Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]

Chapter 39

Jake ran through the devastated city. As a survivor, he’d hardly ever run when simply exploring the city. Now that he was a mutant, moving at a constant brisk jog felt more natural than simply walking. He moved with ease, running swiftly and easily, without getting tired at all. He leaped over cracks in the road and vaulted over rusty car frames, feeling the cool air brushing against his skin. To his amazement, he found himself relishing being a mutant far more than he had thought he would.

Every now and then, he encountered some stragglers—only ex-human walkers so far. He dealt with them without even bothering to slow down, simply dashing past them and slashing their throats with his claws. He felt like he was now the most dangerous predator in this new world. However, that wasn’t entirely true. At least, not yet. A walker was the weakest type of mutant. Jake was well aware it would be premature to become overconfident. While he handled walkers with ease, he knew he would need to exercise more caution when confronted with more dangerous types of mutants.

At some point, he realized something. His hands couldn’t remain transformed into claws constantly. After a while, they reverted to their normal human-like hands. This had occurred a few times by now, but thankfully never during a fight. He noticed that his claws changed back into hands after a period of inactivity from combat. With a thought, he could morph them into claws again, but as he later discovered, the transformation process depleted some of his mana.

Then, another thing crossed his mind. He was beginning to feel tired. Fatigue was creeping in, wearing down his body. He couldn’t move as swiftly as before or be as agile as he once was. When facing off against walkers, dodging their attacks became more challenging. His movements had slowed down, and he struggled to fight at his best. Soon after, he also felt a hunger-like sensation stirring within him. It puzzled him. For a moment, he couldn’t figure out how he could ease his hunger without even having a mouth.

Then it hit him. He understood what it all meant. He checked his stats and saw he had less than 250 MP left. Unlike humans, he didn’t need food or water. He was a magical creature, and the only thing he needed for survival was mana, the magical energy stored in marbles, shards, and other mana consumables. His body was constantly consuming the mana contained in his body. The more active he was, the quicker his body devoured the magical energy within it. Certain actions, such as morphing his hands into claws, also depleted some mana. Currently, the small amount of mana remaining in his body was solely used to keep his body functioning. However, he could no longer fight at full strength or move as quickly and be as agile as before.

Jake couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when he ran out of the 200 MP that still remained in his body. He had a grim feeling that he would simply die. Being a magical creature, he couldn’t survive without mana.

After coming to such a conclusion, Jake set about combing high-rise buildings for mana consumables. Those items were hard to find—he’d learned that when he was a regular survivor. They spawned in various places at random, with a low spawn rate. He hoped that being a mutant might make it easier to locate them, perhaps granting him some skill that would aid him in finding them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

It took him some time, but he eventually stumbled across a mana bead in one of the buildings. As a survivor, he’d needed to scan an item with his PDA to get its stats. Now that he was a mutant, he could do so with just a thought. He picked up the mana bead from the floor and issued a mental command to display its stats. They immediately emerged in his mind.

Mana Bead: 100 MP (Common)

Jake remembered that as a survivor, he had needed to mentally trigger the consumption of the mana stored in a mana consumable. He was about to do just that when he accidentally squeezed the bead in his hand harder than he intended. To his great surprise, it easily crushed in his grip, shattering into smaller pieces. Jake was amazed by it. Mana consumables were virtually indestructible. As a survivor, he had tried numerous methods to break a mana consumable before he finally learned the correct way to extract the mana from it. A mana consumable could withstand even a blast from a powerful shotgun. However, as it turned out, as a mutant, he could break a mana consumable without any trouble at all.

Once the mana bead in his hand shattered, the bluish magical energy it contained drifted outward. Since Jake hadn’t given a mental command to consume the mana, he expected it to dissipate, maybe disappearing into thin air. However, something else occurred instead. His body seemed to draw the magical energy into itself. It flowed through his obsidian-black skin, vanishing into his flesh. Immediately after, a notification appeared in his mind.

You have just absorbed 100 MP.

Jake dropped the transparent pieces of the shattered, now-empty bead to the floor. One hundred mana points weren’t much, but they were better than nothing. Still, he needed much more. He exited the building and continued his search for more mana consumables. Soon, he found a mana marble containing 250 MP. Then, he was fortunate enough to discover a mana shard with 500 MP. Each of these items was of common rarity. Jake crushed every mana consumable he found to immediately absorb the magical energy they held. Once the amount of mana in his body exceeded 250 points, his movements became fast and agile again, and he was back to full strength. Mana served as both sustenance and currency for him. When he had enough mana inside his body, he could move swiftly and fight at full strength. However, it also functioned as currency for acquiring new skills and abilities. Therefore, he needed to consume mana wisely and sparingly.

By the time evening fell, he had collected more than a thousand MP. After that, he decided to call it a day. Entering a building to spend the night, he quickly discovered that unlike other living creatures, he didn’t need to sleep at all. With enough mana inside his body, he could operate at full strength for twenty-four hours straight. Nonetheless, he chose to relax for a brief moment and reflect on everything he had learned about surviving as a mutant thus far.

He definitely needed to understand how much mana his body used each day. So he decided to dedicate the next few days to determining how much mana his body consumed in both active and idle states and calculating the total mana he needed daily.

Afterward, Jake chose to explore the building he was staying in. While inspecting one of the rooms, he noticed long scratches across a wall. He wouldn’t have given them another look, but a system notification suddenly emerged in his mind.

New Hunt!

Objective: Track down and slay an elite ex-human walker.

Reward: +1 to Body, +1 to Claws

Accept: Y/N

That’s interesting, Jake thought. It was the very first time he had received a quest as a mutant. He accepted it.