Chapter 110

For a moment, Jake remained where he was, staring into the distance where the chopper had just disappeared. He was deep in thought. In retrospect, when the two people aboard the helicopter noticed him, he could’ve waved at them. Since they didn’t immediately attack him, he could’ve attempted to demonstrate that he was an intelligent being, not a mindless creature like the other ex-humans.

However, at that time, the thought of trying to communicate with the two of them hadn’t even crossed his mind. Now that he was reflecting on it, he understood why.

Sure, he could communicate with humans, but it wasn’t all that easy for him to do. There was a time when a group of survivors he’d encountered tried to kill him, even though he raised his hands and shook his head, doing his best to express his reluctance to fight. Only one of them, a young woman named Elena, took notice, while the rest disregarded his attempts to communicate and opened fire on him. Survivors saw him as a terrifying monster with a strange body and menacing, emotionless eyes. Now that he’d evolved into the next form, he looked even more frightening than before.

So, while he’d previously wanted to convey to people that he wasn’t just a mindless mutant, he now realized he no longer cared about it. In the initial days following his transformation, he’d really wanted to demonstrate his intelligence to others. In his very first endeavor to communicate with humans as a mutant, he tried to show Isra and her companions that he was an intelligent being like them. At that time, it’d appeared important to him for some reason. However, it was no longer the case.

He didn’t care what survivors thought about him anymore. He no longer cared if they deemed him just a mindless monster and had no intention of trying to convince them otherwise anymore. He no longer had any desire to communicate with them. After all, he now had very different goals and needs from those of humans. So there was simply no reason to go out of his way to convince every single survivor he met that he was sentient.

Besides, as he’d recently learned, he was a monster. While a fragment of his humanity remained, he recognized that he was at least fifty percent a monster, and he’d fully embraced his monster nature by now. So there was no point in trying to convince humans he wasn’t a monster while he actually was, and he saw no reason to needlessly interact with them anymore.

Giving the matter no more thought, he surveyed the area. High-rise buildings surrounded him, some reaching the same height as the building he stood on, while others loomed much higher. Before continuing his journey, he wanted to check something.

He closed his eyes and summoned the perk menu. He currently had two perks at his disposal: Enemy Appraisal (Rank II) and Mana Vision (Rank I). The first one allowed him to view basic information about mutants or humans, including their attributes, skills, abilities, and whatnot. Jake was already familiar with how Enemy Appraisal worked, so he shifted his attention to Mana Vision. He’d recently acquired this perk but hadn’t had the chance to check it out yet.

Mana Vision (Rank I): Allows you to detect nearby sources of mana.

Raise to Rank II: Y/N (Cost: 1 SP)

This perk seemed to be extremely useful. Jake opened his eyes and attempted to use it. However, nothing happened. As far as he knew, perks were activated with a single thought. He pondered for a moment, wondering why the perk didn’t work. A realization dawned on him. He shut his eyes and tried to use Mana Vision once more. This time, the perk worked.

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He saw blue glowing lights materialize before him. He made a slow three-sixty, noticing plenty of them around him. Jake immediately realized the strange radiant lights indicated the locations of mana consumables. Some were positioned far below him, likely at street level, while others appeared to float in the air at different heights, suggesting that these mana items were located on various floors of different buildings.

Some of the blue lights were about an inch in diameter while the others were much smaller. Initially, Jake thought the size difference indicated the distance to the sources of mana. However, he soon realized he was mistaken. The distance to the mana sources was actually indicated by their brightness—those lights that were farther away were dimmer.

So the difference in size of the glowing lights indicated the size of the actual mana consumables. The tiny lights, resembling dots, likely represented the smallest mana consumables like beads or marbles, holding 100 and 250 MP respectively. The larger lights could represent shards and chunks, corresponding to 500 and 1,000 MP respectively.

Jake continued to slowly pivot until he completed a full circle. The glowing lights that were far from him were barely visible. He couldn’t see the distribution of mana consumables throughout the entire city. According to his calculations, the Mana Vision perk had an effective range of about five hundred yards. Raising the perk to the next Rank would likely increase the diameter of its effective range.

Anyway, this perk was undoubtedly very useful. Thanks to it, finding mana consumables would no longer be any trouble at all. By using Mana Vision, he would be able to collect mana quickly and would always have enough amounts of this precious energy for both sustaining his magical body and acquiring new skills and abilities.

Jake turned toward the nearest blue glowing light. It hovered somewhat lower than his current position. The light was quite small, indicating it was either a bead or a marble. After committing its location to memory, Jake opened his eyes. In front of him stood another building, and the mana consumable he’d just located should be on one of the lower floors. He ran across the rooftop and leaped toward the building.

He discovered that the staircase was completely destroyed. With all the steps missing, the staircase had been turned into an empty shaft running all the way down to the first floor. However, there were pieces of rebar protruding from the walls, providing plenty of handholds. Stepping to the edge of the doorway, he jumped down and grabbed hold of the nearest piece of rebar sticking out from one wall, breaking his fall.

Dangling from the piece of rebar, gripping it with one hand, Jake closed his eyes and activated Mana Vision once again. The glowing light indicated that the mana consumable he was after was located roughly two floors below him. He opened his eyes and proceeded with his descent down the shaft, using his legs to push off the walls, leaping from one handhold to the next. Occasionally, he shut his eyes to verify the location of the mana item.

Finally, he descended to the same level as the mana consumable. He pushed off the wall, letting go of the piece of rebar he held on to, propelling himself to soar across the shaft. Twisting his body in midair to align with his trajectory, he smoothly glided through the open doorway and landed on his feet, sticking the landing.

For a moment, he listened, but no sound reached him. This building, or at least this floor, appeared to be devoid of mutants. He used Mana Vision once more to orient himself, then turned in the correct direction and began searching for the mana item. It didn’t take him long to find it: the mana item was in one of the rooms, lying on the floor amid piles of debris. As he’d anticipated, it was a mana bead containing a meager 100 MP.

After using Mana Vision once more to confirm there were no more mana consumables in the building, he returned to the shaft. He jumped toward a piece of rebar, grabbing hold of it. He effortlessly pulled himself up onto it, maintaining perfect balance as he perched on it. Spotting another piece of rebar above him, protruding from the opposite wall, he jumped up and grabbed it with both hands.

He continued to ascend the shaft, climbing without any trouble whatsoever, thanks to all the agility and acrobatic skills as well as upgrades to them he’d acquired in the past several days. Within a couple of minutes, he was back on the roof. He activated Mana Vision to pinpoint the next nearest mana consumable, situated a couple of high-rises away from his current position. Opening his eyes, he sprinted across the roof and leaped to the next building.