Kaleb's brain came slowly awake as whatever debuff hit him wore off. His stomach and lower back were killing him. But that was nothing compared to the bright red notification window shining in his face. First off, the color threw him for a damn loop as all the in-game windows were blue. Then he read the notification over and his brain froze. Almost locking him in place.

Partial Mutation Detected You have activated your latent Mutant gene. As Player who mutated after Character Creation, you do not receive the General Trees of standard Mutants. Instead, you only receive the Trees for your specific Mutation. However, the nature of your Mutation is incomplete. Therefore, you can only access the Utility section of the Mutation gene for now. A more complete or better serum may fix or complete the transformation.

Kaleb angrily swiped the message away, only for another one to come screaming up into his face.

Mutation: Tail A long tail that can grab, swipe, or even stab opponents. Your Basilinoid heritage makes your tail even sturdier and its scales are rougher to the touch. Upgrades include attack buffs, defensive scales, and increased prehensile strength. Notice: The serum used to spark the mutation has added some effects. Check the Mutation Trees for more information.

"What the fuck?!" Kaleb shouted, trying to stand but tilting backwards.

An enormous weight made its presence known on his body immediately as his tail saved him from falling over. The long scaly appendage coiled along the ground, steadying Kaleb as he glared at it. He realized his pants were ripped and falling as he righted himself. Grabbing them with a hand, Kaleb spun, trying to get a better look at his new Mutation.

The tail was mostly green with a light blue shimmer on some of the scales. It almost mirrored his own coloration. But Kaleb felt the blue was slightly different and the tip of the tail was even stranger. With a thought, he pulled it up to his eyes and examined it. The tip of his tail was almost gray, and the scales had the texture of stone. As he poked at it, Kaleb heard chuckling off to his side. Glancing over, he spotted Daivor, Aqwen, and Roy all smiling at him.

"Don't play with it too much. You'll go blind." Aqwen chuckled as Kaleb dropped his tail quickly.

"It worked?" Roy said, half excited as he ran around behind Kaleb to get a better look. Daivor riding on his shoulder.

Kaleb spun away, trying to salvage what dignity he could. "No! It didn't work! It just gave me a damn tail and some shredded pants."

"But it's a mutation, isn't it?"

"I guess, technically or maybe a regression? I mean, the Basilinoids used to have tails, but they grew out of them. So this has to be a mistake."

Daivor blew a puff of smoke into the air and studied Kaleb for a long minute. "The serum is incomplete."

Kaleb nodded at the gnome's words and waved a hand at his backside. "Yeah. I think it just triggered a latent gene or something."

"Well, have to take another sample of your blood and see what's going on."

"Agreed. But can I get some pants first!? Please, Aqwen?"

The female lizard grinned at him before she walked to the cave entrance. As she passed by him, she glanced down at his tail for a moment before meeting his eye.

"It is a handsome tail though, Professor. You should be proud."

Kaleb felt his tail twitch at Aqwen's words and he had to focus to stop it from wagging. Seriously? Was he a damn dog now? Getting a hand on his crumbling pants, Kaleb waddled over to the primary workstation. He was going to figure out what went wrong if it was the last thing he did. Although the horrifying thought that this was his permanent Mutation nagged at him. He almost opened the forums to see if anyone else had replicated such an event when he remembered the notification talked about Mutation Trees.

Pulling up his in-game menus, Kaleb navigated to his character tab. Already he could tell things were different. Next to his status screen, and his digital spell book tab, there was now a third tab sitting there. Flashing red and waiting for him. It was marked Mutation Trees, and he clicked on it as he attempted to sit down. Luckily, the Brute Clans were huge fans of stools, so his new tail didn't get in the way.

Tail Mutation Tree

Attack Lvl 0 (Locked)

Tip of Stone Lvl 1

Defense Lvl 0 (Locked)

Dense Lvl 1

Utility Lvl 1

Electroconductivity Lvl 1

Yep, this was probably his Mutation for the rest of his gaming life. Something about seeing it on the in-game menus made it more real. His Mutation was a tail. The appendage he had actually written off when he started playing. Mostly cause it got in the way of chairs. Sure, now he was aware that the in-game world accounted for tailed species, but still. He'd been hoping for super-strength or maybe the ability to shoot stone spikes from his elbows. Instead, he got an electrically conductive appendage that weighed a ton and had a sturdy tip. Shaking his head at his thoughts, Kaleb felt a sharp prick on the side of his tail.

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"YOW! Wha?"

Pulling his tail up, Kaleb spotted Daivor hanging off the side of his new tail. A syringe in his tiny hands. The barrel of the syringe was full of Kaleb's blood, and the gnome was grinning at him.

"That's interesting. You didn't even feel that until I yanked the needle out, did you?"

"WHY did you yank the needle out?!"

"Because you were clearly getting lost in your thoughts again and we need to start studying this. Like it or not, this is a breakthrough. Just not the one we expected."

"What's not to like about a tail?" Roy asked, pulling a stool over to Kaleb's table.

"I just wanted something more heroic. This thing is just an appendage that can do a few tricks."

Daivor hopped off Kaleb's tail and onto the worktable. Both the gnome and Roy looked at Kaleb in fascination, asking at the same time.

"What tricks?"

Rolling his eyes, Kaleb took the sample from Daivor and prepared it for inspection as he explained.

