Sarah was washing herself in the cold, raging river in a frenzy. She had expected that killing the guy in the cave would give her the same rush as the fight in the woods did.
But she just felt dirty. And she also realized why. The rush didn’t come from killing itself. But from fighting to the death, and surviving it. What she had done in the cave was just cold-blooded murder.
At least she didn’t feel guilty about it, as the man had been scum through and through.
After a while, she realized that she couldn’t get any cleaner. So she dressed again in the uncomfortable clothing and went up the hill again.
While running silently through the woods, she thought about the fight with the three men again. Her reactions had been way too slow. She now realized the downside of her suppression skill.
She hadn’t paid the warning any mind, as it hadn’t been apparent to her what it meant. But now she did.
Her suppressed instinctual behavior also influenced her reaction time. It seemed to her that she had to consciously think about doing something before her body followed suit. That led to her reacting slowly to threats, resulting in her being caught off guard again and again.
But luckily, she had a solution to her shortcomings. Her Mutation skill.
Now that she wasn’t alone and didn’t live in a deadly spatial error anymore, she could fully utilize the Mutation skill.
The process of mutating has its merits, as it could heal potentially fatal wounds. But there was no guarantee that she would be able to mutate exactly in the place where she would get a critical wound. And if she were stronger, the likelihood of her getting such a wound would decrease.
More power meant less danger to her life. Rather more danger to everyone else.
When she got to the caves, she didn’t join the busy crowd. Instead, she sneaked around the edges of the clearing, not wanting to be seen.
People had been tense around her after the happenings around Dennis and Vanessa. And she really didn’t want to deal with this right now.
So she silently went to the bottom of the cliff and started climbing after making sure that nobody paid any attention in this direction.
"Don’t look down, don’t look down." Sarah mumbled to herself while climbing further up. Her goal was a cave that was located much higher than any of the trees around them. There, she would undergo the mutations.
But it was so damn high up. "Don’t look down, don’t look…" She was interrupted in her mantra when a part of the wall she had just grabbed broke off.
With the other hand, she gripped the stone wall so hard that it actually cracked a little. She was free-falling for one second until her right hand stopped her fall. For a short moment, she made the mistake of looking down while dangling from her right hand.
With a groan, she tightly clung to the wall again and calmed her breath for a moment. She really wasn’t good with heights.
The last part wasn’t long anymore, so she got to the elevated cave without further issues.
With a content sigh, she walked deep inside the cave and sat on the ground.
First, it was time to check what she had gained from the so-called quest the system gave her.
Rewards: * Unlocked: Mutation extensions (partially) * Achievement: Junior Reaper (upgradable): You are able to slightly sense weak points in your enemies.> Sarah was very content with her rewards. Not only did she get a new achievement that would most likely help her in battle, but she also got an addition to her Mutation specialization. Furthermore, the completion of the quest gave her a new level, pushing her to level fifteen. This meant that she had 35 Life Force points, but only twenty have been used so far. It was time to get even more freakish. With some excitement, she opened up the mutation screen. A flurry of new options greeted her, and she didn’t know where to start. But the new options in Organs and Processes were the most interesting: * Acid Gland (not recommended, 4LF): A gland located in the throat that produces highly corrosive acid. Can be spit out with moderate pressure. * Extension: Gaseous acid (1LF) * Poison Gland (4LF): A gland located in the throat that produces potent poison. Can be spit out with moderate pressure. * Extension: Gaseous poison (1LF) * Poison concentration organ (not recommended, 7LF): A special organ located underneath the heart. Collects highly toxic waste and concentrates it. The product can be injected into the bloodstream for a short burst of lethality. For more options, increase your level and/or heighten your Life Force> That was really awesome. These mutations would be invisible but would give her fighting power a huge bonus. She was very tempted to immediately choose the Poison concentration organ. But as she didn’t have that many points left, she had to take a closer look at every option she had. * Oily film (1LF) * Contact poison film (1LF) * Acidic film (1LF) * Magic signature suppression (2LF) Mutation: Bone structure. Listing available extensions to "High density bones" (0/3) * Predator teeth (1LF) * Poison teeth (1LF) * Vital organ shielding (2LF) * Retractable claws (2LF) Mutation: Muscles. Listing available extensions to "Strengthened Fibers" (0/3) * Short fibers (explosive strength) (1LF) * Medium-length fibers (strength + endurance) (1LF) * Long fibers (endurance) (1LF) * Magic Power reinforcement (2LF) Mutation: Brain, nerve system, and sensory organs. Listing available options. * Protective brain webbing (2LF): Protective webbing surrounding the brain. It cushions it and protects it from impacts. * Optimized brain structure (Battle) (not recommended) (6LF): Optimized structure, focused on movement and decision making. * Sturdy nerve system (3LF): Impacts and wounds will impede the functionality of the nerve system less. * Decentralized nerve system (10LF): Signals can be transmitted, as long as one nerve-string still connects the brain to the respective body parts.