Chapter 88: Upgrades

The harvest team had arrived via Portal before Ryan finished skinning the Leopard and the group made quick work of the carcasses. Ryan helped as much as he could and once the job was done accompanied them back to the base through the Portal.

Once he had dropped his share off the load at the processing wagon he headed off to grab a belated dinner. He’d need all the protein he could eat tonight and another helping or two of snake meat would probably unlock an additional mutation or two. Alexis found him halfway through his third helping. “You’re ready for tonight?” she asked him.

“A bit worried, but yes.” he replied once he had swallowed the morsel he’d been chewing.

“Ok, good. We’re ready on our side too.” Alexis confirmed. “I’ll take first watch and Tanya can take over a couple hours later so you’ll have one of us scanning you the entire time. So, ready to head out.”

Ryan called up the notes he had made during the past few discussions with Alexis, Marnus and Tanya. Fast-twitch fibrosity (lion), glycogen processing (lion), red platelets (lion), cartilage density (python), olfactory receptor density (python), rod density (lion-photoreceptors), infrared rod sensitivity (python), enamel growth speed (lion). The list of mutations he had chosen after the in-depth discussions with what passed for their medical experts should take about 8 hours. Ryan had actually been annoyed at himself once he realised that any of the mutations he had unlocked so far could be done whenever he wished and weren’t reliant on further biological material from the species they had originated from. Once he had the template stored in the recombinant lattice his body could always access it. Only when he had realised this he understood the warning that had come when unlocking the recombinant omnivore mutation.

If he mutated indiscriminately he could easily turn himself into a horrible chimera of conflicting or diametrically opposed mutations. This realisation had led to the discussions with the medical team and the current list that they deemed safe and advantageous. In future, he’d make a serious effort to eat anything that could have an interesting mutation raw to unlock mutations. Like the leopard that the baboon had killed. Ryan shuddered in revulsion as he remembered the rank gamey smell as they had butchered it and imagined the taste. ‘The things I do for power’ he thought to himself before he realised that Alexis was still waiting on an answer.

“Sure. Lemme just finish this.” he replied belatedly before starting to choke down the rest of the dish. With his appetite now truly dead as a result of his wayward thoughts the fact that he finished in 30 seconds or so wasn’t a mean feat and Ryan got to his feet the moment he had shoved the last spoonful of stew into his mouth.

He settled down on the cot they’d placed in the temporary medical ward with his thoughts still revolving around his possible list of mutations. From the things he had eaten over the last few months he’d managed to sequence an absolute plethora of DNA. Most of it was fragmentary and unusable. Others were incompatible such as the majority of plant based DNA he’d unlocked. He’d tweaked the map of possible mutations with the help of some purchased manuals that had set him back a bit on his progress towards his Universal Quantum Lattice but had been well worth it. Marnus had also sprung for a similar set of manual and the Physiastrist had been able to advise him on his choices.

Still, nothing was certain and Ryan was deeply concerned that he’d somehow mutate himself into a cripple. The three had understood his apprehension once he’d shared it but reassured him that everything should be fine. A sentiment he couldn’t share, it wasn’t their bodies undergoing experimental mutation.

Ryan realised that he was procrastinating. “Here we go.” he informed the group and commenced the queued mutations.

Ding

…Interface has detected incomplete synergies in attempted mutation procedure…

…calculating…

…recommended course of action: acquisition of greater variety of DNA with respect to ocular mutations. may result in full or ideal synergies. Suggested avenues. Reptilian, avian and wider diversity of mammalian DNA….

Do you wish to proceed at this stage?

Yes

No

Ryan quickly cancelled the procedure and informed the three hovering healers about the discovery. After a short discussion Ryan deselected the photoreceptor mutations and initiated the truncated queue. The first indications of an unbearable itch barely registered before he mercifully faded away into the blackness of unconsciousness.

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Ding

...mutation complete…

…Player gains +3 to Fast Twitch Muscle Speed, +4 to Muscle Strength, +3 to Cartilage Friction Co-effecient, +1 to Resilience, +1 to Healing, +2 to Energy Regen…

…full list of effect of changes can be accessed in Character menu…

Ryan’s message log roused him from the depths. He was comfortably snuggled into his sleeping bag and it was still dark out. A warm shape was snuggled up next to him and the slight snoring blew strands of hair over his ear that tickled unbearably. There was no need to open is eyes as he knew Alexis by her scent. Warm pulses of Energy thrummed through him and Ryan understood that Tanya was scanning him. Ryan opened his eyes. Tanya was sitting on a camp chair next to the cot and had her eyes closed in concentration. After a last pulse went through him she opened her eyes. “All good.” she reassured him.

