The morning chill was a great feeling to start the day. A thin layer of dew coated the surrounding foliage. Jack stretched outside his little hole in the ground. He’d taken a liking to his new home.
He paused as he began thinking about how the whole genetic modifying thing works. How does it determine what’s beneficial? How does it choose what traits to give the person? And most importantly of all, how the actual hell was he supposed to decide what to hunt to get stronger?
Jack sighed in frustration. Today he’d planned to do some hunting. It would be a kind of “test” of sorts to determine what traits or benefits he’d get from a wide range of weaker creatures. He was determined to know exactly how this worked to get the most benefit out of his time and effort.
Jack closed his eyes and observed his surroundings with his extra senses. There were a multitude of small animals everywhere. His world lit up like a Christmas tree in his thermal vision. Time allowed him to grow accustomed to his new sense and with that came clarity and precision.
He easily found a few targets for his hunt. First off, he’d take a look at the things burrowing in the ground relatively close to his makeshift home. He couldn’t let anything mess with his hole in the ground. It was a shitty hole in the ground, but it was HIS shitty hole in the ground.
Reaching the destination, he gripped his katana in reverse and plunged it into the ground. The katana violently jerked back and forth for a moment as the creature he’d impaled writhed under the earth.
Quickly digging to retrieve his prey, Jack found a limb. Pulling, he tore an armadillo looking thing from the earth. It had a hard-sleek shell of grey bony plates and claws that shone with a metallic luster. He’d been extremely lucky and impaled the thing right between the plates on its shoulder and back.
A solid poke with the katana revealed that if he’d been even slightly off, this armored little monster would have gotten off with only a scratch.
Jack’s imagination ran wild as he imagined himself in an armored shell. It was such a comical image that he laughed out loud.
“Guess I eat this one and go get something else?”
Shrugging, Jack took the armored monster back to his firepit by the river. The best part about having a superhuman physique was you could easily start friction fires.
An hour later, he looked at the charred corpse of the creature in his hand. After cooking, the shell separated easily from the body. Making sure to return to his hole in the ground, Jack tore into the meat without a second thought. He didn’t realize how hungry he’d been. In under a minute the entire basketball sized thing was picked clean.
Sighing in satisfaction, Jack looked at the screen before him.
“Beneficial genetic material detected, would you like to integrate new material?”
“Huh… the option is back…”
He’d found it weird that he didn’t have the option to choose previously. Oh well, onward! Clicking the big yes button, Jack withstood the evolution process once again. Surprisingly, he didn’t black out. He thought this one would be more intense considering the unique properties of the creature.
Suddenly the burning cold feeling centered on his hands and feet. The intensity kept rising and all Jack could do was endure. A pressure started building in his hands and feet. It felt more intense in his feet so he quickly ripped his boots and socks off.
A gruesome fate awaited him. A sharp pain made Jack aware that the nails in his fingers and toes were being torn away. From the empty spots erupted dark grey metallic nails slightly curved to wicked points.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Sweat poured off of him as the evolution began to subside. He had to take a moment to collect his bearings.
Clawed hands and feet consumed Jack’s attention.
“Holy shit that’s cool…” Relaxing, the claws retracted to just barely extend over his fingertips. His eyes opened in amazement. He quickly flexed the strange muscles once again and saw the nails extend at least an inch and a half past the tips of his fingers. Now that was cool! A wide grin extended over his face.
Jack peered down at his feet and noticed a grey callus the same color as the claws covering the bottoms of his feet. “Guess… I don’t need shoes?” He tapped at the bottom of his foot with a claw and heard a solid *Tick Tick* sound. It was clear his feet weren’t as hard as his claws, but they’d certainly make it unnecessary to wear shoes.
He got up and tried walking around with the new changes and found it hard to step without the claws in his feet extending with his stride. It left little marks in the ground as he walked. A few minutes of practice was all it took before Jack was reasonably confident he wouldn’t destroy a carpeted floor.
Resuming his hunt, he collected 6 more unique species. An armored bird without feathers that could still fly somehow, one of the lizards he’d seen in the trees, a little rodent looking creature, an eel from the river, a scaly and pointy looking turtle, and a spider whose body was the size of his fist.
He’d had little problem with most of the species and even got to try out his claws. They were sharp! His fight with the large dog sized lizard went smoothly. Apparently, the things slept during the day so he’d been able to take it by surprise with a slash of his claws. It awoke startled and thrashed as it tried to escape but a second slash was enough to decapitate it.
Jack took the time to cook a portion of each on a stick. Sampling each of them from the kebab, he decided he liked the lizard the most… or wait which one was this again? Sighing he’d have to sample them again later. For now, he prepared for the worst.
“Beneficial genetic material detected, would you like to integrate new material? Warning, the changes brought about by the material could lead to unstable results.”
“Uhhh… That’s new.” Why would there be a warning about something like this? What did he eat that could be unstable? He pondered on that for a while before deciding to click yes. It said unstable, not deadly, so he’d take his chances this once..
Someone might think this decision was irrational, but Jack couldn’t think of a single thing that could be harmful from said creatures. He could eat them, right? What’s the worst that could happen?
The evolution began as usual, the cold burn radiated strongly through his whole body. Breathing became hard when the feeling of red-hot needles being jabbed into his lungs began. Wheezing as he curled on the floor, Jack began seeing black spots. The pain was the worst it had ever been.
Another feeling permeated his body as he felt a tightness right below his sternum. The pressure built before lessening. It did this repeatedly. His body felt lighter and heaver, he’d only ever felt like this the first time he’d been drunk. It was like he was on open waters, the waves lurching him back and forth.
Jack was barely keeping it together as the pain didn’t seem to lessen for hours. Mercifully, it eventually did. He let out a relaxed sigh as the worst experience of his life lessened.
Sitting up, he looked over his body for any changes. None were readily apparent, but he ran to the river to see his reflection just in case. Anxiously studying his features, Jack relaxed when nothing seemed to be wrong. Taking a step back towards his temporary home, his foot missed the next step.
Floating upwards, already a good 10 feet off the ground was Jack. Panicking, he flailed his body in the air just before he rocketed into the solid ground.
*THUMP!*
His body collided with the ground at high speed forming an impressive dent in the hard soil. In a crater of his own making, Jack groaned in pain and disorientation. Trying to sit up, he found no ground under him once again as he slowly floated upwards on the force of his own push.
Eyes widening in realization he slammed into the ground again. Quickly getting to his feet, Jack sprinted to his only refuge as fast as possible before he got sent into the air once again. Luckily for him, he made it just in time. Relaxing knowing he wouldn’t fly into the sky endlessly, he began to float off the ground. Anxiety made him tense and at that moment he slammed into the floor, standing upright.
An idea came to Jack at that moment.
Was it tensing and relaxing that did it?
He began to relax his body slowly and lightly pushed off the ground. He began to float upwards into the dirt and roots of the ceiling.
Quickly tensing his body less than a foot off the ground he landed with great force, his claws biting into the hardened dirt floor.
It was at this moment that Jack realized why he was given such a warning.