Mutagen

<strong>Day 248 - 9:01 AM - Tañon Strait, Central Visayas</strong>

Leaving Mount Canlaon and the coastal borders of the island of Negros, Mark's main goal was to check on the island of Catanduanes once more. If they followed a straight path, they only needed to fly at a steep angle towards the northeast. However, the [Mini Cube] was now flying southeast.

Mark aimed for a short detour, wanting to see something.

No otaku would be content in an unfinished story. Sometimes, it would show the happy ending, not showing the fate of the enemies the protagonists had to overcome.

This time, it was Pefile's story.

Pefile had already reached his happy ending, reuniting with his wife and living with his family. Well, sort of.

After all, Edzel had yet to fully acknowledge Pefile as his father.

That was the end of the first season of Pefile's story, and the following season was surviving the apocalypse with his family.

What about the antagonists?

It was what Mark wanted to see this time.

The fate of the antagonists of Pefile's story.

And how the [Tamawos] fare during and after the [Fusion of Dimensions].

It was a story that Mark himself participated in. There was no way he would not be interested. Furthermore, he would doubt that the tribe would be wiped out by the catastrophic event. So, Mark wanted to see how karma hit them.

As the [Mini Cube] flew across the strait, they could only blindly rely on the offline map that Mark had installed on his devices. Unfortunately, it was, without a doubt, outdated.

The change in Earth's geography was massive, and all maps of the previous civilization had become useless for the most part. It would be almost impossible for people to travel long distances due to the unfamiliar terrain and environment. Fortunately, some landmarks remained the same. For example, Mount Canlaon.

Using Mount Canlaon as the starting point and the outdated map as a reference, Mark's group, could at least point out the exact direction they needed to take to reach their destination.

It did not take too long, and they could see the western coast of the island province of Cebu. Unlike the last time they were here, the distance between the islands of Negros and Cebu sure had shortened. About a fourth to a third of the width of Tañon Strait was covered by new land.

The shortened distance did not make the journey any less dangerous, however. In fact, it became even more tedious to traverse over the strait.

There were more flying [Infected] in the area than before. It was very likely to be one of the effects of the battle that happened a week ago.

The warriors of Mount Canlaon could only deal with the enemies near their mountain. Most of the [Infected] beyond the coast was barely within their capabilities. Although there were Magical Creatures capable of flight among the residents of the mountain, most of them were unsuited or inexperienced in battles. To be exact, they were too weak to be sent to the battlefield. And now that the ability of these Magical Creatures to be invisible to the mortal eyes was gone, these weak ones would be nothing but feed for the [Infected].

"There's another group."

Mei said as she put down her phone and stood up, getting a little annoyed.

Mark followed suit with a sigh while the little girls could only see them off.

The family was playing games together as they expected a pretty peaceful ride this time. But it was the exact opposite, as it was the fourth time their bonding time was interrupted in the past hour.

It would be nice if the [Flying Infected] were only one or two, but the ones they had encountered so far all moved in small groups of two to ten. The group this time was larger than the previous ones, however.

The rest of the group sent the two off with a sigh. After all, only the two would be able to properly kill the [Infected] in this situation.

As for Amihan and Chimetrice...

Chimetrice and Ilia were piloting the vessel. Ilia could pilot it on her own. But in these circumstances where the enemies could close into the [Mini Cube], Chimetrice's skills were more apparent.

Amihan, on the other hand, was better off resting for now. Her current strength had grown too much after her awakening. Too much that precise control was now a struggle for her since her growth was almost instant. It would be fine if she just sent magic with all her might, just like during the battle with Sinogo or during the time they were fighting the [Infected] attracted by the residual energy. However, in this situation where they were traveling through the sky, that was not something she should do. She needed more practice to tone down her magic.

"Bees, huh..."

Mark voiced out as he stepped on the roof. He could see the swarm flying straight towards them from the front. It was a swarm of [Infected Colony Insects]. Then, it was no surprise the group of enemies this time was a bit large.

"Gege, there's about thirty of them."

Mei said with her eyes zoomed in already as she held her [Shooting Moon Blade] in its sniper rifle form.

"Alright," Mark replied as he took out his own guns. "A few ones looked larger than the others, aren't they?"

Mark noticed the size difference within the group of [Infected Bees]. There were seven larger bees, about the size of a dog, while the smaller ones were only about the size of a cat. Furthermore, one was way bigger than the others, about the size of a ten-year-old human child.

The enemies were approaching fast. Despite their size, it seemed that the [Infected Bees] retained their speed as insects.

<strong>BANG!</strong>

Mei immediately shot her sniper rifle, and the shot even pierced through three bees. Unfortunately, no large bees were hit.

And there, something strange happened.

As if a nest of bees was disturbed, the group began flying erratically. It was as if they retained that kind of behavior even after turning into an [Infected]. Anyone who would have seen this would instinctually feel like running away. After all, who would not feel afraid of seeing a swarm of erratically flying bees chasing you?

Still, a single [Infected] with a weird behavior was already troublesome, not to mention a whole group of them.

