<strong>Day 23 – 8:11 AM – Ungos River, Barangay Daraitan, Tanay, Rizal</strong>


    Reaching the riverside near the barrio took him lesser time than yesterday since he was familiar with the way already. Mark totally did not expect that the red blobs woulde from the airne but thinking about it, it was not really strange at all. Even though there was no evidence, it was not hard to assume that the airnes, no, not only the airnes but probably all of the air transport vehicles or might even be birds and the like, were suddenly exposed to absurd amounts of Mutagen when the meteoroids struck the atmosphere.


    Due to Mutagen being a cause of mutation, a sudden exposure to high amounts of it might have led to the extreme transformations to the exposed people and animals. With this thought, Mark started to suspect that the dangerous looking infected inside the barrio actually came from this airne. The possibility of that being the case was very high.


    "Amihan, you stay here and hide."


    "Yes…"


    Mark made the little sylph hide further away as he investigated the vicinity of the airne. This time, Amihan did not say anything and agreed immediately. It seemed that she also felt something wrong about the airne. He was also the same. Although the airne looked normal outside with the exception of its damaged parts, he could feel a swelling disgust in his stomach as he moved closer. It was a very strange feeling but he could not exin where it wasing from.


    Amihan flew away hiding behind a tree in the furthest corner of the orchard at the riverside. This orchard was just next to the area or the barrio where he cleaned up the infected yesterday. The orchard was the ce separating that area from the crashed ne.


    Since the little sylph had already hidden herself, Mark started to approach the airne closer. He lowered himself as he cautiously observed the area around the huge airne.


    There was the dried up pile of blobs under the suspended airne. The pile could not really be called blobs anymore as they all looked like deformed agar-agar bars with brownish red color.Furthermore, there was not only this pile but there were a lot of scattered dried blobs around the area. How many blobs were here? Mark could not estimate the exact number but it was likely that it was over a hundred.


    Maybe due to the number of the red blobs here, the riverside, mostly the stones and soil, was covered in reddish colored mycorrhiza like webs. With the exception of the running river water, the area at the approximate vicinity beneath the airne was transformed into something else. The ce was really eye-catching but he did not manage to see it yesterday when he searched for the Barrio due to the difference in elevation of the terrain. Although he could see the airne yesterday, he could not see the terrain below it as he did not try to approach.


    Not only that, but the ce reeked with the smell of iron. Even though Mark uses blood as his main ability as a Mutator, even he could not help but frown as he smelled the thick unpleasant odor. The stench of blood was nauseating and too strong that it did not smell like blood anymore but smelled more like metal that started to get corroded with acid.


    As he approached even closer, he tested stepping on the red mycorrhiza that covered the riverside with caution. He did not feel anything strange as he stepped on it aside from the rocks covered with it being slightly sticky and slippery. As he felt no danger yet, he continued to approach the ne through the red colored riverside.


    Looking around, it seemed that the state of the dried up blobs were different. Some were totally dried and wrinkled while there were those that were still wet. There were also blobs that looked new but very little in number.


    Mark''s eyes then lit up. He felt two tugging sensations in his blood as he continued to move closer to the airne. One wasing from under the airne while the other unfortunately, seemed to havee from the airne.


    ''So… These blobs came from inside the airne?''


    He thought as he felt the second source.


    These sensations was simr to what he felt when he saw the first blob getting washed up by the river current. For sure, these two sensations came from two living blobs. He hurried towards the one under the airne as he could feel that it was rather weak. While approaching, he kept on monitoring the airne in case that something suddenly popped out while he was distracted.


    As he approached, he could not help but notice that almost all windows of the airne facing his side was actually broken. Strange enough, each window was blocked with something like a film of disgusting and pulsing flesh. He could even see the blood stains on the flesh that covered the windows.


    It was then that the flesh covering one of the windows moved and a hole was opened. This sudden movement made Mark freeze in ce and heighten his alertness. What he did not expect was that it was not an attack. From the hole, a red blob came out and sttered unto the rocky riverside. Fortunately, it was not a living blob or it might have been a waste. After dumping out the dead blob, the hole on the flesh that covered the window closed once more in a disgusting manner.


    This made Mark sure that these blobs came from the airne and it just showed why there were blobs getting carried downstream and why a lot of blobs piled up in the riverside under the airne.


    Mark found the living blob under the ne without danger. When he approached, the blob was not moving and he could feel that it was very weak. It was dying. Without hesitation, a [Blood Whip] extended out of his palm and he pierced that blob as it did not even try to extend a tentacle towards him.


