Chapter 4: First Blood
The citys underbelly breathed differently at 4 AM.
Chronos moved through the Financial Districts canyon streets, his footsteps silent on damp pavement. His Mana Sense Enhanced painted the world in silver gradients. Power lines hummed with faint energy. Sewer grates exhaled wisps of corrupted mana, like the breath of a sleeping beast.
He was hunting the first sick.
From Silas memory: First Shamble-Rot appears in the old subway maintenance tunnel beneath Fulton Street. Homeless man named Carlos. Addict. Liver already failing. Mana accelerates the decay. Becomes aggressive by dawn.
Chronos descended a service staircase, rust flaking under his grip. The air grew cold, thick with the smell of stale urine and wet concrete. Graffiti glowed in his enhanced visionnot with light, but with residual emotional energy. Fear. Desperation. The citys subconscious.
His biomass readout glowed softly:
Biomass: 67.22kg
Template Slots: 7/7
Active Blueprint: Predator Form Alpha 28kg cost
Too expensive. He needed a combat-efficient form.
He designed a new blueprint mentally:
Designing: Hunter Form Beta
· Gorilla arms only 4.8kg
· Cat legs template not yet acquired estimated 2kg
· Eagle eyes 3kg
· Python spine flexibility 1.5kg
Estimated Total: 11.3kg
Duration: ~20 minutes
Better. But he lacked the cat template.
First things first.
The tunnel branched. Left led to active tracks. Right to a sealed maintenance section condemned since 2019. The door was chained, but the lock had been broken and re-broken so many times it was just theater.
Chronos pushed through.
Darkness. Then his eagle vision template activated partially, shifting his eyes light sensitivity. The world resolved in grainy grayscale, edges sharp.
Something moved in the far corner.
A shape hunched over a shopping cart filled with rags and cans. The manCarlos, if Silass memory was correctwas shivering violently. Blue veins glowed beneath his skin like faulty neon. Mana corruption.
Lifeform Identified: Human Mana-Sick Early Stage
Status: Cellular breakdown in progress
Template Available: Yes Corrupted High Risk
Biomass Estimate: 55kg degrading
Chronos approached slowly. Carlos.
The man jerked upright. His eyes were entirely silver, no pupil, no sclera. Just liquid mercury. Whos there?
Someone who knows whats happening to you.
My skin... itches. Inside. Carlos scratched his arm, nails tearing flesh. Blood welled, but it was dark, almost black, and shimmered with the same silver energy.
The energy is rewriting your cells. You have two choices: fight it and maybe survive, or let it consume you.
Carlos laughed, a wet, gurgling sound. Fight? Man, I been fighting my whole life. Fighting for a fix. Fighting for a meal. Fighting to not freeze. He stood. His joints popped like firecrackers. Im tired of fighting.
The change happened fast.
Carloss back arched. Bones cracked and elongated. His jaw dislocated, stretching wider than humanly possible. Silver drool dripped, sizzling where it hit concrete.
Alert: Mana-Sickness Progression to Stage 2
Designation: Shamble-Rot Tier 0 Monster
Threat Level: Low-Moderate
Abilities: Corrosive saliva, enhanced strength, pain immunity
Weakness: Head destruction, fire, high mana disruption
The Shamble-Rot charged.
No finesse. Just a lurching, desperate sprint.
Chronos didnt have the cat template for agility. He had to improvise.
He activated partial transformations:
Applying: Gorilla Right Arm 2.4kg
Applying: Eagle Eyes 3kg
Pain seared through him. His right arm thickened, darkened. His vision telescopedhe could see every pore on the charging monsters face, every silver vein pulsing.
The Shamble-Rot swung a clawed hand.
Chronos caught it with his gorilla arm.
Bone met reinforced muscle. The impact vibrated up his arm, but he held. The Shamble-Rots claws scrabbled against his thickened skin, drawing blood but not deep.
With his free left handstill humanChronos reached for his backpack. Withdrew a steel pipe hed taken from a construction site.
He swung.
The pipe connected with the Shamble-Rots temple. A wet crunch. The creature staggered but didnt fall. Its skull had partially crystallized from mana exposureharder than bone.
It spat.
Silver drool hit Chronoss shoulder. His jacket smoked. The corrosive substance ate through fabric, then skin. Agonylike acid and electricity mixed.
Damage Taken: Corrosive Burn Minor
Biomass Loss: 0.3kg tissue destruction
Chronos gritted his teeth. He needed to end this quickly. Every second burned biomass.
He dropped the pipe. Used both handsone gorilla-strong, one humanto grab the Shamble-Rots head. Twisted.
The creatures neck resisted. Mana had reinforced the vertebrae.
Chronos changed tactics. Remembered the python template.
