When he returned to the building, the elite walker had already been created and released from the cocoon. The mutant milled about the room with several regular ex-humans. It didn’t take Jake long to slay all the mutants inside the room, including the elite walker.
After that, he approached the replication pod to see what kind of elite mutant was now being created. The creature was still in the early stages of development, looking nothing more than an embryo. Its current appearance made it difficult to determine what type of mutant it would become, prompting Jake to summon the pod’s description.
He learned that the elite mutant currently being created in the pod was a leaper. It was truly disappointing. He would have to wait several more hours for the pod to finish creating the leaper. Only after that would it start working on another elite mutant, but there was no guarantee that the new mutant wouldn’t be just another walker or leaper. However, there seemingly was nothing he could do about it.
He left the building and for the next several hours, continued searching the city for replication pods and eliminating mutants. At some point, he decided to allocate the three remaining skill points to obtain three of the four available upgrades for the Gravity Leap ability. He then gave it one more look.
Gravity Leap: Rank I (23%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
1 - Makes your jumps more powerful. Cost: Already Owned
2 - Allows you to perform a double jump. Cost: Already Owned
3 - Allows you to briefly hover in the air after reaching the peak of your jump. Cost: Already Owned
4 - After performing a Gravity Leap, you can drop with increased power at any moment. This upgrade is essential for some other abilities to function. Cost: 1 SP
He acquired the first three upgrades. As for the fourth upgrade, he couldn’t obtain it yet, because he had no skill points remaining. The fourth upgrade didn’t seem particularly useful, though, because its primary purpose appeared to be linking other abilities to Gravity Leap. So it seemed that some abilities depended on others to work. Jake hadn’t encountered any such abilities yet, but he was pretty sure he would at some point.
After that, he dedicated some time to testing his newly acquired Gravity Leap upgrades. To start, he executed a simple jump. The effects of the first upgrade were instantly noticeable—his vertical leap was quicker than before, and the distance of the jump had also increased to some extent.
The second upgrade allowed him to initiate a second jump after the first one. Unlike the third upgrade, he didn’t have to reach the peak of his jump to perform the second one. Instead, at any moment after executing a Gravity Leap, he could make a second jump in midair with a simple thought, as if he were pushing off an invisible solid platform.
Thanks to this upgrade, he could now jump quite high. However, he wasn’t sure how often he would need to use the double jump. After all, it wasn’t often that he needed to reach such heights. Besides, Gravity Leap had become quite demanding in terms of mana usage. Each double jump consumed a hefty chunk of his mana, so he probably wouldn’t use this upgrade too often. Yet, in certain situations—like when he needed to reach a helicopter hovering over a rooftop—the double jump would certainly come in handy.
The third upgrade allowed him to hover in the air for a couple of seconds. The hover feature didn’t activate automatically. Instead, similar to the double jump, he needed to initiate the hover with a thought, but it could only be activated after reaching the peak of his Gravity Leap. Jake wasn’t entirely sure what he would need the hover for, but he figured that while he probably wouldn’t use this upgrade too often, it might be useful in certain situations.
After that, he decided to return to the building to check on the development stage of the elite mutant. When he made it back, an unpleasant surprise awaited him inside. Every pod had been destroyed, with remnants of cocoons and the dead bodies of slain mutants scattered throughout the area, the floor slick with pod liquid.
It had been to be expected, though. It had taken several hours for the pod to produce an elite mutant, so it had been obvious that some survivors might stumble across the building and destroy the replication pods. Still, it was frustrating. So far, he hadn’t made any progress in his mutation research quest at all, which was truly disappointing. He hoped the reward for this quest—the epic ability called Morph Disguise—would be worth all the effort he was putting into completing it.
Jake exited the building and resumed his search for elite replication pods throughout the city. Occasionally, he activated Mana Vision, but most of the time, he only came across various mana consumables. However, at one point, after activating the perk again, he noticed something different. It appeared as a bluish cloud slowly drifting in one direction, and it was very close to him. Jake would later discover that he could only detect mana clouds when they were in his immediate vicinity.
Jake memorized the location of the mana cloud he had just discovered and approached the spot. Sure enough, he couldn’t see the mana cloud with his eyes open, but when he closed them and activated Mana Vision again, he realized he was now standing right in the middle of it. The mana cloud seemed to be floating along the middle of the street, drifting slowly away.
He tried to absorb the mana cloud, but nothing happened. He made another attempt, just to be sure he wasn’t missing something. It made sense. After all, the Mana Vision perk was designed only to reveal the locations of various mana sources. To successfully absorb a mana cloud, he likely needed to learn a specific ability or perk.
With his eyes still shut, Jake swiveled his head from side to side and suddenly became aware of two glowing spots moving in his direction. They resembled the lights that represented mana crystals, only larger and in motion. One of the lights was noticeably bigger and brighter than the other.
For a brief moment, Jake couldn’t understand what he had just detected, but then it struck him—two survivors were approaching his position! Keeping his head turned toward the direction from which the two glowing spots were coming, Jake opened his eyes. Just then, two survivors stepped out of a side street. He had been right! Thanks to upgrading Mana Vision to Rank III, he could now detect not only mana clouds but also the mana contained within living beings.
Like Jake, survivors could extract mana from various consumables, such as marbles or crystals. However, unlike him, they relied on mana solely for casting magic spells. With the recent upgrade to Mana Vision, he could now detect the mana contained within human beings. When he activated Mana Vision, individuals with mana appeared as glowing bluish spots. The more mana a survivor possessed, the brighter and larger the light representing them would glow.
After emerging from the side street, the two survivors came to an abrupt halt when they spotted him. For a moment, they simply stared at him, but then they quickly brought up their weapons and opened fire. Jake could have easily turned and run away, but he wanted to verify something first.
He couldn’t extract mana from mana clouds without a special ability or perk, and he was sure the same rule likely applied to human beings—he likely needed some ability to siphon off the mana stored within them. Yet, he wanted to make sure, so instead of fleeing, he took off in a sprint toward the two survivors.