CHAPTER 43: SYMBIOTIC RACES

[The apocalypse has begun!]

[Issuing new missions...]

"Um, Miss Anna, where are we?"

"Ahh!"

"Where did you come from?"

"My name is Jasmine, I’m your assistant... Where are we now? I can’t see anything outside, and I’ve lost all access to the ship..."

"Anna was taken from the moment she was most looking forward to by a stowaway on her ship..."

"We’re on Jyera, something bad happened up there, we’re out of contact with everyone, and the ship can’t leave the planet for the next 30 days due to an unusual weather event... We’re deep in the Marana Abyss, so don’t try to leave the ship, and don’t try to contact anyone. We still don’t know if we’re under attack or something more serious..."

"And what do I do?"

"I’m going out to investigate outside, as you already know, the animal disease has affected humans as well... I’ll investigate and come back in a few days... Don’t do anything, don’t touch anything, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do."

Anna hurriedly left the room and went to one of the evacuation ships. Deciding to leave the ship hidden in the Abyss until she was sure of what needed to be done, she then piloted the evacuation ship to the nearest coastal city: Kaelor!

As she approached the beach, she finally confirmed all her new missions:

Main Mission:

-Collect symbiotic samples from infected humans (levels 0-1-2)

-Collect symbiotic samples from infected animals (levels 0-1-2)

Reward: Level 3 Crystal

Secondary Mission:

[Find and collect symbiotic samples from a Cannibal Animal.]

Reward: Symbiotic Gaze(+)

Emergency Mission:

Find one of the 15 survivors who have memories of the apocalypse and get more information!

Reward: Improved Contagion skill(+)

Landing on the beach, Anna activated the escape ship’s stealth mode and headed towards Kaelor, which now had smoke and a huge amount of mutant birds flying around the city... It was only then that Anna realized she was still wearing her astronaut suit, and she didn’t have any weapons... Wait, she did...

Looking at the simple yellow pistol, Anna hoped that this stun gun would help in the collection mission... Now let’s see what contagion does, and what I’ll gain if I improve it...

[Contagion: Allows you to infect a human target with a lower-level variant of your Symbiotic Race!]

[Attention, you haven’t defined a race yet!]

[Symbiosis level 0: Allows you to fuse up to three Jyera animal characteristics to create a race.]

[Level 0 race: Not defined!]

[Symbiosis level 1: Allows you to assimilate and improve a creature infected by the ZY pathogen to create a new

race.]

[Level 1 race: Not defined!]

Well, let’s choose the first one since I don’t have any samples to create my second one...

[Are you sure you want to use the King Cobra, Royal Hawk, and Savannah Lion as the three chosen animals?]

[YES!]

[Starting the process of creating a symbiotic race...]

[The system is improving and adapting the race to a humanoid version...]

[The first race has been created!]

[Choose the name of your first race!]

[Chimera!]

After naming her first race, Anna was a little nervous, but finally transformed to see the result... And her transformation into a Chimera pleased her... Her eyes became feline, she gained whiskers and a furry nose that resembled a lioness, lion ears, claws, and fur grew only on her hands and forearms, and they got bigger too. Tearing part of the suit on the forearm and opening holes in the gloves and boots where the claws grew.

Below the knees, everything changed to become strong feline legs, leaving her without her shoes.

Wings with golden feathers tore her suit at the shoulder blades, and a tail appeared at the end of her spine in the shape of a snake. Some feathers also appeared on her head, mixing with her long blonde hair, giving her an exotic and beautiful look...

But Anna didn’t care about the aesthetics of this appearance; her mind was focused on all the changes in her body. She flapped her wings vigorously and took off from the ground. It took a while before she got used to these new limbs and her snake tail.

Being able to fly was the first advantage of this form; her strength was weaker than her level 2 mutant human form. But with her non-human legs, she believed that both in the sky and on the ground, she was faster than her level 2 mutant form...

The main improvement of this form was her senses; she could see extremely far, could smell the smells carried by the wind, and even hear the panicked screams of the city she hadn’t yet approached...

Using this form, Anna flew like a predator in the skies and began to carry out her missions... Landing at the Port of Kaelor, she attacked a level 0 zombie with her snake tail. The zombie was bitten in the face by an extremely fast attack. It fell to the ground soon after, struggling. Anna crouched down next to it, trying to decipher the effects of its poison, before finally absorbing its body with symbiosis...

[Obtained Symbiosis Points x1]

[Collected Symbiotic Sample from Level 0 Zombie!]

"Hm, the poison isn’t lethal enough to kill it, but the paralyzing effect is strong enough... Let’s do more tests..."

The second test was done right after. Some infected seagulls flew towards Anna, and she used her tail again, this time making the snake’s head spit venom from afar. The seagulls fell to the ground, struggling, and she used symbiosis again.

[Obtained Symbiosis Points x1]

[Collected Symbiotic Sample from Level 0 Mutant Animal!]

"It’s a shame that Symbiosis can only be used once on one type of creature; otherwise, it would be a great form of attack..." Anna said to herself as she tried to use Symbiosis on the second bird to kill it through absorption, and failed to use the skill.

"Well, I can only choose one creature this time, so let’s try to create this new race with a Level 1 zombie... Now, how am I going to find one of those?"

As she muttered, her eyes swept the streets at the entrance of the city, where several people were running back and forth. One of the men was about to go towards Anna, but when he saw her chimera form, he became even more frightened and ran in another direction... Anna completely ignored the man’s frightened gaze; this kind of gaze was something she had already gotten used to throughout her life... Whether it was out of fear for her intelligence, or just because she was someone different...

After looking again, her feline eyes finally saw a bird that was different from the others, it had red eyes and acted more cautiously in its attacks, and soon she also saw a zombie with those same characteristics...

This time, she took down the two with her physical strength, and after using symbiosis, she finally decided to create her second race...

[A new symbiotic race has been created!]

[Level 1 Enhanced Zombie]+

[Beginning transformation...]

Anna looked at her hands and legs that were now exposed, not noticing anything different other than her fingernails being a bit longer and sharper... In this transformation, her physical strength and reflexes were inferior to those of her level 2 mutant human form. But she realized that perhaps she was more resilient... The zombies wouldn’t stop attacking even when they were seriously injured... Her mind flowed quickly, and she made two tests...

When she made a light cut on her hand with her nails, Anna not only didn’t feel any pain, but the cut also slowly healed until it left only a white scar on the palm of her hand. Then she deduced that healing itself was the first special function of this body; it was what made her an "Enhanced Zombie" since none of these monsters could do it. It was a very slow healing function, but it was still there, a regeneration several times stronger than what she had as a level 2 mutant...

The second function of this new form was, of course, the ability not to feel pain. And the last benefit of this form was the best of all, without a doubt... Anna could now walk among the zombies and animals and not be attacked by them...

With this new ability, Anna ended up spending almost 2 days wandering around the city of Kaelor searching for level 2 zombies and also the so-called cannibal variant... During this time, she secretly helped some survivors she encountered, and even found signs of some groups forming... But she never had the confidence and courage to approach them.

Even when she wanted to test the new effects of her abilities, social contact with strange people still scared her a lot...

At the end of the second day, while still searching for level 2 zombies, what Anna finally found was not the targets of her mission but something completely unexpected...