Mutagen

Day 133 - 9:25 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon Province, Philippines

After leaving their things at home, Mark now stood on the walls of his base.

It was dark. But as Mark had just woke up from sleep back there in Pennsylvania, he did not feel the need to take another rest.

Mark circled atop the walls of his base. He realized how much destruction that battle with The Great One caused.

Not any fauna could be seen inside more than two hundred meter radius from his base. All he could see was the black dust and the contaminated soil at parts that the dust had been removed.

If one was to look at this scene from the sky, it was not wrong to say that his base was like a large blackhead in the face of the mountain.

Seeing this disastrous scene, anyone not in the know would definitely wonder how his base came out unscathed.

It was nice that the base came out intact with the combined effort of everyone. Of course, it was mostly Mark and Spera who warded the attacks of The Great One, while the others dealt with the remaining members of the Chinese Branch of Auraboros.

Nevertheless, it was a close fight. If Mark did not think of a countermeasure back then, it would not be surprising if his base turned into dust. And even if they managed to kill the puppet that The Great One used there, it would be questionable how the other eyes would react to it.

Clearly, Ninth did not seem hostile, but what if they learned that one of them was turned into a puppet and Mark killed it? It was hard to say how that Embodiment of Boredom would respond.

Mark jumped off the wall, going outside. The men currently on patrol atop the wall saw him and watched. They were definitely gratified to the owner of this base.

It was not surprising to see a leader of a group staying behind the curtain and command his troops to deal with the situation. That was how the military worked, after all.

Generals sit behind their men while gathering medals of valor from the poor soldiers. Although it did not apply to all Generals and other high-ranking Officers, it still happened a lot and was questioned by the minority of the society.

It was also how gangs and other militant groups work. For the most part, their leader stayed behind the lines until there was no other choice but to step in. And at that point, their group had already suffered a lot.

Mark, on the other hand, was eccentric in this way. He was the leader of this base, its owner. Nevertheless, he was the one to jump to lead the front lines, ramming the enemy lines using sheer might and his playful schemes.

And now, Mark was personally checking the aftereffects of the battle, while if it was a military settlement, the leader would only wait for the reports of their men.

Outside the base, Mark walked towards the place where the dust was the thickest first. It was surprising, but the black dust was about half an inch deep before the surface of the soil. It was as if they had just experienced a volcanic eruption like this.

Mark could not help but notice. He picked a handful of black dust. This black dust was not as destructive to organic and non-organic materials in a short time. However, it seemed to suck in nutrients slowly from the surfaces it touches.

This made Mark frown. His people should not be in contact with this dust for a long time, or else, they might catch far severe symptoms.

Other people would not notice it immediately, but Mark that could control his blood felt some nutrients in his body was being sucked into his hand and to the dust. It was slow and unnoticeable.

However, it was, in fact, happening.

Nevertheless, they could not just leave it be either. No one would be able to move the dust without manpower.

"I need to test this further. Also gather more information."

Mark decided to do some tests with the dust. And later, ask the workers that dealt with the dust some questions. Mostly regarding their health. It had already several days since this dust had covered the land around his base. There might be symptoms among the workers already.

Creating a container using his blood, Mark filled it with dust. He then walked towards the perimeter of the affected area. And then, into the forest outside.

As he left the affected area and deeper into the forest, he could see that the plants and trees nearest to the contamination were pale colored. Some were even dying.

"To think that this is more troublesome that we thought."

Mark grumbled. That guy who called himself The Great One definitely gave them a headache.

"Is that guy really playing around? What he did more or less tried to eradicate us in many ways."

That was what Mark thought.

Bringing a puppet that was actually an Eye, its death could have angered the other Eyes and make them eradicate his base. It was prevented when he changed the battlefield to somewhere else with the help of Spera.

Furthermore, Mark remembered that The Great One also unleashed an attack towards his base but was prevented using a portal.

And since those two attempts failed, the last was the dust that prevented them from farming and cultivating. In the worst case, even the base would have been contaminated and rendered inhabitable.

"Darn it. Looks like that guy isn't playing at all." Mark said with a deep breath. "I didn't notice at that time since his the thoughts he managed to detect was more or less playful and childish."

As Mark said those words, however, he realized.

"I see..." Mark shrugged. "Eradicating us is more or less a childish play for him, right?"

That was right. It did not need killing intent, anger, or other ill intention to eradicate someone. For some notorious people, even serial killers, it was just a play for enjoyment.

It was Mark that mistook The Great One's intentions because of the faint emotions he detected at that time. It was a puppet, after all. The Great One's actual consciousness was somewhere else.

