Chapter 24
After destroying another replication pod, Jake decided to take a brief rest. Having cleared out several floors of the high-rise building and demolished three replication pods, he felt fatigued and in need of a break. Seating himself on the floor, he leaned against the wall behind him. Pg his shotgun on the floor beside him, he allowed himself to rex. For the few minutes, he rested. It was fortuhat the mutants on the upper floors tempted to desd. Perhaps they hadn’t heard the otion from the lower levels, or perhaps they were simply indifferent.
He took out his PDA to check the status of his mission.
Main Objective:
Replication Pods Destroyed – 3 out of 5
Additional Objectives:
Floors Cleared – 5 out of 10
Elite Mutants Killed – 0 out of 1
Jake was unaware of the enemy t on each level, but he could monitor his progress on the mission status s. Each floor was more difficult tha. The amount of mutants he had to deal with rose expoially with each ast.
Additionally, a ype of enemy appeared almost on every floor. On the first one, he had only walkers to worry about, which were the weakest. On the sed floor, leapers joihe fray. He really hated them. While they weren’t particurly strong, they were swift and agile. They were somewhat smarter than the walkers too. Instead of rushing at him, they often attempted to outmaneuver him by fnking.
In addition to the walkers and leapers, Jake now had to deal with at least one shambler on each level. These were the most formidable mutants entered thus far. They were covered in resilient anic matter, growing all over their bodies, making up a protective yer that soaked up some of the damage he dealt to them. Despite their durability, the shamblers’ sluggish speed allowed him to elimihem before they could close the distand pose a threat.
After taking a brief respite, Jake rose to his feet and began to search the floor for loot. In one of the rooms, he stumbled upon a Push scroll. He had already acquired multiple scrolls featuring the same spell on previous floors and evehe spell against mutants on several occasions already.
The first time he used the spell was whe surrounded by a bunch of walkers and leapers. The Push spell turned out to be quite effective against them—it khe mutants off their feet with such force as if they were hit by an invisible sledgehammer. That spell affected several mutants at once if they were close to one another, which was anood thing about the Push spell.
When a shambler suddenly emerged behind him, Jake instinctively cast the Push spell for the sed time. However, he quickly discovered that the spell was not as effective against a formidable foe like the shambler pared to smaller targets. The spell mao make the shambler sway slightly, but that was it.
In the final room on the fifth floor, Jake discovered two additional items. The first one was a mana shard. It was evehan a mana marble, and it gave him a generous 500 mana points when he used it.
The sed item was a on mod that could be attached to his shotgun. When he sed the mod with his PDA, he lear roximity sensor capable of revealing the locations of mutants within a small radius around him. After attag the mod to the left side of his on, Jake activated it and tinued on.
When he reached the floor, he found himself at the beginning of a corridor. The proximity sensor emitted a quiet beeping sound, and a few red blips popped up on its s, revealing the positions of nearby mutants. They lurked in the rooms cealed behind the closed doors fnking both sides of the corridor.
As he made his way through the corridor, Jake methodically swung open each door, dealing with the mutants hidden inside every room along his path.
Finally, he reached the st door. Acc to the proximity sensor, there were quite a few mutants in the room behind the door. Since he hadn’t e across a replication pod elsewhere on the floor, it meant that it was either located in that room or possibly not present on this floor at all. Jake checked the pouches on his belt and was surprised to discreucked away in one of them. He’d thought he’d used his st grenade on one of the earlier floors.
He slung the shotgun over one shoulder arieved the grenade from its pouch. Pressing the fuse button on the side of the greo arm it, he silently ted to three before crag the door open and tossing the greo the room underhand. After swiftly closing the door and stepping back, Jake braced himself as a powerful explosion rocked the walls two seds ter. Gng at the sensor’s s, he noticed that most of the blips had vanished. However, a few mutants had somehow mao survive the bst.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and a walker stumbled out of the room. Half of its upper body, including one arm, was missing, revealing jagged ribs protruding from its torn body. The nasty wound, which should have killed it, didn’t seem to bother the mutant much. It began to walk toward him in a slow, unsteady manner. Jake put it out of its misery with a bst from his shotgun. There were only three blips left on the sensor’s s now.
He stepped into the room and was met by a horrible sight—gory pieutants killed in the explosion were scattered all over the room. Two mutants were still alive but missing their legs. They began to crawl toward Jake as soon as they caught sight of him. He quickly dispatched them with two well-pced shots before shifting his focus to the co hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the room.
Sihe replication pod had remained unscathed by the explosion, Jake made his way across the room to destroy it. Pig his way through the torn pieces of dead mutants, Jake advaoward the co. As he prepared to take aim aroy it, the pod suddenly unfurled like a blossom, revealing a fully-formed walker emerging from within. The mutant luowards Jake, but he swiftly dispatched it by blowing its head apart in a spray of gore. He followed up with a couple more bsts to obliterate the co. Four replication pods down, one more to go.
The , seventh, floor, didn’t tain the final replication pod, though. After eliminating all the targets in the area, he proceeded to the floor where he successfully located and obliterated the fifth pod. His PDA notified him that he had aplished the main mission objective and had earned 20,000 credits. As long as he remained within the high-rise building, the missioted him to plete the two additional objectives, which he inteo tackle .
He then cleared out the wo floors and finally reached the final, tenth, one. Despite its heightened difficulty, he successfully eliminated all threats, aplishing the first of the two additional objectives and earning an additional 30,000 credits. His final objective was to defeat ae mutant waiting for him on the rooftop.
Beside the staircase leading to the rooftop, Jake noticed a vending mae and decided to browse its tents. He selected several Push scrolls and all the mana ables it had in stoana shard, two mana marbles, and a handful of mana beads. After adding these items to his cart, he reviewed the final price. Since everything sold in vending maes was hyper-expensive, after making his purchase, he would be left with almost no money remaining.
He wasn’t willing to cel his purchase, though. On the rooftop of the building was ae mutant that he o eliminate in order to fulfill the final objective of his mission. Unsure of what to anticipate from the elite mutant on the rooftop, Jake decided not to take any risks. He o equip himself with everything avaible that could assist him in battling the elite mutant. So he pressed the purchase button on the vending mae, and the s dispyed the words: THANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDER.
His PDA beeped, indig that a certain amount of credits had beeed from his at. A se on the front of the vending mae slid open, and a ptform with his purchased items extended forward from within. Jake immediately utilized all the magic scrolls and mana ables he had just purchased. He now had ample mana points to cast the Push spell multiple times.
After that, he topped off his semi-auto shotgun with extra shells and began asding the stairs to the rooftop where the elite mutant awaited.
