Year: 2038
Location: One of the mountainous islands of the West Antarctic Archipelago
In an underground secret bunker of this island currently were two women. A blonde-haired woman with glasses was working on a computer system that looked like the central control for the lab. The other woman with a large brown coat and a white cat face mask stood in front of a tank. A large glass tank filled with a green liquid. Floating in this tank could be seen a baby’s body held afloat by a tube connected to its navel.
“The simulation systems are ready for initiation General, whenever you are ready,” said the blonde-haired woman.
Releasing the cigarette drag she has been holding with a long sigh the other woman says still observing the tank and its contents, “May we deserve our Truth, go ahead”.
On cue, the other systems connected to the computer come to life and start to process the commands run by the blonde-haired woman. The liquid inside the pod starts bubbling while a series of process notifications were displayed and on a giant screen on the wall which simultaneously is read out from a speaker system.
‘Initializing Project Aria…’
‘System diagnostics complete… Operational setup complete…’
‘Confirmed carbon-based Test Specimen… Scan complete…’
‘Growth solution ZX101 detected…’
‘Identified the presence of Body imprint and Mind imprint modules1…
‘Updating growth process and integrating the modules into the specimen’s growth process…’
‘Running scans to find mutation signature source…’
‘Mutagen2 crystal detected… Version unknown… Detected customized beast core combination…’
‘Test Specimen-01 is ready for activation…‘
‘Requesting permission… Confirmed… Activating…’
‘TS-01 is ready for age recalibration…’
‘Set age to… |’
“18”
‘Age 18 years confirmed… Growth process initiated…’
‘Please note Test Specimen-01 will have its physical and mental growth potential based on the imprint modules used…’
‘Calculating growth rate… Estimated time for completion - 157:48:00 hrs.’
Just as this was confirmed electric sparks could be seen running inside the now heavily bubbling glass pod and the Mutagen crystal suspended above the body started to glow. The crystal glowed brighter till a ray manifested from it and fell on the floating body at its neck. As this continued, the body slowly started to change, it started to grow.
As the week elapsed, the baby’s body was seen to have grown into a brown-haired teenage girl that filled most of the eight-foot tube’s height.
‘Accelerated growth process complete…’
‘Running diagnostics on TS-01… Physical and mental stat baseline imprinted successfully from the Imprints…’
‘Error… Detected abnormal readings from Mutagen crystal absorption…
‘Error… Absorption failed… Commencing connection with TS-01’s consciousness…’
‘Error… Skill usage detected… Connection with TS-01 is being forced to termination by the test specimen...’
‘Warning, Test specimen - 01 has been partially taken over by a beast consciousness from the Mutagen crystal…’
Before the computer system concluded its report the glass tube started to vibrate. With a flashing light, the sound of glass breaking could be heard and the liquid rushed out into the room. As the flash subsided, the teenage girl was lying on the floor on all fours coughing out the green growth fluid. A crystal twice the size of a marble could be seen on her neck that shone faint orange. Looking up, her deep brown eyes searched around in panic till they met with those of the General's. Her eyes only looked like the ones of a frightened beast. She knew what was coming and come it did as her left eye started turning red. The mutagen crystal embedded on the upper back of her neck started to dig deeper inside her making her scream. Slowly, her body started to change and shiny silver scales started sprouting on the left half of her body. The back of her hip started to bleed as a small-scaled tail started growing from where her spine ended. As TS-01 was changing her shouts of pain started sounding beastly till a final roar was let out. She looked back at the General. Her glaring fierce eyes had no reason left in them. Breaking the tube connected to her stomach, she stood up to move while the computer system continued,
‘Appraisal on TS-01 complete…’
Status
Name
TS-01
Age
18 Earth Years
Race
???
HP
???/???
MP
???/???
Stamina
???/???
Conditions
Enraged, Failed Mutation(Super Degenerative)
Title
???????
Stats
Strength
??
Constitution
??
Dexterity
??
Intelligence
??
Wisdom
??
?????????
??
Skills
??
‘Warning, TS-01 has had a failed absorption with the Mutagen crystal and the beast cores are trying to take over the host…’
Just as the computer system was warning, the beast claw that grew on TS-01’s left hand was thrust towards the General’s heart. Watching everything from behind the cat mask, the General simply sidestepped, evading attack after attack from TS-01.
‘TS-01 is in Enraged mode, its stats are rising. It looks to be confused and the agitation made its mind numb to perception and reasoning…’ the computer warned.
The shorter blonde-haired woman yelled, “General, it looks like our calculations failed. Please take it down carefully, we may use the test specimen to understand what went wrong and though it will be very hard we can try again.”
“No, let us give her the time to fight back, she might take back control, ask the system if we can prevent the degeneration and how-to bring TS-01 back to normal,” responded the General while kiting the pursuing 01 like a man does a pup.
