Undead city-Altraud
At the peak of the dungeon of shadows
Arya rushed towards the altar and sat in front of it with her knees on the ground. She closed her eyes and after clapping her hands twice, loudly made her wish.
“Please let me see my dead mother in exchange for my eyes”
She waited for something to happen but nothing happened causing her to frown in annoyance. She turned to Arthur and while pointing her fingers towards the Panther, complained.
“Arthur, this cat’s cheating. It brought us to the wrong place”
Her remark caused a tick mark to appear on the Panther's head but before it could do anything Arthur stopped it. Turning towards Arya he explained.
“The circle you are standing on is called a mutation circle. It helps mutate a part of your body or regain a lost body part nothing more, nothing less. Maya demonstrate” he requested and found her cheekily staring back at him.
“Hmm, what do I get in return? Oh I know, I want to play with that cat” she asked with a predatory gleam in her eyes.
“I am a panther” the Panther screamed in irritation about being called a cat multiple times but was ignored. Arthur gave the Panther a sidelong glance and with a sigh inquired for more.
“What will you do with it?”
“Oh nothing much, just want to spend some time with it”
He nodded at that and shook hands with Maya.
“What about my opinion?” the Panther asked annoyed but Maya ignored it and walked towards the magic circle with cheerful steps.
After reaching the centre of the circle she pulled one of her teeth and placed it on the circle. Immediately a black gas emerged from the circle and swallowed the tooth. After that, the Alter at the centre of the magic circle emitted an eerie back gas that formed a vague image of a hooded skeleton holding a sickle in one hand and a blank plate in the other hand.
After completely consuming the tooth, letters appeared on the blank plate.
Species-undead Number of mutations-0/3 Possible mutations -regaining the lost heart -bone hardening -brain sharpening Choose the mutations from the list Warning: once a part is mutated, it cannot be mutated again> Maya nodded at the possible mutations and chose to regain the heart. She won't be able to modify her heart with the mutation circle ever again but she was okay with it. She pressed the option for regaining the heart and immediately the sickle in the hands of the eerie skeleton turned into gas and entered Maya's body. A few seconds later the gas left her body and returned to the skeleton which then merged back into the alter. Maya stared at her body and found a pulsating heart in her ribcage. The tip of the heart produced a green hue which spread equally to all the chambers of her heart and gave it a green glow. Maya marvelled at her newfound strength for a few seconds and then ripped two pages in her skill book to obtain two skills of her own. They were The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. An active skill that consumes hue to drain the opponent's speed and gives a portion of it to the user. The more the opponent's speed the more the speed boost that the user gains. Range-10 meters(can improve with practice) An active skill that consumes hue to drain the opponent's health and gives a portion of it to recover the user's lost health. The more healthy the opponents the more the recovery. Range- 10 meters(can improve with practice) Maya placed her hand on the two papers containing the skill and covered them with her hue. Immediately the skill circle appeared in two separate chambers of her heart. The hue in those chambers rushed into the circle and activated them for instantaneous use. Maya nodded in satisfaction and turned to Arya. “Your turn” she announced and gave way for her to gain her mutations. Arya entered the circle and tried to remove her teeth but Arthur stopped her. “You don't need to break your teeth, a few drops of blood will do” Arya nodded in understanding and poured a few drops of her blood on the circle. A black gas covered it and the eerie skeleton returned carrying the same blank plate with it. After it was done analysing the blood, letters appeared on the blank plate Species-vampire Number of mutations-1/3 mutated organ-heart Possible mutations Brain sharpening Muscle strengthening Eye mutation-gain heat vision Bone hardening Choose the mutation from the list Warning: once a part is mutated, it cannot be mutated again> “Huh, 1 mutation?” Arya mumbled in confusion. It was her first time even hearing about the concept of mutations so the fact that she already had a mutation confused her. The others were just as confused as her except for the Panther. “Do you have some idea?” Arthur asked the Panther and received a nod of affirmation. “I think she was born with an abnormal heart. Her heart has far too much energy for a girl her age, I never saw her run out of hue during our entire fight” All the others listened to the explanation and found it to be true, Arya never ran out of hue, sure she grew tired and lost stamina but her hue was never an issue. “Well, whatever it may be, we can't do anything about it so let's get back to the mutations” Arthur suggested and pushed her towards the altar. After a bit of contemplation, Arya chose brain sharpening as her mutation and immediately a black smoke entered her brain. Arya frowned at the strange sensation caused by her brain being modified, it felt like someone was hammering her head with a war hammer which was not pleasant but she endured it. After a few seconds, everything returned to normal with the only difference being Arya's increased perception and increased range of her skills. Both her skills With her mutations done, she turned towards Peter and encouraged him to go for his reward. Peter followed the same procedure as Maya and placed his teeth on the circle. The letters on his blank plate were Species-undead Number of mutations-0/3 Possible mutations Regaining the lost heart Bone hardening Brain sharpening Regaining lost bones Choose the mutation from the list Warning: once a part is mutated it cannot be mutated again> Peter stared at the options for a while and something about it made him frown, “Um, will I be able to mutate my bones after I regain them?” he asked the eerie skeleton and immediately the letters on the blank plate changed, Warning: once a part is mutated it cannot be mutated again> The statement dashed all of Peter's hopes, his bones were frail so even if he did get them back they would remain frail. To top it off he wouldn't be able to mutate them. He didn't want to waste a mutation only to get a weak body but Arya did so much for him to get his body back and he didn't want to disappoint her. Arya watched him from behind and understood his distress. “Choose whatever you want” she said with a stoic look but Peter could see a tinge of warmth in her almost emotionless eyes. He nodded at her and chose-regaining the lost heart as his option. The back smoke entered his skull and since he had no ribcage a crystal heart appeared on his forehead between his eye sockets. The crystal heart was green in colour and had a rhomboid shape with four chambers inside it. The tip of the rhombus produced a green hue which spread to all the chambers and was stored in them. By the time the whole procedure was done, Peter had a toothy grin on his face and was hopping like a pinball all around the place in excitement. Arya and the others joined him in the excitement. By the time they were done celebrating, Arthur approached them and warned Peter about the potential problems of having an exposed heart. “Your heart is visible for everyone to see and you have no limbs to fight so always stay at a distance and don't fight in close combat” Peter nodded at his suggestion. He knew that if he stubbornly fought in close combat he would only become a burden to others and he didn't want that. Maya approached him and gave him a few skill pages but he refused them. The skills “Um, chief, can I get a skill that can drain my group's pain and fatigue?” “Do you know what you are asking for?” Arthur questioned just to be sure and received a nod of affirmation.