Chapter 311
To collect a total of three Predatory Mutant Enzymes, he needed to find two more elite leapers. After that, he would be able to elevate the rarity level of the ten-legged crawler from Common to Uncommon. This would let him increase its Agility to 25%, allowing him to evolve the spider to Rank II, potentially making it more powerful.
In addition to the two leapers, Jake aimed to find other types of elite mutants, as they were expected to yield other types of unique genetic materials. These would undoubtedly come in handy at some point as well.
After the city upgrade, this area had become much more dangerous than before, with elite mutants becoming more common. Still, locating them was time-consuming. Jake spent most of the day combing through the city, eliminating regular ex-humans while searching for elite ones.
Eventually, Jake captured two more elite leapers and harvested a Predatory Mutant Enzyme from each. The genetic materials were now secured in the Extractor.
After that, he turned his attention to the Creation Chamber, where the ten-legged crawler floated motionlessly. Summoning its stats, he discovered a new piece of information.
Rarity Upgrade Available: Agility (Common) → Agility (Uncommon)
Initiate Upgrade: Yes/No (Required Materials: Predatory Mutant Enzyme (x3))
With everything primed for the upgrade, Jake thought, “Yes”. He was pleasantly surprised that the upgrade was instantaneous. So he could now make some changes to the ten-legged crawler.
He entered the creation mode and for the next several minutes, was transforming the spider. He kept in mind the need for a balanced approach to ensure that enhancing its Agility didn’t diminish other attributes.
Finally, he was done. The ten-legged crawler now looked somewhat different. Its legs were longer and more robust, and its body was slightly larger. Jake then checked how the crawler’s attributes had changed.
Name: Ten-legged Crawler (Common)
Rank: II
Size: Small
Strength: 18% (Common)
Constitution: 19% (Common)
Agility: 35% (Uncommon)
Intelligence: 20% (Common)
Magick: 19% (Common)
Special abilities: None
He had managed to increase the spider’s Agility to 35%, which wasn’t bad at all. However, he couldn’t exceed this mark, as he now needed to elevate the crawler’s rarity level from Uncommon to Superior.
However, before getting to that, he needed to focus on upgrading the rarity level of each of the other attributes. While working on increasing the crawler’s Agility, he also managed to increase its other attributes: Strength from 16% to 18%, Constitution from 17% to 19%, Intelligence from 19% to 20%, and Magick from 18% to 19%.
While those increases weren’t substantial in any way, his recent experience had taught him that after he increased an attribute’s rarity to the next level, the process of enhancing that attribute got easier—at least, until it reached the next milestone. Once all five attributes reached Uncommon rarity, he could grant the crawler its first special ability.
Since the Creation Chamber was currently Rank III, he could evolve the ten-legged crawler one more time. He checked the requirements for this evolution.
Strength: 25%
Constitution: 25%
This time, he needed to upgrade the rarity levels of two attributes instead of one. Once this was done, these two attributes could easily reach the 20% mark and then progress further to 35%.
He then checked which unique materials he needed to collect to upgrade the rarity levels of the crawler’s Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Magic to Uncommon.
Strength: 18% (Common)
Required Material for Rarity Upgrade: Hardened Rigidbone (x3)
Constitution: 19% (Common)
Required Material for Rarity Upgrade: Regenerative Skin Patch (x3)
Intelligence: 20% (Common)
Required Material for Rarity Upgrade: Bio-active Brain Matter (x3)
Magick: 19% (Common)
Required Material for Rarity Upgrade: Mana-infused Tissue Sample (x3)
For the next three days, Jake was busy combing the city for these unique materials, and eventually, he collected them all. He learned that Hardened Rigidbone could be obtained from an elite slasher, Regenerative Skin Patch from either a shambler or a whipper, Bio-active Brain Matter from a chaser, and Mana-infused Tissue Sample from a wraith.
Since most of these mutants were about the same size, he didn’t have any trouble bringing them to his lair. However, it was a different matter with shamblers and whippers. These two ex-humans were huge. While carrying either of them to the diner and getting them to the roof was hard but doable, squeezing them through the hatch door into the basement where his lair was located was impossible.
Another problem was that the Extractor wasn’t large enough to accommodate enormous mutants like a shambler or a whipper.
So Jake took a moment to ponder the matter. A Regenerative Skin Patch obtained from shamblers and whippers was used to improve his creatures’ Constitution. Since the bodies of shamblers and whippers were covered in an organic substance that regenerated exceptionally quickly, it was obvious that to obtain a Regenerative Skin Patch, he needed to get a sample of that exact substance.
Therefore, there was no need for the entire body of a shambler or a whipper. Instead, using his chainsaws, he cut a recently located shambler into several pieces. Carrying two severed arms of the shambler was far easier than moving its entire body.
However, Jake learned that, due to some strange video-game logic, he could obtain only one Regenerative Skin Patch from a single shambler or whipper. So after harvesting material from one arm, the other became useless. The same applied to the other pieces of the shambler’s body, as he discovered after bringing them to his lair and checking them in the Extractor for obtainable unique materials.
During these days, Jack also leveled up six times, from 138 to 144. He earned a total of 30 SP, which he distributed among his attributes.
Body: 210 → 220
Mind: 168 → 178
Magick: 245 → 255
Also, during these three days, Jack focused solely on obtaining unique genetic materials, so he made no changes to his lair except for one: he constructed a Resource Node. While the Extractor could store obtained materials, it obviously had limited storage capacity, as its main function was entirely different.
Against the back wall were four structures lined up: the Creation Chamber, the Larvae Chamber, the Extractor, and the Bio-Fusion Chamber. Although there was some space between them, Jack didn’t want to add more structures, knowing these four would need room to grow after the next cycle of evolution.
So he positioned the Resource Node in another spot: to the right of the Biomass Processor, which was located on the left-hand wall next to the back of the basement. The Resource Node was used to store regular genetic materials like Brain Matter and Rigidbone, as well as various unique ones.
Having collected numerous regular genetic materials and all the necessary unique ones, he was now fully ready to evolve his ten-legged crawler and bestow the first special ability on the creature.