[You have consumed a Virusian Pearl.]
[You are now Infected!]
A corrupting warmth spread from within the core of my being. My veins bulged out of my skin, pulsating with an eerie green as the whites of my eyes turned black. I was changing, turning into something other than human.
"Ah—!" Jennifer had a worried expression as she witnessed what I had done. With an outstretched hand, it looked like she had wanted to stop me, but alas, I was simply too decisive.
All she could do was watch as I struggled to stand, in pain and incapable of movement.
"Brother..." Jane glanced at John with hesitance, "Is this safe? From what he said... this should be the zombification ritual..."
"I don't know," John replied, taking a step back as inhuman groans left my lips and saliva splattered onto the corpse-ridden floor.
"Should we kill him?" Ella whispered, and I couldn't help but pull all fragments of my consciousness back together.
"Don't... I won't... Urghhh... Become a mindless... zombie..." I staggered forward, making the entire group take several steps back.
"...Just keep yourself away from us, Caelum." Gunther waved his weapon, "If you get too close, well..."
"Urghh..." I clutched the side of my head as a stinging headache plagued me, "Relax...I won't get close..."
...
Minutes passed as my body was baked in suffering. The pain wasn't as bad as engraving spells into my eyeballs, but they were varying. A myriad of different sensations pierced all of my nerves.
I even vomited a large amount of greenish-black and slime-like blood. My groans filled the room as the group of five watched with great caution.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
At a certain point in time, the pain finally began to subside. My eyes and veins returned to normal, destined only to surface when I exerted my inhuman strength.
Ding—!
[You have completed the zombification ritual!]
A notification appeared before my very eyes, invisible to the others. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw it.
[You are no longer Infected!]
[Your race has changed!]
[Identifying race...]
[Race: Mutant]
[Mutant: You have a special physique. You are immune to the zombie infection. You can only be killed when your head is severed or crushed. Consume Mutation Fragments to increase your strength!]
With this, I could begin my preparations for the moment night arrived. After all, a rather special zombie was going to come for us without fail.
This zombie even had a name.
[ Hunter ].
And you guessed it, it was going to hunt us down no matter how well we hid or how far we ran. Staying in this seemingly safe building was thus the wrong choice. I had to swiftly visit more nests and kill more zombies to fight the [ Hunter ].
By visiting more nests, I could let the rest of the group become Mutants, therefore decreasing the likelihood that they would die. Furthermore, as long as these people swallowed the Virusian Pearl, they would have no issues becoming a Mutant. It was tried and tested by the many de Nuantra clan members of my novel.
"Caelum?" John waved at me from the other side of the room, "Are you... done..?"
"I am," I replied with a gentle smile, "I'm a Mutant now. I'm immune to the zombie infection."
"A... mutant? But wasn't the ritual called zombification? And you're immune too?" Gunther asked, walking up to me and poking at different parts of my body. "You don't seem any different."
"That's because I haven't consumed any Mutation Fragments," I answered as I put my hand in my pocket and secretly commanded the system to spawn in the only Mutation Fragment I had.
When the group saw the blackish-red bead in my hands, they instantly perked up.
"Those things?" Ella was shocked, "I have a few of those! Will eating them make you stronger?"
I nodded, "Yup."
"Oh? Then can you show us?" Jane was genuinely curious now, "Are there any side effects?"
"Well, one bead won't do much, so I'm going to have to find some more to show you any significant changes." I spoke, "Luckily, Mutants are like magnets. Zombies that are killed in our surroundings will have a much higher chance to drop Mutation Fragments. We just have to collect them."
The group all glanced at each other and they seemed to have come to a conclusion. John saw this tacit understanding and thus stepped closer to me.
"Then... is it possible for us to become mutants too?"
Hearing this, I could help but grin. These five were all different kinds of people, but they had one thing in common: they would do everything they could to survive. That was the mentality that they had developed ever since the apocalypse hit.
Even with the death of those that they loved, they would trudge onward. They were determined to survive no matter what. Especially for Ella, Jane, and John. They wanted to find the person who betrayed their camp and kill them with their own hands.
"Of course," I replied as I turned around, "As long as you help me collect the Mutation Fragments that drop from now on, I will bring you all to the nests that I know of."
...
[Current Time: 14:42:04]
[Test Time Remaining: 09:17:56]
[Kill Count: 147/33]
A few hours had passed since then. Ella had given me all her fragments, thus giving me strength that I was slightly more familiar with. If I was back on Emerallia, I would be sitting at around the middle levels of F rank.
With this power, I was able to make quick work of the zombies that we encountered, surprising the group. We walked through many streets and slew all the zombies in our path, harvesting their riches. From Level 1 zombies to even those at Level 3, we either smashed their heads in or decapitated them with one fell swoop.
We used the opportunity to snowball. I killed quite a lot of zombies, going way past the bare minimum I needed. I was able to collect even more Mutation Fragments, allowing my body to change and change.
We then visited a few more zombie nests with me leading the way. One by one, my companions all became Mutants. It first started with John, who wanted to see if it was truly something safe to do. Then came Jane, then Ella, Jennifer, and finally...
"So," I looked at Gunther, "How does it feel to finally be a Mutant?"
The man laughed heartily, punching the air and moving his large body around, "I feel reborn! Give me another one of those Mutation Fragments! They're like some kind of steroid!"
I chuckled and tossed him another Mutation Fragment. Gunther caught it with a flamboyant backflip and threw it in his mouth.
"HAHA!" He bellowed, and the air whistled with his movements.
I chuckled and shook my head. This was it. I had set the most basic foundations required to fight the big boss of the Three Tests of Worth.
Now, all we had to do was rapidly gain strength.