With a nod to her Ryan pulled up his Character Sheet and had a look. His mutations showed two additional entries. Panthera leo furtim(5)* and Python sebae crassus(2)*. Selecting the starred entries however resulted in an error message.

…Functionality locked under Games Protocol until Player reaches Level 100…

That wasn’t great but it couldn’t be helped. At least he had a summary of the effective changes in his log and, once he tested out the changes on the range, could finally apportion the Stat points that the last four levels had brought him. Which would be great as he was tired of being just slightly too weak to properly use his bow. Ryan was looking forward to the planned session. It would be the first time he’d be wearing his new armour that Leah promised would be ready this morning.

Ryan carefully extricated himself from his unaware snuggle buddy and stepped out of the ward. The cool predawn air was bracing and he was wide awake. He felt…normal. No unexplained twitches, no weird sensations, just at home in his body.

His sense of smell might have been deeper, richer, but if so, it was barely noticeable. Ryan couldn’t smell any coffee brewing and assumed it was still very early so he started a poomsae and got cultivating. Nothing untoward was obvious as he expected his Energy flows. His core seemed to spin slightly slower than he remembered but it had been a while since he had actively cultivated so that might have been the reason. Ryan delved into his inner self, tweaking flows, improving core spin and compressing it as far as he could. Sweat beaded on his forehead, ran down his cheeks, dripped from his chin and pooled at his feet on the bare concrete slab. His inner world had never been clearer, crisper. Still, he made only incremental progress and dropped his efforts as soon as he saw the ambient light get brighter and heard the first stirrings of the camp.

His sense of smell had alerted him that someone was brewing coffee so he headed to the firepit as soon as he had wiped most of the sweat off.

Mike was stirring the coals and with his back still towards Ryan, asked. “How are you feeling?”

“Great. Better with some coffee.”

Wordlessly Mike handed him a cup. Ryan squatted down and joined Mike in silently contemplating the glowing coals and flickering flames as the base started greeting a new day. When Leah arrived he made a motion to rise but Miguel’s girlfriend just waved him down. “After coffee. I only put the finishing touches in late last night. Lemme wake up first.”

Ryan already knew what to expect, of course, since had helped craft the set, but when Leah showed him the complete armour his breath hitched for a second. It was sleek, decidedly subtle. It wasn’t flashy, the scales rubbed to a dull shine scrambled its contours as it hung on its stand, the shape diffuse.

He knew it was incredibly supple and would fit snugly, not unlike racing leathers. The set was split into a long sleeved chest piece and pants which were joined and reinforced by stiff greaves, pauldrons and bracers. The layered scales and supple leather provided flexibility and protection against slashes, cuts and piercing impacts. Blunt impacts might be slightly diffused but the armour wouldn’t provide a lot of protection against them.

When Leah motioned for him to go ahead he stripped down to his briefs and shirt and put on the armour. Leah had to help but he was certain that once he had the hang of it he’d be able to manage on his own.

Clad in supple leather he started a poomsae. Nothing pinched, nothing chafed. Sweat would be a problem, he knew, but the leather felt more breathy than expected.

“I have a surprise for you.” Leah mentioned once he stopped the poemsae. “Two, actually.”

She handed him a pair of scaled boots that matched the rest of the armour. “So we repurposed the inners of your worn set of hiking boots to make these. The soles are from another of your tanning mishaps. turns out that it had qualities very similar to hard rubber and we figured out how to cure it in a mould to create treads.”

Ryan was beyond thankful for the boots. He was on his second set of boots since the apocalypse and they already started showing signs of wear. The constant traipsing through rough terrain wasn’t doing his footwear any favours and it showed.

It was a thoughtful gesture from his teacher and he thanked her profusely.

“Don’t mention it.” She demurred. “You’ll like the second one even more. Stephen figured out that the energy channels in the leather form a pattern of runic effects. He also figured out how to attach an energy siphon to the arrays. So the armour very slowly draws in ambient energy until the colour more or less matches its surroundings. You can speed up the effect by channeling energy into the siphons too. Then it behaves like very laggy active camouflage. Great, isn’t it? Yours is the prototype. We’ll refine it over the next few sets which will be made for all our scout classes.”

Ryan understood that Leah was immensely happy that Miguel would get a similar set of armour. It was near ideal for its purpose and likely to make their jobs safer. Stephen was another person he would have to thank, but this was great news.

Now fully kitted Ryan stalked to the makeshift range they had set up. Carsten was already practicing on some targets and Ryan quickly joined to see if he could handle his bow more comfortably.

After a few shots he understood that his strength, which had grown over the last few days, wasn’t quite there yet. Which meant that he'd have to follow through on his earlier decision.

With a resigned sigh he dissaparated his bow and quiver, collected his arrows and headed for breakfast. It was time to distribute the 40 stat points he had accumulated over the last week.