After using the correct Decay Rate Algorithm to work out several viable methods of gene implantation, Dr. Connors eagerly created several serums based on them, found a few lab mice, and began testing.
The experiments would take at least a month or two before their effects could be determined, so Dilos and Dr. Connors had some free time. However, to avoid a mishap like the one in the movie, where mutated mice went berserk and started "killing everything in sight," Dilos still suggested that Dr. Connors replace the mice's containers with alloy ones.
Over the next few days, Dilos found a house with plenty of space and good concealment and rented it. First, Dr. Connors had nothing for him to do for the time being. Second, he couldn't keep the Mutant Spiders hidden in the lab for too long; it wouldn't be good if Dr. Connors discovered that he was making them. Lastly, he needed to run some experiments, which meant he couldn't do them in the house Lex had originally rented for him.
As for the fact that Dilos was a minor and couldn't rent a place by himself without a guardian's help, he figured that with forged documents and the ability to hypnotize people using his superpowers, he could still manage to rent a suitable house.
Besides that, Dilos had to make time to read and prepare for his final exams in two months. After all, he was still a high school student. No matter how long he interned here, he would still have to go back and prepare for his exams. He also had to finish the Spider Serum in the meantime.
So Dilos's schedule was still packed.
More than half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Dilos's Mutant Spiders had not only fused completely with the serum, but, under his care, had also bred the next generation.
The first-generation Mutant Spiders still had quite a few problems. After fully mutating, they had all doubled in size and grown stronger, but they had also become extremely aggressive.
Their aggression was especially pronounced when other creatures were nearby, whether or not those creatures were their own kind.
Fortunately, they were still easy to control with telepathy. Based on their emotional responses, Dilos figured that their aggression mainly stemmed from the fear they felt when their greatly enhanced senses detected other things moving around them.
Even humans, with their advanced intelligence, would panic if their senses suddenly became much sharper. Spiders, with their limited intelligence, were even more likely to do so.
Luckily, the Mutant Spiders were kept in the specially made metal boxes Dilos had paid for, so they couldn't do anything too extreme. After a few days of adjustment, the problem gradually eased.
Once the second-generation Mutant Spiders hatched, Dilos killed all the first-generation ones. After all, they were no longer useful in any way.
Although there were more than a hundred second-generation Mutant Spiders, Dilos had prepared plenty of specially made metal containers for them, so raising them was quite convenient.
From his observations and what he sensed through telepathy, Dilos found that the second-generation Mutant Spiders were much less aggressive than the first generation.
At one point, Dilos even secretly took some genetic samples from the second-generation spiders to Dr. Connors's lab for analysis. The results showed that their genetic structure was far more stable than that of the first-generation spiders.
At first, Dilos had wondered why Richard Parker had emphasized in his notebook that a second generation of Mutant Spiders needed to be bred. But after seeing all this, he understood why the extra effort had been necessary.
While raising the second-generation Mutant Spiders, Dilos noticed a few surprising things. First, they developed incredibly fast. In just a day or two, they grew as large as ordinary high-grade spiderlings that were one or two months old. Even without growth hormones from Dilos, they could grow rapidly in a short time.
On top of that, the little things weren't picky eaters. They ate anything humans could eat, whether it was raw meat, mosquitoes, or vegetables.
The only problem was that they ate far more than he expected. A single hamburger was devoured by the hundreds of second-generation Mutant Spiders in just a few hours. After molting the next day, they could eat the same amount again, and they ate about half again as fast as before.
As time went on, they kept growing, and their appetites grew with them.
"Is it because I added my genes? And these little things seem to grow faster the more they eat. What if they just keep getting bigger...?"
Watching the second-generation spiders grow, Dilos couldn't help worrying. Fortunately, they stopped growing once they were about the size of an adult's palm. Their appetites also dropped to the level of ordinary spiders of the same size. Otherwise, Dilos would have started wondering if something had gone wrong with his experiment.
Besides that, Dilos discovered that the second-generation spiders had undergone some physical changes that the first generation hadn't.
Their color had changed from bright yellow to a combination of black, white, and yellow. Their mouthparts had gone from one pair of chelicerae to six, each tipped with thick, sharp, rugged fangs that looked like miniature tiger teeth. The claws on their pedipalps had also begun to resemble a tiger's claws.
Although their eight legs still looked like a spider's, their mobility and jumping ability were surprisingly impressive. Dilos had never seen a spider dart around like a shadow during a test and leap three or four meters in a single bound.
If Dilos hadn't quickly restrained it with his telepathy, the agile little thing would have escaped.
"I added gene fragments from a Siberian Tiger and an ant to make the Mutant Spiders stronger. (P.S. Of the several groups of foreign genes we tested at the time, the Siberian Tiger and ant fragments were the only ones that could combine perfectly with my genes in the digital simulations and be successfully implanted into the radioactive Mutant Spiders.) But these second-generation Mutant Spiders are much stronger than I expected."
Looking at the test data in his notebook, Dilos couldn't help feeling very satisfied with the second-generation Mutant Spiders.
And so, the Spider Serum entered its final stage of production.
In a room with no windows and only a ventilation system, more than a hundred metal containers stood packed together. Dilos opened one of them and used telepathy to control a second-generation Mutant Spider, making it crawl out. He then made it press its chelicerae against the opening of the test tube in his hand and inject its venom. Once it had emptied its venom glands, he sent it back to its container.
After that, Dilos did the same with more than thirty second-generation Mutant Spiders. When the test tube was full, he drew twenty milliliters into a syringe and injected it into a vein in his arm.
When it was all done, Dilos sat down in a chair and quietly waited for the mutation to begin inside his body...
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