14 A new man

I eventually sat up off the ground where I had fallen after the changes started which caused the dull skin layer on me the fall off revealing the bronze colored skin as if I had been out in the sun for years. This only applied to my arms and head however as my clothes had the rest trapped underneath it. I stripped down to get rid of the itchy and uncomfortable layer of shed skin fully revealed my new form to the world and Gaia. I hadn't noticed it while I was on the ground but after standing up I noticed that I had grown from six foot even to six foot three and I was slightly taller than Gaia now.-

This prompted me to observe the rest of my body and I was stunned at what I found. My slightly protruding gut was gone and I had a slightly defined six pack in it's place. My manhood had grown from the average size it was before by close to two more inches pointing me firmly at larger than normal. My legs below that were covered in well defined muscles while my chest and arms were similar.-

I don't mean the swollen but burdensome muscles of body builders either but those of an athlete that had exactly what they needed for peak performance. My eyesight and hearing had also improved slightly as well. I know because before I died I had needed glasses but refused to wear them since my eyesight wasn't so bad that I couldn't function without them. Now though I could see much clearer at a distance. My hair had also changed from dark brown to black as well but I only learned that the next day. "Remind me not to do that again without preparing myself." I joked trying the lighten the mood.-

Gaia relaxed a bit more and nodded in agreement before pointing at the "leftovers" of my transformation "Tar?" she said in a questioning manner. "Yeah we should get rid of it." I said and moved to the back of the cave to grab some pine needles and sticks to clump the mess together before tossing it into a hole Gaia dug outside the cave. This had to be repeated a couple of times before most of it was gone. The stuff that was liquid and thus unmovable with these methods were subjected to the fire I revived.-

Transferring a burning fire was easy as you just needed to hold the burning materials together as you shifted them. So I moved the fire over to this new spot and let it burn away the stuff under it before moving it back and sweeping the ashes away with a handful of pine needles. I couldn't even be mad at the system over my suffering as my new form was definitely improved over the previous one just like promised. "GRRRUUUUU!" the only real downside was that I was positively starving at the moment and my stomach was making it's displeasure known.-

Chuckling I set up the Zigzagoon to cook while placing my second stone bowl that was previously empty underneath one of them to collect the rendering fat. This stuff was flammable and probably had a bunch of other uses as well so now that I could collect it I did. Once I got all that I could I moved the bowl of yellow liquid to the side to cool. I then divided up the food that was done and Gaia immediately dug in like usual while I had to wait for it to cool.-

While I waited I tore the three item tickets and had the wheel spin for all three items and I got a Deepsea tooth , silverware set and a full restore. I was left speechless by the draws since one of them was a Clamperl exclusive hold item to allow it to evolve into a Huntail. The second was a set of silverware of all things and the last was a full restore. Honestly speaking the silverware were what excited me the most. While I didn't mind eating like a savage I missed being able to cut off a piece of food and blowing on it to cool it down quickly.-

This new set of silverware gave me this ability back so I wasted no time at all taking it out of the bag. It was a simple set consisting of a knife , fork and spoon wrapped in a washable napkin that made me suspicious that the system had stolen this from a restaurant somewhere. Not minding that though I eagerly grabbed the knife and fork before carefully cutting a small piece of the still hot meat away before blowing on it to cool it.-

I then bit into the meat and soon realized a problem , I can't possibly eat very fast like this. Sighing I could only let my civility die a bit and store away the silverware and go back to savagely eating while risking getting burned. As it turns out that was no longer a problem as my heat tolerance apparently went up after my transformation so I could safely eat hotter than normal foods. Not like straight out of the fire hot but hotter than most could comfortably withstand. I also noticed that my appetite had nearly doubled as this time there was nothing left for Gaia except bones.-

Once done with my meal I turned in for the night after placing my glowing crystals in my bag. I aura meditated myself to sleep feeling out the warm energy in the center of my chest that felt like a small candle flame. The next day I woke up feeling the best I have since I landed in this world without any aches or pains at all. Stretching out I felt my joints pop causing me to sigh in comfort as I stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder and walked over to Gaia.-

"Wake up sleepy head , we have exploring to do." I said while shaking her awake gently , well as gently as you can a three hundred pound rock monster. She woke up with a bit of grumbling but otherwise without any real fuss. We headed out of the cave and into the forest to look for opponents as well as any useful items that may be lying around. I had to leave my tattered shirt back at the cave since it no longer fit. My pants also didn't fit properly but I still had enough decency to keep them on.-

This resulted in them getting ripped along the sides as my thigh muscles flexed while I walked. Specifically along the seam on the sides which was a little relieving to be honest as it stopped squishing my legs. To save a bit of the material from further destruction by getting caught on stuff I took the silverware knife to the jeans removing everything below the knees. Basically I was walking around in nothing but a pair of shorts that had holes in it. It didn't bother me though since my new skin was almost unaffected by the sun or small thorns of the weeds on the ground.