Applying: Python Jaw/Mandible 0.8kg
His jaw unhinged. Not fullythat would require the entire head transformationbut enough to open wider than human. He lunged, biting the Shamble-Rots throat.
Teeth met corrupted flesh. The taste was foulozone and rot.
He tore.
Black-silver blood fountained. The Shamble-Rot gurgled, clawing at him weakly.
Chronos held on, biting deeper until he felt vertebrae.
Crack.
The creature went limp.
He released, spat out corrupted tissue. His mouth burned. The mana-tainted blood was toxic.
Victory: Shamble-Rot Defeated
Biomass Reward Available: 42kg corrupted
Warning: Corrupted biomass carries integration risk
Absorb? Y/N
Chronos hesitated.
Silass memory was clear: Never absorb corrupted biomass early. The mana-instability can mutate your own cells. Wait until you have purification methods.
But he needed biomass desperately. And 42kg would triple his current reserves.
He touched the corpse. Felt the energy withinchaotic, angry, like a storm trapped in flesh.
No, he said aloud. Quality over quantity.
He would harvest cleanly.
He removed a hunting knife from his pack. Began the grisly work of dissection.
The Shamble-Rots organs were... wrong. The heart had crystalline growths. The liver was half-transformed into some shiny mineral substance. The brain was the worsta pulsing silver mass that still twitched.
But the muscle tissue, away from major mana channels, was mostly clean. He carved out what he could: thighs, back muscles, shoulders.
Biomass Gained: 8.7kg purified
Total: 67.22 → 75.92kg
Less than hed hoped. The corruption had claimed most of the mass.
But hed learned valuable data:
1. Shamble-Rots were stronger than they looked.
2. Corrosive saliva was a real threat.
3. Headshots werent guaranteed kills if the skull crystallized.
4. Close combat risked corruption exposure.
He needed ranged options. Or a way to neutralize the corrosion.
As he finished, he noticed something: the silver blood pooling on the floor was... moving. Coalescing. Forming tiny, slug-like creatures that writhed for a moment before dissolving.
Mana was alive in a way he hadnt understood.
He stored the clean biomass in sealed bags, then burned the remains with a propane torch hed brought. The silver-tinged flesh burned blue and green, releasing sparks that danced before fading.
When it was done, only ash remained.
Pre-Descent Quest Update
· Secure 10kg biomass 8.7/10 ✓ NEAR COMPLETION
· Time Remaining: 6 days, 8 hours
Almost there.
But as he turned to leave, his enhanced hearing caught something.
Scratching.
Further down the tunnel.
He moved toward it, knife ready.
Another Shamble-Rot? So soon?
But no. The sound was... smaller.
He rounded a collapsed section of wall. Found a nest of rats. But these werent corrupted like the one in the garden. These were... adapting.
One rat had grown extra claws, perfectly formed. Another had fur that shimmered like mother-of-pearl. They were eating silver moss growing on the wallmana-infused lichen.
Lifeform Identified: Rat Mana-Adapted
Status: Stable mutation
Template Available: Yes Clean Evolutionary
Note: This specimen has developed specialized digging claws
Evolution. Not corruption.
The rat watched him, intelligent eyes assessing. It didnt flee.
Chronos reached slowly. The rat sniffed his fingers, then allowed contact.
Template Acquired: Rat Adapted Digger Variant
Traits: Enhanced claws tungsten-carbide density, burrowing instinct, mana-resilience
Biomass Cost: 0.3kg
Compatibility: Human-Mammal 88% EXCELLENT
A clean template with useful traits. Better than the corrupted version.
He left the rats to their adaptation. They were surviving. Thriving, even. There was a lesson there: mana wasnt inherently destructive. It was a catalyst. It amplified what was already thereweakness became corruption, but resilience became evolution.
He needed to be the latter.
Back on the street, dawn stained the sky gray-pink. The city was waking up. Commuters emerged from subway stations, clutching coffee, staring at phones.
None noticed the ash on Chronoss boots. None smelled the ozone clinging to his clothes.
He returned to his apartment, sealed the biomass in the fridge, then showered. The corrosive burn on his shoulder was already healinghis biokinesis working subconsciously, spending biomass to repair.
Biomass: 75.92 → 75.12kg
A cost. Everything was a cost.
He checked the forum. More replies. RiverOfStars had responded:
I did what you said. Sat by the Hudson. The water… responded. It formed shapes when I concentrated. What does this mean?
Chronos replied: It means you have hydrokinesis talent. Practice daily. But be carefuldont let anyone see. Not yet.
The first seeds of the network were sprouting.
But he needed more than talented individuals. He needed infrastructure. Systems.
He opened a map. The winery was 150 miles north. Hed need to visit tomorrow to perform the territory ritual. But first, he needed transportation.
