Mutagen

<strong>Day 245 - 2:05 PM - Barangay Bagawines, Municipality of Vallehermoso, Province of Negross Oriental</strong>

Four days after the battle against Sinogo, things started to calm down.

In the past three days, the [Infected] continuously arrived towards the eastern parts of the island of Negros. While the [Infected] did not come in large hordes, the accumulated number was quite frightening.

Before the outbreak, the population of the entire island of Negros was over four million and six hundred thousand. That number only included the number of registered residents of both the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. Tourists were not included in that number and definitely not animals or anything that could become [Infected] due to [Mutagen]. Not to mention the [Infected] creatures that did not even come from this island.

While the Fusion of Dimensions, the fall of the space debris, and other factors could kill a lot of [Infected], it was impossible to kill them all. As such, even if the radius affected and attracted by the battle was limited, the number of enemies arriving was still quite large.

The remaining warriors of Mount Canlaon fought with almost no rest. Given that they were more intelligent than the [Infected] and had powers and skills unavailable to most humans, they could handle the fighting the [Infected].

It was as long as the number of the [Infected] did not overwhelm the warriors. After all, the greatest strength of the [Infected] did not come from their mutations or size but from numbers.

And at times when things became dangerous, there were their guests to help deal with the problem.

Mei and the rest of the group were pretty active in this battle. They fought with the worst kinds of [Infected] they had seen so far.

One was a giant [Infected Spider], about six meters in height with its body covered in fur-like hair. It did not seem to have any unique traits and abilities far from a real spider. However, it was definitely a [Breeder Type], with clumps of hundreds of smaller spiders hanging all over its body with their butts protruding like a jackfruit. It was something that would make people with arachnophobia scream. Even Mei and the others felt uncomfortable while looking at it.

Mei shot the mother on its head, knowing the possibility that it could control and command its offspring. It was a bad idea.

The shot failed due to the fur-like silk, which could actually defend against Mei's bullet. And once the mother felt threatened, all of the children would spew their sticky web everywhere, which turned one area on the battlefield into a web-covered zone.

That event caused both good and bad things. Because the web suddenly spewed everywhere, aside from the spiders, everything else, even the other [Infected] and one [Behemoth Class], was caught, unable to move an inch. The problem was that all of the smaller spiders jumped down from their mother's body. They then formed a circle around her inside the web-covered area. Most of which have a height of around a meter, with the biggest ones around two meters.

It was an organized army of spiders protecting their queen. An army of mutated Wolf Spiders. It was ironic, considering that Wolf Spiders were not threatening. This group? It could definitely destroy a settlement or two... or probably more.

To deal with the spiders, Amihan and Chimetrice took the lead. The spiders might be threatening in a ground battle, but enemies from the sky had the advantage against them. The smaller spiders tried to spew webs at the two, but with both capable of manipulating the wind, the web attacks never hit them. It still took some effort to kill the mother spider, however. After all, its fur-covered body was too hard that even Mei's sniper shot could not pierce through it.

While the appearance of the mother spider and her children would make people scratch their heads, there was another [Infected] that would make people churn their stomachs.

It was around three meters tall, and from its body structure, it was very likely to be a [Tank Type]. The [Mutated Infected] was bulky and filled with muscle. However, the kind of armor it had on its body was different from other [Tank Types] that appeared before.

The armor looked more like a cluster of pulsating organs. These disgusting-looking organs seemed to explode from impact, not only deflecting the force it received but also spewing highly toxic blood. The toxic blood did not seem to affect the terrain but only those with fleshy bodies. One of the organs exploded, and the blood spewed on another [Infected] walking near it. The unlucky [Infected] started twitching, and his body began to bloat until it exploded. It was very lucky that no one had the chance to fight it at close range, or that could have been a disaster.

Just because the enemy was not as powerful as Sinogo would not make them any less troublesome to deal with. The only thing that differed was the amount of danger one would have to face.

There were also three [Behemoth Class Infected] that appeared on the third and fourth day. One came just before the giant mother spider arrived on the third day and got caught with friendly fire. Another appeared a few hours after. The last one arrived just this morning.

By the looks of it, the [Infected] that could be classified as [Behemoth Class] was rather rare on this island. It was just that during the battle with Sinogo, he managed to gather more under his command from other places.

The battle was tedious for those that participated. After all, the large number of enemies would wear down even the most experienced warriors.

Fortunately, the decreasing number of arriving [Infected] began to give the warriors the time to breathe. It was to no surprise and was already expected to happen, considering that the residual energy left on the battlefield started to disperse.

In a few more days to a week at most, the stream of [Infected] attracted by the residual energy would stop.

***

<strong>Day 245 - 3:11 PM - Margaha Valley, Mount Canlaon, Municipality of Murcia, Negros Occidental</strong>

Back in Margaha Valley, Mark sat in front of the table, busy drawing something.