Mark immediately brought out the [Wind Manipulation Mental Crystal]. There was no way Mark would be shooting at that. But Mei was different as her eyes dilated. With her vision zooming and slowing down what she could see, these kinds of enemies were still manageable.

<strong>BANG!</strong>

Mei released another shot. That shot pierced through two [Infected Bees].

Mark could only shrug as the crystal floating in front of his right arm glowed brighter. In front of him, several dozens of wind blades shot forward randomly. It was like firing a Gatling Gun. Who would need accuracy if you could fire fifty rounds per second? Well, Mark's firing rate was not any close to that. Handling magic was more complicated than shooting static heavy armaments.

But then, Mei noticed.

"Gege, their hemolymph seems to be acidic. Don't let any of them get near."

Mark nodded as he also noticed it. The bees bisected by the wind blades splattered a thick and bubbly yellowish hemolymph contrary to the usual clear or barely light green that bees commonly had.

It was not a surprising mutation, however. Bees had venom, and there were species with acidic venom. If this was the basis, the [Infected Bees] they were fighting were worker and queen bees as drones did not have venomous stingers and had modified ovipositors instead. The slightly larger ones might be a variation mutation from the smaller worker bees.

The battle took more effort than the previous ones. However, there was no way this number of enemies would be able to overwhelm Mark and Mei. After killing all the bees, Mark even managed to retrieve the largest bee after Mei killed it with a head shot from her sniper rifle.

Why would Mark take the corpse of the largest bee? It was the stinger that made him interested. It had a different stinger than the other bees under its command.

It was no news that bee stingers were barbed. However, the barbs were too small for the naked eye to see clearly.

Nonetheless, no bee had stingers that looked like spiked clubs, with the barbs all protruding towards the point. If someone got stung by it, the hole would be severely shredded.

The large bee's wings also looked like good material. It was sturdy, unlike the wings of the smaller bees.

And the large bee had a [Mutagen Stone] too. Although Mark quite got an amount from the [Infected] Mei and the others fought this week-long, getting one more would not hurt.

The military had begun using [Mutagen Stones] like currency. The situation in other countries might be the same. That was why Mark was not turning all the [Mutagen Stones] they gathered lately into [Physical Crystals].

And since Mark's future plan was to go to other countries, having extra funds would not hurt.

After the battle with the [Infected Bees], the [Mini Cube] faced a few more groups of [Flying Infected]. However, none of them were as large as the group of bees.

Flying to their destination, Mark and the rest reached it after an hour and a half. It was not wrong to say that they got lost a bit. The terrain was so different from before, after all. Fortunately, they only had to follow the coastline to find the exact location eventually.

And there it was. The coastal area of the Municipality of Badian. While one could think that it would not be the right place, the sight of the Matutinao River could prove them wrong. There were also the familiar ruins that surrounded the river.

However, the fifteen-meter wide Matutinao River had grown to a nearly forty-meter wide one. The ruins were also barely distinguishable. Fortunately, the unique design of the Sto. Tomas Parish Church could still serve as a landmark despite being mostly in ruins.

The last time Mark's group had been here, this place was occupied by the invading [Tamawos]. Tribal fortifications and decorations were all over the place.

Now, barely anything of the sort was present. The fortifications the tribe made could not withstand the [Fusion of Dimensions] at all, not to mention the decors they installed. There was also the tidal wave that Sinogo caused in the area before.

That said, they reached their first destination. Finding the clearing beside the ruined church, they chose to land there.

"Looks like they never came back here."

Mark said after alighting the [Mini Cube]. There were no signs of habitation in the area, and the surroundings were mostly covered in flora.

"Is this the place where you guys have been to last time?"

Spera asked as she was not present in the group back then. She was with Odelina instead, making sure to gather as many supplies as possible from America.

"This is the place where we fought the [Tamawos] and where we first saw Sinogo," Mei replied to Spera's question and turned to Mark. "There are no signs of anyone around?"

Mark closed his eyes and surveyed the surroundings.

"I found a few animals hiding further away. Aside from them, nothing else."

Mark said as he opened his eyes.

While the three conversed, Bella and Donna carefully came out of the [Mini Cube]. They looked at the surroundings cautiously. It was the first time they had been close to any sign of old civilization since a few months ago. This was also the first time they saw any kind of ruins left after the [Fusion of Dimensions. Their curiosity was understandable.

They surveyed the area a bit. Mark even searched the surrounding forest east of the clearing.

"Let's go east," Mark said as he returned. "I found some traces of someone hunting in the area."

"The hunter went east?"

Spera asked Mark.

"Maybe," Mark replied with a shrug. "Pefile's previous home was also that direction. We only need to follow the river."

The group left the clearing as soon as Mark commanded. The [Mini Cube] flew over the river, following its path upstream.

Soon, they found the Kawasan Falls, which was now wider, higher, and even more beautiful.

The home of the [Tamawos] should be nearby this place. And Mark's group did not even have to search.

Towering in the distance, they could see the giant tree cluster that the [Tamawos] used as their Royal Castle.