As soon as the blonde-haired woman worked on the computer,
‘Mutagen crystal is dominating TS-01, absorption process can be prevented by extracting it from TS-01, warning this may lead to varied consequences as the crystal was partially absorbed the physical structure of TS-01 is currently unstable. TS-01 may retaliate with extreme violence to prevent and obtain the crystal back…’
Hearing this, the General hesitated and while she did, TS-01 fell to her knees as the Mutagen crystal started to shine again. Letting out another bestial roar, the scales started spreading to other parts of her body. With the way things started to develop the General resolved herself. She moved in and before TS-01 could even comprehend her presence, the General was standing beside her, the Mutagen crystal in her hand and a deep gash on TS-01’s back.
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‘Absorption process halted… Warning, a Super Degenerative state has taken root in the body due to the failed mutation, TS-01’s body system is trying to stabilize its cellular structure… Body constitution distorted… The amount of beast cores absorbed is causing severe system destabilization…’
‘Detected a Unique Physical stat, Fortitude… Error, stat value too low… Complete system failure confirmed…’
As the computer system informed the General of this failure, TS-01 let out a shout which this time more like a human sounded human than a bestial roar. When TS-01 looked up at the General, the left eye that was completely Red previously was showing hints of brown with streams of tears in her eyes. Looking at this the General felt that maybe TS-01 was fighting back the takeover and there still was some chance of all that has gone wrong to be recovered, chance that all the effort that she has put in so far to make this happen not to go to waste, a chance that her revenge can be exacted upon sooner.
Observing the General and knowing what she was thinking from a distance, the blonde-haired woman shouted in panic, “General, please do not use that skill. I beg you. I know how much invested in this you are and how much this means to you, anything but that skill. We can accrue more points eventually and probably even obtain another set of Modules in time and the next time we can be better prepared. We can even try to create a better Mutagen crystal before attempting, please I request you not to use that skill, there are too many unknown variables involved…”
Despite all her protests, the blonde-haired woman could clearly see the resolve in the General’s eyes. Mirroring the resolve her eye shone of, she pressed her hand down on the scaled-back of TS-01 activating a skill and a notification screen lit up in front of her,
‘Skill Devour activated… ‘
‘Analyzing target Constitution and Fortitude… Target physical base Stats low… Can successfully absorb the target ’
‘Attention, Devour skill detected in target… can absorb the target’s physical and mental stats… Estimating absorption percentage…’
‘Error…’
‘Target cellular structure unstable…’
‘Stabilize the target cells before absorbing?…’
‘Confirmed… Attempting Stabilization of target cellular structure…’
‘Error…’
‘Detected mutagens from higher-ranked beasts affecting the cellular structure… Host Fortitude insufficient for the cumulative beast stats absorbed…’
‘Warning, destabilized mutagens are invading into the host through the target… Skill usage is being forcefully terminated to protect the host…’
Before the General could complete reading her notifications and realize what happened, she felt something push her hand away from TS-01. As the skill backlash from breaking it mid-way took hold of TS-01’s body, it started to glow. Struggling with pain from the backlash, a realization could be seen in TS-01’s face. The next instant she started moving away from the General. The computer system let out warnings while the entire bunker was blinking with red lights,
‘Warning, highly concentrated energy anomaly detected; anomaly detected as a skill backlash. The degenerative state in the test specimen is being converted into a high-energy release form…’
‘Warning measured estimation of impact intensity too high…’
‘Attention, Bunker structural integrity estimated to withstand the impact…’
While the General relaxed at the last notification she realized something and started scanning around her for what she needed to protect, when her eyes met the blonde-haired woman’s which were in tears, shock and fear was written all across her face. The entire room was filled with blinding light and the expected explosion occurred.
A while later, with a ringing head the blonde-haired woman came to her senses, opening her eyes and squinting she tried to take in what happened and how she was even alive after the impact. The only thing that greeted her vision was darkness. A huge amount of pain shot up through her hands and legs when she tried moving them indicating multiple fractures across her limbs. Additionally, she could feel something heavy lying on top of her body. She tried moving but realized her body was not responding. Panicking, she brought up her status page,
Status
Name
Anthea Oles (Annie)
Age
32 years
Race
Human(Evolved)
Level
48
EXP
23,320,258/ 143,259,786
HP
250/540 (D)3
MP
10/1,608 (D)
Stamina
15/630 (D)
Conditions
Fractured, Bled(low blood quantity), Low bleeding, Stunned (00:25min), Mana system Damaged, Strengthened Health potion
Titles
[Monster’s Bane, Earth’s Warrior, Records Collector,…+2]
Stats
Strength
29
Constitution
45
Dexterity
44
Intelligence
201
Wisdom
133
Skills
[Senses(Lvl.34), Mana Bolt(Lvl.47), Advanced Machine Handling(Lvl.62), Low Body Strengthening(Lvl.16), Mana Shield (Lvl.32), Mana Barrier(Lvl.34), Last stand(Lvl.26),….+10]
[+25 Hidden Skills]
Shocked, looking at the inflicted conditions she realized why she couldn’t move, and to better understand what happened so far she decided to check her notifications, but when she did, she was surprised to learn how much damage she went through in spite of activating all her body strengthening and defense spells,
‘Skill Low Body Strengthening Activated -250MP’
‘Skill Mana Shield Activated -1000MP’
‘Skill Mana Barrier Activated -500MP’
‘Skill Last stand activated; Mana barrier will additionally absorb damage at 1 MP per 13 damage’
‘High-velocity impact detected… Damage value exceeded 8,000… Mana Shield destroyed; Strengthened Mana barrier absorbed 29,510 points of damage -2,270MP’
‘Warning Mana reserves completely exhausted, Mana network damaged, experiencing Severe Mana Exhaustion…’
‘Damage taken -2,490HP, critical HP drop detected, Death Imminent, Ring of Life Auto-activated…Damage absorbed… HP replenished’
‘Attention, several fractures and ruptures in body detected, severe blood loss detected… -2% HP/sec’
‘Warning HP tipping below 10% safety limit’
‘Warning HP detected below 5% critical limit’
‘Used 1x strengthened Health potion +2,500HP… Critical wounds closed… Replenishing life force +30% HP regen rate…’
Realizing she almost died despite using up the luckiest and most expensive item she ever found in the tower, the Ring of Life which probably might’ve disintegrated into nothing by now, she was happy at least she got to live another day. Concluding the potion should have definitely been the General’s doing, she was surprised at remembering the intensity of the backlash caused by the absorbed beast cores. As she started to feel she could move again she tried touching herself and that’s when she realized she was under another body which could only be the General’s. She tried to move her but she was physically and mentally far too exhausted to even try and her stamina wasn’t looking any promising.
