Trait Hoarder Novel Chapter 40: The Mutant Incident (2)

The Mutant Incident — Part 2

Click.

I put on my collapsible helt.

The goggles activated, illuminating the dark interior.

The fluorescent lights should’ve been working just fine, but now, they were all dead silent.

It wasn’t just the lights; all the electrical systems had gone down.

Earlier, the governnt workers had to open the door manually.

‘What’s going on?’

Contaminated mana spreading shouldn’t affect the electricity.

A possibility crossed my mind, and I frowned.

‘Does that an one of the mutants has an electricity-related trait?’

Not a good feeling.

If a mutant had an electricity-related trait, there was no way it was just Level 1.

A Level 2 mutant, and maybe not just one.

‘I need to be careful.’

If I see them first, I win.

To block my bullets—especially my shotgun rounds—would take a Level 3 mutant. And not just any Level 3, but one specialized in defense, with traits like mana shields or steel armor.

What I had to watch out for was getting ambushed due to carelessness.

I swapped out my traits.

[Shooting], [Firearm Mastery], [Sensitivity]

[Mana Core], [Contamination Resistance], [Focus]

I raised my rifle, ready for quick aiming, and moved forward.

‘The level of contaminated mana feels off.’

In Site 1 and other contaminated facilities, the contaminated mana is designed to accumulate in isolated areas.

It gets so concentrated in those spaces that either a monstrous mutant is born or a massive explosion occurs, but it rarely leaks outside.

So why can I feel contaminated mana so strongly here?

The stench was so bad it even seeped through my gas mask, assaulting my nose with a rancid sll.

Even my skin felt itchy under my protective suit.

‘Sothing’s not right.’

Six out of nine cleaning team mbers turning into mutants was already strange.

It was as if so dark, sinister secret was waiting for

inside.

Tapt!

I stopped abruptly.

Far ahead in the direction I was heading, I heard faint footsteps.

‘A mutant?’

The cleaning operation was on hold. There was no way any living thing could survive in this environnt.

If sothing was here besides , it had to be a mutant.

Tapt!

There it was again.

I definitely heard it.

A light-footed creature darting across the floor.

I gripped my rifle tightly.

‘Should I draw my sword?’

If I fire my gun, the sound will echo everywhere, drawing all the mutants toward .

Using the sword might be a quieter option, but…

‘A sword still makes noise.’

I’m not an assassin, after all.

It’s better to eliminate as many enemies as I can when I have the chance.

I sharpened my focus.

I listened carefully with my ears while keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead.

The sound from earlier had stopped.

But the air was growing colder, the back of my neck stiffened, and goosebumps prickled across my skin.

My mouth went dry.

I could feel it.

My heart was reacting, and my mana was pulsing with unease.

Soone was there.

Sothing was watching , brimming with murderous intent.

Sweat beaded on my forehead, sliding down in a slow drip.

Rustle.

That was when I heard the crawling noise.

My hair stood on end.

It wasn’t coming from in front of !

It was from behind!

Whip!

I spun around instantly.

Through the clarity of my goggles, I saw a grotesque creature.

“You bastard!”

Tatatatatata!

I opened fire, unleashing the entire magazine in full-auto mode.

Sharp gunshots rang out in rapid succession, and flashes of orange fire lit up the darkness.

The creature, hanging upside down from the ceiling, convulsed violently.

“Kieeek!”

It looked like a giant bat.

Its flesh ripped apart, and its blood sprayed everywhere.

Green blood splattered across the ceiling, walls, and floor.

Wait—green blood?

As alarm bells rang in my head, a warning appeared on my goggles’ display.

[Activating gas mask]

Poison!

The blood had started to bubble and boil the mont it made contact with the air, a clear sign that this was no ordinary poison.

I quickly swapped out Sensitivity for Poison Resistance.

“Kieeee!”

The situation was growing dire.

Even after emptying an entire magazine, the bat was still charging at .

Its mbranous wings were huge, and its eyes, now blind, looked hideous.

Its grotesque maw gaped open, revealing a double row of jagged, shark-like teeth.

“Damn it!”

A creature that could survive that much firepower had to be at least Level 2.

I flipped the rifle around, using it like a bat, and swung it.

Wham! Crack!

The stock struck the bat right on its jaw, causing it to stumble montarily.

But that was as far as it went.

It didn’t lose montum and continued its attack.

“Eeeek!”

If I hadn’t activated my Evasion trait and dodged at the last second, it would’ve grabbed .

“Kyaaaaak!”

The bat screeched, frustrated but still charging.

It was unlucky.

Though it was bleeding heavily from several bullet wounds, none of them were fatal.

