Chapter 27 27: Stage 3 Mutated Zombie
After observing the two headed mutated zombie Yoze left to find a place to stay the next. Even though Yoze wanted to keep searching for mutated zombies it was too dangerous at night. Visibility would be at its lowest and Yoze would be battling against fatigue.
He didn't want to risk making a mistake because he was tired. As long as he could find a building or space that was away from any zombies he would take the chance to rest.
Yoze was able to find a place that he could stay the night. It was the town's grain storage so there weren't many zombies around. After clearing the area, Yoze found a place to sleep and slept the rest of the night.
The next day Yoze walked further into town before he found another Mutated Zombie. This zombie was very tall, bulky and had six arms. The Death Armor on this zombie was even crazier as it didn't simply cover the zombie but at his fists was a long spike formed from his Death Armor.
This time Yoze didn't risk getting closer to the mutated zombie and threw out his talent mark from a distance.
[Stage 2 Mutated Zombie]
[Age: 4 days]
[Talents: Life Attraction (Grade 4), Spike Fists (Grade 3)]
"This zombie has reached a second mutation." Yoze's eyebrows frowned as he looked at the Stage 2 mutated zombie.
"That means that there could be a third stage or a fourth stage or even higher mutated zombies further into town."
Over the last two days, Yoze had been intentionally moving further into town as he discovered that the stench of death became stronger the further he went. He was hoping that he could find the source of this disaster and from seeing this Stage 2 mutated zombie confirmed his hypothesis that there were stronger mutated zombies further into town and that the source of the disaster might still be around.
Yoze decided that he was going to go as deep into the town tonight and see if he saw any higher staged zombies. As for now, Yoze copied the grade 4 Life Attraction talent instead of the Spike Fists to upgrade his own life Attraction talent to Grade 3.
Yoze felt his skin tighten around him and felt his body's temperature fall slightly when he took the upgraded talent.
A few hours later Yoze discovered another stage 2 mutated zombie. The Death armor around this zombie formed into whips instead of hands. While Yoze couldn't confirm his guess that this zombie was at the second stage he was confident that he guessed right since this zombie's death armor also formed a weapon.
After watching the mutated zombie, Yoze then left to find another place to stay. He didn't know if it was just due to it getting closer to winter since the sky was growing more dark as the days passed or if the visible stench of death was making Yoze mistake that it was getting darker because the stench was making everything darker.
Whichever was the case Yoze spent some time finding a safe place to stay the night. The next day Yoze went out to find the source of the disaster. It was the third day and Yoze has a feeling the soldiers of Jade City were going to arrive either today or tomorrow. Since that was the case Yoze wanted to find a great talent for his troubles.
The deeper and further Yoze went into the town the stronger the stench of death became and the darker and more ominous everything became. After passing the town center and the stench of death was still growing more potent the further he went, Yoze knew that it must have come from the opposite side of the town.
That was why the stench of death was so less potent when Yoze and Leah first arrived in town and didn't encounter any stage 2 mutated zombies. As Yoze walked on he saw numerous stage two zombies and avoided them the best he could since he didn't want their talents. He was looking for a bigger and better prize.
Soon Yoze found that he was at the town's other entrance that led to the town's cemetery. This was where the stench of death was its strongest. This entrance was in clear contrast to the rest of the town as it looked like it had a black barrier surrounding it.
Taking a deep breath and preparing himself to not puke when he got inside, Yoze stepped over the barrier and saw a giant four armed mutated zombie on its knees with its back turned towards him from a distance.
This mutated zombie was on a whole other level compared to the tall zombie met yesterday. This Mutated Zombie was at least 9 feet tall and dwarfed any person Yoze had met in his life.
Yoze tossed out his talent mark to check out what stage this zombie had reached to get to this size.
[Stage 3 Mutated Zombie]
[Age: 5 Days]
[Talents: Life Attraction (Grade 5)]
Yoze was surprised to see that for a zombie that had reached the third stage its talent wasn't as high as he expected it to be. Still Yoze copied the talent to upgrade his own Life Attraction talent to Grade 4. After which Yoze bid his goodbye, since he already used his talent mark there was no reason for Yoze to risk his life to find the source of the disaster.
He made up his mind that if the Jade City military arrived today he was going to leave town as soon as possible to not get trapped here with the rest of the zombies.
However, if the military doesn't arrive in 24 hours and he gets his talent mark back he would come back and find the source of this disaster or at least something that seemed to have a good talent.
"Hopefully, I will see you tomorrow." Yoze thought to himself as he looked at the giant zombie with awe. He couldn't imagine how strong this mutated zombie was and almost wanted to fight it to see if he could defeat it.