Chapter 398 - The first Big Breakthrough.

Starting it off with slightly political news, but we can also refer to it as development news. With the profit bouncing up to 68k, it has never been a better time to establish another Salary raise. Although the salaries considerably large when you look at the fact that no civilian is making expenses, King Michael declared a 20 Gold Coin salary raise for anyone earning under 150.

What made this salary raise a bit easier, is the fact that two sets of crafts have already hit and gone above the 150 Gold Coin Salary mark. Obviously it is easier to do a Salary raise if less individuals receive that raise.

With this Raise, the first team of Fishermen and the first Platoon of Guards have gone above the 150 Gold Coin salary mark. Now, the employees that are left below it, mostly lurk around a 100 Gold Coin Salary with the Second Platoon of Guards earning the least a month (70 Gold Coins.).

But of course, everyone who are learning less are Zamerians. Racial difference isn't the problem here, but the fact that they are all apprentices is explaining their smaller salaries. Regardless, they will earn 150 Gold Coins eventually and it is far better than earning 20-30 Gold Coins a month like they did in the beginning. And still, King Michael is covering all the living expenses with the Kingdom's Budget.

This raise of course did force the economy, expenses and profit to changes. But let us focus on the overall monthly profit only to keep everything a lot less confusing. Starting from February, Gaster Kingdom will earn a profit of 61,732 Gold Coins. Nearly a 7k drop, but much worth it considering the overall Morale it will raise.

...

We need to get back on specifying a rather complex piece of work, mutation. King Michael has taken over himself the responsibility of finding the mutated combination that grants a longer Lifespan. To make it a whole lot more perplexing, he is trying to filter out bad effects that can come with that mutation.

At the moment, he is stuck experimenting on the cycle he started at the very beginning. Which is mixing up Demon Toe, Waist and Head meat to see what will happen. He has three more combinations to try before switching to trying new cycles of experiments.

The base fundamental of this experiment is having three Rats mutated with Demon head meat at first, this neccesarily means that the Rats have attained super speed. With this mutation as a base, he wants to figure out what mutation or in some terms, "powers" the Rats will get once eating either Demon toe, waist or head meat.

"Are we ready Miss. Alama and Miss. Ladia?" King Michael spoke calmly, himself too trying to ignore the tremendously terrible smell that the Demon Carcasses carry.

"The nose plugs aren't helping enough." Alama spoke, rather hilarious to watch. People with cloth up their nose have a funny way of talking. They talk, well... Like people with small bits of cloth up their nose.

"We'll be doing three Experiments only, then we can get out of here." He spoke swiftly, trying to reason with the two ladies who have more sensitive noses than he thought. He doesn't want to rush the experiments for two reasons.

The first one is, he doesn't want to over populate the number of mutations. He wants to keep better track of which Rat lives longer. Although other effects visible, based on the current technology no one can tell if a longer lifespan has been granted to any of the Rats, that wouldn't have a sharp external change. So the best choice is to wait and know which is which and why it is that way.

The second reason behind his slow mutating pace, is that he wants to see if the mutated rats will develop other attributes or mutations as time passes, before trying this out on any Human of course, especially Alama.

"Let's start by writing this log down." King Michael requested, and thinking it through a split second to get back on what he wanted to state. "Demon Toe, Rat who has been mutated with Demon Head as the consumer."

He spared no second to drop the meat through the cage, and although expected he still didn't like how the meat spread in various directions due to Rat chomping it at thundering speed. Luckily, the King has chosen older clothes for these experiments, although the experiments are just three.

As expected, the Rat started changing. But is it for the better or for the worst, every eye would have a different opinion of course. Laying down on the ground, as if doing a push up. With aims of having a better look at the Rat since the mutation from an above point of view seems extremely minimal.

"Well I'll be damned, I expected a change on the jaw area but not to this precision and extend." The King admired, wanting to reach his hand in but obviously knowing that it is an extremely bad idea.

Afterwards, the Rat dashed around the cage at super speed again which in other terms specifies that super speed has not been tampered and King Michael specified, "This Rat has gotten a perfect row of sharp, well settling curved teeth. We unintentionally made a super fast land shark, although a lot smaller."

"So I should write the Result just how you said it there." Alama asked, just to be absolutely sure. This is a sensitive experimental log after all.

"Yes, I don't think that I can have a better explanation for it." He answered and afterwards let the silence stretch for a short while as he glanced upon Alama writing it down.

Now getting on to the second experiment, he glanced at her and asked. "I'm sure you know what to do." Which in other terms asserts trust, but he also wants to spare their noses... and his own.

"Yup for sure." She answered and swiftly jotted down, while also sensing Ladia's glance upon the Parchment.

King Michael dropped the meat through the cage, and already felt the meat splattering on all directions. This mutation once more raises curiosity and enthusiasm, because like with the first experiment they did today, they don't know what this one will bring.

