Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 300

Chapter 300

Jake spent the next two hours slaying one group of various ex-humans after another, gradually gaining XP. His current level was 132, and he needed to level up several times. During the past couple of days, he had focused solely on developing his lair, becoming so engrossed in this task that his own development had taken a backseat.

Now that he was on the hunt for XP, Jake realized he needed to divide his time evenly between developing his lair and improving his own powers. Regular survivors, especially Los Demonios, were constantly getting stronger, so he had to level up as quickly as possible. While it was unlikely that his enemies could turn into a genuine threat any time soon, they might very well become an annoying nuisance. 

His current stats were Body 165, Mind 144, and Magick 199. He needed to significantly increase each of his attributes, as there still remained one ability and four skills available for purchase in the third section of the Genetic Development Interface. However, each of them had extremely high attribute requirements.

Ability: Ground Strike

Requirements: Body 250, Mind 160, Magick 265, Enhanced Strength (Rank V), Enhanced Durability (Rank V)

Cost: 170,000 MP

Skill: Rigging

Requirements: Body 140, Mind 230, Magick 215, Enhanced Intelligence (Rank V)

Cost: 90,000 MP

Skill: Restoration

Requirements: Body 250, Mind 180, Magick 300, Enhanced Regeneration (Rank V), Mana Absorption (Rank III)

Cost: 125,000 MP

Skill: Foresight

Requirements: Body 265, Mind 235, Magick 310, Enhanced Intelligence (Rank V), Feral Instincts (Rank V)

Cost: 140,000 MP

Skill: Psychic

Requirements: Body 290, Mind 350, Magick 325, Enhanced Intelligence (Rank V), Mind Reader (Rank V)

Cost: 175,000 MP

So he currently couldn’t afford to purchase any of them. He would need to level up many more times before he would finally be able to acquire all the remaining skills. Luckily, mutants now yielded much more XP than before, and anomalies that presented challenges were more common as well. Jake had gained quite a lot of XP in the past two hours.

XP: 145,780/166,250

He now needed to gain only 20,470 XP to reach level 133. So he pressed on with his hunt for various types of ex-humans. With less than thirty minutes remaining until the Mana Core evolved to Rank III, he intended to level up during that time before heading back to his lair.

Then, he got lucky and encountered an anomaly with a wave survival challenge. He was standing on the roof of a ten-story building, having fought his way up through all the floors. The anomaly hovered a few feet above the center of the roof. Staying a safe distance from it, he checked the details of the challenge it offered. 

Challenge: Wave Survival

Objective: Survive all waves. Complete the challenge within 60 minutes to receive an additional reward.

Waves: 10

Difficulty: Hard

Recommended Stats: Evolution Stage 3 “Apex Manifestation”, Level 135, Body 175

Reward: 150,000 XP

Extra Reward: 35 SP

Accept: Y/N

Jake gladly accepted the challenge. If he completed it within sixty minutes, he would earn a significant amount of skull points. He intended to get them no matter what.

He sailed through the first several waves. Most of the mutants were the beefed-up types of ex-humans: walkers, leapers, shamblers, slashers, and other familiar varieties.

The anomaly hovering above the center of the rooftop wasn’t too dangerous. It only activated when some mutants got too close, sending bolts of lightning zipping through the air. Jake always successfully dodged the strikes, but those of the mutants who weren’t so lucky got hit, turning into piles of ash.

About halfway through the challenge, a system notification flashed through his mind.

The Mana Core has finished its evolution cycle to Rank III.

The following buildings have become unlocked:

Biomass Storage,

Extractor,

Creation Chamber.

At some point, Jake leveled up from 132 to 133, gaining 5 SP. He continued to fight through the waves of mutants. He couldn’t wait to return to his lair, but he didn’t let his thoughts wander. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He was getting close to completing the challenge, so any distraction was simply unacceptable. 

