Fortunately, this time Xander was only out for a few hours, rather than more than a day. However, the glances he received from everyone else showed how he had obviously managed to prove himself thanks to the spar from the day before.

  There was an aura of respect from the soldiers, and one of curiosity from the scholars, now that he wasn’t just a normal person with no power.

  “That gene-mod seems quite powerful,” Gerome said.

  He had continued to follow Xander around the camp while they finished preparations. They would be heading out just before nightfall. The darkness wasn’t a problem, given the number of night-based gene-mods that existed.

  “What are the side-effects? Besides the obvious.”

  Xander took a moment to finish his current mouthful of food. He had practically been eating nonstop since he’d woken up. A tingling sensation had also spread from the markings on his torso. Something that he knew he’d have to check on when he had a moment later. But his new instincts were telling him not to worry about it, so for now he just focused on his recovery.

  “Severe nutrient deficiency seems to be the extent for now. But the regeneration and healing seem to cover things like that too, so long as I have the fuel to power it. My stomach has limits, though, so it means that I should avoid using it as much as possible. The recharge time is far too great for consistent and regular use. Though, if my memories are right, that shouldn’t be a problem once I get a bigger stomach.”

  Currently, the duo was sitting atop one of the transport vehicles. It was basically a tank, given the sheer size and armor covering it, but didn’t seem to lack when it came to internal space and terrain maneuverability. Xander had a data-slate in front of him and was looking through the information on the different mutant beasts that the Malicent Kingdom had access to.

  The sheer number of creatures was immense, but fortunately he was able to narrow it down by searching for specific traits, which he knew thanks to the sealed memories that he was slowly unlocking.

  “A bigger stomach… I can think of several genes that would let you have a modification like that… But if it’s energy, wouldn’t something like photosynthesis, or some other energy conversion mod, make more sense?” Gerome had his own slate in front of him, but wasn’t looking things up like Xander was.

  Instead, the Gene-Sequencer was writing a report of some sort. Likely including all the information that Xander was giving him.

  “Different types of energy require different processing methods. My regeneration requires biological mass, along with nutrient energy, so pure energy conversion like that would actually be more wasteful. Food covers both requirements at once.” He stopped swiping through the archive of creatures on his data slate. “This one… The Blimp Belly Toad. I don’t know the means of creating the mod, nor the subsidiary materials, but I’m certain that this is a creature with the genes needed for one of the paths my Evolution can take.”

  Gerome paused, he put down his slate and reached over for Xander’s.

  “I can see it… The Blimp Belly Toad is amphibious, and is well known for swallowing entire lakes, only to spit up the water while keeping all the edible parts inside itself. Its stomach is usually used for the creation of unique expandable packs and water skins. Do you know what the end result of this evolutionary path would be? Would you be cut off from any others if you followed it?”

  Xander shrugged in response. “My memories only included the different sources for the next few gene-mods I can begin incorporating. The end goals weren’t revealed to me.”

  “Hmmm…” Gerome shook his head. “Look through the rest. There’s little point in getting you purely supportive mutations. You need to be combat capable. Find the rest of the sources, then we’ll talk. Besides, your genes are still restless from your first mod. They need to settle down before you can proceed any further.”

  Xander sighed, noticing Gerome maniacally grinning while he looked at his own slate once more.

  “You seem happy.” He muttered with a hint of inquiry in his tone.

  “Oh, I’m just excited… We don’t know what the gene-mods are, exactly, but now that we know the primary source, it will be fun to experiment in order to find the proper supplementary materials. Thawing you out was truly a gift from the Empyreans!” Gerome sounded giddy and was nearly bouncing in his seat. “If you keep proving yourself to be the treasure trove that you seem to be, you’ll earn the merit needed to undergo your first evolution in no time.”

  Unfortunately, Xander couldn’t find himself feeling the same happiness. Instead, he focused on what Gerome had said about gifts. “What are the Empyreans?”

