Chapter 58: Transmuted
"Something is..." Black began as his brows slowly furrowed. After that, he grabbed the goblin’s jaw and forced its mouth open. As he did that, several broken black teeth fell out onto the cracked ground. "...really wrong here."
I don’t know about something, but I am sure that you are the one who is the most wrong here. Your personality isn’t what it was two days ago.
I was curious at first about the system warning and him, but now after witnessing what he can do, I just want to keep my distance and never meet him before getting strong enough to protect myself.
Hearing him, Fox immediately looked in his direction and asked, "Wrong how?"
Black didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he dug his fingers into the goblin’s neck and pulled something out.
It was a small black crystal... No. It wasn’t exactly black. Dark red veins were moving inside it slowly. And the moment I saw it, my body strangely felt uncomfortable.
’No way... This is...?!’
"This..." Black narrowed his eyes as he crushed the stone with two fingers. "This Gate evolved."
Both Fox and Tan blinked. They clearly didn’t know what an evolved Gate was, but I knew, and for that reason I felt even more afraid than Black’s mysterious and abnormal monster race.
"Evolved?" Subconsciously, Tan asked as he ran his gaze through Black and the dead goblin.
"Normal Gates stay low-rank because they get cleared as quickly as they appear..." He stood up and glanced around the forest for any signs of more goblins. "But if a Gate remains uncleared for too long, the mana inside it begins to mutate the ecosystem."
Just like Fox and Tan, my expression also darkened slightly. Because what Black was telling was the truth, which was worse.
"So the monsters evolve?" asked Fox, and Black nodded once.
"Sometimes," he just said two words and didn’t speak any further.
The hot wind swept past us again.
Crack!
Which made one of the trees nearby finally collapse onto the ground.
"This isn’t natural growth either," Black continued while he started walking toward us again. "The mana density here has become too unstable."
Instinctively, Fox, Tan, and I took a step back as we watched Black approach us. My eyes widened slightly as his words connected together inside my head.
This thing wasn’t supposed to happen anywhere in the near future, so why did it happen now? It happens only once, and that was after Jane had destroyed the hospital Viora was in, and that arc happened in winter when snow was falling.
This only meant one thing. The story had already begun changing.
And I remember how much trouble the MC had when he tried to clear this type of Gate. More than difficult, it was impossible. That is how unnatural the power scale is in one of these...
"...Transmuted Gates," I muttered unconsciously.
Black’s eyes shifted toward me instantly. For a second I thought I had said something wrong. But then he simply nodded.
"Yeah. Transmuted is the correct word."
Tan suddenly kicked one of the goblin corpses in frustration. "So what now? We just almost died because the Association failed to assess the Gate properly?"
Black looked toward the dead goblin again. "No." He paused briefly. "You almost died because of my carelessness and bad control over my powers."
"What?" Fox frowned and Black tossed away the remaining shards of the crystal upward.
"Transmuted Gates sometimes have really high mana density. And my powers usually get out of control in those places, and I lose myself in the process."
Hearing that, even Fox went quiet again. Meanwhile, all of my attention stayed on Black.
What he told about himself may be true, but it still doesn’t explain the system warning about him being a monster, and humans aren’t that sensitive to mana either. I believe he is still hiding something major.
After a bit, my eyes drifted toward the shattered remains of the dark crystal and the moving red veins in it.
And the more I stared at the broken fragments scattered on the ground, the more uncomfortable my chest began to feel. I began to wonder if it was those crystals which could be used for evolution or the goblin’s body itself.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
My heartbeat slowly grew heavier. I wanted to check it out right now without anyone else noticing, but the question was how?
I frowned slightly and lowered my gaze toward my hand holding the dagger. Then I looked at Fox, who was busy cleaning the blood off her dagger while Tan continued muttering curses under his breath.
Black also didn’t pay much attention to me, but even so I still hesitated.
But at the same time, this was exactly what I came here for: a goblin trait, and it wasn’t just a normal one, instead it was a mutated goblin from a Transmuted Gate.
’If Viora evolved using this... How much stronger would she become?’
"Brian." Black’s voice suddenly entered my ears and made my entire body stiffen instantly.
Slowly, I raised my head and found him looking directly at me. More specifically... at the goblin corpse near my feet.
"You seem interested in that one," he said.
"..."
For a split second, I thought he somehow knew about the system.
But then Black casually wiped the blood from his hand onto his coat and began,
"That goblin seems slightly different from the others," he explained calmly. "It probably consumed more mana than the rest."
My throat suddenly felt dry. Did he know because of experience? Or because he was also some kind of monster himself?
I couldn’t tell. And I didn’t care anymore.
"You can take it if you want. Crystals from evolved creatures sell for decent money, and I remember you telling me that you needed some money." He pointed toward the goblin corpse lazily.
Money... Right. That was just a lie. And he knows that too, so why is he telling me this?
Still, it wasn’t the time to think about anything else. This might be my only chance.
Slowly, I crouched near the corpse. The goblin’s yellow eyes were still half open. And even after death, its twisted grin remained frozen on its face.
I was feeling disgust. However, I suppressed my discomfort and moved my hand toward the creature’s opened chest.
As I went through its body parts, I wanted to puke so badly and was going to pull my hand back. Despite that, my fingers were still able to touch something hard other than bones.
Ding!
[Compatible Mutation Material Detected.]
[Mutated Goblin Trait Compatible With Wife.]
[This mutation contains unstable transmuted mana.]
[Would you like to consume and extract the trait?]
[YES / NO]