Mutagen

Day 133 - 8:32 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon Province, Philippines

"This place is fascinating."

That was what filled the mind of Roan and the others that came here for the first time. It was as if they were brought into a different world, far from the nightmarish apocalypse that they suffered in for the past four months.

In this place, their group saw strange sights, fascinating creatures, and even the people looked carefree without worry.

"Boss, you didn't bring us to your country, right? It's a different world, isn't it?"

Roan could not help but voice out as they continued to walk around.

"That might look like it, but it's kind of impossible, right?"

Arnold said, rejecting what Roan said.

The others nodded, agreeing with Arnold. With what happened on Earth right after the apocalypse, it was not strange that a place like this existed. Of course, it was still surprising, especially the existence of the creatures that they only heard from fairytales, myths, and folklore. Though everyone had seen the Tikbalangs and the Dryad back in The Pagoda, they did not think much of it. 

They just thought that they were Mutants with strange mutations. It was not surprising considering that not everyone was privy to Mythological Creatures around the world. Furthermore, they all looked half-humans, and that made them have such an assumption.

But seeing the fairy, they were finally convinced that these creatures were not just products of Mutagen. They were actual, genuine creatures.

Creatures took from the stories they had heard before.

Creatures whose existence had long been being debated since the start of time.

"I can bring you all to another world if you want to, though?" Mark suddenly said with a shrug. "It's more or less just another dimension on Earth, but it can be considered as another world since many laws on Earth did not apply there. The people that lived there are not humans either."

Everyone in Roan's group froze. They could not fathom whether what Mark was saying was the truth or not.

"Sir Mark, you're kidding us, right?"

Felicia could not help but say.

"I'm not joking. It's the dimension where those horseheads and the Dryad came from. The world home to the Mythological creatures that don't exist on Earth for the most part."

Everyone had gone speechless at this point. Mark definitely liked to turn their world upside down.

"Well, don't think about things too much," Mark added. "Only this place looked like this. If you all go down the mountain, you will probably experience things not any different compared to the things back in your previous place. But of course, it can be less or worse, depending on the place you intend to go to."

Hearing that, everyone had a wry smile. This place was too good to be true, but it seemed that it was no different outside.

Still, everyone could only admit. The strange person called Mark brought them to a place that was a paradise compared to the place they lived in the past four months.

A paradise, they said.

It was until...

The scene suddenly became a nightmare.

In front of them, a gigantic woman with tentacles and hundreds of eyes all over its body stood. She was growling at them. 

No, she was growling at Mark. Her gestures did seem harmless, but it was definitely nightmarish to everyone.

"She's not growling, right? She seemed to be talking."

Sandy said, realizing that this nightmarish looking woman seemed to be talking to Mark. It was impossible to understand, though, since all she did was to growl with a bit of gesture with her hands.

That was when they heard Mark reply.

"Thanks." Mark said since Aimee came to welcome him back. "Any changes with your child?"

Of course, it was natural for Mark to ask that. Since Aimee was keeping her supposed to be child secure all the time, no one else here knew its condition.

To Aimee's dismay, she shook her head. It seemed that there were no changes at all.

"I'll check on it in later, ok?"

Mark said, in which Aimee reacted to in delight. She was already getting worried about her child, but she also felt that it was not dead at all. Thus, she could only wait in worry.

Even though it was not sure that Mark could do anything at all, it was still better that he checked on that stone-like egg.

On the other hand, however, Mark had a different reason for asking. It was because he could feel another consciousness in the base, albeit faint. Furthermore, it was coming to where Aimee was staying.

Aimee then left immediately. Unless it was important business, Aimee barely came out of her dwelling, after all. All her time was spent on taking care of that stone.

"I can't believe that the fairytale turned into horror, all of a sudden."

Felicia murmured, which caused Roan to bump her fist on her head under their parent's orders.

"Felicia, it's rude."

Abraham reprimanded Felicia, causing her to lower her head in embarrassment.

Mark did not mind the shenanigans of the group behind him and turned to Aephelia.

"Aephelia, lead Snow to where she will be staying. Also bring that Spider to the dungeon."

"As you wish."

Aephelia replied and took Snow's hand. Since this loyal maid could control the infected, she was the best person to handle Snow, Janette, and Trixie. Of course, she had Monique and Mara as her assistants since they were relatives of two of the three Infected Queens that was now in this place.

However, since Aephelia was unfamiliar to her, Snow did not budge in her place and looked at Mark with confusion.

Mark then patted her head, causing her eyes to squint.

"Follow her. She will bring you to your bedroom. She will also give you food."

Snow tilted her head upon hearing the word bedroom. She could not understand it. However, this Infected Queen reacted quite differently after she heard food and stared at Aephelia with bright eyes.

"Aephlia, don't forget to give her food."

"Yes."

Aephelia nodded as she finally managed to pull away Snow.

"Oh, by the way. Don't give her infected food. She liked human food better."

"Huh?" Aephlia then froze and looked at Mark before turning to Snow. "Master, you brought a strange one, didn't you."

