Tarkov was having a time of his life, swinging from tree to tree, feeling the wind clash against his naked body was never something he experienced in his life before.
He had even abandoned his serious expression from his face as he returned to his roots that he never got to experience. Wasting all that time to search for what Utena was and how to find them. Doing everything he could to obtain enough power to fight and take revenge. Tarkov's whole life had been occupied by his vengeance.
For someone like him who never rested once and for whom friendship, camaraderie, and love held no meaning. This was his first, the first time he ever wanted to just forget about his revenge for a while.
But Tarkov knew he can never let himself fall into vices that distract him from his goals. The little enjoyment during this trip will be all he gets.
'Two kilometers east.' Even with most of his equipment being abandoned in fear of it getting tracked by any other mutants living in this jungle, Tarkov still possessed internalized augmentations that helped him find his way in this dense jungle.
And before he could know it, he reached his destination.
"Something's weird… why didn't I see any more of the mutant beast on my way."
The Hermat jungle was infamous for a reason and filled with mutant beasts. So it was bizarre how he didn't find any of the mutant beasts on his way here. Tarkov's true form only afforded him a certain camouflage in the jungle too, it didn't have the effect of keeping the beast away.
"Were they attracted by the previous battle?... But I still didn't see any of them going there."
Tarkov was wary since entering this forest and now he felt worried too.
"No need to think so much." Tarkov was already too deep into the jungle and he knew worrying over something he can't control will only be disadvantageous for him. And in the place he was, a tense mind can impact his performance in a bad way.
'Now where was the entrance?' He recalled the words of Girisia and followed them as they were.
This part of the forest had shorter trees than the rest of the jungle, signifying something below was preventing the roots of trees from reaching deeper and absorbing more nutrients.
And if seen from above, one can even notice how the smaller trees seemed to be forming a perfect circle.
"Where is the landmark?" Tarkov searched the perimeter for a short while and discovered some concrete structures that have decayed with time under the impact of wind and rain. It was not as hard to find as Tarkov earlier expected.
Touching the ground, Tarkov released a shockwave into it to map out the underground.
The old entrance had long been closed up and if Tarkov wished to enter this facility, he had to make an entrance of his own.
Even with his current state and some augmentations enhancing his physique, it would be a hard feat to accomplish. So he planned to find a structural weakness that Girisia claimed adamantly that it existed.
"The first ones to find this facility were the anomans and they were still not as strong as me." He had learned a lot about this facility and how the anomans explored it from the mouth of Girisia. The details of which caused Tarkov to question Girisia's claims a bit.
Though, he didn't have the liberty to question Girisa at that point.
"Found it."
There it was, the structural integrity that Girisia claimed. Tarkov rejoiced at finding it so early.
The faster he can leave this place the better it will be for him.
Now all he needs to do is take advantage of this weakness. And to do that he needed to use the power that attracted the attention of Utena.
Taking deep breaths, Tarkov went completely still, his two meat tentacles from his head danced in the air causing distortions around it. Distortions, which slowly spread to Tarkov's whole body.
And these distortions were nothing more than harmful radiation which may kill a normal human but in Alwa people, it would enhance all their abilities. Including Tarkov's Externalist abilities.
Tightening his fist Tarkov punched once, then twice, then thrice, etc in one place. He punched with pure concentration and with each impact his speed and strength increased.
The radiation also harmed the environment with life around Tarkov dying under the impact of radiation and the constant bombardment of these radiation-fueled punches slowly melting the ground too.
It was not too long before the ground caved in and a blast of stale air blasted Tarkov in the face.
'Breathe in and out.' Tarkov didn't jump into the entrance he opened it immediately. His priority was in calming down his boiling blood and radiation escaping from his body.
For the reason that even if this latent ability of Alwa gave them immense strength and lethal abilities, it still drained their stamina and harmed their body.
This innate ability only ever showed its true might when the Alwa walked on the path of mutant and had abundant vitality to support it. But Tarkov being an Externalist was only capable of using it for a while before he starts to feel tired
'I can't dally any longer.'