  The Gene-Sequencer just waved him off, focusing on his slate instead. “They’re just the rulers of the world, and the strongest of the mutants, humanoid or beastly. Each one has undergone 5 evolutions. They’re practically immortal, only ever known for dying in battle, never old age, though rumors from some of the big empires say that they freeze themselves, like you did, in order to live longer. It’s why the empires rarely start fighting with each other. You never know how many walking weapons of mass destruction the enemy might have.”

  Xander stayed quiet after hearing that. The title given to the strongest beings in the world sounded so familiar to him. But it also felt like a lie. Something was eating at the back of his mind.

  A shiver ran through his body, and he gripped his chest as he felt his heart rate increase.

  No… Empyreans are not the strongest… There’s something more… Something that I need to reach.

  A sharp pain passed through his brain. With a wince, he discarded that line of thought for the moment. There were other things he needed to focus on, so he went back to looking through the slate in his hands for the different gene-mod sources that might allow him to grow stronger.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Every ounce of his existence was telling him that it would be necessary.

  —————

  The first day of travel passed by slowly, but Xander passed the time productively, and managed to finish perusing all the known bloodlines accessible within the records he was provided with.

  Several other options were found, many of which were more preferred than the toad he had found earlier. Though, none of them were perfect, since they granted more offensive abilities, but still relied on consuming enough fuel to power them.

  He was still frustrated at the fact that he hadn’t managed to find all the sources he was looking for. There were at least few more that he felt would be better, but they weren’t accessible to him right now.

  “It seems like you weren’t able to find all the possibilities in our records. Well, at least now we know what sources we can investigate for additional gene-mods.” Gerome seemed indifferent to Xander’s frustration as he looked over at his tablet. “Although... I’m noticing that there are a few general similarities that might make searching for alternatives a bit easier.”

  “Oh? How so?” Xander put down his tablet and turned to speak more directly with the geneticist.

  “Well, it’s rather simple, all the biological sources you’re examining are amphibians or reptiles. From there, it’s just a matter of finding the ones that have a known common ancestor. Atavism is one of the established routes for mutative evolution, after all.”

  Xander hadn’t known that but took a moment to think and realized that it made a bit of sense. Chickens and other birds supposedly evolved from the tyrannosaurus and various large and more predatory dinosaurs.

  It wasn’t perfect, since not all ancient traits were ideal for modern times, but the theory of digging out ancient traits for specific situations, or in this case mutations, was straightforward.

  “I don’t suppose you know which--” Xander began asking Gerome if he was aware of any other creatures with similar ancestries, ones that might not be common in the Malicent Empire.

  The sudden shaking of the ground, nearly tossing the armored transport vehicle to the side, forced him to hold that thought, and instead waste energy as he was forced to regrow his tongue. His jaw had clamped shut when he was thrown into the side of the vehicle.

  “Wud da fak!” He slurred while holding on for dear life.

  All the while, Gerome seemed mildly annoyed, but not nearly as shocked as Xander.

  “It seems like we’ve passed through the territory of a subterranean beast.” Loud noises echoed from outside the transport vehicle. “Hmm... It must be at least rank 2 if the soldiers are using incendiaries. I might need to step in if that’s the case.”

  Xander swallowed nervously out of reflex. A Rank 2 beast was powerful. Generally speaking, ordinary soldiers were limited to the peak of rank one, undergoing only one full evolution, but permitted to have additional gene-mods afterwards.

  Those were the upper echelons of the army, however, and most of the soldiers in this convoy were merely Rank 0, having had a few gene-mods, but had not undergone a proper evolution yet.

  The ground shook once more. This time Gerome began to frown.

  “I had hoped that the few rank 1s we have with us would be enough, but it seems like this might be a pack.” The back hatch of the vehicle opened, and several large, worm-like tendrils began whipping about.

  At this point, Xander had recovered and regained his footing to better defend himself.

