Mutagen

Day 41 – 8:38 AM – Salvador Compound, Inner District, East Port Settlement, Barangay Dinahican, Infanta, Quezon

Arriving at the compound, Mark could not help but see many people hurriedly moving things around. It seemed that there was a situation they were urgently preparing for. There were even some that were hurrying outside the compound carrying megaphones as they rushed towards the main street.

Mark looked at the three siblings that guided their group here but it looked like that they were also surprised at the current situation.

As they entered the compound, they could see a small group of people coming out of the mansion towards their direction. With Alana whispering beside him, Mark learned that the man in the center of that group was the head of the Salvador Family, Darren Bryce Salvador.

"""Dad!"""

The three siblings called out as the group neared.

Darren scanned the group escorted by his children and without hesitation, approached Mark. He did not even divert his eyes away from Mark despite the two distractions on Mark's body. The bearing of someone leading a rich family was truly on another level.

"I'm Darren Bryce Salvador. Thank you for accepting our invitation."

He then stretched his right hand for a handshake.

Shrugging his shoulders, Mark accepted the handshake.

"Mark. You can call me that."

"Then, it's fine to call you Sir Mark?"

"Do as you wish."

Mark did not know why Darren was giving him a polite address but he did not care anyway.

After receiving Mark's introduction, that was only when he averted his gaze and

Looked at the child Mark was carrying and the fairy on Mark's shoulder.

"And these two are?"

Urged by Mark, the two introduced themselves.

"Miracle."

"Uhm, I'm Amihan."

Miracle blandly said her name while Amihan hesitated to do so.

"Alright, nice to meet you two."

Finally, Darren turned to Alana and Karlene.

"Karlene, Alana, it's good to see you two once more."

"It's good to see you too Uncle Darren."

The two replied with smiles on their faces. It was obvious how good the relationship of the two girls to this family.

"Well then, this is not a good place to talk. Let's go inside."

The whole group walked across the compound with the people from the Salvador Family in the lead.

"Dad, what is happening? Why does everyone look busy?"

The others also had the same question but as Darren said that it was not good to talk outside, everyone kept their silence. However, Annica really could not keep her mouth shut.

However, since it was not bad to answer that question, Darren spoke.

"About half hour earlier after you and your brothers left the house, we received a message from the Military Settlement. Apparently, the thick cloud formation at the sky this time isn't just the normal ones like the previous days. The weather apparatus in the Military Settlement detected a weather anomaly in the Pacific Ocean, possibly, a super typhoon. The time of landfall is still unidentified however. Due to that, I mobilized all our forces to prepare and inform everyone in the settlement."

Darren then turned to Alana and Karlene.

"You two aren't informed yet?"

"Uncle Darren, if you had just received the news, then my father would still be in the meeting to plan their moves in the settlement. He'll probably contact me later."

Karlene said. Alana on the other hand remained quiet.

Both the two of them had radios that was paired with their relatives. They received it before they left the Military Settlement with Mark. However, since the reception in the mountains was poor, they could not use the radios at the mountain base. The only time Karlene managed to contact her father was before they arrived here in East Port Settlement. As for Alana, she was still angry with her uncle and she did not even bother contacting that nerd scientist uncle of hers.

Mark frowned hearing the news. Although he already knew that it would happen, he was still alarmed. After all, the people in this settlement were going to be informed of the incoming storm and preparations were ongoing already. The people here should have been prepared for the storm surge since it would not be the first time that it would happen.

And yet…

The whole settlement was flooded in his vision earlier.

Things were getting eerie for some reason.

***

Entering the mansion, Mark's group was led to the dining room for breakfast and met Darren's wife, Maitea. The breakfast was simple, a small bowl of soup, four cuts of fish cutlets and a small cup of rice. Those who wanted coffee were even given a cup. This was a simple breakfast before the outbreak but it was a luxurious one in the current times.

As for Amihan, Mark gave her a honeyed wild berry he had in his backpack while Miracle was not given anything as she was not hungry yet. In any case, the little girl would not eat human food anyway.

Still, the members of the Salvador Family looked confused as to why Mark was not giving Miracle food.

"So, can you tell us why we are invited here? Is it because of last night?"

Mark asked as he looked at Darren.

Coughing, Darren spoke.

"Surely, what happened last night is something we're kind of vexed but it's only part of the reason."

"Then, you won't demand for me to return what I took right? However, I stole from your family. Isn't that against the regulations of the settlement?"

Alana and Karlene looked at Mark worryingly. Did someone put gunpowder on his food?

At those questions, Raybert and Riley looked at their father. The latter however laughed unexpectedly.

"Sir Mark, you don't have to test us like that."

As Mark thought, the head could see through his façade.

"Then, what do you really want?"

"About the slimes, my daughter decided not to demand them back in exchange for a small request."

"What is it?"

