Mark's command. Then, the forest outside the walls of vines was under the [Illusion Magic] of the [Tikbalangs].

That several layers of defense ensured that the Mountain Base would face as minimal threat as possible. Of course, it was not a perfect defense. The [Illusion Magic] might fool the dangerous animals and the [Infected] but not the [Mechids]. As such, [Mechids] could still threaten the base. Luckily, their appearance was rare in these parts of the mountains of General Nakar.

Still, they could not let their guard down. The last time that a [Mechid] managed to pass through these defenses undetected, it almost caused an accident.

While looking outside the outer walls, Mark noticed a group of people emerging from the walls of vines.

It was the hunting group, seemingly returning from a successful hunt. It was normal for the hunting group to stay outside to hunt until late afternoon. After all, hunting animals in the current times was never easy. Furthermore, many factors made it even harder to hunt animals too. The hunting group returning this early only meant two things. It was either it was a successful hunt or something bad had happened during hunting. Of course, it was a successful hunt this time as the hunters were carrying a crocodile-sized lizard tied on a sturdy tree trunk carried by four people. Since crocodiles were not endemic to these mountains, this spiny game was clearly an [Evolved Lizard].

Before the apocalypse, most people would wince at the thought of eating lizards. Now? Who cared? It tasted like chicken.

Mark watched the hunting group led by two handsome men with milky-white skin. One had tribal tattoos on his body, while the younger man had clear-looking skin. Of course, those two were the father and son, Pefile and Edzel. It looked like the relationship between the two was getting better as the days passed. Now, Pefile led the hunting group as someone with high experience in hunting dangerous animals and traversing mountainous forests.

Beside Edzel was Pearl, who looked better and happier as she walked beside her lover. Unfortunately, Pearl always walked a little behind Edzel, showing how she still mulled over her past actions, albeit subconsciously.

Accompanying the three were eight more people. Three men and five women.

Two of the women were Nicole and Hallie, past co-workers of Mark from the animation studio he worked before. These two were now among the so-called founders of the Mountain Base.

The next two women were the sisters Mark brought back after the troubles in Infanta Settlement and the now destroyed Death Valley Settlement, Audrey and Tullia. The two sure were living a better life here than where they came from.

The remaining four were actually Mark's friends since high school. Rollan and his live-in partner, Nikky, together with the siblings Arvie and Jason. These friends all came with Mark from Bay City when he returned here with Mei and the others and were now among the well-known people in the base.

Hunting animals or foraging was one of the best methods to find food nowadays. Even so, it was dangerous just to eat anything, plant or animal, in this mutagenic apocalypse. Some harmless species could have mutated into poisonous ones and it was hard to determine. But that issue was not a problem in the mountain base for various reasons.

Animals could detect which food was edible. Since they had animals within the base that could intelligently communicate with humans, they could determine which food was harmless to eat.

Another was currently in Nicole's hands. The [Bloodchild] named Ruby. Ruby could detect and absorb poison due to her mutation. That was why she was brought along on every hunting trip to determine which animal could be turned into food and what was not.

Mark let out a smile as he saw the group return safely from hunting before he turned around to continue his tour of the base.

Walking over the outer walls, Mark could see the outer area of the base and outside the walls. There was really nothing much to see outside. It was all just a wide vacant area in the immediate vicinity around the base before the magical walls and illusion-covered forest. However, the inside was different.

As Mark approached the southern areas of the base, more and more structures could be seen.

The southern outer area was the residential area. It was where the living houses and other facilities were located. It was also where the security was the strongest compared to the other areas of the walls. Before, most of the living quarters were within the inner walls. After all, it was the only wall the base had before. Now, since the creation of the outer wall, the residential area was moved south instead.

It was actually better if the residential area was within the inner walls for safety reasons. However, it would be impossible for everyone to get their own homes since the space within the inner walls was limited. It was a viable option to let everyone live within the temporary quarters inside the inner areas of the base. However, not everyone would want that. Having a house that they could call their own was something that would raise the morale and living expectations of people. Not to mention it was better for families to live separately.

The Mountain Base was more of a home than a refugee camp. There was no need to clump everyone in a single uncomfortable structure.

<strong>BUZZ!!!</strong>

A buzzing sound entered Mark's ears. With a shrug, Mark suddenly jumped back. A large black silhouette passed by his front before crashing onto the rampart with a loud metallic clang.

"Seriously, someone will get killed by you one day."

Mark said in exasperation while looking at the thing that crashed in front of him.

A giant beetle. It was the [Mutator Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle], Fein, that joined them when Mark escaped from the strange [Infected] around his house. It was the giant beetle that was afraid of everything except humans.

"CREAK!"

Fein faced Mark, creaking its complaints.

This giant beetle was smart. It knew that Mark should be able to catch its charge and did so. But Mark evaded, causing it to crash to the ground. It was not like it was attacking Mark, but ramming at people was one way it showed its affection. It was pretty much controlled, and no injuries should come to those that caught it properly. Well, that same action was also how it showed hate, so it was kind of hard to differentiate. After all, Rhinoceros Beetles fought with their strong thoracic horns. Most people would decide to evade after seeing Fein charge at them like that.

Shaking his head, Mark lowered his body while roughly patting the giant beetle's head. The horns Fein had sure were something deadly if used as a weapon since it was hard as iron. However, it was impossible with the cowardly Fein. Although it could serve as support, it was impossible for it to serve as a front liner. Talk about a waste of abilities with its iron-like body.

"RAF!"

Laelaps barked, seemingly scolding the beetle for its dangerous antics.

"It's fine."

Mark said, stopping the golden dog.

Fein was one of the three pets closest to Mark, together with Laelaps and Chaflar. Since Mark was gone for a while, it was not surprising for Fein and Laelaps to spend time with him during his return.

With this, Mark gained another companion on his tour of the base. It would have been nicer if Mark could put Fein on his shoulder. However, it was quite impossible to put something larger than his torso on his shoulder.

Mark continued his walk along the outer wall while also inspecting the security of the southern area.

The outer wall here had more guards and wall-mounted weapons. All these weapons were his designs. [Blood Metal Needle Launchers] and [Blood Metal Arrow Shooters]. As the names suggested, these wall-mounted weapons shoot finger-sized needle projectiles and arrows. Different from the regular shoot-and-reload weapons like bows and ballista, these weapons fire projectiles consecutively using a rotating mechanism.

These weapons were made possible only because of the [Blood Children]. Mark could do it himself using his blood, but the [Blood Children] opened more uses to the [Blood Metal].

Mark approached a storage rack near one of the arrow shooters. There were different kinds of [Blood Metal Arrows] stored there made by different [Blood Children]. A batch had a green poisonous tip, another batch was regular arrows, and there was also a batch of arrows that emitted light.

The regular and poisonous arrows were self-explanatory. The strange ones were the light-emitting arrows. However, its use was actually ingenious. Nighttime battles were a problem. Lighting was limited outside the walls, and not everyone had evolved or mutated eyes that allowed them to see at night. Night-vision equipment was also impossible to procure for everyone. These were the times when light-emitting arrows came in handy.

Enemies that get struck by these arrows would reveal their position if they did not die. It was easy to see the light-emitting arrows moving at night, indicating a living enemy. Fortunately, they really haven't used these arrows so far in a defensive battle. After all, only [Mechids] would be able to pass through the illusion-covered forest and most [Mechids] glow at night through their lens and other equipment.

It was a good thing that they did not have the opportunity to use the light-emitting arrows. It meant that the base was still safe. If some time happened that they needed to use it, it just meant that the illusion made by the [Tikbalangs] was no longer a viable way to defend the base.