Mutagen

Day 41 – 12:10 AM – Hamlin's House, Northeast Side, Outer District, East Port Settlement, Barangay Dinahican, Real, Quezon

The family of three had already settled down from their fear and cautiousness before and was already able to lower their guard as they properly talked with Mark. Unfortunately, the already lightened atmosphere inside the humble home turned heavy once more.

Mark already noticed that there were people approaching outside. That was why he suddenly asked Layan to give Salacia and made the [BloodChild] absorb his blood.

As Hamlin said, the men from the Cristobal Family always came at a very uncanny time. It would still be reasonable if they came during the day but a frequent visit in the middle of the night when the people in the house were supposed to be sleeping was totally outrageous.

The faces of the old man and his grandchildren in front of Mark reflected the distress they felt because of the harassment they had been going through. In any case, this family took good care of Salacia so he would not mind helping them this time.

Ignoring the loud knocking and the shouting outside the door, Mark took out a wristwatch he was keeping on the pocket of his jacket to check the time. Seeing that it was already past midnight, he decided to depart already.

"It's already late, I need to go."

Hearing Mark, the three was surprised but considering that it was true, they could only make bitter faces. Furthermore, Mark had nothing to do with the current trouble and they could not bother him.

Then, the three were surprised once more as Mark took out three small cans of corned beef and a flat rectangular clear container that obviously contained several pieces of perfectly dried meat. Since what the three ate all this time was river fish, sea food and rarely, fruits from the forest, they had not eaten any kind of meat of quite a while. The mouth of the two children looked like they were about to drool and they even forgot their anxiety about the shouting outside.

"I leave these for you three. It's for taking good care of Salacia. I'll also take care of the trouble outside. Hopefully, they will leave you three alone after this but don't count on it too much. I will come back here tomorrow afternoon for the decision of you three. If you three decide to move to my base, then pack up your things before I return."

Mark stood up without waiting for the three to respond. But then, he turned around making Salacia face the three. Under the grandfather and the two grand children's dumbfounded eyes, a short tentacle stretched out of Salacia's body and waved as if saying goodbye. In return, Layan and Alois also waved at it.

Outside the door, the shouting started to get louder and the knocking became faster and stronger. After all, even though Mark toned down his voice to speak, the thin walls of the house still made his voice audible outside though it would be hard to understand what exactly he was saying.

There were three men outside they were already getting impatient. Normally, the old man had already opened the door after several knocks and shouts. This time however, even though it was obvious that they were awake inside the house and a light source could be seen from the small holes of the walls, no one was opening the door for them.

The man by the door was about to knock on the door once more with a stronger force. His posture was not even knocking but looked more like punching. It seemed that the man would not care even if the door would break. However, the door opened the moment he released his fist causing him to almost loose his balance. When the door opened, he was in a very awkward pose since he tried very hard to maintain his balance. The two other men behind him even let out muffled snickers.

He wanted to vent out his embarrassing moment and shouted.

"Hamlin! Why didn't you…"

The man was not able to finish his sentence at all. When he looked at the person that opened that door, it was not Hamlin but Mark. However, what the man noticed first was not Mark's face but Salacia who was on his hand. After all, Salacia was the reason these people were here.

With a stern stare, Mark spoke.

"Can you cut it out? Knocking like a mental patient on someone's door in the middle of the night, just how did your parents raise you? Are you a person without proper breeding?"

The man stared at Mark wide eyed due to his barrage of insults.

"F*ck, who are you to insult me, huh?!"

"Don't turn it around will you? I'm a guest here and you're just someone who seems to be an intruder.  Just where did you find the right to ask who am I?"

Mark spoke with a tone full of scorn.

The man wanted to retort but Mark continued as he gently closed the door behind him.

"Also, can you get out of the way? Only someone retarded would block someone else's doorway."

He then pushed the man backward making him step back.

Ignoring the three, Mark turned around and started to leave.

"Please, wait." One of the two men behind the one that knocked on the door spoke politely. "We came here for that creature on your hand. Why is it with you?"

"Oh this?" Mark pointed at Salacia. "It's mine so why can't I bring it with me?"

The three men were dumbfounded.

"Wait. Sir, Hamlin did not want to trade it with our Young Master. How did you get it?"

"What are you talking about? It's mine in the first place. Even before whomever young master you had tried to trade for it. I'm just busy that I let Hamlin take care of it until I can get it back."

Mark feigned to walk away but paused and turned again facing the three. His rather carefree manner but scornful eyes glowed red and became filled with killing intent that not only the three men but also the bystanders and the homeless around them could not help but feel cold.

