Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

Chapter 253 Viral Mutations, Myth's Galore...

'This...this is insane...'

Ashton's eye twitched as he looked at the several profile screens floating in front of him.

It hasn't been long since he had helped someone with an unexpected mutation of their aptitude.

Lucas did end up awakening the Legendary Runic Sword - Gram as his new Battle Spirit. But what Ashton didn't expect was that this was only the beginning.

The mutation occurred like a viral infection. In a span of a week, more and more people were admitted to the hospitals due to a sudden illness, yet after taking a diagnosis, all of them turned out to experience some form of mutations in their aptitudes as well.

Some had their Providence increased, some had their Magical Artifact/Battle Spirits evolved, while others experienced some changes in their Mageroots/Physiques.

There had been at least 300 cases of this happening just this week, and Ashton had been making laps around the hospitals since then, not even getting enough rest.

He had no idea why this was happening. Since when did Aptitidue Mutations become so common? This doesn't make sense at all! Yet he also can't deny what's happening in front of his eyes.

What's crazier is that some of these mutations were extremely familiar to him, and it's not because he had gained knowledge straight from the fountain itself.

It's because these mutations used to Legends that his old world - Earth, had before its destruction.

In hindsight, he should've expected that this might be possible. After all, Dylan, one of his Beneficiaries, had Trishula, Poseidon's Trident, as his Battle Spirit. And not too long ago, Lucas had the Runic Sword Gram.

But the recent mutations really opened his eyes to something quite overwhelming...

Gáe Bulg - the barbed spear that pierces with death, Houyi's Mythical Bow, Odin's Gungnir, Thor's Mjolnir, Hephaestus' Forge, Zeus' Astrape, Hades' Helm of Invisibility...

Gorgon's Shield, Grass-Cutting Sword, The Heavenly Jewel, the freaking True Spear Longinus!

And the craziest thing he had seen so far, happened with Alice gaining the Sword of Promised Victory - Excalibur.

'What in the actual fuck is going on!?'

This makes him want to pull his hair out. This is because of him, that's for certain. Cause...who else could it be? As far as he's aware, it's only him who came from Earth.

But if that's the case, how the hell did these myths follow him? Why did they follow him? And why show up now?

He had so many questions but had no answers, and it was seriously grinding on his gears.

Don't get him wrong, these mutations were good news for Humanity as a whole. The fact that many people are awakening this mythological prowess made it even more possible for them to have a fighting chance against the invaders.

Ashton's just peeved that he had no idea why this was happening.

He thought that he was already over Earth's Destruction. He had been living comfortably in this new world and accepting his new reality. But how the fuck was he supposed to move on when things from his old world were still haunting him quite literally?

Either way, he's just thankful that so far, nobody had a bad mutation so far. They all turned out fine and in fact, bounced back even stronger.

He just doesn't have an idea of how long this will go on. The flow of patients hasn't stopped yet so not any time soon he supposes.

'Still, Blake awakened Athena's Aegis. Mary received Houyi's Mythological Bow and freaking Alice now has Excalibur!'

'...I feel jealous somehow but it's okay. I mean, I'm still their boss at the end of the day, so I shouldn't be so worried. If anything, I should be happy that they are becoming stronger.'

'But seriously though, when will it stop?'

Ashton's looked a bit dead as he gazed upon the many patients still waiting for his help. His head hurts and he feels exhausted already. Unfortunately, he couldn't ignore them like this so it means that he was practically trapped here.

'Hopefully, it ends soon...also, I hope no accidents occur.'

Two weeks...

It took two whole weeks before the mutations died down. It left Ashton so exhausted because he had to personally attend to them, in the end, he slept for two whole days after the incident and only woke up just now.

He had recovered enough to function properly. He felt a bit stiff but nothing that some stretching wouldn't solve. Overall, he's fine and could do administrative tasks again. Not that he had to since Jerry was already doing that for him.

"...so, you're saying that we can blame the mutations occurring on the sharp increase of this world's Providence?" He asked Gaia after sipping his tea.

"More or less, yes." She replied. Acacia also nodded beside her.

"That's...a fair assumption. Especially once we considered the recent evolution of the Dragon Vein." Ashton mused.

It did have some basis, after all, Humanity was the locals of this world, meaning that they would be favored by the luck of this world as well.

The only thing that wasn't factored in this conclusion was the fact that the results of the mutations shouldn't be possible. Myth's from Earth shouldn't appear on the Blue Planet. This much was understandable, yet they somehow did.

At this point, Ashton was prepared to just let this go. He's tired of making assumptions. If this turns out to be something that he caused for some reason, then he's prepared to take full responsibility for it.

That's all he could do, really. Plus, that's practically what he's been up to since he sat in this position anyways. So it'd be no different from the usual.

The mutations didn't happen to him though, and honestly, he doesn't know what to feel about that.

On one hand, he's expecting that since he's the one from Earth, he'd be the one who'd be affected the most, but no. He wasn't affected at all.

And on the occasion that he was, what would the mutations be like for him? Well, the world might never know since it didn't happen to him.

On the other hand, he's already satisfied with what he had so it's okay that he wasn't affected by the mutations. He did invest plenty of time mastering the usage of his current arsenal and it'd be a damn shame if that changes now.

All in all, he's quite fine with how everything turned out. And he felt that it was okay for him to just let it go like this. He'd just keep an eye out, just in case.

He talked some more with Gaia and Acacia before excusing himself.

Ashton had some paperwork to go through, they stacked up when he was still asleep and he thought that he might as well go through them now so that he can finish early.

The paperwork wasn't much, to begin with. It couldn't be compared to the literal mountains he had to go through in a single day back then when Jerry'd still learning.

After settling the paperwork, he mingled with the Guild for a bit.

Judging by the atmosphere, it seems that the mutations provoked some status changes in the guild.

Since the mutations happened randomly, nobody could predict who would experience them. Because of its randomness, some people who usually lagged behind the group were pushed to the front while others prayed to experience some form of mutation as well.

There is tense competition in the guild. The status quo will change, Ashton was quite sure about that. It'll be chaotic for a while but that's fine, he could always just handle it.

'I guess I should expect some more S-ranks to show up. I should prepare for that.' He mused to himself.

Since the mutations turned out to be good changes, the quality of some Guild Members increased quite a bit.

Soon, some of them will eventually master their new set of skills and they'd become more powerful than who they were previously.

? Once they gain enough confidence, they'd start climbing the leaderboard. And to do that, they first had to become S-Ranks.

'There will be a large influx of S-Ranks in the future so he should prepare some missions for them just in case.'

He created a reminder for that in case he forgot about it.

After mingling with the guild for a bit, he attended a meeting with his co-founders to talk about future developments.

They basically finalized the plan for expansion after a couple of months. The engineers made a satisfactory plan that would fully utilize the expansion efforts.

The Blue Marble Grotto Heaven had greatly expanded due to his breakthrough recently, and the area that the guild utilizes was no longer enough to contain all the chaos happening inside so it's about time they expanded.

Plus, they are planning on taking in more members in the future. This expansion wouldn't be the last one. Eventually, he hoped that one day, the guild could fully utilize all the space the grotto heaven has.

For now, the minimal expansion should suffice. And since they could just issue a mission for the guild members to help out with this, then they have no lack of manpower.

The expansion should be done after a few days.