The Rat stopped on its spot after chewing down on the Demon waist meat, and afterwards fast continues ear puncturing stomps were thrown against the metal cage. The King dropped down, and saw something rather unusual happening around the Rat's stomach.

Yelling out his sentence after a short analysis, he explained bit by bit. "It seems like the Rat has grown a lot of extra footless legs on its belly. Very pointy, and I think its trying to drill through the Cage, although ineffective."

Now this mutation can be weaponized, especially since the Rat isn't stopping which in other words means that its new legs aren't breaking. "We have made an Urchin Rat." He murmured with himself at a low tone, obviously joking and for sure it hasn't been heard due to the constant stomping.

The Rat stopped stomping and just moved on the side, dropped on its back and seemingly died. "Uuuu... this is not a good combination. Mark it as dangerous, can kill a test subject."

"Maybe I can help it heal!" Ladia felt uneasy about its death and moved forward, away from Alama to approach the Cage.

"No, its pretty much dead. I don't think Healers can bring one from the dead." King Michael explained, which made Ladia get back on her spot.

Feeling sure that Alama has written the result because he yelled it out, he moved on to the third experiment while feeling sad for this Rat. Sure it is just an animal, but the way it dropped felt hard to watch.

"Moving on to the third and last experiment for the day. Demon Head, Rat who has been mutated with Demon Head as the consumer." This should be a bit more interesting compared to most, because the Rat will be double mutated with the same type of meat that it got mutated earlier.

"Am I delusional from the smell or is this Rat..." King Michael felt shocked, afterwards flapping his hand back and forth for the two ladies to come and have a look.

"Either we all are delusional or this Rat is actually flying!" Ladia spoke, not believing her eyes. Not only did the Rat attain super speed earlier, now it is actually flying.

"Minor flight abilities at best, and it stopped running fast." Alama spoke, trying to sound smart for once instead of constantly complaining about the bad stench.

"Yes, this is indeed a big discovery and we should specifically keep this Rat under our glance for a few months to see if side effects fly by." Having people who can fly can be a huge advantage in battle, this is basically equal to discovering how to attain flying powers even though one wasn't born with it.

After watching Alama write everything down, they grabbed the Experimental logs and went out of the room all together.

Alama spoke out in a low tone towards King Michael, "You and I need to talk."

Not sure at all what the topic will be, he first turned towards Ladia and told her. "Ladia you are done for the day, you may go home and relax your Nostrils."

"But I didn't do anything today." Ladia pointed out, feeling bad about earning without working but furthermore fearing that she will eventually be fired. Its nice that Ladia became quick to learn the Ignite language.

"It's alright, without the books we are basically wasting time and messing with your self esteem. Soon we will get them, and that's where the true training will come in." He specified, grabbing Alama by the arm in the process and moving to the Kitchen while Ladia was pointed towards the door kindly.

...

"Don't get mad, but Dilli told me how you are growing a little trauma within yourself, your fear of losing people is becoming too strong." Her opening to the conversation came out sweet, but at the same time with a rough tone unintentionally.

"I guess she isn't the best at keeping the conversation to the Campfire only." He complained, while at the same time rethinking how much he will share his past to people.

Wanting to protect Dilli, but also knowing that regardless she wouldn't care what happens due to her decision of bringing the word to Alama. She tried to reason with him, "That's not the case, she felt concern for you and knew that you would listen to me the most."

He is in a mood good enough to not disagree with that point, so he went towards another. Keeping his shoulders stiff as he leaned towards the Dinning table, "I thought talked about this, why are you opening the topic again..."

Prepared for this answer, she spoke softly at a mildly low tone. "I don't think we did, at least not enough." Taking in a deep breath and letting out a sigh, she added after at an even slower pace. "Look, we will all face death eventually and we will see people around us face it as well. It is an inevitable piece of life, so why worry about it before time and go through it twice? You have isolated yourself and your feelings because of this fear."

"I have lost many loved ones through my life, and considering my Lifespan it doesn't really get better due to the fact that I have more time than anyone here to think about it." Taking a second to collect his thoughts, he added. "I just don't want to get attached and have my feelings harvested once more."

"We will find the secret of increasing Lifespans, and we will have all our closed ones live longer. You don't have to go through the trauma over and over again." Now leaning back to her chair, she took a few seconds to gather her guts and leaned back in again.

Being at the side of the long Dinner table, with King Michael being at the very end of the table and neccesarily very close to Alama. She leaned in closer than personal space would see reasonable, and expressed. "But just in case we don't, I won't cage my feelings like you do anymore."

Now, she leaned in for a Kiss and landed a quick one on the side of his lips. Shocked at first, but understanding completely what she meant. He decided to shift the barrier of his feelings, and with a thrust he went ahead to hug her.

Unintentionally, he tipped her along with her Chair over and they both fell on the floor. That's where an old, friendly looking Ignite maid walked in this poorly timed moment and asked. "Do you need a moment?"