There was nothing much Mark could do while left alone. He could play on his phone. But, for now, Mark wanted to do something a bit more productive.

That was why Mark was drawing some designs and blueprints of experimental weapons he wanted to make in the near future. He already had his [Shadow Piercer], his self-powered railgun. Although it still required some tuning and adjustments, it was a fully working weapon. Thus, Mark wanted to make more.

After all, Mark and Freed had a similar trait. It was their knack for creating things. And since Mark had inherited Freed's memories, he had knowledge of items and weapons only present in the destroyed civilization of planet Eriellis.

However, it was impossible to create most of the things Freed knew. There was a huge difference in terrain and equipment between Earth and Eriellis. After all, there were minerals and materials that existed on one planet that did not exist on the other. Furthermore, many things that appeared during the apocalypse in Eriellis definitely did not exist on Earth, aside from the [PsyCrystal] on Mark's arm.

Still, it would not stop Mark. Like the [Crystal Converter] that he made before, there was a possibility of replacing some materials with something with similar properties. Unfortunately, he had yet to make a [Crystal Converter] that would not break after a single usage.

Mark drew on the paper with full concentration. After all, he needed to consider the use, practicality, and availability of materials while thinking of the things to design.

For now, Mark was actually thinking of recreating something like an energy gun. Energy weapons were a common concept in sci-fi-related things like games, literature, and movies. The most common in this criteria were laser weapons, but concepts of plasma weapons and particle weapons also exist.

What Mark had in mind was something different. Since Earth's technological level would not allow Mark to create something that would shoot lasers or energy balls, he was thinking of something that beelines between scientific and magical.

After all, if science could not provide what he needed, why not use magic?

Mark's pen moved around the paper. It was a design of a hand-held gun similar to a pistol. However, it did not have the pistol-like parts that people knew. Instead, it had magical circuits to function.

"What you are drawing looked absurd. Will something like that even work?"

Magwayen remarked while looking at Mark's drawing.

"Isn't that the point?" Mark replied. "Designs are made to plan. Making it work is a totally different step. The design can change depending on what the result is. Besides, I already managed to make three golems. I can't see anything wrong with trying to make a magical gun of sorts."

"Your golems might have worked but it was mostly because of the highly-advanced core you obtained. On the other hand, a magical phenomenon needed the user's mind to manifest," Magwayen explained. "I knew of magical items and artifacts that aid the user to use magic but definitely not something that could fire magic on its own. With the exception of cursed and blessed items, that is."

It seemed that Magwayen understood the concept of what Mark was trying to make. However, she could not see how it would work. As for blessed and cursed items, their creation was also a bit of a mystery. Recreating these kinds of things with a mortal's hand was a bit of a fantasy in the eye of a god.

"You're a god. Can you make something similar?"

Mark asked Magwayen while concentrating on the drawing he was making.

"As the former Goddess of the Sea, I can bless an item with water magic. And as the Goddess of the Underworld, I can curse an item to wield the power of the souls," Magwayen replied. "However, none of such are recommended. Rather than creation, it is more of interference with the natural laws. It would be more of an artifact than a magical tool that you are trying to make. Not to mention such things would interfere with the balance of the world."

Magwayen then added.

"Moreover, god-influenced artifacts cannot be duplicated or recreated. Because there is no magical structure to copy or recreate. Just like the [Mark of the King] I left to the [Tamawos]. It was blessed with my magic to connect my consciousness to their tribe. If my blessing was removed, it would be nothing but a mere item with no magical properties."

Mark looked at the [Mark of the King] that lay on the table. It sure looked like nothing like a complicated magical artifact. In fact, there was not even a place on it carved with any magical circuit of sorts.

"You mentioned cursed items," Mark turned to Magwayen. "What about Demonic ones?"

"A Demonic Item?" Magwayen replied with a bit of confusion. "The creation of Demonic Items is extremely conditional. It is very rare for one to appear even back in the days when us gods inhabited this world."

"Huh? I heard that it's rare, but it's that rare?" Mark was a tad bit surprised. "Then, I'm lucky I managed to evolve one, huh."

Those words from Mark made Magwayen stunned.

"You managed to evolve one, you said?"

"Oh, right. You haven't seen it yet. But yeah, it's probably by coincidence then," Mark replied, remembering that Magwayen had yet to see Ignis. "It's just a cursed sword with a soul at first, but some things happened and it evolved into a Demonic Sword."

At this point, Magwayen was looking at the absurd existence called Mark. Even as a Goddess, she never met someone as absurd as Mark. A cursed item was not easy to come by, not to mention one with a soul. Furthermore, that cursed item actually evolved into a Demonic item with his influence.

And now, this absurd existence was trying to make a magical weapon with his own hands. Although Magwayen still thought that it would be impossible to do, she had a hunch that he might succeed.