A long time passed after Sarah woke up, during which she just lay around, staring at the softly moving leaves of the trees.

‘I almost died’ she thought to herself. ‘I almost died, and I made it.’ She continued with her thoughts. A normal person should probably feel dread and panic right now. Contrary to that, she couldn’t help but feel excited. Alone, the thought of having survived against all odds was exhilarating.

"Well." She said this while sitting up. "Sorry system for getting angry about the slightly crazy thing. I guess you were kind of generous with your evaluation." But as always, the system didn’t answer her.

After relishing this great feeling, she finally opened up her status screen.

Details:

Level: 2

Name: Sarah Anna Fischer

Class: None

Race: Human

Status: Exhilarated (Potency of active skills increased by 10%)

HP: 55/55 SP: 10/25 MP: 0/20

Achievements:

* How the hell are you still sane?

Affinities:

Mind (Mid) Body (Mid) Energy (Low)

Specialisations:

Mind (0/2)

Body (2/2)

Adaptation

Mutation

Energy (0/1)

Basic Stats:

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 11

Endurance: 4

Resistance: 3

Intelligence: 20

Force: 1

Special Stats:

Magic Power: 2

Life Force: 1

Active Skills:

None

Passive Skills:

Poison Body (Adaptation)

* Poison resistance

Metamorphosis (Mutation)

Struggle (Conditional passive)

Slightly crazy

Mean eye

To her surprise, she seemed to have leveled up. It didn’t seem to change much besides having a bit more HP, SP, and MP. There was also a new special stat called life force, but for now she didn’t really know what it did.

But the most interesting part was the new specializations. Or rather, the new skills that seemed to come from these specializations. She hastily signaled the system to show more explanation about these skills.

Poison Body (Adaption): You are able to increase your resistance to hazardous substances and reinforce your body with their properties in combination with your "Mutation" specialization.

* Poison resistance

Metamorphosis (Mutation): You are able to mutate your body. Drastic mutations and changes to your body's form and/or functions have a high chance of scarring your soul and destroying your mind. (mostly immune to this side effect due to the passive skill "Slightly Crazy") The number of mutations is dependent on your Life Force. Due to your "Adaption" specialization, there will be less Life Force needed and you will have fewer limitations.

* Skin: None

* Bone structure: None

* Muscles: None

* Brain, nerve system, and sensory organs (not recommended): None

* Organs and processes (not recommended): None

* Special mutations (not recommended): None

"Uhhhh" was the only thing coming out of her. "Is this… good? It sounds kind of disgusting, honestly." The thought of a horrifyingly mutated body wasn’t a very nice imagination. Especially if the system forced these changes on her, rather than her actively choosing them. She had only been in contact with the system for a short time, but it seemed kind of pushy and intrusive.

"Alright, just steel your mind," she said to herself, firming up her resolve to overcome this situation. She was alone and naked in a godforsaken swamp in something called spatial error. Looking at her lower legs and feet, she saw countless little wounds that started to look a little inflamed. Not to mention this freaking spider bite that almost turned her nerves into mush. She had no idea how to make protective clothing with the materials around her. And she definitely didn’t want to just wrap some plants around her without knowing whether they were poisonous or not.

"My best bet right now is to… well… mutate my skin. Gosh, that sounds disgusting."

Survival came first, superficial beauty later.

"Give me the details about mutating my skin." She tried to prompt the system, and to her surprise, something actually happened.

* Camouflage skin (1 LF): Able to use magic power to darken the skin or lighten it up.

* Dense skin (1 LF): Dense and leathery skin. More force is needed to penetrate the skin, and shallow wounds close up faster.

* Breathing skin (1LF): Able to passively absorb a miniscule amount of magic power from the surroundings.

* Rough skin (1LF): Scaly and rough skin, which can injure by contact. Slightly more resilient.

* Patterned skin (1LF): Skin with colorful patterns that can scare other beings by suggesting danger.

For more options, increase your level and/or heighten your Life Force>

"Ugh, Rough skin sounds disgusting. But luckily, some of these options don’t seem to make a freak out of me." After a short pause and some mental preparation, she prompted the system again.

"I choose Dense skin." And again, the system gave an answer.

Before she even could say something, the system had already started its damned countdown. Appartently, a mental affirmation was all it needed. She maybe didn’t need to say her demands to the system out loud in the future. ‘Thank god, that would be embarrassing’ she thought to herself absentmindedly. The countdown was ticking down, and she tried not to think about the mental pain her last experience with the system had caused her.

Her fear only came partly true. This time it was rather her body being in immense pain. When the timer hit zero, her skin started to literally melt down in front of her eyes and started bubbling. The pain was excruciating. With gritted teeth, she endured the pain, while keeping her eyes firmly shut. The sight of her skin sloshing and bubbling about on her body was just too horrible.

After a short while, the pain ended as abruptly as it came. And with it a system prompt.

With a low sigh, she just lay on the ground for a while. After some time, she dared to look at her skin. It actually wasn’t bad or anything. She wasn’t sure if there was even a visible change. The skin just seemed more… dense. Which made sense according to the name.

To test her new resilience, she pressed one of her nails into the thin skin at her wrist. But she didn’t even feel much pain. It felt like pressing her finger into thick, processed leather.

Luckily, the wounds on her feet and legs also seemed to have healed up. Well, it would be weird if the system would just bubble up her skin and afterwards put some wounds in again.

The moment she stood up, she noticed that she had kind of left something behind on the ground. Her hair. With shock, she touched her head, and it was smooth and without any sign of any kind of hair. She didn’t even have eyebrows or eyelashes.

"Shit, that wasn’t in the description!" She shouted at the system with a raised fist, but soon quelled her anger. She got what she wanted. And she definitely didn’t need to look pretty right now.

"But still," she muttered, wildly pointing her middle finger in different directions.

Somewhat satisfied with giving her emotions some room, she reoriented herself. Or at least, she tried. "Still in a fucking swamp." She said it bitterly. For a moment, she thought about climbing into a treetop and trying to get a good look at her current location. But the sight of numerous spiderwebs decorating the thick foliage and twigs above her gave her the creeps. While she had thicker skin now, she didn’t want to test it the hard way to see if it really protected her from these insidious spiders.

With no better option, she started to walk in a direction where the ground didn’t seem to be too wet and muddy.