"Let me see your dragon!"

Annica interjected.

Pfft!

Someone almost spit out her food. Alana coughed as she choked trying to hold back her laughter with a red face.

"Water…"

Alana struggled to ask. Immediately, a glass of water was given to her to relieve her.

"That is what happens to a green minded person."

Mark let out a snide remark while looking at her with his half-closed eyes. Karlene was also looking at her in the same manner.

Annica looked as Alana in confusion but her other family members already had their hands on their foreheads.

Ignoring the awkward atmosphere, Mark turned to Darren and spoke.

"I don't mind that. However, I want some confirmation about her psychic ability. After all, I won't just let anyone who could possibly brainwash my pet."

Mark frankly spoke as he turned his eyes to Annica.

Hearing that, the family was quite surprised. Even though it was not a secret that their daughter was collecting strange pets, her ability to tame them was a total secret. It was because it was not new to have evolved animals as pets. Although it was very rare, there were people who managed to tame one. Both the Cristobal and the Ruanto Families had one or two evolved animals in their arsenal. Due to that, the other people were just thinking that their Family was trying to tame the animals they collected.

"Hey! How did you know?"

Annica bluntly asked.

"Because I can sense several energy threads coming from you connected to those animals that surrounded me last night and that pet dog you have earlier."

"What?! You can also see energies like me?"

"Are you even listening? I just said that 'I can sense', didn't I?"

Hearing that, Annica was quite dejected. She thought that she found someone else that had the same ability as her.

Since Mark already knew, there was no need to hide it and they stated the conditions in order for Annica's ability to work on the animals.

After learning the conditions and confirmed that none of them were lying, Mark agreed to make her see Chaflar. Since it would surely cause a commotion to make a dragon fly to the settlement, they decided to meet Chaflar outside the western part of the settlement and make it walk into the compound of the Salvador Family. Mark had no problems with this since it would also be advantageous to him if Chaflar was somewhere nearby.

Finishing the issue about the [BloodChildren], Darren told his other goal in this meeting.

"I want a cooperation deal between you and our family."

He stated with a stern expression. Seeing that Mark was showing an expression asking why, Darren continued.

"As everyone knows, there is a rather bad relationship between the three families running this settlement. It don't look like it in the surface but the other two families always plot something behind our backs and their primary target is our family that are being sided by the common people.

The Cristobal Family supports Mutators as higher in hierarchy while who know what the Ruantos are planning in the dark. In case that the two families made a move, I wanted you to support us."

"And what would I get for supporting your family?"

Hearing that, Darren nodded to a guard standing behind him and the guard left. It did not take long and the guard came back carrying a folder.

"Please, take a look at this and don't show it to anyone else."

"Even to Karlene and Alana?"

"Yes. I think it's fine letting Ms. Amihan and Little Ms. Miracle to see it though."

As they heard that, Alana and Karlene felt dejected. It was as if they were being left out.

Hiding the contents of the folder to the two girls, Mark looked at the papers. It was a contract.

It stated that Mark would have a share in the fish and plantation harvest of the family. Since they were by the port and next to the sea, with the Mutators as their personnel, their first source of food was fishing. As for the plantation, even though it was quite dangerous to most people to come out of the settlement, the coconut plantation to the north of the settlement as still theirs and they still planned to harvest them in the next harvest season. Not to mention that their plantations did not only have coconuts but other products.

Furthermore, a secret of the family about Annica's ability was also on the contract. Mark could bring any animal that was docile or that could be tamed by Annica and she would pass the master relationship to Mark or any other person Mark wanted to. Apparently, Annica could create a connection between an animal and another person but the connection was limited to one animal per person. This way, the master could efficiently command the pet as it would understand the words and intentions of the master and the master would also be able to understand the thoughts of the pet.

Mark then turned to Darren.

"Are you sure that you should be revealing this thing to me?"

Darren let out a bitter smile.

"You can say that it's a sign of sincerity from us."

"Aren't you afraid that I might leak this out? She'll be in a huge trouble if this happened."

"Although I can't say that I fully trust you, I can say that I can trust her father's decision." Darren looked at Karlene. "I knew his father for years now and I know that he would not let his daughter to accompany you if he didn't find you worthy of trust. As for why we ask you of this…"

"It's about what I did in the Military Settlement right?"

"Yes."

Mark nodded. In any case, there were no demerits for him in this. He decided to agree. However he still mentioned that his base was hard to receive transmission signals incase that they needed to contact him when he returned to his base but his worry was not needed. It seemed that they managed to scavenge long distance communication modules from fishing vessels abandoned in the port and there was no problem to give Mark one. The only thing Mark needed to do was to set up a relay antenna near his base for better reception.

Now that the cooperation with Mark and the Salvador Family was finalized, Mark should inform them of the matter that could possibly destroy this settlement.

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