  Though it wasn’t much, Xander had been given some basic gear when their convoy had first set out. So, he wasn’t unprepared and immediately dropped into a defensive stance while drawing a large combat knife the length of his forearm from a sheath on his hip.

  It wasn’t much, and it wouldn’t let him stand up to the soldiers that were equipped with firearms, but it would help out with this fight.

  The bio-luminescent spots running up and down his body began to glow. His gene-mod fired up and was ready to heal him if he suffered an injury.

  Gerome, on the other hand, stood up calmly, and stretched, somehow avoiding the whipping tendrils like they weren’t even there.

  No... It's not that he’s avoiding them... It’s more like they’re being brushed off by him before they can make contact... Xander examined the worm-like appendages more closely and noticed that Gerome wasn’t actually moving out of the way. The attacking limbs just couldn’t land a solid hit.

  “You can take care of this one, I guess. It’s just a small fry that hasn’t undergone its first evolution, after all.” A moment later, Xander nearly reeled back in shock at what began to happen to Gerome.

  The older man’s body seemed to ripple before it shrank a few inches down but became more muscular at the same time. Fur sprouted all over his body, and his face elongated into something more mouse or rat-like, while his eyes turned fully red and beady.

  Wicked, dagger-like claws sprouted from his fingers, and appeared to drip with a venomous substance.

  “We’ll discuss more of these interesting gene sources once this is finished. If you’re still alive.” The geneticist idly grabbed a tendril out of the air and ripped it apart, causing the rest to pull back as the attacking beast howled in pain. “If you survive, that is. But if you don’t, then it just means that you weren’t worth the investment the Lady was considering you to be.”

  With a gust of displaced air, Gerome disappeared, leaving Xander alone in the wrecked convoy.

  “Oh shit...” He muttered with a sense of despair.

  Nothing he had seen so far could’ve prepared him for this. Not even the previous instances where he had witnessed the power of the soldiers that had undergone their first mutation. Lady Elyria was more powerful, by leaps and bounds, to be sure. Yet this was something else. Something truly inhuman and bizarre.

  The pain-filled growls of the beast that had been attacking them pulled Xander from his shock, and he knew that he had to get out and into a more maneuverable space before he got trapped inside.

  Pushing himself to his limits, he leapt out just in time to avoid the body of the beast as it dove back into the vehicle.

  Now that he was outside, even though the sun was down, Xander could see that its body was like that of an oversized naked mole rat. Its hide was thick and wrinkled. The color was a mixture of grey and brown, likely useful for blending in with the world underground.

  The starfish-like nose was much larger, however, and acted as the source of the tendrils that had attacked him and Gerome.

  The sound of creaking metal getting warped and bent under the mutated beast’s weight and force was distracting, but Xander took the moment of reprieve to look at his surroundings.

  Dozens of these mole creatures were attacking the convoy, and that was just among the ones that he could see. He could hear more of them fighting over in another area.

  With a loud shriek, the mole in front of him pulled its body out of the vehicle. It turned around, and Xander could see it staring right at him. Narrow eyes that glowed with scarlet light seemed to bare down on him. Sweat trickled down his back, even in the cool night air.

  From what he could tell, this mutant beast had at least three, maybe four, mutant traits. The equivalent of humanity’s gene-mods but naturally occurring in mutant beasts.

  ‘Toughened Hide’, ‘Prehensile Limbs’, ‘Greater Strength', and possibly something related to digging or sensory abilities. Meaning that it had at least three abilities that would make it more powerful than Xander. Hence, it would be a far more difficult fight than his spar with the soldier that only had one or two gene-mods.

  He still didn’t know much about the world he had found himself in, but Xander knew that this would be just the first of many trials and tribulations he would have to face.

  “Come on then!” He spoke with a rumble in his voice as he took his stance once more.

  Seemingly understanding the words of challenge for what they were, the mutant beast charged forward, its tendrils flailing about in the air while it barreled toward Xander’s form.