Sometimes, being able to read emotions was not really reliable.

After all, according to the person's values and interests, their emotions could mean an entirely different thing.

"I need to reflect on this, I guess."

Mark sighed.

"We should take measures about this dust first, though."

He said as he gazed at the vast plot of land that was rendered useless because of the black dust.

And from there, in the middle of the black contaminated land, Mark sat like a child playing with sand.

The first was cloth. Of course, it was no go. Mark felt dumb for trying it in the first place. The dust would get stuck in the gaps of the cloth. Although the effect was lessened, it was still there.

For the second try, Mark took out a plastic bag inside his ring and wrapped his hand with it. Then, he took a handful of dust, once more. And there, Mark closed his eyes, concentrating on the sensation on his palm. He shook his head soon after. It seemed that thin plastic would not work either. He could still feel the nutrients in his body being sucked through that plastic. It was even worse than cloth.

After the second try, Mark realized that his feet seemed to be alright. Made him conclude that rubber could work. But then, he shook his head. Where in the world would they get a large amount of rubber to make suits with.

"I wonder if the Quezon settlement had some hazmat suits. Right, I saw some people wearing those in their laboratory then. I doubt they will let use borrow them, though."

Mark was pretty much right in this aspect. Hazmat suits were precious pieces of equipment during the apocalypse as they needed those suits while conducting experiments and research. They also needed it to deal with harmful chemicals and even mutated infected. It was far more precious than guns or bullets for the military. Weapons could be replaced with other alternatives, but the hazmat suits that they had no way of making was not.

While thinking about it, Mark suddenly remembered. He took out the container he made and filled with dust.

And as he thought, the effects of the dust did not seem to be working through the [Blood Metal] container.

"This could work."

Mark smiled.

After that, past midnight, Mark was inside his workshop that he had not visited for several days that he was away. And like before, he was with his precious [Blood Children] making countermeasures for the effects of the dust on their workers.

Outside the workshop...

"Master is at it again."

Aephelia smiled.

At these times that the loyal maid could see the image of Freed overlapping with the visage of Mark working on creating things.

"We can only see him this lively when working in his workshop, watching anime, playing games, and when he spends time with Mistress and the little Misses."

Odelina said, agreeing with Aephelia.

Right now, it was rest time for the maids. In this room that was outside the workshop, Aephelia, Odelina, and Spera were relaxing. Most of the time, there were only three of them here. This time, however, there was another person.

It was no other than Hannah. Most of the time, she was keeping silent. She only followed behind Mark before barely uttering a word. Now, she was following her Aunt, Odelina, but was behaving the same.

Of course, it was not like she was like this before, which made Odelina quite worried. However, she already heard what happened to Hannah's family and what she ended up before she was found by Mark.

This behavior was not surprising for someone that was suffering from mental trauma. It also seemed that Hannah was not having proper sleep during their journey, either.

"Hannah, are you feeling okay?"

Odelina asked as she gave her niece a warm cup of coffee.

"I-I'm fine, Aunt."

Hannah stuttered.

"Just relax, alright. You're safe here. Those bad things will not happen anymore."

Odelina caressed Hannah's head gently. Aside from her children, Siegfried and Odette, Hannah was likely the only family member she had left. Of course, she would give her enough affection.

Hannah properly received Odelina's sentiments and smiled. Though she still did not speak too much.

Seeing that, Odelina could not help but remember the earlier days when Mei was also showing the same gestures. Back then, Mei only followed behind Mark with minimal words and gestures.

"Why not ask Master to give her a Mutation later? I think, he will not deny her."

Spera suggested.

It was a good suggestion. If she received a Mutation from Mark, she might recover after a while. Mutations had no direct effect on the recovery of mental trauma, but according to Mark, it had some effects on the mentality of the Mutator.

In fact, Mei's recovery became faster after she became one. She became a bit selfless towards the people she considered as family, though.

After the break, Spera stood up.

"Is it time already?"

Odelina asked.

"Yes. I have to open a portal to transport the things we collected on the other side."

"I'll go with you. I can use my infected to carry more baggage."

Aephelia suggested in which Spera agreed. If they could transport things faster, there would be less toll on her.

The night passed like that, with Mark going back and forth in his workshop and the dungeon where the infected he was keeping was locked up. He used up the blood supply they managed to store after working for a while.

The next morning came and the important people in the base were called by Mark. Even Huey and the others that were still in The Pagoda was called back.

It was now time to talk about the plans from here on and the things Mark heard from the Embodiment of Boredom, the Eye called Ninth.