From Silas memory: Abandoned parking garage near the docks. Dozens of cars left when their owners died during early outbreaks. Keys often still in visors.
He went there now.
The garage was a tomb of steel and rubber. Dust coated windshields. Chronos moved through the rows, testing doors. Many were locked. Some werent.
He found a Ford F-150 pickup with keys dangling from the ignition. The tank was half-full. Registration in the glovebox showed the owner had died six months ago. No next of kin.
Perfect.
He drove it out, the engine rumbling to life after a hesitant cough. Hed need supplies for the winery trip. Tools. Ritual components.
But first, one more test.
He drove to a secluded industrial area. Parked behind a warehouse.
Time to test a full combat form.
He stepped out, breathed deeply. Designed a new blueprint:
Finalizing: Combat Form Gamma
· Gorilla arms + chest 7.2kg
· Crocodile skin patches on torso/limbs 4kg
· Eagle eyes 3kg
· Adapted Rat claws on hands 0.3kg
Total: 14.5kg
Estimated Duration: 15 minutes
He activated it.
Pain was a symphony this timemultiple transformations at once. His body screamed in protest.
Muscles expanded. Skin thickened into scaly plates on his forearms, shins, and across his chest. His fingers extended into dark, curved claws. His vision sharpened until he could see individual dust motes drifting in the air.
He looked at his reflection in the trucks window.
A monster stared back.
Not a Shamble-Rotthose were decay and corruption. This was... designed. Purposeful. A predator built from the best parts of multiple species.
He flexed. Power hummed through him. He could probably punch through the warehouse wall.
But the biomass ticked down:
Biomass: 75.12 → 60.62kg
Fourteen and a half kilos in fifteen seconds. At that rate, hed burn through his entire body mass in under two minutes of full combat.
He needed to be surgical. Transform only what was needed, when needed.
He practiced switching parts on and off:
Gorilla arm only2.4kg.
Crocodile skin patch on forearm0.5kg.
Eagle eyes3kg.
Each change took energy. There was an activation cost, then a maintenance drain.
After thirty minutes of experimentation, hed spent another 3kg biomass.
He stopped, breathing heavily. Sweat dripped from his browa waste of water and electrolytes. He needed to optimize his biology at a basal level, not just in combat.
A new thought occurred: what if he used biokinesis on himself permanently? Not transformations, but upgrades. Denser bones. More efficient muscles. Enhanced senses.
He tried.
Focusing on his forearm, he willed the bone to densify. Not using a templatejust raw biokinetic shaping.
Attempting: Bone Density Increase
Biomass Required: 0.8kg per arm
Result: +15% fracture resistance
Permanent: Yes
It worked. But the biomass cost was high for marginal gain.
Better to collect specialized templates. A mole for bone density. A shark for regenerative ability. A cheetah for fast-twitch muscles.
He needed a proper bestiary.
And he needed it before the Descent, when animals would either mutate into monsters or die.
He returned the transformations, reverting to baseline human. The process returned a tiny fraction of biomasmaybe 10%as the structures broke down into reusable components.
Biomass: 60.62 → 61.02kg
Net loss: over 14kg for thirty minutes of testing.
Expensive.
He got back in the truck, drove to a wholesale food distributor. Bought 200kg of cheap, near-expired meat with his remaining cash. Loaded it into the truck bed.
The attendant eyed him. Having a barbecue?
Something like that, Chronos said.
He drove away, the truck sagging under the weight.
Back at the storage unit, he transferred the meat. Then he began the disgusting but necessary process: using his biokinesis to directly convert raw meat into clean biomass.
He placed a hand on a side of beef. Concentrated.
Biomass Conversion in Progress
Source: Beef 15kg
Efficiency: 34%
Yield: 5.1kg clean biomass
Time: 8 minutes
Slow. Inefficient. But it worked.
After two hours, hed converted all 200kg.
Biomass Gained: 68kg
Total: 61.02 → 129.02kg
Finally, a reserve.
But he was exhausted. The mental strain of continuous biokinetic work was real. His head throbbed.
He returned to the apartment, slept for four hoursthe bare minimum for cognitive function.
When he woke, a notification waited:
Pre-Descent Quest Update
· Secure 10kg biomass 68/10 ✓ COMPLETE OVERACHIEVEMENT
· Time Remaining: 6 days, 2 hours
Overachievement Reward: +100 Territory Credits
Total Credits: 100
Good. The credits would be useful at the System Merchant Altar after Descent.
He checked the time: June 5.
Tomorrow: the winery ritual.
Day after: recruit Jin-ah.
Then: secure more templates, fortify the location, establish communication networks.
The pieces were falling into place.
But as he looked out the window at the sunset, he felt the pressure like a physical weight.
Twenty-eight days.
Then the world ended.
Then the real work began.