"About this… I heard from Hamlin that you idiots have been harassing them while coveting something that is mine. It's better if you people stop. Otherwise, you people might not be able to come back to that bastard of a young master of yours."

After that, Mark turned around and left the people that were frozen.

***

It took about a minute before the three men who was directly assaulted by the feeling of death managed to recover.

"You two, chase him! We need to get that slime no matter what this time or Young Master will kill us!"

The one that did not talk to Mark hurriedly shouted as he saw Mark turned around the corner of the street. However… All the people around seemed to look at the three in horror and tried to stay away as much as possible.

"Eldest Bro, are you sure about that?"

The polite one, the youngest among the three, spoke which made the two look at him. Then, their faces paled.

His face was horrifying. Both his eyes, both ears and nose were bleeding for some unknown reason.

"Bros, don't look at me like that. Both of you are the same."

Hearing that, the chill in their bodies intensified as they touched their faces. Looking at their hands filled with blood, their bodies started shaking. Then, they started to feel the delayed pain in their heads and the three crumbled down to the ground wailing in pain.

In the unforeseen future, the horrifying wails of three men from the Cristobal Family as their eyes, ears and noses bled were told as a story of the cursed men.

***

Seeing what happened to the three, curious people chased after the street that Mark when to but his traces were not found. Not even a shadow. Some passing Mutators with a good sense of smell also tried to find him but even his smell vanished. It was as if the man vanished like a ghost.

***

Leaving the commotion he created, Mark vanished from a blind spot in the street and moved at the sky using any strong structure to propel him to his desired direction.

What he did to the three as a warning should give the poor grandfather and grandchildren some peaceful time. It was a good thing he had his Empathic ability that did the work. Also this time, the used something that he never used before and it was to delay the pain they would feel after their subconscious were filled with chaotic emotions. That was why the eyes, ears and noses of the three were already bleeding before they were able to feel the pain.

It was done by stimulating their subconscious to trigger the flight or fight response of their body and causing the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and numb their heads from pain. After the adrenaline that was released in small amount started to lose effect, they finally felt the pain in their heads after they felt the horror of having their face bleed like they had been cursed.

Unfortunately, he could not just kill them. If he did, it was very likely that Hamlin and his grandchildren would get dragged into the mess. He really wanted to separate the heads of those three from their bodies. Also, they were just lackeys, killing them would not matter and the cause of these things would just send another nuisance.

Going from roof to roof, Mark was headed towards a particular direction. It was towards the Inner District.

From Hamlin's story, the Young Lady of Salvador Family was collecting strange creatures that appeared after the apocalypse started. It meant that the possibility of finding a [BloodChild] there was a hundred percent.

Also from what he deduced, there was no other [BloodChild] in the settlement that was not bought by the Salvador Family or the other two families. If there was, that Young Master of Cristobal Family would not be patient enough to stage his harassments to Hamlin's family just in order to get Salacia. Since it would just be given as a gift, he could just get another from other people if there were still others.

While he was moving towards the Inner District, he was also observing Salacia who was overly curious about what was happening around her. Unlike the others, Salacia was not as clingy. She was more mature and to say, independent, compared to the other [BloodChildren]. Well, there was a very high chance that Salacia was the oldest among them.

It did not take long with Mark's speed and he reached the walls of the Inner district.

To say, the state of the Inner District was way more lavish compared to the other Districts with the exception of the Free Port District. Furthermore, the District was divided into three blocks and each block had its walls and mansion. Each blocks had a high number of guards, even a higher number compared to the number of people guarding the walls of the settlement.

Another thing was that the guards were all Mutators and Evolvers. Mark was not sure if he would be able to enter the place undetected with just his [Optical Camouflage]. For sure, the traces his [Shadow Mist Movement] could also be detected. The only way he would be able to search was to traverse the sky although it would tire him more easily.

Without any choice, Mark and Salacia flew over the district. It was lucky that the night was rather cloudy and the darkness hid the waving mist in the air as he used his movement ability.

Finally, he found the place. It was the block nearest the Free Port District and the main street. For sure, the mansion belonged to the Salvador Family since it was the largest compared to the other two.

At the southwest side of the mansion on the third floor, Mark felt four signals coming from the [BloodChildren]. Mark was rather happy feeling the signals. He could tell that the [BloodChildren] were rather taken care of properly. It seemed that the Young Lady of the Salvador Family did not collect the strange creatures for fun but to actually care for them.