Chapter 458 - Mutative Properties

Afton's eyes widen at the Perk options before him, these were seriously game-changing... At first he was pretty certain he was going to pick [Hero turned Tyrant], but after thinking about it for a while he realised that it was probably the worst option...

[Hero turned Tyrant] would force him to cause fear to earn EXP... This doesn't sound all that bad until you consider how much fear would allow you to level up, you'd probably have to nuke a city in front of thousands of people to level up from such a system.​​

That wasn't to say the things it offered weren't good, but upon further inspection they held more negatives than you'd think... Just the mutation alone would basically force him to become a cannibalistic vampire, if anyone caught him using such an ability his allies and anyone else who followed him would quickly leave.

Had he allied himself with the Fiends or other similar tribes, such an ability might be viable... But in his current situation? Impossible.

[Hero's Promise] is another hard perk to take... Again, such a Perk would force him to go through extreme lengths just to level up. His current reputation wasn't a good one, and changing it after he and his group had just brutally butchered thousands of people wasn't likely at all.

Gaining EXP through Hope would force him to basically become the second coming of jesus... And while that might sound like fun to do for a while, he imagined it'd get bored very, very quickly. The +3 to Intelligence and Charism wasn't bad, in fact, it'd allow him to get the max Perk for Intelligence, but it still wasn't worth it...

The worst thing of all would be the bonus Health for Karma... What would happen if his Positive Karma dipped under his Negative? Would he lose health? The fact that he didn't know made him reject any notion of actually accepting this Perk.

Last but not least was [Stay the Path], which would essentially do nothing to his actions. He'd continue as he always had been without interference, levelling would stay the same, and he'd continue slowly getting stronger without having to deify himself or commit genocide.

The ability to see someone's Karma would also be incredible. It'd essentially allow him to see who was good and who was evil... The morally grey world would suddenly become black and white... Anyone whose Karma was overwhelmingly Negative deserved death, right?

Karma was an enigmatic thing if Afton were honest with himself... Would he lose Karma if he saved a murderer who then went on to kill many? Would he lose Karma for creating a medicine that many people overdose on?

He imagined he'd gained so much Negative Karma due to his various 'brutal murders', murder was 'fine' for Karma, but torturing someone? Definitely not.

He sighs as he looks over the Perks again, he still had no idea what Immunity to Criticals would do... A shot to the head would still likely kill him, but maybe a bullet to the heart wouldn't? Ah, so confusing...

After a couple more minutes he bites his inner cheek and finally decides what to pick... [Stay the Path]

As soon as he picks the Perk he feels his body burning, his muscles were getting denser, his senses were improving, his mental capabilities were speeding up, his heartbeat felt strong, unstoppable. He was THE superhuman in the Wastelands now, he doubted anyone even came close, even with all the mutations around.

He's about to get up from the grass but is interrupted but yet another notification...

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 51!]

[System has updated, Levelling has been updated.]

[Each level will grant one point that can be used in one of three categories, Stats, Perks and Mutations. Skills that have not been maxed out yet can be upgraded as well, one point equals 10 Skill points.]

Afton raises a brow at this, honestly he'd been expecting something to change soon... Skill points became useless once you maxed them out, a couple more levels and he would've done just that... Still, he didn't think he'd be maxing out Lockpicking or Bartering, Perks, Stats, and Mutations would be way more valuable.

Speaking of which, he immediately look at the various categories that'd appeared in his peripheral...

[Points : 1]

[Stats]

[Perks]

[Mutations]

He ignores the first two categories and selects Mutations, a scree appears before him and starts listing off a variety of things... Among them were upgrades to [Beauveria mordicana symbioticca].

[Beauveria mordicana firmissimi anguli] : Enables user to manipulate their arm into a variety of shapes.

[Beauveria mordicana duraferro] : User's arm becomes as hard as steel.

[Beauveria mordicana flagellum] : Enables user's arm to extend, stretch, and flex.

[Beauveria mordicana rasorium] : Enables user to form incredibly sharp blades on their arm.

There were numerous upgrades for his plant arm, each seeming to complement one another... WIth enough perks his arm would basically be the one Mercer has in Prototype... Perhaps with even more options.

Of course, there were more mutations available.

[Beauveria mordicana infestatio v1] : Enables user to manipulate plantlife.

[Beauveria mordicana corpus indiuiduo connexe v1] : Drastically increases the user's body's durability. (May cause physical changes)

Other than the various Beauveria mordicana, plenty of other mutations were more similar to supernatural powers...

[Telepathy v1] : Enables user to communicate with other willing minds.

[Telekinesis v1] : Enables user to move objects with their mind.

[Pyrokinesis v1] : Enables user to control fire.

These mutations were all game-changers... The only problem was that they didn't elaborate how strong they actually were... [Telepathy v1] might force you to touch foreheads to communicate, [Telekinesis v1] might only make you able to lift a feather...

Afton was excited about them, but was more confident towards the Beauveria mordicana Mutations as they had already proven to work... As such, he decides to bite the bullet and try a simple, but potentially useful Mutation, [Beauveria mordicana firmissimi anguli].

He could already think up a few interesting uses for it, aside from morphing his arm into a spear or something, perhaps he'd be able to transform his finger into a key to unlock something... Maybe he'd be able to transform it into tools? Regardless, he'd have to find out later on.