Mark did not reply to that and only shrugged. Who had known that Snow would turn out to be a glutton for human food?

"Odel." Mark then turned to Odelina. "Can you lead them to the Temporary Housing? It's already relocated, right?"

"Yes, it's already been relocated to the east side, south of your house."

Odelina replied.

Before, the Temporary Housing was built outside Mark's cliff house. There were two of them, separating the males and females. However, that was inconvenient for the most part. It was Aephelia who suggested it to be relocated and built somewhere else. After all, it was kind of disturbing that people that were still new to the place were housed in front of the lord's mansion.

Aephelia said that it was like letting squatters build a house in front of the King's castle.

Since she had a point in that, everyone agreed to it, and it was moved.

And under Mark's command, Aephelia brought Roan's group towards the Temporary Housing.

When Roan's group heard that they would be brought into Temporary Housing, they did not expect much. 

It was temporary, after all.

But there they were mistaken.

Reaching the southeast side of the base, they stood outside a huge building. Everyone was frozen once more. It looked more or less like a modern mansion with two towers. Of course, everything was all made of black colored metal. It had two wings that were joined by a two-floor building in the middle.

Then, with Odelina in the lead, they all entered inside.

"This is where all of you will be staying temporarily," Odelina said with a smile as they entered the first floor. "The north wing is for women while the south wing is for men. In this first floor of the central lobby, there are family-sized rooms which can be shared by family members."

The last sentence was said by Odelina while looking at Abrahan that was pushing his wife's wheelchair.

Odelina then turned to Roan and Marielle.

"We also had several couple rooms on the second floor."

There was no other explanation needed for that part. And of course, Marielle turned red, and Roan was panicking.

"W-we are not really-"

"We'll take it!"

Roan tried to deny, but before he could do so, Marielle cut him off.

"M-Marielle... What are you!"

"We'll TAKE it!"

Marielle pushed forward, even though her face was already flushed embarrassment.

Of course, it caused some banter within the group. Marielle was pushing forward aggressively.

Still, while Roan received some playful jeering from the men, Marielle received some encouragement from the women, especially from Candace that was Roan's mother.

"Take care of my son well, alright?" Candace said to Marielle. "We're already old but we still don't have any grandchildren."

Those words made Marielle glad and more embarrassed at the same time. However, there was no pulling back.

Hearing about the topic of grandchildren, though. Felicia had a slightly bitter smile.

Soon, Odelina brought them to their assigned dwellings. There were also other people that were staying in the Temporary Housing. Apparently, there were prerequisites that needed to be fulfilled if one wanted their own housing in the base. One of which was having a family or being a couple. Another way was to gain enough contribution to the base. Of course, not everyone could fulfill this immediately, and they were still staying at the Temporary Housing.

However, it was not bad at all. In fact, rather than a place where new people were thrown into, the Temporary Housing was more or less like a huge inn. Furthermore, people that came in groups could share a room on their own. After all, this was a better arrangement than letting unfamiliar people sleeping in one room with all their belongings scattered around.

While the designation of rooms ended shortly, Roan seemed to have slipped out of the room he shared with Marielle and tried to join the other men. Of course, he was banned from entering and kicked out by Arnold and Ernst.

And lastly, the three children.

In front of the Temporary Housing, there was a Nursery House. This was where all the orphans were staying. This was also the same place they were receiving a proper education. Not everyone was fond of it, though, but as they were given more food and even toys for studying hard, everyone was eagerly studying.

The three children from New Jersey were kind of awkward after arriving. After all, not only that it was an unfamiliar environment, but there would also be the language barrier because it was a different country.

But unexpectedly, while not too well enough, the children that welcomed the three could converse properly. And as it seemed, these children had their own group in this base, and it was led by a girl with a metal armored arm. The three newcomers were fascinated by that as Elona introduced herself.

Especially Caelum, the weirdest of the three, kept on staring at Elona's arm.

The three kids from New Jersey would not have a hard time adapting to this place. It was because most of these kids here were all chosen by Mark to stay in this place. He would not choose bad kids, after all. There were also some hard-headed ones at first, but they all changed after being educated properly, and since most of the kids had good behavior.

***

After the duties given to them, Aephelia and Odelina returned to Mark's house to report.

"Master, you brought back a merry bunch, aren't you?"

Odelina asked, with Hannah following behind her.

"It's a good thing, though. It's what matters."

Mark replied while checking the things inside his and Mei's rings.

"Master, about Hannah." Odelina voiced out. "I want her to stay here and become one of the maids if possible."

"Are you sure about that?"

Mark asked.

"I think it will be fine. She had been trained with the basics, already. She could help us with the house chores while we manage other things outside."

"If that's the case, there's no problem for me."

Mark agreed.

"Thank you."

Odelina replied with a bow. Hannah also followed.

And there, Odelina led Hannah away to show where she would be staying. It seemed that the Aunt and Niece would share a room together.

Seeing the two go out, Mark shrugged.

"Trained she said."

That murmur Mark just let out showed how much of a mystery Odelina's background was.