The moment he completely suppressed the radiation, Tarkov jumped down into the hole and accidentally slipped. 'No… not now.' He felt weakness in his knees and even his body shook a bit. Tarkov seemed to have gone through strenuous exercise during those twenty seconds he activated his innate ability. Though he didn't gain anything from this exercise and only lost nutrients from his body.
'Keep moving forward.' Tarkov didn't complain though. He was already prepared for the side effects.
And in response to his thoughts, a particular part of his body released lots of nutrients back into his system, barely stabilizing him for the moment as his body still lacked water.
Now with newfound strength, he started moving forward into the concrete hallway that Tarkov found himself in.
From here on out, he knew that Girisia didn't have any more detailed information and he had to find the place on his own.
The farther he went from the hole he made earlier, the darker he got. And after turning around a corner, it was pitch black.
Though for someone at his level, seeing in the dark was not much of a problem. His eyes shined with a silvery glow as he took in all the details he could from the hallways and the rooms he came across.
Most of the rooms he explored had traces of destruction and some of them even contained broken skeletons from who knows how long. But that's not all he found.
"So Hermat forest got its name from this place."
Hermat pharmaceuticals, a well-known brand in the old world who was at the forefront of medicine and were one of the companies that mastered the cloning technology that in the future resulted in the birth of Karabits. From the remaining notes and reports Tarkov found, this place was nothing more than a prison for failed or dangerous products.
Products that have broken out of their confinement, killed their jailors and seemed to be the reason why Hermat forest has such diverse and dangerous mutant beasts living in it.
'Did my tribe originate from this place too?' An obvious question came to Tarkov's mind as he explored more of the facility. The more he learned about this place, the more he understood why the Citadel feared this place.
The kind of monsters imprisoned here was something Tarkov couldn't believe even existed and wondered the sanity of the men who let these monsters stay alive for further experiments.
It became more apparent as he went deeper into the facility. In the beginning, the cages where these monsters were kept were small but with time they grew in size and quality. Then he began to wonder why he couldn't find any other life in this facility at all.
The mutant beasts not only lived in air and land but underground too. So lack of any life and danger in this facility made Tarkov more worried.
He had read about countless things capable of mimicking something of this level but from Girisia's words, he knew this place was completely harmless.
'Or whatever it is, don't care that I intrude into its property.'
Tarkov may have just been guessing on his front but he didn't know how right he was.
"I found it…" In a room that seemed to be an opulent office of someone of power during its peak. Tarkov came across the Vault he had been looking for all this time.
It was the only intact vault in the facility as the previous ones he came across all had been broken in by huge claws and its content is stolen.
Tarkov was able to identify the model of this vault on his own, with the advancement of technology from 500years ago, a vault-like this was nothing.
It may be strong enough to withstand the impact of even a grade 4 mutant beast but in front of a peak grade two externalist of the current generation. This was child's play.
Making a small incision on his finger with his nail, Tarkov dropped some of the silvery liquid falling out of it into the lock of the vault. This was nothing more than his precious nanites running inside his body all the time and the lifeblood of an Externalist.
Using it in the way Tarkov did would be considered pretty stupid. But He had no other voice or tool in his hand at the moment.
After the silvery liquid entered the lock, Tarkov in tandem with his sensing modules slowly unlocked the different defense mechanics of the lock and easily bypassed its self-destruct failsafe that still seemed to be running to this day.
'They made things different in those days.' Tarkov said as he recovered his nanites that automatically flowed out of the lock and entered back into his body through the wound on his finger.
"Now let's see… Just what kind of bone marrow that man was looking for."
The vault sucked in air as it opened causing some wind to pick up inside of which was a clean room that was left completely untouched by time and the carnage that happened in this facility.
And in this clean room, in the middle of it was a glass case holding a single metal tube floating in the middle.
A metal canister with a simple description.
Item - 0004b
Type - Transplant
Object - Bone marrow
Donor - Seventh Daughter of ************ (age:7)
Warning - Never take the contents out of the canister or "she" will know.
"Seventh daughter of who?"