Chapter 552

Halfway to the intersection, Jake was jumped by a group of crystallized mutants. They burst from buildings and alleyways on either side of the street, emerging from shattered storefronts, dark doorways, and narrow gaps between abandoned structures, and immediately zeroed in on him. The instant they spotted him, they let out distorted screeches.

Jake quickly assessed his opponents. Most of them were humanoid, though their mutated forms bore little resemblance to the humans they had once been. Their deformed bodies were heavily altered. Some had bloated torsos that looked ready to split apart, while others were unnaturally tall and slender, with overly long limbs that swung almost to the ground as they moved. A few walked with twisted spines or hunched shoulders, their bodies warped into grotesque forms.

Despite their different appearances, they all had one thing in common. They had glass-like crystallized skin that somehow looked elastic and durable at the same time. A faint green glow emanated from beneath the translucent surface. Emerald crystals, identical to those that had overrun various sections of the city, jutted from different parts of their bodies. Some protruded from shoulders and backs, while others had pierced through forearms, knees, or even their skulls. The crystals seemed to be deeply embedded, as if they had grown out of their flesh rather than been driven into it. Every now and then, small bolts of lightning arced between some of the crystals, filling the air with a sharp crackle and briefly illuminating the mutants with flashes of emerald light.

The mutants advancing toward him from both directions moved in a jerky, shambling, and stumbling manner. Their limbs twitched erratically, their heads bobbed at unnatural angles, and their movements seemed almost uncoordinated. However, despite their highly deformed bodies, bloated torsos, and uneven legs causing them to move unsteadily, they were surprisingly fast. Every awkward lurch somehow propelled them forward with frightening speed. It looked really weird, as if someone were fast-forwarding a video while skipping every other frame.

Jake took in all these details in just a few seconds as the crystallized mutants rapidly closed the distance. At the same time, he assessed several of them with a thought to check their levels. The mutants he examined ranged from level 300 to 350. His own level was 339 at that moment.

Jake knew that the humans he intended to reach were currently fighting another group of crystallized mutants. The constant crackle of energy weapons echoed through the ruined streets ahead, punctuated every now and then by muffled explosions and the distant screeches of monsters. While the mutants zeroing in on him were fast, they were nowhere near as fast as he was, so escaping them would have been easy.

However, he knew they would inevitably follow him, driven by whatever instinct compelled them to hunt living prey. Since the survivors weren’t that far ahead, he would end up leading this entire group of monsters straight toward them.

Judging by the intensity of the gunfire, the survivors were still heavily engaged in battle. If a fresh wave of crystallized mutants descended upon them while they were already occupied, it was hard to tell what the outcome would be. Their defensive line could collapse, causing them to be overwhelmed altogether.

Jake had to make sure those humans stayed alive. They were his best chance of learning what had happened in this city, how the crystallized infestation had begun, and what kind of challenge this place had become. Letting them die now would only rob him of valuable information.

So, instead of continuing toward the intersection, he decided to take a moment to deal with the monsters that had come after him first.

He charged at the first mutant that reached him. Its general frame was mostly unaffected by whatever had transformed it into a crystallized monstrosity. It had retained a well-proportioned humanoid shape, and its legs were nearly the same length. As a result, it was better balanced and could move with greater speed and agility than most of the others despite its jerky movements.

The creature lunged at him, its crystal-coated fingers ending in jagged claws, but Jake was faster. He launched a powerful punch at the center of the mutant’s chest. The impact produced a loud, glass-like crack that echoed down the empty street. The crystallized exterior caved in and shattered around his fist, sending razor-sharp shards spraying in every direction. The force of the blow launched the monster backward into two more of its kin. All three collapsed to the ground in a tangled heap of intertwined limbs, skidding several meters across the cracked asphalt. The mutant he had punched was still alive, twitching as it struggled to untangle itself from the others, but it was going to take some time before it got back on its feet. So Jake chose to shift his attention to another opponent. This one was called a Shambler, and its level was 345.

