Mutagen

Day 324 - 5:25 PM - Training Area, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Province of Quezon, Philippines

With a bit of a surprise, the passing residents greeted Mark as he approached the training area. Huey also came to greet Mark in a hurry after noticing his arrival.

Huey's greatest strength was his enhanced senses. As such, he could detect any movement and noise within a covered distance. However, voices aside, he could not differentiate the things he could find using his senses unless they had something peculiar compared to others.

But there was no way Huey would not be able to detect Mark. There was only a handful of people with barely audible footsteps among the people of the Mountain Base. And the ones with the most silent feet were only Odelina and Mark. As such, Huey was able to find Mark in no time if he appeared within the base.

With Huey closely in tow, Mark arrived at the Training Area where Odelina and her two children, Siegfried and Odette. The family was in the middle of a heated bonding time. It was a pretty serious sparring session.

The moment Mark arrived, Odelina immediately noticed him. However, she did not pause or stop and greet him. While she was a maid under Mark, she was currently the combat instructor of her two children.

Mark found a place to sit down as he watched the three.

Siegfried was wielding a pretty big two-handed sword. It was smaller than the real one because it was for a child's use, but it was a Great Sword with its shape and thickness. It looked like a double-edged sword, but it was actually a single-edged sword since its back edge was made dull.

On the other hand, Odette wielded a thin sword. A Rapier, in other words. While a regular rapier was oriented towards thrusting, the one in her hand could also be used for slashing without much difference in effectiveness.

The two children fought their mother, who wielded a pair of daggers. It was just a regular dagger, although it was made of [Blood Metal]. And with enough care and skills, she was evading, parrying, and counterattacking against the attacks of her children. Of course, it was all while she was making sure they would not get hurt.

"There are no problems while we're gone?"

While watching, Mark asked Huey, who was standing behind him.

"We got several animals wandering nearby this past week, but they could not pass beyond the illusion. The only ones that got near the outer walls were the [Mechids]. We had three encounters while Boss wasn't here. Fortunately, the [Mechids] were the same kinds we encountered before. They got taken care of in no time. The remains are already stored in the designated storage."

Huey reported as briefly as possible and continued.

"The tree from Mikio's ability bore fruits, and we harvested it the other day. Should we pack some for you, Boss?"

Mikio's ability, the tree that bore golden-colored fruits. It was the first instance of a fruit that could affect humans through [Mutagen's] properties. The effect also varied if consumed as an [Evolver] or a [Mutator]. While it enhances the vitality of regular humans, it could strengthen the abilities of [Evolvers] and [Mutators] to a certain degree. The weaker the ability, the more significant the effect of the fruits. It sure was a valuable fruit.

Unfortunately, there were some circumstances that made it impossible to exploit the fruit's effects.

First, only the first fruit eaten by the individual would guarantee the best effect. The next fruits eaten would result in less efficacy. And while it had not been experienced yet, it was estimated that continuous consumption would result in immunity to the fruit's effects. It meant that people could not become infinitely stronger through this means.

Second, the number of fruits was limited. One to three fruits within the span of a week and a half. It was not a lot. Worse, the three would not bore fruits unless it was given the right nourishment. In this case, dead bodies of the [Infected]. The Mountain Base was safe due to its location. But in the case of the Golden Fruit Tree, the safe location was more of a problem. The number of [Infected] in the mountains was really small. It was unlike the places near cities.

Worse, the effect of the golden fruits was nice, but many could not stomach the thought that they were eating something from the nutrients of the dead [Infected].

In any case, it was just in time.

"We still have nine in storage, right?" Mark replied. "Store the recent harvest and get me the same number from the storage. I might have some use with that."

"Alright, Boss."

Huey nodded in response.

At this time, Odelina's sparring with her children came to an end, with Siegfried and Odette lying on the ground, panting. Of course, the children were defeated. It might sound harsh, but Odelina had no plans of being lenient during training. She was teaching her children how to fight for survival, and being too soft would not do it.

"Master."

Odelina greeted Mark after wiping off the sweat from her face with a towel hung over her shoulders.

"How's the task I gave you last night?"

Mark asked after acknowledging her greeting.

"I have it recorded."

Odelina said as she picked up her bag from a nearby chair. She then took out a voice recorder and a small notebook.

"I also have it written if you prefer this one," Odelina added. "The recording isn't pleasant to listen to."

As the professional maid she was, Odelina prepared two ways to fulfill her task. And, of course, the recording would not be pleasant to hear. After all, it was the wailing of souls suffering under the punishment and torture of their souls being torn and fixed.

