Mutagen

After a few days filled with annoying circumstances, Mark finally had time to visit Yasuo for his commission. And the moment he arrived at Yasuo\'s stall, he was bombarded with complaints from the old blacksmith.

Their previous conversation was cut short because of the [Mutated Hornets] attacking the Reclaimed City. That could not be helped since it was an emergency situation. But after that, Mark\'s group immediately went home, and Yasuo\'s stall was bombarded with inquiries about the equipment and weapons Mark\'s group used. Two days after the incident, Yasuo\'s throat was already dry from explaining to people over and over that he had no hand in the items they were inquiring about.

It would have been fine if all the idiots visiting Yasuo\'s stall accepted his explanation and left without a fuss. However, there were absolute idiots that thought that he was just being biased towards Mark\'s group and inquired repeatedly. He even had to pick up his hammer to chase away some pests.

And Mark, the likely cause of all the mess, did not meet Yasuo until a few days later. It was no surprise that the old blacksmith complained.

Of course, Mark did not accept all of Yasuo\'s complaints. Those people that bothered the old blacksmith were Mark\'s fault, but their late meeting was not.

Nonetheless, Yasuo still ranted about it. He knew that not everything was Mark\'s fault. It was just his nature to grumble about stuff.

When Yasuo finally calmed down, they finally started discussing the blueprint. After all, it was the main reason for the two meeting up like this.

It was fortunate that only Mark was here while discussing things with Yasuo. After all, they were only talking about crafting and blacksmithing. The talk was primarily about materials, methods, techniques, and tools needed to create the weapon drawn in Mark\'s blueprint. These things were clearly not something the rest of Mark\'s group would be too interested in.

Yasuo was still pretty grumpy about the several days\' of annoyance he also went through. Nonetheless, his passion for his work was clear as he explained things to Mark. On the other hand, Mark was intent on listening as many of the things coming out of Yasuo\'s mouth were things he did not know about. He was learning stuff from the old blacksmith that would benefit his creations in the future.

All in all, Mark was quite relieved to finally get some progress on this project.

Due to yesterday\'s encounter with the Dawn members outside his door, the number of uninvited visitors drastically decreased. Furthermore, it seemed that someone deliberately spread the fact that assassins infiltrated Mark\'s home and vanished without a trace. Although it was all hearsay and had no evidence, it still made people really wary of Mark\'s group.

And with the guards promised by Ren, Mei and the girls were pretty safe now while they renovated their home here in the Reclaimed City. It was not like Mark believed that the girls would be unable to defend themselves if he was not around. It was just that he was not taking chances as much as possible. After all, since the apocalypse began, a random common-looking person one could pass by could actually be someone powerful. If that were the case, large organizations would have more of those kinds of people.

A few guards probably would be unable to stop powerful people if they made a move. Nonetheless, it was not the guards\' strength that was important here but who they belonged to.

The guards from the Black Lotus Group were pretty much a scarecrow towards uninvited and rude visitors.

Mark and Yasuo talked for hours. The two did not even have a proper lunch and just ate a few slices of sandwich Yasuo ordered from somewhere. The only times the two paused their talk was when customers appeared in Yasuo\'s stall to either order equipment or drop one for repair or maintenance.

And after grumpily dealing with the customers, Yasuo would go back to discussing the commission with Mark.

Initially, Mark only thought of allowing Yasuo to make the important internal parts of the weapon. After all, he already had plans for the other parts that did not require the material\'s properties. However, after talking with Yasuo, Mark decided to allow the old blacksmith to make more parts than he initially thought.

A professional like Yasuo sure had more experience and insight than Mark.  And as such, he could only allow the eager old blacksmith to participate more in creating this "Artifact" he had in mind.

In fact, Yasuo was eager to work on this project. While his dream of creating the artifact that his ancestors pursued to make was still far, the experience of helping Mark create one was extremely valuable. Mark was learning from him, but he was also learning from Mark. In fact, what he was learning from Mark was far more valuable than something he could give. Mark could learn blacksmithing from other people, but it was very likely that he could only learn even only the basics of artifact-making from Mark.

After a long back and forth and learning from each other, Mark and Yasuo finally decided to call it a day.

Well, they had no choice but to end the talk. It was already late in the afternoon by the time they noticed. Spending time with activities one was interested in sure made time feel like it passed too quickly.

Unfortunately, while Mark was eager to continue, he had other things to do.

As for Yasuo, it seemed that he would immediately start working on some of the parts of the project. Luckily, it seemed that he would not neglect his work. He would not gamble the lives of his customers for a shoddy piece of work just because he was eager to make a different one.

***

"Welcome home."

Mei greeted Mark with a smile after he arrived home.

"Welcome home!"

Miracle mimicked Mei and ran to Mark to get a hug.

"Yeah, I\'m back."

Mark replied as he picked the little girl with quite a baffled look in his eyes.

"What\'s wrong?"

Of course, Mei noticed that.

"No, it\'s nothing," Mark shrugged. "It\'s just that we looked like the nice anime scenes when a father went home from work to his loving family."

"Oh, we do look like that, I guess."

Mei smiled even more. She looked lovely.

"By the way..." Mark said as he looked at the ceiling. "Did that appear again?"