‘I should’ve used slug rounds.’

My rifle fired 5.56mm rounds—fine against humans but a bit lacking in stopping power for sothing like this.

Click.

Even in this chaotic situation, I moved like a machine.

Three seconds.

During the three seconds the bat was howling in pain, I had already reloaded with precise, practiced motions.

“Kikik?”

The bat, now wary after experiencing my bullets once, hesitated for a mont.

Despite its lack of intelligence, it seed to retain so mories from when it was human.

As soon as I slapped in a fresh magazine, it flinched and sprang off the ground.

Tapt!

That sa light footfall sound I had heard before.

Its body, with a wingspan that looked to be at least five ters wide, cast a massive shadow as it pounced toward .

I calmly aid my rifle.

The [Focus] trait kicked in.

I could almost feel the creature’s hot breath licking the back of my neck.

Its hulking form blotted out my view of the world, and all I could see was black.

But I waited.

I maintained my stance, waiting for the creature to fall into the sights of my gun.

Just one second.

It felt like an eternity, but it was only one second.

Just as its iron claws, shaped like hamrs, were about to tear into my chest—

The bat’s head ca into my sights.

Bang!

One shot.

The gunshot tore through the air.

Thwack!

“Guh!”

The creature’s hamr-like claws slamd into my solar plexus, knocking the wind out of

and causing everything to go dark for a mont.

But before the pain registered, I felt the rush of victory.

‘I got it!’

The massive bat’s body went limp.

Between its shriveled, vestigial eyes, in the spot where its sensory organs were concentrated, a small hole had appeared.

A tiny, tiny hole.

But it was enough to turn its brain into mush.

“Ugh…”

I had won, but I couldn’t breathe properly.

I quickly channeled mana into my necklace.

A soft, white light washed over , focusing on my chest, and I could suddenly breathe again.

I shoved the bat’s corpse aside and crawled out from under it.

“I thought I was gonna die for real.”

It felt harder to deal with than a Level 2 superhuman.

Honestly, the issue had been with my tactics.

I detached the under-barrel grenade launcher from my rifle, attaching it to my shotgun instead. I also swapped out the buckshot magazine for slugs.

Finally, I extracted the mana core from the bat’s corpse before standing up again.

‘At least I got sothing.’

A Level 2 mana core wasn’t bad.

I aligned my eyes with the shotgun’s sights.

As the sights ca into focus, I felt my concentration heighten, and the world inside the reticle seed to expand.

[Aim]

A trait useful for fighting both humans and monsters.

I kept my shotgun at the ready, slowly scanning my surroundings.

‘They should be here by now.’

As expected.

Thud, thud, thud.

Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed through the hall.

“Heeheehee! Kyaahhaha! Ahihihihi!”

Creepy noises, like children laughing or the wail of a banshee, filled the air.

The sense of danger caused

to bite down on my lower lip.

‘This happened earlier too.’

The bat mutant had made noise in front of

earlier.

Tapt, tapt, those light footsteps.

Then it had circled around and crawled along the ceiling to approach .

This ant they had so level of intelligence.

There was no reason to assu the other mutants wouldn’t do the sa.

‘I can’t underestimate them.’

I scanned my surroundings again.

I was standing at a T-junction where two side corridors extended from the main hall.

I crouched down and held my shotgun, taking cover in one of the side passages.

A camo tarp would’ve been helpful, but I wasn’t about to wish for the impossible.

Instead, I activated my deception trait.

[Feign Death]

Combined with Stealth, it made it nearly impossible to detect .

Thud, thud, thud.

After a while, a hulking figure erged from the shadows.

It was massive, covered in boils and sores.

It was so tall that its head brushed against the ceiling. As it walked, the dangling fluorescent lights shattered on impact, sending shards of glass scattering to the floor.

It had four arms, and one of them, the right arm, was covered in jagged tal fragnts.

Had it been using a prosthetic arm before mutating?

“Grrrr…”

The hulking mutant gurgled as it lumbered around, its head turning to take in its surroundings. Then, it approached the bat’s corpse, sniffing it.

“Raaawr!”

With a guttural roar, it hurled the bat’s body against the wall, splattering green ichor everywhere.

The bat’s body hit the wall with a thud, its remains bursting like an overripe fruit. Green fluid sprayed across the floor, but the hulking mutant didn’t seem to care.

‘Damn, it’s strong.’

It was sluggish, but definitely a serious threat.

My hand instinctively moved toward my grenade launcher, but I stopped myself.

I could hear more approaching.

“Kyah-hyah-hyah! Ahihihi!”

A grotesque figure with five mouths and three eyes stumbled into view, waving its shovel-like hands erratically, cackling like a madman.

