Chapter 292

Jake prowled the night streets for a little while. It didn’t take him long to come across a group of walkers. He ensnared one of them with a cinch net and turned his attention to the others. Taking care of them posed little challenge for him. Once they were all dealt with, he hoisted the captured walker onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.

He retraced his steps back to his lair, entering through the roof. A few seconds later, he was back in the basement, which was bathed in a bluish glow. He dropped the ensnared walker onto the patch of Corruption. His three larvae continued to crawl around the pitch-black area, paying the captured ex-human no mind. He glanced at the Mana Core.

Larvae: 3/3

He had reached his capacity for larvae. Now that he had three instead of one, the process of converting the walker into Biomass would be three times faster. He sent a mental command to the little creatures, and they immediately began their work.

He kept one foot on the walker’s chest to pin the mutant down while the three larvae transformed it into Biomass. Despite having three larvae working together, the progress was far slower than he had hoped.

Once they finished, he grabbed the remains of the walker and tossed them aside. He then glanced at the pile of pitch-black goo that had once been the walker’s body. The processed Biomass was slowly moving toward the nearest edge of the Corruption to merge with it and further expand its reach.

But Jake wasn’t going to let that happen, because he needed the Biomass as a building material. Once it merged with the existing Corruption, he would no longer be able to use it as that. So he quickly looked at one of the three larvae and mentally commanded it to construct the Biomass Processor atop the animated mound of black goo.

He picked the spot at random, not quite sure whether it mattered how close the future structure would be to the Mana Core. He was still getting the hang of being the Corruptor. Unsure of how everything worked in his lair, he was still adjusting to his role as the Corruptor, learning the ropes through trial and error.

The larva refused to obey his mental command word for word, however. Instead of moving onto the mound of Biomass, it halted beside it and burrowed into the Corruption, forming a small hill. Immediately after that, the Biomass changed its direction. Instead of slowly crawling toward the edge of the Corruption, it turned back toward the small hill formed by the larva.

Once the Biomass reached its destination, surrounding the small hill from every direction, the lump began to grow, gradually absorbing the surrounding Biomass. It was a slow process, but Jake stayed in place, curious to see it unfold. The lump on the Corruption continued to grow larger, consuming the Biomass around it.

He couldn’t help but wonder whether the larva was still alive. He glanced at the Mana Core and summoned its description. He was interested in one particular line.

Larvae: 2/3

So larvae were sort of expendable. However, it wasn’t entirely accurate to say that the one transforming into the growing lump on the Corruption was dead. After all, he recalled reading that every structure in his lair was a living organism, meaning the larva was not dead but rather undergoing a transformation into the structure.

Jake continued to observe the unfolding process. The lump grew larger and larger until it reached the size of a basketball, at which point the process suddenly halted. The reason the structure stopped growing was obvious: it had consumed all the surrounding Biomass.

Nevertheless, he summoned its description.

Biomass Processor (Creation is Paused)

Current Status: 17% Complete

Estimated Remaining Time: 50 minutes, 43 seconds

Attention: Process Has Stopped. It needs More Biomass to Proceed. 

Since one larva was being turned into the Biomass Processor, he could use some of his flesh to create an additional one. At his mental command, a lump formed on his body before detaching and dropping on the Corruption, where it began developing into a larva. Jake didn’t wait for the process to complete. He picked up the remains of the dead ex-human and exited his lair.

So he needed to bring nine more walkers for the Biomass Processor to finish constructing, and he would need to do so in nine trips, as carrying more than one walker at once would be cumbersome. For a moment, he contemplated trying to fetch a larger type of ex-human.

However, he quickly dismissed the idea. A larger ex-human would require more time to bring to the lair and convert into Biomass with his larvae. Therefore, there was probably no point in tracking down larger mutants, as he doubted it would be easier or faster than fetching walkers one by one. 

Besides, getting a shambler, a whipper, or any other large ex-human into his lair would be quite troublesome, considering he would have to lift it onto the roof and then somehow squeeze it through the trap door in the storage room.

Jake spent most of the night bringing nine more walkers to his lair. As soon as his larvae finished turning one into Biomass, it would draw to the soon-to-be Biomass Processor to be absorbed, allowing construction to resume. Meanwhile, Jake would leave his lair for another walker.

By the time he brought the last walker to his lair, it was early morning, the rising sun bathing the streets in light. His larvae converted the walker he had just brought into Biomass, which was then gradually consumed by the growing structure. Jake took out the remains of the mutant and immediately returned to his lair, as no more Biomass was currently needed.

A few minutes later, the process was finished. Jake slowly walked around the fully developed structure, inspecting its elongated, oval form from all sides. It resembled a vertically positioned egg, measuring about 6.5 feet tall and 4 feet wide at its widest point. Like him and everything else in his lair, it was pitch-black and textured. The front section was transparent, revealing a hollow chamber within.

Suddenly, he spotted movement to his side. He looked that way and saw a transparent vein emerging from the base of the Mana Core. It slithered across the Corruption toward the newly grown structure, attaching itself at the base. The two structures were now linked.

Then, magical energy flowed through the vein from the Mana Core. As soon as the mana reached the Biomass Processor, nourishing it, the newly grown structure appeared to come alive, its exterior vibrating slightly. The empty chamber got filled with a soft bluish glow, illuminating the inner fleshy walls.

Nothing else of note occurred. Jake summoned the details of the new structure.

Name: Biomass Processor

Rank: I

Evolve to Rank II: Y/N

No further information was necessary. Since he had already examined the description of the Biomass Processor, he was familiar with its functionality, so it wasn’t shown to him again. He spotted he could already evolve the structure to Rank II, but he decided to do it a little later.

Jake shifted his gaze back to the Mana Core and summoned its current stats.

Name: Mana Core

MP: 72,763

Evolution Rank: II

GP: 147/500

Available structures: Hive Nexus, Larvae Chamber, Biomass Processor. 

Available creatures: Larva, Roach, Fly, Spider

Larvae: 3/3

Structures: 1/3

Evolve to Rank III: Not Enough GP

After the Mana Core is evolved to Rank III, the following structures will be available for creation:

Biomass Storage;

Extractor;

Creation Chamber.

10,000 MP had been taken from the Mana Core to build the Biomass Processor. Now that it had been built—or, as it seemed more appropriate to say, fully grown—GP increased by 100 as well.

It was time to bring another walker to his lair and see the Biomass Processor in action. After that, he intended to build the other two structures: the Hive Nexus and the Larvae Chamber. Once those were completed, he would expand the Corruption to reach 500 GP and evolve the Mana Core to Rank III.

With that plan formed, Jake headed out.