The mutant was considerably larger than his previous opponent, towering three heads above him. Its bulky body was supported by two thick, powerful legs, while massive emerald crystals protruded from its shoulders and spine like jagged spikes. It swung one of its log-like arms at him with enough force to shatter concrete, but Jake ducked beneath the attack and closed the distance to arm’s length in a single step. He immediately delivered a powerful haymaker to the center of its torso.

His smashfist connected with the mutant’s body with a deafening impact, but the attack failed to do as much damage as he had expected. A spiderweb of cracks rapidly spread across the crystallized shell from the point of impact, branching outward in every direction, but the durable exterior held together. It creaked under the force of the blow yet stubbornly refused to shatter.

The shambler swung another of its powerful arms at him. Just as before, Jake slipped beneath the attack with ease. However, at the exact same moment, one of the emerald crystals embedded in the mutant’s shoulder flared brightly and unleashed a lightning bolt straight at him.

The attack struck Jake center mass before he had a chance to react. Electricity exploded across his body, and the force of the impact hurled him backward through the air. He slammed into another crystallized mutant hard enough to send it sprawling across the cracked blacktop. Fragments of loose crystal scattered across the street as both of them tumbled to the ground.

Jake landed on top of the monster but immediately pushed himself off it, leaped back to his feet, and spun to face the shambler again. The lightning bolt had been surprisingly powerful, but aside from the brief jolt, it hadn’t done any real damage to him.

What he saw next surprised him. The spiderweb of cracks spread across the mutant’s crystallized chest was rapidly knitting itself back together. Thin crystalline strands grew across the damaged surface, sealing the fractures one after another. A moment later, the shambler’s exterior was completely restored, looking as pristine as if it had never been struck.

From the corner of his eye, Jake spotted movement. Another mutant was charging straight at him. It took him a brief moment to recognize it as the first one he had punched. The reason he hadn’t identified it immediately was that the jagged hole he had blasted through the center of its crystallized chest had completely disappeared. The shattered shell had regenerated, leaving no trace of the devastating blow he had delivered to it.

So these mutants could regenerate their injuries, and surprisingly fast at that. It was a bit inconvenient.

Jake charged the shambler once again. This time, he morphed both hands into drills and merged them into a single, far more powerful unit, courtesy of the ability’s final upgrade. The spinning drill roared as it accelerated, the sound cutting through the crackle of lightning dancing between the mutants’ crystals.

He drove the weapon straight into the Shambler’s chest. The rapidly spinning drill bored through the mutant’s crystallized exterior without much trouble, grinding through the durable shell and sending crystal fragments flying in every direction. It continued deeper, carving a jagged tunnel through the monster’s torso.

However, the moment Jake pulled the drill free, the wound immediately began to close. Fresh crystal spread over the exposed opening, knitting itself together at an astonishing rate. Before Jake could exploit the damage or finish the shambler off, its durable crystallized armor had already regenerated, leaving almost no trace of the attack.

Jake continued fighting the monsters, weaving between their clumsy yet surprisingly fast attacks while striking them one after another. As the battle dragged on, he began paying closer attention to how their bodies reacted every time he damaged them. At some point, he finally realized where their incredible regenerative ability came from.

The green crystals embedded throughout their bodies possessed magical properties. They were the source of their power. The crystals enhanced their physical abilities, making them faster, stronger, and more agile while simultaneously maintaining the durable crystallized shell covering their bodies and fueling its incredible regenerative capabilities. Whenever one of the mutants was injured, faint streams of green energy flowed from the embedded crystals toward the damaged area of the crystallized shell, causing the wound to quickly close.

So before he could inflict any lasting damage, he first had to shatter every crystal embedded in a mutant’s body. As long as even a few of them remained intact, they continued feeding magical energy into the creature, allowing its crystallized exterior to regenerate over and over again.

Once every crystal had been destroyed, however, the difference was immediate. The mutant noticeably slowed, its movements became more sluggish, its physical strength diminished, and the crystallized shell covering its body stopped regenerating altogether. Without the crystals sustaining it, the creature quickly became far easier to kill.

The crystals themselves were surprisingly durable, but even they couldn’t withstand the relentless onslaught of his smashfists or the concentrated drilling power of his fused drills for very long.