The hulking mutant didn’t seem pleased, but the cackling creature didn’t care.

It spotted the bat’s mangled corpse and began shaking its entire body, as if dancing in delight.

Then there was another.

This one approached from behind, slithering through the shadows.

It was the most disturbing one yet.

It looked vaguely human at first glance, but then again, it didn’t. Its form constantly shifted, as if it couldn’t decide what it was supposed to be—a distorted amalgam of human and sludge.

On closer inspection, I could see the half-dissolved bones of a person floating inside its gelatinous body. It moved silently, leaving behind a trail of sticky residue.

‘That’s three of them.’

But where were the other two?

Even though I hadn’t spotted them yet, this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The three mutants were clustered around the bat’s corpse. All I needed to do was strike now.

Click.

I carefully pulled the pin from a grenade, not a fragntation one, but a binding grenade.

And then, using [Throw], I rolled the grenade across the floor.

It was a slow, deliberate roll, aided by the trait, and the grenade skittered precisely between the feet of the mutants.

“Kurrk?”

“Kihihee!”

The mutants only noticed it once it had reached their feet.

It was already too late.

They were mutants, after all. While they had so level of intelligence, they lacked reason and logic.

The binding grenade exploded, releasing a dim light that engulfed the three mutants.

“Kuh-huhh?”

“Heehahaaa! Aheheheh!”

It didn’t hurt. The light wasn’t particularly bright, and the explosion wasn’t violent.

But the binding grenade’s effect was simple: it temporarily sealed the flow of mana.

And that was more than enough for .

I used [Focus], aiming the grenade launcher at the giant mutant’s feet. With [Aim], I lined up the shot.

Thump!

The soft, characteristic sound of the grenade launcher firing filled the air.

The black projectile sailed through the darkness, skipping once like a skipping stone, before landing at the giant’s feet.

I imdiately dove for cover, switching all my traits to defensive ones and activating my Mana Shield.

BOOM!

An explosion rocked the corridor, followed by a cloud of dust and shrapnel sweeping through the air.

“Grrr! Urrrghh!”

“Khehehek! Gyaaaaak!”

“Khrgh!”

Mutants or not, they were no match for modern weaponry.

Even with their grotesque mutations, they were just flesh and bone in the end.

The three mutants were knocked to the ground, writhing in pain.

Amazingly, none of them had died imdiately.

To kill them, I would need to destroy their mana cores or their brains. It seed the shrapnel had missed their vital spots.

‘Still, they’re monsters.’

I calmly raised my shotgun and aid.

From my position in the side corridor, about 20 ters away, I slowly squeezed the trigger.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three shots.

I aid for the heads of the fallen giant and the five-mouthed creature, blowing their skulls clean off.

Even after I destroyed the sli-like mutant’s head, it still wriggled on the ground.

Boom!

I fired one more shot, obliterating it.

Using my [Treasure Hunter] trait, I located the mana core embedded in its right foot.

‘What a strange place for a core.’

Even for a mutant, it was rare for the body to transform so much that the nervous system would be entirely replaced by a mana circuit. Sothing was off.

It didn’t feel right.

‘In the end, it’s always humans that create these monsters.’

After extracting the mana cores, I crawled into a corner and waited.

Almost thirty minutes passed, but there was no movent.

Wasn’t the gunfire supposed to attract them?

Even after I detonated the grenade?

Just when I was considering moving again, I heard it.

Slither, slither.

A long shadow slinked through the darkness.

It looked vaguely human in shape, but sothing was off.

I squinted through my goggles to get a better look.

It was a rotting mass of flesh, as if soone had shaped it from decaying mud.

A dim light shone from the mana chip embedded in its head.

And that mana pulse… it carried the unmistakable aura of a lingering spirit.

In Arcane Seoul, we call these creatures Wraiths.

Without realizing it, I bit down hard on my lower lip.

Wraiths don’t form naturally.

They can only be created by necromancers or dark priests.

Only they have the ability to implant mana chips into contaminated remnants and summon lost souls to create a wraith.

Slither, slither.

The wraiths filled the hallway, crowding the passage from every direction.

Not just one or two, but an entire swarm of them, inching forward relentlessly.

[Ah, ah.]

One of the wraiths in front suddenly spoke.

Wraiths can talk?

I looked closer and saw that its face had an old speaker grafted onto where its mouth should be.

Its eyes were replaced by rusty caras, and its ears were crudely fitted with worn-out microphones.

[Hello there, Superhuman. How about we have a little chat?]

A cold chill ran down my spine.

I was still in Stealth mode.

And yet, the wraith was staring directly at .

As if it knew exactly where I was hiding.

–TL Notes–

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