Since the training was finished, everyone went their separate ways. Mark and Odelina went to the underground prison. Seigfried and Odette would wash up after getting beaten by their mother. Lastly, Huey would need to prepare the Golden Fruits that Mark would bring with him.

Inside the underground prison, just beside the laboratory, Mark and Odelina arrived at a room different from the [Soul Preserving Cell]. It was not a prison cell but more like a secured storage room with a lot of shelving. And on the immediate shelf were seven cylinders with whitish orbs floating inside.

When the souls of the assassins detected Mark and Odelina, they all shivered. It was not fear. They were in despair. Instead of trying to move as far away as possible from the two, the souls floated near, rubbing their ghostly bodies on their prison while begging to be freed.

The soul of a living being could not be harmed by physical means. But as games portrayed, they were magically vulnerable.

And Mark put that thought when making those cylinders that trapped the souls he captured. Those cylinders, which he called [Soul Prison], had five basic functions. Those five were trapping souls, absorbing any energy from inside and outside except the soul, nourishing souls, emitting the soul's voices, and, most importantly, tearing souls apart.

The first two functions of the [Soul Prison] would make souls powerless once imprisoned inside it. Furthermore, the second function makes it a self-sustaining magical device. The third function allowed it to heal damage on the imprisoned soul. For the fourth, souls could not talk directly to people unless it was someone highly sensitive to the paranormal, and this function allowed the souls to speak if turned on. And lastly, being able to tear the souls apart was self-explanatory.

Why did Mark put two contradicting functions on the [Soul Prison]? It was due to twisted reasons.

Souls would deteriorate over time if they did not pass to the afterlife. It was the cause where earthbound souls become evil spirits after a very long time of being tied to the mortal realm. And Mark could not have that. The souls inside the [Soul Prison] would be in a perfect state.

The souls would not deteriorate and stay sane for the span they were imprisoned. They would be perfectly sane and aware as they were imprisoned for eternity unless they were freed or if the cylinder broke, which would still take centuries to occur naturally considering the materials it was made from.

And to balance the nourishment, there was the actual punishment. A soul being damaged would hurt a hundred times more than the physical pain it could have brought. A small ant bite tear that would damage a soul would have the same feeling as if their limb had been torn off. And their entire soul, being torn apart, would feel as if their bodies were being turned inside out a hundred times in a second.

A soul would have gone insane with that amount of pain. But because of the soul nourishment, they were perfectly sane and conscious while they felt the unfathomable pain that even the Gods would fear.

And afterward, all damages would be healed over time due to the nourishment, making them able to go another round of tearing without their souls being erased.

Mark created the scariest punishment that even immortals could not likely bring upon their enemies.

The souls of the assassins floated and rubbed their bodies to the wall of the [Soul Prisons] they were in. They begged and begged. The pain they felt as Odelina interrogated them was more than enough for them to want their existence to face an end. They all regretted the bad things they had done in their entire lives that resulted in the current situation.

And most importantly... The assassins hated the man that hired them and brought them into this mess. The amount they were paid was nowhere enough for the suffering and pain they experienced.

Mark put down the report in his hands after he finished reading and turned to the souls begging to be freed.

"Do you want me to free you?"

Mark asked the souls, and they all bounced inside their prisons frantically.

"Then, I have a task for you seven."

Mark said as he released his [Aura of Death], exercising his authority over the seven souls as the blessed one of the Goddess of the Underworld.

***

Day 324 - 9:21 PM - White Swan Club, Shinonome, Koto City, Tokyo

The redlight district in Shinonome was as lively as usual. However, one thing was different from the previous days.

To the dismay of its patrons, White Swan Club was closed for business. There was no warning or announcement. It was just closed today for some reason.

And that reason...

Inside the owner's suite, Tulip sat on her chair, slumped with her right hand on her forehead. The assassins she sent to kidnap a member of that rumored group had vanished without a trace. She would have thought that they bolted with the money she paid them if not for the fact that a rumor about a group of assassins entering that group's house and vanishing did not spread. Furthermore, while the source of the rumor was unconfirmed, it spread out from the higher-ups first before the lower people could learn about it. The likelihood of it being true was extremely high.

Tulip and her subordinates felt weirdly scared. The assassins vanished, and no one could ever explain what happened. No one would dare ask questions about the source of the rumor, especially when they were the ones that sent the assassins.

Normally, Tulip would feel calm about this. Those assassins were professionals and would never spill the beans alive. But their mysterious disappearance left a strange mark on her heart and mind.

As they said, the man feared the unknown.

What if that mysterious group found out and retaliated? Would they also vanish without a trace?

And unknown to Tulip and her entourage holed up inside the White Swan Club, their fears were on point.

Especially when the seven assassins returned as ghosts filled with hatred and vengeance.