While Jake continued fighting, killing the crystallized mutants one after another, he was thinking.

The mutants’ levels consistently ranged from 300 to 350. He already knew that the final stage of any development, whether it was a city’s progression or humanity’s technological advancement, was Stage V. He also remembered that New Hope had been at Stage I when most survivors ranged from level 1 to 100. Once the majority of the city’s population had surpassed level 100, New Hope had advanced to Stage II. That meant Stage II encompassed levels 101 to 200. Following the same pattern, Stage III began once survivors exceeded level 200, covering levels 201 to 300. If the progression remained consistent, then Stage IV should encompass levels 301 to 400, while the final Stage V would span levels 401 to 500. So it was reasonable to conclude that this city was currently in Stage IV.

As another mutant lunged at him, Jake shattered the emerald crystal protruding from its shoulder with a single punch before crushing the one embedded in its chest. The creature’s movements immediately became sluggish, and a second blow caved in its skull, dropping it to the ground. Without slowing down, he turned to intercept another attacker.

At the same time, another thought crossed his mind. He knew that for a city to advance to the next stage, its current challenge had to be overcome. Progression wasn’t automatic. That was why Dead City had remained trapped in Stage III for many months. The Spartans had never managed to defeat its previous challenge, the Ravage Contamination, so the city had been unable to evolve any further.

Also, if every stage represented another hundred levels and Stage V was the final stage, then level 500 should theoretically be the highest level anyone could ever achieve.

The theory was logical. Everything he had seen so far supported it. Still, Jake knew it remained nothing more than an educated guess. Whether his conclusions were correct or not, he wouldn’t know for sure until the day he reached that level himself.

Multiple Enemies Killed. +48,355 XP

XP: 1,545,660 / 2,010,000

Finally, the last crystallized mutant collapsed to the ground. Silence briefly settled over the ruined street as the sounds of combat around Jake faded. The asphalt around him was littered with dead bodies and glittering shards of shattered crystals that had once formed the monsters’ durable exteriors. Faint traces of green light still pulsed within some of the broken fragments before gradually fading away.

Jake glanced at the experience notification before dismissing it with a thought. He had received a good chunk of XP, but it barely made a dent in the massive requirement for his next level. Leveling up was becoming harder and harder with every new level he reached.

The crackle of energy weapons still echoed through the distance, accompanied by the occasional explosion and the shrill screeches of crystallized mutants. The survivors were still fighting. Clearly, dealing with these monsters was far more difficult for them than it was for him. They definitely lacked the raw physical power needed to shatter the crystals embedded throughout the mutants’ bodies.

He resumed moving down the street, leaping over broken crystals and fallen corpses until he finally reached the intersection. There, he turned right.

Up ahead, he spotted the same group of humans he had observed from above while controlling the wyrmcaller. They had established a rough defensive position in the middle of the street.

Jake activated Cloak, and his body faded from sight. Without slowing down, he climbed the wall of a nearby building. His fingers and feet found purchase on the weathered concrete, carrying him steadily upward.

Interestingly, despite several clusters of emerald crystals clinging nearby, none of them reacted to his presence now that he was completely invisible. Earlier, the crystals had been able to detect him from a considerable distance, but now that Cloak was active, they failed to detect him. That was good. It meant his stealth ability concealed him not only from living creatures but from the crystal infestation as well.

Upon reaching the height of the third floor, Jake crawled sideways along the wall until the group of survivors was directly beneath him. He stopped and silently observed the battle below for a few moments.

The survivors fought with practiced coordination, covering one another as they fired bursts from their energy weapons. More and more crystallized mutants emerged from the surrounding alleyways, attracted by the constant crackle of gunfire, but each new wave was met with disciplined volleys that kept them at bay.

Satisfied that the humans didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger and could hold out a little longer, Jake decided to take advantage of the opportunity. He activated Mind Reader.

As he had hoped, their memories were completely open, unprotected by any mental defenses, meaning he could access them without any trouble.

That was good.

It was finally time to learn the history of this city.