Mei also looked up and remembered.

"It did. Amihan managed to catch it. She\'s guarding it with Gale and Iola."

What was it?

Aside from those annoying people, the members of Dawn, and the assassins, their new home had another kind of visitor that appeared since they moved to the restaurant.

And... It was not human in nature.

Of course, Mark noticed it. However, he did not care much as long as it had no ill intent.

However, it did some annoying stuff.

On the first day, it left a pile of ash on the first floor before leaving footprints or ash everywhere.

The previous night, after the attack of the assassins, it made some noise on the second floor while everyone gathered on the first floor to watch a movie. In fact, the event was witnessed by Ren\'s group too. The thought that it could be the previous people living in the restaurant entered the mind of the guests because of that.

Unfortunately, the intruder did not realize it had entered a den of Demons that could capture it whenever they wanted to. Today, it seemed to make the mistake of appearing during the day and getting caught by Amihan.

"Did you prepare it for lunch?"

Mark asked Mei.

"The red beans rice? I prepared it, but Gege didn\'t go home for lunch." This time, Mei had a rather blaming look in her eyes. "Why red bean rice, anyway? We even bought some special rice from Miss Ren."

"Prepare a small bowl, then a big plate for me later. I\'m kinda hungry." Mark said. "Just prepare the small bowl first."

It did not take Mei long to prepare the small bowl of red bean rice. Of course, she was still confused about what Mark wanted to do with it. He even put a pair of small chopsticks on it. And after Mark received the small bowl, he told Mei to follow behind him.

On the second floor, Abbygale, Iola, Emika, Amihan, and Spera gathered in the bedroom to play a board game. But aside from the members of Mark\'s group, someone else was inside.

Trapped inside the circling wall of wind at the corner of the room, a scared little girl sat while hugging her knees. She was looking at the members of Mark\'s group, confused as to what they wanted with her.

"Papa!"

Abbygale greeted Mark and also asked for a hug. The rest of the group also followed in greeting Mark.

And then, Mark spoke to Amihan as she landed on his shoulder.

"Lift the wall."

"Okay."

Amihan immediately lifted the wall of wind imprisoning the girl.

The girl did not move, however. It was a chance to escape, but it seemed that she knew that she could not. She was surrounded here.

But then, Mark handed the bowl of red bean rice to the girl. She seemed to have noticed it and lifted her head, showing her reddish skin and bob-cut hair. She was also wearing a red Japanese dress.

It was already surprising for her that the people in the house she went through could capture her, but to actually receive an offering in an unexpected manner.

"Here, take this," Mark spoke to the girl. "You\'re welcome in this house, but don\'t do pranks any more."

The girl with her deep pupils stared at Mark as she slowly received the bowl.

"You can go."

Mark added after the girl received the food and stepped aside to open a path to the door.

The little girl immediately took off. She ran as fast as she could to the door. And then, she stopped, looking at Mark and tilting her head before she ran out.

When the girl was out of everyone\'s sight, she vanished before she could even step down the stairs.

"Is she a ghost?"

Mei asked. The rest had the same question.

"It feels like she\'s more similar to me, though."

Amihan chimed in.

"Let\'s not dwell on her," Mark shrugged. "I doubt she\'ll even be back after getting caught once. But it\'s strange one of her kind actually visited other people\'s houses."

It was an unexpected encounter with a strange visitor. In any case, her existence was not as surprising as Mark\'s past encounters.

"Spera," Mark turned to Spera, who was about to roll the dice for her turn. "We\'ll go back to the base after I eat. Don\'t forget."

"I know."

Spera grumbled as she moved her marker after rolling the dice.

After all that, Mark ate his late lunch as Mei began preparing dishes for dinner. She really liked cooking, especially if she was cooking for her family.

***

Day 234 - 5:21 PM - Cliff House, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Province of Quezon, Philippines

A portal appeared within the living room of the cliff house. It was on a designated spot on the northern side of the living room. Although it had not happened so far, Spera\'s portal could cause accidents if opened just anywhere inside the house. What if someone accidentally entered it after it was opened in the house while they were fleeing from something? It could become dangerous.

As such, Mark placed certain locations in the house and in the base as designated portal spots. This way, portal accidents would not ever happen.

Through the portal, Mark appeared. This time, it was only him, as it was not necessary to bring Spera as long as she kept the portal open from the other side. Well, it was more like Spera did not want to leave the board game since she wanted to win after losing against the little girls multiple times.

When Mark arrived, it happened that Hannah was passing by.

"Master."

Hannah greeted Mark. Her demeanor sure was different from when they found her in New Jersey. She was taking the teachings of her Aunt Odelina seriously.

"Where\'s Odel?"

Mark asked.

"Aunt is with Seig and Odette at the training area. Should I call them?"

Hannah replied.

"No, it\'s fine," Mark shook his head. "I\'ll head there instead. You continue your work."

"Yes."

Hannah replied as she watched Mark head out of the living room.

Mark\'s sudden return was a surprise to those people that saw him on the way. Nonetheless, they were happy to see that their leader was alive and kicking even in the foreign lands.

The training area was just outside the cliff house, so it did not take Mark too long, and he found Odelina and her children having a heated bonding time with their weapons drawn.