Jake had his right arm morphed into a chainsaw, while his left remained human-like. Depending on the combat situation, he transformed it into various weapons. At times, he morphed his left hand into a grappling hook to snag mutants and pull them toward him. While he primarily engaged enemies in melee combat, there were instances when he launched rotary saw blades to eliminate foes at a distance. Most of the time, though, he kept his left hand unchanged to hold a mutant steady while he cut into pieces with his chainsaw. 

Jake made it all the way to wave 9 with plenty of time to spare. He was confident he could finish the challenge quickly enough to claim the additional reward. Several rift gates ripped open at various spots, with mutants emerging from them. Jake wasted no time charging at the first one to step onto the roof.

He grabbed the mutant with his left hand and cut its body diagonally in half with his right chainsaw. He then immediately jumped toward the next ex-human, driving the spinning blade with its large, jagged teeth through the mutant’s body. Before the now-dead ex-human could even collapse to the ground, Jake was already dealing with another mutant.

Jake tried to kill the enemies as quickly as possible to keep Chain Reaction active. It was the third upgrade for his chainsaws, increasing the damage dealt for a short time after each kill. Moreover, each consecutive kill amplified the damage increase, making his chainsaw more powerful, cutting through mutants’ bodies increasingly easier. While Chain Reaction was at the top level, his chainsaw sliced through foes almost as easily as a hot knife through butter, resulting in really fast kills. 

Finally, the ninth wave ended, and the tenth wave—the last one—began. Through one of the portals stepped an extremely powerful opponent: an armored brawler. Most of its body was encased in sturdy armor that rendered Jake’s chainsaw ineffective. Luckily, he had another weapon that was quite effective against armor. He morphed his free hand into a drill and charged at the brawler.

The enormous enemy had two massive spiked maces instead of hands. The mutant swung one of them at Jake, but he easily dodged the blow and immediately drove his drill into the center of the mutant’s chest armor. The third upgrade for his drills, called Structural Weakness, immediately kicked in, causing a spider web of cracks to radiate from the hole he had just perforated.

The function of Structural Weakness was to leave behind a weakened spot after a successful attack, which could be exploited for increased damage, amplifying the effectiveness of follow-up attacks. Now that the brawler’s chest armor was compromised, Jake morphed his left hand into a smashfist and slammed it against the armor, shattering it into thousands of shards as if the armor were made of mere glass.

After that, finishing the brawler off was simple. The mutant’s chest was no longer protected by armor, so all he needed to do was drive his chainsaw into the exposed area, inflicting severe damage on the monster. It was the most powerful enemy in this wave, so once it was dead, dealing with the rest of the mutants posed no real challenge for Jake.

Once the last of the mutants was dead, a couple of system messages flashed through his mind. 

Challenge complete! You earned 150,000 XP and 35 SP.  

Congratulations! You have accumulated enough XP to level up. Your level has increased from 133 to 134, and you have 45 SP available.

He had leveled up two times: once during the waves and again after completing the challenge, earning 10 SP. Additionally, he received 35 SP as a reward for finishing the secondary objective. Now, he had 45 SP at his disposal, which wasn’t bad at all. He was also close to earning another level. 

Level: 134

XP: 128,280/168,750

After checking the Genetic Development Interface one more time, he gave the matter some thought and allocated his skill points. 

Body: 165 → 168

Mind: 144 → 145

Magick: 199 → 240

He allocated most of the skill points to Magic, as he needed to maximize his mana capacity. He now needed mana not just for himself but also for his creatures and refilling the Mana Core. 

Now that his Magic attribute was at 240, his maximum mana capacity rose from 299,000 to 340,000. He took a moment to check how much mana he currently had.

MP: 285,452/340,000

He still had plenty of mana, but since his capacity had just increased, he decided to look for mana sources on his way back to his lair. Jake circled the anomaly and reached the edge of the rooftop. He looked down at the empty street ten stories below and jumped down.