    As the [Blood Whip] pierced it, the color of the blob started to change like how the first blob reacted to his. He could feel that it was getting stronger and started to recover from its dying state. When he carefully picked it up with both hands, it actively extended two tentacles which it curled on his hands and it started to rub its jelly like body in his palms.


    ''It seemed like these blobs also had different personalities.''


    His current connection with this one was way weakerpared to the first blob but it seemed that it had a sweeter personality that thetter. After all, Mark could tell the faint emotions of these blobs through their connection with him.


    While holding the newly acquired blob, Mark hurriedly ran away from underneath the airne. It was because he could feel some tremorsing from the inside and the airne was creating creaking and squishing sounds. After he ran a few meters away, the movements and sounds stopped but along with those disappearing, the tugging feeling he felting from inside the airne also vanished.


    It was very likely that the blob inside that was alive died.


    ''Is there something inside killing the living blobs?''


    He thought as the sensation vanished. If that was really the case, then, it was no wonder there was only two living blobs among the dozens of blobs he saw before and considering the weak state of both blobs, it was likely that they only escaped by ident.


    As he suspected that something was killing the blobs inside the airne, he went back to Amihan to leave his backpack where he kept the two blobs. The two blobs seemed to have acknowledged the existence of each other and did not try to devour one another. Rather, Mark felt that the two blobs seemed to have found ymates and started to poke each other with their tentacles.


    Leaving the backpack behind being hung on the tree and under Amihan''s guard, Mark went back to the airne. This time, he was going to the part where the tail was supposed to be. Since the tail of the airne was detached when it crashed, there should be an opening there for Mark to enter as there was no way for him to stealthily enter the airne through the door that was suspended over the river.


    When he arrived by the broken part of the airne, the disgusting rotten smell of flesh and blood became several times thicker. As he looked at where the opening of the airne should be, he saw a wall. It was a wall of bloodstained and pulsating flesh.


    It was like a hive from an infection video game where disgusting formation of flesh covered a building along with several pods on it. Just in the airne''s case, there were no pods. One the wall of flesh stained with blood, the bulging dark colored blood vessels and its rather unnerving continuous pulsing.


    He had not seen anything like this from the videos he downloaded from the inte that contained the footage of the airnes that crashed. For sure, a unique mutation happened in this airne for it to look like this.


    Should he enter or not?


    Mark started to contemte. He was not really affected by the stench or scared by this scene but if he entered the in, it felt like he would be entering apletely different territory. If the windows and the tail part of the airne was covered with these flesh walls, for sure, the inside would be dark, damp, and would likely look like a scene from the point of view of a schizophrenic protagonist in a psychological visual novel.


    However, he needed to know about the source of the blobs. If he could exploit it, then he would as he needed more blobs to increase the production of [Blood Metal] and start on his base already.


    Confirming his goal in his mind once more, he pulled his katana out of its sheath.


    Trying to not make noise as much as possible, he slowly pierced the tip of the katana into the wall of flesh causing a faint squishing sound as if he was scraping on a wet rubber. From the hole made by his katana, blood started to flow out. The wall of flesh was bleeding as if he wounded it.


    Slowly, he pushed the katana downwards diagonally to the left making arge nted slit and causing more blood to flow out of the wall made of flesh. From the top of the slit, he made another nted slit on the opposite direction creating an upward pointing arrow. Without the support from the upper part, the flesh inside the arrow slowly fell down with a squishy sound making a triangr opening which Mark could get through.


    He took a peek into the opening. Aside from the suffocating stench or rotten flesh and something that faintly smelled like ammonia, it was very dark inside. However, due to the lighting in from the opening he made, he could see that the floor, the walls and even the surface of the seats were all covered with this disgusting flesh like membrane.


    Seeing that there was no immediate danger, Mark proceeded to seal the corners of the opening he made with [Blood Metal]. Even though it he was just overthinking it, he would not risk entering without securing the opening. After all, it was a flesh wall. Who knows if it would not regenerate and seal the opening on its own?


    After securing the entrance, he stepped in. It seemed that this should be where the galley at the back of the economy ss seats as he could see the flesh covered seats for the staff and the doors leading to the toilet at the back.


    While his steps made the squishing sounds on the flesh covered floor, he passed by between the pair of toilets and entered the back of economy ss seating area. Finally, he could see that traces of the passengers of the airne before it crashed.


    Still…


    Why did he feel that it was like a scene from those tentacle based hentai dojinshis?