"I have a stone tip on my tail, probably from Sebastian the space-turtle. It's incredibly dense, thanks to Claire. Lastly, the damn thing can conduct electricity."

"Because of Milly! Woow…" Roy half-chuckled as he looked at Kaleb's tail. "I got to say, Doc. That doesn't sound too bad. It doesn't account for the other ingredients we tossed in, but it seems like you got a nice spread."

"I think when Milly's blood catalyzed, it ignited an old gene in my DNA that dragged some of the other materials in with it. My mutation was probably always going to be a tail. I just threw in a few more elements into the mix."

Kaleb sighed again as he brought up his Mutant-enhanced sample. Thinking about it, he then brought up an image of his old genome for comparison. Immediately, the helices were different. Kaleb's mutant DNA was now much more robust and complex. The genetic sequences still repeated like a lizard's, but now they included separate A-T and G-C pairs representing Kaleb's mutation. As he studied the two DNA helices side by side, Kaleb nodded.

"See, the latent gene for the tail was buried right here in my original sequence. The serum must have acted on that portion of my genome and enhanced it."

"Which is kind of what we wanted to do. We were trying to enhance your overall strength, after all."

"Yes, but instead, we activated an old gene. Maybe it's the mutant gene?"

Daivor shook his head. "No. The area differs completely from where Claire's mutation is and coincides with where the tail gene is in the Brute Clan."

"So all I did was activate an old gene and beef it up?"

"Yep. But that was a good test run. With some more time and testing, we could get the serum to a better state. Now that we know the serum latches onto latent genes, we can plan for and negate that."

Kaleb rubbed his hands over his face as he tried to think of the reason he went first. Of course they should've tested it. Probably several times, before he took the damn serum. But he had been so sure of success. His tail twitched again and Kaleb dodged to the side as a pair of black pants sailed over his shoulder. The soft clothes landed on the table and Kaleb turned around to see Aqwen still smiling at him. Her eyes, once again, flicked to his new tail.

"So, are you finished with your experiments yet? You know you can challenge Gor'kinak before the third day is up, right?"

"And go into a fight with a tail I don't know how to use? No thanks. I've got to use the time I have."

"Oh yeah, Doc. We can train up your new tail. See what it can really do." Roy exclaimed.

"No. I meant I have to correct what went wrong with the serum. It's going to take some time just to filter out the sequences we know get in the way now."

Daivor tapped Kaleb's hand with his pipe as Aqwen placed her hand on his shoulder. "Boss, I think the kid's right. You have to learn how to use the tail. We can't perfect and then use the serum a second time. Mostly cause we don't know what it'll do to you."

Kaleb blew out a breath as Aqwen squeezed his shoulder. "You'll get to train with us again, Lab Lizard! This time you'll almost fit in with that tail."

The lithe alien lizard-woman chuckled to herself as she patted Kaleb's shoulder and headed out of the cave again.

"I'll go prepare a sparring arena for us! The clans will be excited to see your changes for sure."

"Wait, Aqwen, we don't have to make a big deal out of this… and she's gone." Kaleb said, getting to his feet and grabbing the pants she brought.

He walked a short distance away before dropping his ripped pants and quickly pulling on the new pair. His tail almost instinctively slipped through the hole in the of the pants. It was a snug but not uncomfortable fit, and he felt his tail swiping across the ground behind him. The new addition to his body was beyond weird. But almost seemed right somehow as he moved around. Like something that was always supposed to be there.

When he finished stretching out and moving about the cave, Kaleb returned to the worktable. Roy and Daivor had their heads together over the various DNA samples. But when he got closer, Roy pulled away from Daivor suspiciously. Kaleb gave his sidekick a look. But other than going pink in the cheeks, the boy stayed quiet. Daivor also seemed eerily quiet, but Kaleb could feel some mirth coming from his familiar. Whether it was about Kaleb or something Roy said, he didn't know. But it wasn't that important, anyway. Shaking off the weird interaction, Kaleb asked.

"So either of you coming with me? I imagine I'm about to get worked over by a large number of Brute Clan lizards."

"Doc, if I can survive a few rounds with them, you can."

"Yeah, but they don't have an ancestral hatred toward you."

"You'll be fine. Aqwen will be there."

"She's the one I'm most worried about." Kaleb shuddered as he marched out of the cave. Daivor and Roy were right behind him.

He could feel their smiles as he stepped into the artificial light of Under-Town. The city seemed to always be lit up nowadays. Making it hard to mark the passage of time. But that most of the Brute Clan members were up was a huge clue that it was probably around noon. Kaleb found faces turning his way as he walked to the training area. Tiny lizard children gawked at him as Brute Clan members stared abashedly at his tail. The appendage twitched again at the attention and Kaleb felt it sweep across the dirt ground.

"See. No animosity whatsoever." Roy chuckled as low voices appeared in the air.

Kaleb sighed as the chants of the brute clan grew louder the closer he got to the training area. Aqwen had sectioned off a huge portion of the yard. Dozens of Brute Clan lizards were smacking their chest and chanting at Kaleb's approach. When he slowed to listen, he picked up on their words and groaned.

"LAB! LIZARD! LAB! LIZARD! LAB! LIZARD!"

The voices and the chest thumbing reverberated through the air as Kaleb turned to look at Roy. His gaze must have conveyed most of his thoughts because the boy gave him a chagrined smile.

"See? They're excited that you're here."

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