Everything the cat did screamed normalcy. From the way it walked, carried itself, harassed others, etc. It was no different to a cat from before the apocalypse.
But, two factors set it apart, something it had glossed over. First was the fact that it was clean, too clean even though it had just walked through a corridor filled with blood.
Even though a cat had the habit of keeping itself clean, it wasn't to this extent that no trace of scent of the blood would linger on it. The level had clearly traversed into the abnormal territory.
And, the second oddity was the horn that was growing on its forehead, a clear indication that it was a mutated beast. Moreover, Compass Carburettor noticed that a second horn had begun to grow too.
Though, it had barely protruded out of the cat's forehead, "But, within a week, it would become a two-horned cat."
'Even though I would love to kill it after it had grown two horns, I can't sacrifice the humans to achieve that.' He sighed, shaking his head, 'Just what the hell am I doing here? With no means to fend themselves, they were bound to die anyway.'
'Well, this hypocrisy is part of what keeps me human.' Smiling, he stomped the ground, beginning to run towards the cat, watching it shriek in response and spring backwards in alarm.
It didn't seem intent to fight him, but the moment Compass Carburettor arrived before the place it had been standing before, his body suddenly bent before swerving around, dodging to the side before closing in towards the cat.
And, in the place he moved out from, three large gashes appeared in the air, vanishing a second after. It was the cat's ability, in that it can unleash delayed slashes into the air that take a second to form and damage things.
It was a simple but tricky ability that could be used in interesting ways.
Compass Carburettor didn't know if there was something there or not. The reason he dodged was thanks to the Mental Energy stream he sensed from the cat when it sprang backwards. There was no fear in it, just the emotion of ridicule.
It had been acting like it was afraid to trick him into falling for the trap.
'That's pretty dangerous.' Compass Carburettor sighed, looking like he was about to charge at it once again when his figure vanished, appearing beside it as his Armament activated, condensing an energy sword that extended into its body, piercing through it.
Even though the cat had reacted on time, the energy sword had expanded at the speed of light, piercing it before its body could move out of the way. With its neck pierced, it coughed out blood, unable to let out any sounds as its vitality slowly dropped down.
Even though it tried to attack him with its claws in the meantime, Compass Carburettor casually used his hands to hold its limbs apart while pressing its body on the ground, watching it bleed to its death.
It didn't have the strength to resist him.
He then pried its body open, frowning when it didn't have an orb inside, "That's a pity. Its ability was pretty interesting."
He then took its pearl, surprised when he dug further and found a second pearl, "Nice. Since it was forming its second horn, it makes sense that it had condensed its second pearl beforehand."
A mutated beast would have as many pearls as the number of horns on its forehead. It also determined the number of times it could unleash its breath attack.
After obtaining two pearls, Compass Carburettor was pretty satisfied, swallowing one to summon his mongoose, making it devour the cat's corpse. That would spur its evolution pretty fast.
As for when he would reach Stage Two, he would only know when he attained it. So, until then, using his power constantly and consuming as many pearls as possible was the only option.
Thanks to his Darlac, he was able to use the ability countless times without trouble. And, replenishing his Darlac had become easy thanks to the apocalypse, all due to the mosquitoes.
"Are there any other mutated beasts here?" He then asked.
"There's a fish on the second floor." The mosquito replied, "The cat has been eyeing it all along, but since the fist is pretty formidable, it was waiting to grow its second horn before devouring it."
"What does this fish eat?" Compass Carburettor asked in surprise, wondering how it ate enough to grow a horn. After all, as a domestic fish, it would only be able to move through its fish tank.
"Well, I dared not head closer to investigate. I felt fear for some reason." The mosquito replied, landing on the window slab of a house on the seventh floor after judging that it was safe to perch on.
"Well, guess I'll take a look at it." His interest garnered, Compass Carburettor quickly descended through the flight of stairs, arriving before the mentioned house on the second floor, noticing that the place was somewhat lively. There was a group of five people who were wearing hazmat suits, holding large scissors in their hands that they used to clip some of the grass that grew on the ground floor, bringing them while wrapped in a plastic bag.
Then, they entered the designated house, ignoring Compass Carburettor's existence while dropping the grass into a fish tank.
And, sleeping there was a goldfish, its body elongated enough to now be called a snake. It slurped through the strands of grass like they were noodles, sporting dead eyes. Though, it was alive, just that its fish eyes were like that.
After eating enough grass, it seemed its belly was full as it shat out poop after some time, which was quickly cleaned up by a man wearing one of the hazmat suits.
Now he understood why they were wearing hazmat fruits, for the poop had a smell similar to what was produced by fruit bugs when they were crushed. It was such an unpleasant scent that even grotesque insects would wish to avoid.
As he observed the people, he frowned deeper, for they didn't seem to be controlled by the goldfish or anything. Rather, they seemed normal, like regular humans.
'What part of this is normal?' He frowned in worry, unable to find any oddity in the situation, alarmingly so.