After waiting out and trying a few times, she could finally move the body slowly recognizing all the parts affected. She checked up on her entire body and found her right arm was completely limp with multiple fractures along with some other parts of her body taking severe damage. After completing her physical checkup, she tried to check up on the General.
She was confident in the General’s Unique skill that reinforces and promotes her body constitution along with the stats that are at least a few times higher than herself. Additionally, unlike her magical class skills, the General was a Tank with a lot more advanced skills that could help in physical reinforcement and damage reduction, with these things in her mind when she at the General what met her eyes drained the remaining life she was holding onto.
The entirety of General’s front side was charred as if the impact roasted her. Her arms were missing well above her elbow. Realizing that the general must have jumped right in front of her and Shielded the entire energy impact and just the impact from the general’s collision into her got her to where she was.
Quickly retrieving a Strengthened Health potion and a Strengthened Mana potion from her inventory she used them on the General. Looking at her lifeless eyes that were staring at the roof of the room the blonde-haired woman worrying for the worst called out, “General, stay with me, you have to make it, you promised me several things, I cannot let you out so easily, we have a contract remember?”, though she never lost her business-like tone one could clearly feet how worried she was in the way she was pulling out potions one after another, making the General drink some and pouring some on different parts of her body.
When she was about to pour another potion on the General’s face, she stopped her with a look and said, ”Let it stay as is, I need to remember my failures. I need to remember how much my overconfidence has cost us. I never imagined that I could have acquired a Mutagen crystal let alone one I could load up with a B Ranked beast core. Despite all that I let my desire for revenge cloud my judgment, it not only hurt my plans but…”
As she trailed off, the concern on the blonde woman’s face was slowly being replaced. Looking at the General’s guilty face she started to have a bad feeling and said, “ I told you there were too many variables we had no idea of, this was never something we could’ve achieved that easily in the first place, if it was that easy why didn’t anyone else try it before us? Not just humans, you said there are no successful reports from any other know race even in the Galactic records.”
In spite of all her words to try and console the General, she noticed the General’s face didn’t change. With a realization that something else was wrong and as she remembered the spent millions of points the blonde-haired woman got unnaturally angry and shouted, “What have you done, show me!!!”
Resolving herself, the General opened her Status page and the Notifications panel sharing it with the blonde-haired woman,
Status
Name
Zoe Ivarr (General, Meathead,…+5)
Age
46 years
Race
Human(Evolved)
Level
89
EXP
1,526,532,445/8,448,535,909
HP
1,225/49,995 (D)
MP
25/840 (D)
Stamina
255/18,762 (D)
Conditions
[Dismembered , Bled(low blood quantity), Mana system Broken, Extreme Energy Backlash, Cell Degeneration(1/???Days), Strengthened Health potion, Strengthened Mana potion, Life potion,…+5]
Titles
[Master Devourer, Daughter of Gluttony, Monster Destroyer, Earth’s General, Star System Champion,…+12]
Stats
Strength
201
Constitution
798
Dexterity
133
Intelligence
105
Wisdom
74
Fortitude
313
Skills
Senses(Lvl.78), Advanced Body Strengthening(Lvl.96), Taunt(Lvl.72), Enrage(Lvl.54), Mountain Stance (Lvl.76),...+36]
[+68 Hidden Skills]
“Cell Degeneration!?!”
1. Body imprint (F) and Mind Imprint modules (F) records the current DNA structure of the body and the mental layout of the host’s brain to make a copy of who they are. More about this will be shared as the lore progresses.
2. Mutagen Crystal(F) for this story will be a crystal that can absorb multiple beast cores and be used as a Mutation source. More about this will be shared as the lore progresses.
3. Used (D) beside the combat data components to show that the value is under Debuff and reduced compared to what it actually should be due to various Condition inflictions.