10: Suitable Mutation

The lunchtime break on campus was long. Teachers, workers, and students, all got enough time to eat, rest, and prepare for the next few periods. Mir's classes were quite far away from Blair's due to the difference in their chosen fields of study. He had to walk quite a bit to reach her usual lunch spot.

It wasn't difficult to find her there. She was sitting on a stone bench, surrounded by plates of food just purchased from nearby canteens. As Mir plopped down next to her on the bench, she handed him a plate of grainy paste dipped in milk, a delicacy in this place.

This one plate of food was worth more than what she had snatched from his wallet this morning. It was rare for her to be so generous with her food. So Mir couldn't help but feel curious about what she wanted to talk about so urgently.

"What's the occasion?"

Blair paused between chewing, appearing to be thinking hard.

"Right, the talk. Wanted to talk to ya about our careers since I have news to share. I'm leaving college. Gonna join the military, exploration squads to be more specific. My parents finally decided it's time for me to start 'training'."

Mir exhaled a disappointed breath. Compared to the other rich scions in the National College, Blair's parents were pretty lax about her lifestyle. They had let her enjoy her teenage years however she wanted to, with the sole condition that she'd join the military after college and start training officially to become a mutant Transcender. She had made good use of her freedom. But the world was unkind to those without strength. They both knew her comfortable, indulgent life wouldn't last.

Mir scanned her rotund figure from head to toe and tried to imagine her in a military expedition outside the safety of the surface cities. His smirk must have been a tad too obvious, because Blair tried to snatch his plate away in anger. Mir dodged her claws and asked, "You're not gonna wait for the semester finals?"

"Nope. The special recruitment event is only a few weeks away, and I can't just head over in my current state, can I? Dad and Mum showed me the training routine they've designed to prepare me for military life. I kid you not, it looked like a torture schedule."

"You don't look that upset about it," Mir observed. Blair cracked a sad grin.

"I was getting a little sick of lazing around for so long, with no achievements to show and no ability to abuse like those fuckers in the Duel arena do. Man, you have not seen what things are like in the underground districts. The Transcenders there around our age could wipe the floor with every 'talent' being cheered on in our arena."

That made sense. Underground districts didn't have to face the issue of lethal sunlight messing with their body, awakening the dormant virus in their cells. Their resources were of better quality, and their success rate with mutations was much higher than surface-dwellers.

"Well, good luck, then. I have no plans to join the military, so chances of us meeting face-to-face in the future will be low," he said while trying to hide the melancholy tone.

"That reminds me," Blair suddenly said. "You sorta quit studying since the third semester, right? You won't be getting into the universities or diploma programs either with your final results. What do you plan on doing? Churches or private companies?"

Mir shook his head. "I'll just stay home and help with my parents' business. With a bit of time and savings, it shouldn't be impossible for me to become a mutant. After that, I'll have a lot more options to choose from."

"Most of those options will be more trouble than they're worth," Blair said, accurately pointing out the flaw in his plans. "Why don't you just join the military? I could get you a good spot, guaranteed."

"I don't plan to take risks. Freedom and peace are a lot easier to enjoy compared to the gains from war."

Blair shook her head hering his response. "Freedom and peace? You think the weaker portion of the society has those? Come on, Twigs, we both know how much freedom an ordinary citizen or a low level Transcender has. They barely make a living in the surface cities. Can they even enter the real human civilization that's thriving underground?"

Instead of answering the questions, Mir started stuffing his mouth with food. Blair could guess that he had some other reasons for not pursuing the usual career paths of Transcenders. She didn't press him for answers and shifted the topic to something that she knew would interest him.

"I managed to get a peek of the mutation my parents are trying to get me. Wanna guess what my first mutation is gonna be?"

Mir looked up from his plate, his brain fired up. He knew a little about her parents, most of it fom her own mouth. Both of them had walked a similar path in their evolution journey, standing neck to neck as fully Evolved experts, meaning they had saturated nearly 100% of their cells using the Sun's Curse Virus. Typical Mutants didn't dare to cross beyond 80%. In fact, most stopped around the 70% mark. The risk of losing control over their own mutations and turning into a monster was too high from that point. But Blair's parents were gifted individuals.

Their preferred combat style was the Mutation Embodiment path, as opposed to the other, more popular, Soulbeast Commandeering route.

As the names suggested, mutation embodiment path was all about using the mutant abilities mastered by oneself through saturating their cells with the virus. The advantage of this style was that the user was in full control of his combat output, and they could choose from a wide array of options when it came to mastering the abilities.

On the other hand, Soulbeast Commandeering path was the defensive style, relying on mutant creatures to do their battles for them. Due to the rarity of Soulbeasts, they didn't have a lot of options when it came to choosing one for their Soulslot, but they didn't have to risk themselves at all in battles.

These two paths weren't actually separate. Only by Consolidating the unsaturated virus in their body could a human gain a mutant ability. To do so, they had to consume meals or edible gene awakening solutions made from mutant creatures's flesh. In the process of hunting mutant creatures, one could gain a Soulbeast by forcing it to submit to him instead of killing it. To do the latter, one had to have the ability to hunt and kill mutants, of course.

There was a popular saying in the online forums– 'Every Soulbeast Commander was a Mutant, but not every Mutant could be a Soulbeast Commander.'

The saying was a little exaggerated and bore the stink of elitism. For example, Blair's parents were two fine exceptions. They simply preferred to use their own mutant abilities over relying on a soulbeast.

So when he thought about what path they'd choose for Blair, he was inclined towards a defensive mutant ability. It'd definitely be something effective in battle. But considering Blair's physique...

"Is it the Bone Porcupine? Or the Iron Rhino mutation ?" He asked inquisitively. "They are perfect for you-"

Smack!