> Those were some nice options. She thought she had a lot of Life Force points. But seeing that one of the options used up a whole ten points, it didn’t seem that much anymore. "But seriously, oily film? How gross do you want me to become?" She asked the system in a perplexed voice and looked at the extension options for her skin in disgust. Apart from the magic signature suppression, every other option would guarantee that no sane person would ever touch her again. No thanks. But at least the optimized brain structure was exactly what she needed right now. It sounded like it would counter the deficit she got from her nerve suppression skill. Other than that, she wanted to increase her lethality. As tempting as the poison organ was, the immediate gain wasn’t as apparent as the glands. Even more so, because she could add an extension to make the poison or acid gaseous. She would be able to melt her enemies just by breathing. But what else should she choose? Natural weapons such as claws and teeth were certainly useful. But what about the more exotic options? Or should she take the Magic Signature Suppression? Ah, fuck it." She said while scratching her head in frustration. "I am not made to think too much about stuff like this. Give me the murder brain, the acid breath, and the claws and teeth." Sarah smiled at the notification, telling her about the mutations that would start in a few seconds. "Oh wait." She said in shock, her eyes widening. "Was it a good idea to do everything in one go?" "Why don’t you ever tell me that before?!" She screamed at the system in frustration. It was the first time it had actually answered her, and it had to be something like this. But before she could swear at the system, she blacked out. With a cough, Sarah woke up as suddenly as she lost consciousness. She was lying face down on the ground, and a lot of dirt had gotten into her mouth. Her whole body hurt, and her brain felt like it would be splitting apart. Not to mention the weird foreign feeling she had in her throat. When she felt it, she started to gag, and a stream of slightly turquoise gas exited her mouth. The dirt in her mouth immediately melted into goo, and the stone and dirt right in front of her didn’t fare any better. A bubbling mess was in front of her that quickly vaporized and filled the air with an acrid stench. "Awesome." Sarah coughed out the goo in her mouth and tried to suppress the reflex to gag even more. She would have to get this new gland under control, before she accidentally melted one of her new friends. She was pretty sure that they wouldn’t be too happy about that. Her head was throbbing like it would burst any second, but she wanted to check on her body before she went to sleep. With some hesitation, she held her hands in front of her face. Luckily, the worst hadn’t come to pass. She still had her normal nails, but right underneath them, a small vertical slit could be seen. She needed a few moments to figure out how to extract her claws. The small, bony claws slid out of her finger tips while she shuddered in disgust. That was a really horrible and wrong feeling. The claws were disappointingly small, but it made sense that they weren’t all too big, considering they were retractable. Where would long claws go without stiffening her fingers completely? At least they were very, very sharp. She applied a little bit of pressure, and they cut through her dense skin like it was a thin leaf. They would rip normal skin to shreds in seconds. As she had no possibility to check on her teeth visually, she had to make do with checking them out with her tongue. "Ow!" she screamed in fright as a slight brush against her new sharp and long canines ripped a wound in her tongue. With an annoyed sigh, she tested her teeth with her fingers. It appeared that all her teeth had changed. The basic structure of her teeth was still the same. But her canines were far longer now, and every tooth had gained one or more very sharp tips. As long as she didn’t accidentally bite her own tongue, this was also a very good weapon. Lastly, she opened up her status screen to see if her mutations had changed anything in her stats. Details: Level: 16 Name: Sarah Anna Fischer Class: Nightmare Race: Mutant Status: Disoriented (50% higher Magic Power consumption. 80% slower reaction time) HP: 200/235 SP: 40/205 MP: 100/390 Basic Stats: Strength: 13 Dexterity: 20 Endurance: 15 Resistance: 10 Intelligence: 21 Force: 10 Special Stats: Magic Power: 16 Life Force: 38 Mental Power: 23 In the beginning, she was elated to see that she got six extra points in dexterity. And she even leveled up from the mutations. But then she noticed with shock that the mutation of her brain had taken away one point from her intelligence. Oh, come on!" she shouted in the empty air. But the system seemingly didn’t want to answer her anymore. So she could only let it go with a sigh. The throbbing in her head got worse and worse after she concentrated on figuring out the changes in her body. With a pained groan, she let herself sink to the ground. Even though she was in a lot of pain, she couldn’t help but smile a toothy grin. It didn’t matter how strong this group of brutal men were. If they attacked them again, she would rip them apart and melt their remains. Very pleased with this outlook, she let herself glide into a deep slumber. And the whole time she was asleep, a happy smile could be seen on her face.