A week passed, and Blaze’s visits to the swamp turned frequent.
Things on Cyclops’s end were slow, but it was within Blaze’s expectations. Unlike the zombies, it took a lot of time for a living being to develop its abilities in a certain direction.
Still, as long as there was progress, there wasn’t anything to complain about.
Besides, there was something else Blaze needed the place for.
"To farm, you want me to?" Cyclops asked.
"Yes," Blaze replied, using the ants to help convert a part of the swamp to arable land. "Think of it as training."
The number of human prisoners under him had increased significantly. All thanks to the horde for enslaving most resistance groups in San Diego.
It provided Voss and Alaric with ample material to research the effects of blightspore on them. Although Voss was busy with something else nowadays, leaving Alaric to carry on the tests alone.
However, it also gave rise to a new problem.
Even with the endless horde, hunting meat for the humans was getting increasingly difficult.
Blaze didn’t want the humans to die either, as they were precious livestock. He wanted them to be well fed, so they’d procreate. However, he had already forced them to engage in the act in exchange for food.
Marrow always watched those moments with a strange excitement, and Blaze could never understand why.
Still, the method was inefficient, as it made the human spend energy they didn’t have.
Thus, Blaze decided to fill their stomachs differently.
Mutated vegetables were in abundance, even in blight zones. Although most of them had evolved beyond the extent of human consumption.
Alaric had tried feeding mutated cucumbers to a few humans. Three of them died on the spot, while the rest suffered from dehydration, food poisoning, and whatnot.
The mad scientist wanted to experiment with gene mutation among the plants, but lacked the resources. So, Blaze recruited Cyclops for help.
Besides, it would be beneficial for the tree as well. By controlling the mutations in the crops, it might learn to use its abilities better, which would then help it expand the swamp.
Obviously, all of it depended on the success rate of farming.
Blaze thought, watching Fester lead the ants. At a distance, Saturn commanded the frogkins to aid the ants in tilling the ground.
Saturn had turned into the swamp’s guardian, much like Raven guarded the research institute. In fact, he had insisted on it after learning about the swamp’s existence.
It was a perfect fit as well. The frogkins enjoyed the swamps more than the pond back at the zoo.
Not to mention, their abilities flourished in such an environment. So much so that their population had doubled in just a week!
Cyclops consumed one frogkin and swore not to touch them again. For the tree, they tasted horrible and lacked the nutrients necessary for its survival.
Blaze then offered some old humans for their ’wisdom’.
Obviously, knowledge had no scientific relation to one’s age, but Cyclops didn’t need to know that.
It was happy as long as it got new brains to exploit.
"Take care of things here," Blaze told Saturn and rushed away.
Saturn could only see him disappear in a flash. Google seaʀᴄh N()velFire.net
Blaze didn’t return to the zoo after leaving the swamp. Instead, he went to the former naval base. The place looked nothing like it once had been.
There was rubble everywhere. Dried blood remained splattered as a reminder of the massacre that took place there. As usual, some zombies roamed the place.
But he wasn’t there for them.
He walked to the bay area and sat there, watching the sea.
It’s happening again.
Suddenly, Necrophage began twitching wildly. Blaze didn’t waste time and dunked his arm into the sea.
He couldn’t feel any pain, but he could see the rotten blood leaking out of his arm. After five minutes, the blood stopped oozing out, and Blaze took his arm from the water.
The blood was gone, but it kept on twitching like an addict who wanted their usual fix.
It’s happening frequently now... shit.
With a frown, he took out a test tube from his suit and splashed the blood it contained on Necrophage.
The twitching ceased within seconds, and everything went back to normal. As normal as it could get before the next ’craving’.
"Those damned cultists..." Blaze yelled, gritting his teeth.
When the Necrophage first had a craving, Blaze did what the system had told him. He fed his hand.
First it was frogkins, then mutants, even zombies, and at last, humans. Yet, nothing brought him relief. In the end, he revealed the condition to Voss.
They went over how and when the cravings first began. It happened soon after he fought and killed those cultists. That’s when Voss tried something illogical.
He gave Blaze a vial of June’s blood.
Blaze told him he had tried feeding on humans, but it didn’t work. However, Voss insisted on trying June’s blood as well, and sure enough, Necrophage’s weird behavior stopped as soon as it tasted June’s blood.
Blaze couldn’t believe it, but Voss wasn’t surprised.
He still remembered the scientist’s words.
"I noticed something strange while June was healing. Her blood wasn’t like that of other chosen or even mutants. So I let blightspore feed on it... and the results were unexpected."
Usually, the blightspore would absorb any kind of blood as long as it contained nutrients. But they seemed to avoid contact with June’s blood at all costs.
After a few attempts, Voss managed to make the spore consume her blood. At first, everything seemed fine. Then they began rapidly decaying. Only when he poured more blood on them did they survive.
When the blood wasn’t given to them, it seemed like they were having withdrawal symptoms. June’s blood had a literal narcotic agent.
Necrophage fed on her blood while Blaze tried to extract the recall skill. It made his hand literally addicted to June’s blood.
It was almost like the cult was aware of Necrophage’s existence and knew he would go for June’s ability.
No wonder they were so eager to send her to me... those bastards.