Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 299

Chapter 299

Once outside the diner, Jake turned to look at the small building. Now, he should be able to summon his creatures from his lair thanks to Corruptor’s Call. It was time to give it a try.

He envisioned his lair, concentrating on it without actually using the ability yet. Last time he tried, nothing happened. Before obtaining Corruptor’s Call, the mental link to his lair was always severed as soon as he left. However, now that he had the ability, he could feel a connection to his lair even when he was outside. 

He still couldn’t control his structures from outside his lair, but he could definitely sense every creature milling about within. There were three Rank I larvae crawling on the Corruption, two Rank I spiders scuttling from one spot to another, one Rank I roach, two Rank I flies, and one Rank II fly.

He didn’t just know it—he could feel a connection to every single creature, sensing the position of each one in his lair. It was incredible. He hadn’t been capable of that before, which meant it had become possible thanks to Corruptor’s Call—even though the ability’s description didn’t mention this, only stating he could summon the creatures from his lair.

He could sense that while his larvae crawled on the patch of Corruption, the roach and two spiders freely wandered around the basement, not confined to the Corruption. At some point, one of the spiders stopped directly beneath the hatch door. However, it couldn’t escape the lair, as it was incapable of scaling vertical surfaces.

Jake knew the three basic creatures developed in the Hive Nexus were just blanks. They currently didn’t have any unique abilities, but hopefully, after the Mana Core finished its upgrade to Rank III, he would be able to evolve his creatures and grant them some interesting abilities. 

It was time to check the main function of Corruptor’s Call. He concentrated on the Rank II fly and immediately felt a mental connection to it. He could tell the winged creature was currently hovering in one of the farthest corners of the basement. He gave it a mental command to come to him, and the fly immediately obeyed. While he couldn’t see it, he felt it flying across the basement toward the hatch door he had left open.

A few seconds later, the fly came into view. It flew over the edge of the roof, descending to the ground. It halted near him, hovering in the air five feet above the ground. Jake issued a mental command for it to go explore the city, and the fly darted away, moving down the street.

Jake scaled the front wall of the diner and crouched below the parapet, ensuring he couldn’t be seen from the street. It was time to test another ability he had recently acquired—Vision Link. He sensed the fly still navigating down the street, heading in the same direction. Focusing his mind on the creature, he activated the ability, creating a connection with the fly.

Immediately, he was viewing the world through the fly’s eyes. The first thing he noticed was that the field of vision narrowed drastically. Unlike his own eyes, the fly’s were much smaller, with a much narrower field of vision. He then tried to control the fly, but nothing happened. Vision Link only allowed him to see through his creatures’ eyes, but he was sure he would eventually acquire the ability to control them as well.

Even though Jake was watching through the fly’s eyes, he could still feel and control his own body. He decided to keep observing the fly to learn its behavior pattern. He didn’t expect much from it, though, considering it was one of the three simplest creatures he could create.

The fly continued to move in the same direction. Suddenly, a walker appeared in its line of sight. It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, but Jake suspected it had emerged from a nearby alley or building. Had he been looking through his own eyes, he would have noticed the walker as soon as it appeared. However, since the fly had a much narrower field of vision, it noticed the walker only when the mutant was right in front of it.

The fly didn’t react to the ex-human’s sudden appearance at all. It continued to fly forward, weaving around the mutant as if it were an inanimate obstacle. The walker wasn’t going to let it pass, though. The mutant lashed out at the fly with its claws. The fly didn’t even try to dodge, so the blow hit true. Considering the fly was weak, Jake expected it to die in just one strike. Surprisingly, it was still alive.

Now that it had been attacked, the fly turned and flew toward its enemy with the intention to retaliate. Yet, before it could get within striking distance, the walker lashed out again, and the world was suddenly plunged into darkness. In the next instant, Jake found himself seeing through his own eyes again. It was clear that his Rank II fly had just been killed. 

The fly was significantly weaker than the walker. Instead of attempting to fight, it should have tried to flee. While the fly decided to fight back, it did so only after it was attacked. His creatures definitely weren’t very smart at the moment, lacking situational awareness, but he hoped they would improve through the evolution cycles.

Jake jumped down to the ground and ran toward the spot where his fly had been killed. It didn’t take him long to get there. Dealing with the walker that had killed his fly took just one second. Once the ex-human was taken care of, Jake lowered his gaze to the remains of the fly. Nothing much was left of the creature—just a pile of dust.

Jake remembered that when detached from his body, his tentacles turned to dust because they couldn’t survive without a source of mana. The same applied to the fly: when it was killed, mana escaped through its wounds, causing its body to turn to dust. Each of his creatures obviously had a certain amount of mana that sustained them, which was gradually consumed over time.

Jake took a moment to think. His creatures depended on mana, just like he did. If one consumed its last vestige of magical energy, it would die. He decided to verify something. He returned to the diner but stayed outside instead of going back into his lair. He focused on one of the creatures within. 

Name: Roach

Rank: I

The usual stats of the creature popped into his mind. However, he was interested in its mana, so he issued a mental command to display it. It worked, confirming that it indeed contained a certain amount of mana within its body.

MP: 455/500

The roach was the very first creature he had created. So either his creatures drained mana rather slowly—especially when they were idle—or they could absorb mana from the Mana Core when they were running low on it. Either option suited him.

He then checked the other creatures to assess their mana consumption. As it turned out, every creature had barely used any mana, suggesting the former was likely true.

He was quite confident that they could tap into the Mana Core when needed, at least when they were close to it. But what if they ventured too far away? Could he transfer mana from himself to one of his creatures manually? He decided to test this right away. 

He gave a mental command for one of the Rank I flies to leave the lair and come to him. A few seconds later, the fly hovered in the air beside him. He checked its mana and learned the creature had 478 MP. He held out a hand and issued a command to transfer mana to it.

Bluish energy flowed from his palm toward the fly and was absorbed by the creature.

– 22 MP

The process stopped, and he checked the creature’s mana again. It was back to a full 500 MP. So he could actually feed his creatures with his own mana when they were away from the Mana Core. It was reassuring to know. Perhaps, at some point, they could also learn to absorb mana from various sources, just like him.

Jake sent the fly back to the lair and turned away from the diner. The Mana Core was still in the process of evolving to Rank III, needing about two hours and thirty minutes more to reach completion. He decided to hunt for XP in the meantime.