Chapter 243: Mutation (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
"One way of checking the side effects and special features of the bloodline is to conduct a biological experiment."
Angele put down the turtle on the table. He inserted the crystal tube into the rack and put a syringe into a beaker on the side, which was filled with bubbling yellow liquid.
He raised his palm and silver metal liquid spurted out of his skin, turning into five metal balls on the tips of his five fingers. The metal balls were then connected by multiple silver strings, creating a metal web above his palm.
"Palu!" Angele uttered the incantation in a whisper.
In the center of the silver web, a white hoof-shaped rune slowly appeared in the air.
He applied the rune on the stomach of the turtle just like what he did to the four-wing sparrow, the rune would help him gain control of the Barry Turtle’s body.
‘Zero, show me the attributes and basic information of the turtle.’
‘Initializing…’
‘Barry Turtle, Strength 0.07, Agility 0.4, Stamina 0.05, Mentality 0.06. Special Talent, none. 3 years old. Can be found around small lakes.’
Zero quickly displayed the information of the turtle in Angele’s sight. It only took seconds for the chip to scan the creature.
Angele wondered what would happen if he injected the ancient bloodline into a normal turtle.
He took out the sterilized syringe from the beaker. The yellow liquid was a special mixture that was commonly used for cleaning surgery equipment.
Angele extracted some green blood from the crystal tube and turned the Barry Turtle’s body around.
He pushed the remaining air out of the barrel and carefully stabbed the needle into the turtle’s head.
The green blood was pushed into the turtle’s body within a second.
‘Legend says that the centaur chieftain has the strength of a God and its speed is extremely fast and that the legendary unicorn has insane defense and recovery. I want to know what I can get from the combination of the two.’
The Barry Turtle lay on the table quietly, with Angele still waiting for the mutation to happen.
He scanned the turtle’s body with Zero and the report indicated that the energy inside the turtle’s body was changing rapidly every second.
Suddenly, Angele noticed that the turtle was seeking food through the control rune he applied on its body.
He quickly pulled the drawer open and took out a huge bottle with dark purple liquid inside. It was a bottle of highly concentrated nutrient solution and a bottle’s worth could easily feed a male adult for seven days.
Angele removed the stopper and threw the Barry Turtle into the solution.
*Blop*
The turtle sank into the liquid and the water level started dropping quickly.
About ten seconds later, the whole bottle was consumed by the tiny turtle.
Angele turned the bottle upside down and the turtle dropped to the table.
It started growing at an insanely rapid rate. The edge of the turtle’s carapace turned serrated and gray thorns began emerging out of the surface of the shell.
About ten minutes later.
Initially, the Barry Turtle was about the size of a palm. But after the mutation, its body was now more than half a meter long. Its hardened skin already turned gray.
‘Ha…’
The turtle opened its mouth and made some strange noise.
Angele was surprised as he stared at the mutated turtle. It was only 20 centimeters long not so long ago but it now looked like a monster that was packed with power.
He carefully pressed on the turtle’s neck with his right index finger after the mutation process was completed.
It felt like pressing on a hard rock or the surface of an old tree.
Angele activated the rune and made sure the turtle was not moving.
‘Zero, scan the mutated turtle and show me the results.’
‘Task created, scanning…’
‘Mutated Barry Turtle. Strength 0.7, Agility 0.5, Stamina 1.2, Mentality 0.09. Skill: Bite. Special Talent: Hardened Skin. Thorn Carapace.’
‘Its Stamina was increased by more than one point…’ Angele pursed his lips. ‘And it gained two special talents. The increase in stamina and the hardened skin are within my expectations. They probably came from the traits of the centaur and unicorn, but what about the thorn carapace?’
He observed the appearance of the turtle and started thinking.
‘Maybe the ancient bloodline activated part of the traits from the Barry Turtle’s ancestor and that’s where the thorns came from.’ A thought came to his mind.
‘Zero, can you do reverse check for the Barry Turtle’s DNA?’
‘Insufficient amount of data, task can’t be created.’
‘Can you scan the turtle’s mutated body parts and check if some of the new traits came from its ancestor?’
‘Task created…Analyzing…’
Zero reported back after about five minutes.
‘Task completed: Atavism has occurred. Specific ancient DNA of the Barry Turtle was activated.’
‘So I was right…’ Angele stared at the mutated turtle and slightly nodded.
‘It seems that the combined ancient bloodlines can activate creature’s ancient genes…Plus the strong ability it acquired after the mutation. I can produce a decent number of biological weapons if I want to…but not all creatures have strong ancestors. Let me check the bloodline signet first.’
Although Angele had low expectation for the signet, he still wanted to give it a try as he wanted to collect data for future bloodline extractions. Burning the potential of the ancient bloodline was never a good idea and it was possible that the signet came with strong side effects.
Ten more days later…
Angele had stayed in the biological lab the whole time and he successfully created the bloodline signet. However, as he had expected, the ability of the signet was weak. It could only boost his stamina, recovery, and defense for a short duration. The ability sounded useful but it could only increase two points of stamina and the recovery effect could only be triggered when Angele consumed a large amount of food. Furthermore, the atavism effect did not apply to him. He decided to keep the bloodline of the great harpy till he could find something better as he still wanted to explore other realms.
Angele removed the signet of the centaur after trying it once and he managed to extract the bloodline from his body. He then added it back to the crystal test tube.
He named the mutated turtle as thorn turtle and he dropped it into the lake beside the house. Angele planned to observe it when he had the time and he could control it to defend the house if any enemy sneaked into his territory.
After discovering the atavism effect of the ancient bloodline, Angele wanted to create more mutated creatures and insects that he could easily control using a rune.
After staying in the lab for more than ten days, he finally walked out of the house after Nancy notified him about the upcoming event.
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"Master Shiva and his grandchildren are waiting on the other side of the lake," Nancy reported to Angele politely.
In the living room, Angele just finished changing his clothes.
"Prepare the snacks and drinks. Ask the dwarf knight to protect the two kids and to play with them."
Angele hired the dwarf knight several years ago and they visited Shiva together.
"Any area you don’t want the kids to enter?" Nancy questioned.
"The Botanical Garden and the basement. I don’t care about the other areas, ah, and the creatures in the biological lab. Be careful with them."
"Understood."
Angele walked out of the door after talking to Nancy. He walked to the narrow path beside the lake and saw Shiva’s black carriage slowly arriving.
Two horses were pulling the carriage forward and the coachman was still a fire spirit.
The two kids stuck their heads out of the window before the carriage stopped. Sophie was wearing double buns today and she was shouting something while waving her hands.
"Master Green, we’re here!" she yelled. It almost looked like she was trying to jump out of the window.
"Come on, be careful." Shiva’s voice came out of the carriage.
Angele watched the carriage stop in front of the house with a smile on his face.
*KA*
The door of the carriage was pushed open, Sophie jumped out of it first and Morrow followed after her.
Shiva was the last one that left the carriage.
"Green, teach your students yourself. I don’t have that much time." The old man shook his head. "You have barely visited the school and you’re an esteemed professor…"
"It’s just some basic knowledge, right? You’re much more knowledgeable than me and you’re also a great teacher." Angele chuckled.
"Yeah, yeah…" Shiva shook his head again, speechless.
"Well, I have something serious to tell you this time," Shiva cleared his throat and spoke in a grave tone.
"What?" Angele stopped laughing. He knew that when Shiva was serious there must be severe trouble.
"The lab area for the World Stone exploded."
"Exploded?" Angele could not believe what he had just heard.