For the next few hours, he searched the city for mana consumables. Occasionally, he came across mutants but managed to evade confrontation. Since his body was compromised by the mana depletion, Jake knew he couldn’t fight at full strength. His body appeared to have a safeguard mechanism that restricted his movement to conserve mana. Currently, the remaining magical energy in his body was solely dedicated to sustaining basic functions, causing him to move slower and feel weaker. In his compromised state, even low-level walkers and leapers posed a threat to him.

The memories of what had occurred when the elite walker took a huge bite out of his shoulder were still fresh in his mind. While being severely wounded had been an unfortunate event, it had taught him a valuable lesson. He had learned that he could bleed. His new body did not seem to have blood, but it could still “bleed.” Operating on mana, his body lost significant amounts of this precious magical energy when severely injured. That was another reason Jake wasn’t willing to battle mutants at the moment. In his weakened state, he was prone to getting injured, and sustaining a serious wound would be really bad news for him. Losing more mana was something he couldn’t afford; after all, he only had about 150 MP left.

Jake scavenged for mana for a few hours, exploring one abandoned building after another. He promptly extracted the magical energy from every mana consumable he found. Mana beads held 100 mana points, mana marbles contained 250 MP, and mana shards had 500 MP. These were all common items. He assumed there should be rarer mana consumables out there, but so far, he had only come across common ones.

At some point, Jake realized he was finding his way around the city surprisingly well despite not having his PDA with a map. He always knew where he was, memorizing the layout of the city without any trouble. He navigated through the city just as well as when he had a map app at his disposal, and perhaps even better, as he no longer needed to constantly refer to the map to know where he was. Enhanced Intelligence continued to demonstrate its incredible usefulness. It not only sharpened his cognitive abilities but also significantly improved his memory. Thanks to this skill, he was gifted with a mental map of the city.

When he was a regular survivor, he’d established several hideouts and stashes where he rested and stored his supplies, marking them on the map on his PDA. Even without the device, he could recall the precise whereabouts of all his stashes and find his way to any of them with ease. However, he chose not to revisit them. As a survivor, he had immediately consumed the magical energy from mana consumables upon finding them, leaving none in his stashes. He had stocked plenty of canned food, bottled water, ammo, and other survival items, but after he became a mutant, they had lost their value to him.

It took him about an hour to find three mana beads, collecting enough mana for the safety mechanism of his body to disengage. His movements were as fast as before, allowing him to operate at his best once more. Still, he kept searching for more mana. There never seemed to be enough of it. It took him a few hours to find two mana marbles and one mana shard, bringing him up to 1450 MP. Figuring it should be enough to last him for a while, he concluded his search. Now, he could go back to fighting mutants.

However, he decided to rest for a bit while checking his stats and contemplating the best way to progress further. He found a room in the building he was in and closed his eyes. First, he checked his stats. Not much had changed since his last check, so he quickly switched to the Genetic Development Interface.

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He examined the list of skills and abilities available for purchase. The cheapest one cost 2,000 MP, which was more than he had at the moment. This made him ponder. Most of the mana he collected was consumed by his body. It presented him with a dilemma. Mana served as both fuel for his body and currency, but the spawn rate of mana consumables was extremely low. He wasn’t finding nearly enough mana consumables for both sustaining himself and acquiring new skills. There should definitely be better and more efficient ways to acquire mana than just relying on scavenging alone.

Jake pondered all of this for about an hour. Then, he realized that his inhuman mind was helping him keep track of time. He didn’t need a watch or any other tool to measure time. His mind took care of it, assisting him in calculating the time that elapsed from one specific moment to another. This discovery amazed him. Enhanced Intelligence turned out to be an incredibly useful skill. In a way, it replaced the PDA he couldn’t live without as a regular survivor. It helped him memorize the layout of the city, keep track of time, and who knew what else his inhuman mind was now capable of. It was truly impressive.

Jake checked how much MP his body had consumed over the past hour he’d spent relaxing and thinking, which turned out to be only 5 MP. He then multiplied it by twenty-four: 120 MP. This was the amount his body consumed in an idle state in a day. He doubted he would spend many days entirely idle, but it was still good to know his minimum daily mana consumption needs.

After that, he opened his eyes and stood up from the floor. Now it would be a good idea to figure out how much mana his body would consume while being active for an hour. When he got out of the building, daylight had already begun to fill the streets. Jake went on a hunt for ex-humans. Over the next hour, he traversed the city, exploring buildings, and engaging in constant battles. After an hour of intense physical activity, he checked how much mana he’d lost, which amounted to 45 MP. Multiplying the value by twenty-four yielded a daily total of 1080 MP. Jake was pleasantly surprised by his ability to quickly perform such a complex calculation in his mind.

When he checked his stats one more time, he also noticed a substantial improvement in Enhanced Intelligence. Previously at 28%, the skill had surged to 67%. Engaging in problem-solving tasks and multiplying big numbers in his head had proven to be quite effective in leveling up Enhanced Intelligence.

So, the minimum amount of mana he needed daily was 120 MP. In a highly active state, his body could consume about 1080 MP in a day. This information was quite useful. However, he had a feeling that the numbers would continue to increase as his body demanded more and more mana daily as he grew stronger.

Jake continued to explore the city, battling occasional mutants he came across. In one of the abandoned buildings, he stumbled upon replication pods hanging from the ceiling. He decided to destroy them for XP. However, when he neared one of them and was about to slash it with his claws, a piece of info popped up in his mind.

New Mutation Research!

Objective: Analyze replication pods with three different types of mutants within.

Reward: Bladed Tentacles (the ability will be added to the Genetic Development Interface upon completing the mutation research)

Accept: Y/N

Jake lowered his clawed hand. The system offered him another quest. It differed from the last one he had completed. The reward was also different. After finishing the hunt that required him to locate and eliminate an elite walker, he had received a point in Body and a free upgrade for Claws. The reward for this quest, called mutation research, was a new ability called Bladed Tentacles. The prospect of obtaining a new ability excited him a great deal. Without hesitation, he selected YES.