9 Chapter 9

Time seems to slow, as my vision distorts, and I once again find myself in the void of chaotic energy I had first seen so long ago, but this time, my form is gone, and I exist as but a ball of wispy black energy, like the rivers that surround me, as before me floats a familiar screen. 'Character creation,' although highly improved. Unlike before, it shows me everything down to my very DNA, allowing me to change my entire being as I see fit.

There seems to be no time limit, so I can spend as much time here as I desire, my mind instantly getting to work designing my new form within my mind.

I have learned much in my time in the trial, the most important lesson I learned that applies here is what attributes are truly important in survival.

Many would think strength, the ability to simply overpower all opponents, especially with the ability to never receive permanent damage, you would think the path of the berserker would be perfect for me, but it is not.

Pure strength is useless if you can not hit your opponent, and even with my abilities I can be worn down easily, no, the most important attributes were agility, stamina, dexterity, and then strength, in that order.

So I begin building my form from the ground up for the sole purpose of maximizing agility, starting from my bones, I design them to be malleable, to absorb impacts and allow for greater movement, while simultaneously reinforcing them with titanium alloys and graphene. Then my joints, I build to have extreme ranges of movement, to the point I could lean so far backwards my head would touch my waist, my spine, unlike humans, is an amalgamation of bearing like structures, allowing me to turn my body in ways that would kill humans. 

Then I move on to my organs, rearranging them to allow for greater survivability, most replaced by far superior biomechanical structures, my circulatory system showing the largest change, placing 10 organs throughout my body that can independently pump and oxygenate my blood, allowing me to survive, while weakened, without my main heart and lungs until they can regrow.

Then my muscles, I build the ligaments and tendons out of carbon nanotubes, redesigning the contractile cells to be hundreds of times more efficient, as well as building in energy storage cells to allow for greater explosive strength when needed and support stamina, specializing the cells more than they already are, the contractile cells now produce no energy of their own, designed purely for their role, they rely completely on a series of supporting production tissue built into the muscle itself, I should mention I had redesigned my cells to forgo ATP in exchange for a much more efficient form of energy.

Finally, I pull the form together with the skin, layers of graphene underneath the upper layers providing much superior cut resistance to regular skin, as well as special organs designed to release a chemical when cut that staunches bleeding in the area, in the effort to further improve my agility, stealth, and hunting capabilities, I add a form of padding within my feet to absorb shocks and lessen noise, replacing my cartilage fingernails with tungsten alloys, tipped with nanometer thin graphene, and capable of extending slightly when needed, to improve climbing and combat abilities, my eyes have no blind spots, and I turn the photoreceptors around, no longer relying on light bouncing off of the back of my eyes, I increase the range of my visible spectrum, as well as improving accuracy.

My teeth now self sharpen, and replace any lost material, they no longer wear down over time, but I don't need to constantly wear them down to prevent overgrowth like other animals.

To further increase my agility and movement range I add a long, cat-like tail to my waist, it will work to allow for a much greater range of movement while vastly improving balance.

Continuing on with the look I add a pair of articulating cat ears on the top of my head. Perfectly shaped to catch as much sound as possible, focusing it on a pair of hypersensitive silver eardrums capable of easily picking up even the smallest noise.

I remove the vast majority of my scars, mostly clearing my face of damage, I leave it relatively unblemished, aside from a few smaller scars, on crossing my left eyebrow, and a few on my cheeks and around my eyes.

I remove many from the rest of my body as well, but leave them much more scarred than my face.

Finally, I look at my completed form, the entire body built from the ground up for the sole purpose of killing. It stands at exactly 195 cm tall, (6ft 5in) and seems to radiate an aura of danger, light glinting dangerously off of vertical slitted maroon eyes, every facet of my new form meticulously optimized for murder, without my level 500 physique, it would be highly inconvenient, burning as much energy as 200 adult men just to keep itself running, luckily with my high levels, I only need to eat about triple that of the average adult, which is a non issue, my safezone easily capable of producing enough food to feed tens of thousands of adults, I can afford the increase in food costs, if I wasn't able to take my safezone with me, I would have designed my form in a very different way.

Finally, the simple aesthetics changes. As previously mentioned my eyes were now a dark maroon, I liked my long hair, but waist length hair was inconvenient in combat, so I had shortened it to mere shoulder length, changing the color from my usual blond to a dark gray, nearly black color, and while I currently had no intentions of starting any relationships, nor did I ever want to have children, if that would even be possible given how drastically different from any lifeform I had ever encountered. I did not forget to make sure my form was *ahem* well endowed.

But that was not important, what was important was I was done, and I was excited to take control of my new form. Accepting the system prompt, I felt my soul merge with the body, becoming fully integrated with its form, no longer was I a soul controlling a host body like when I did runs, No, now I was truly one and the same with my new body, something I hadn't experienced since my first life all those years ago.

I felt my strength run through my form, somehow finding myself capable of instinctually using my new body to perfection, I turned my ears stop my head, each capable of independent movement as I built a rough picture of my surroundings with my hearing alone, I twisted my arms in seemingly unnatural ways as if I had been doing so since my birth, I kicked my leg up, forming a perfect 180 degree angle as I appreciated my newfound flexibility, before falling into a cross legged sitting position as I pulled my tail in front of my face, it's dark gray bordering on black fur gleaming in the sunlight before me, as I ran a hand through the fur, unintentionally cutting a few strands with my ultra sharp nails. 'Maybe too sharp, I'll probably need cut resistant gloves just so I don't cut everything I touch.'

Do not be fooled by the seemingly innocent nature of my tail though, as its tip is capable of shifting into an ultrasharp blade in a mere instant, small grooves in said blades surface secreting a deadly neurotoxin that can paralyze opponents with ease, like a cat and scorpion tail combined in one.

Similarly my canines, veritable fangs after what I did to them, hide a tiny openable groove, capable of injective any venom I wish, from neurotoxins to anesthetics.

I am unfortunately ripped from my testing when a new system announcement is heard.

[All preparations complete, beginning transmigration, good luck host!] and I fall asleep.

I wake up again in a thick forest, luckily for me, it seems the system was kind enough to drop me off with some basic Items, as I take stock of my equipment.

I wear cut resistant titanium woven clothes, held together with Kevlar and other resistant materials, my pants a deep black, and my shirt a gray white, a black jacket, similarly made of woven titanium alloys, it integrates graphene layers and tungsten inserts as added protection, a reinforced mask covering the lower portion of my face, and a pair of ultra cut resistant gloves which will be helpful in preventing me from destroying any of my own equipment. all of my clothes also have integrated climate control systems to keep me at the perfect temperature.

After quickly making sure my gloves will indeed stop me from destroying my own equipment, I then lay everything I have out on a tarp in front of me.

a brief overview of my equipment shows me I have.

A large 50 liter backpack made of resistant and waterproof materials.

(Image)

A tungsten alloy 75 centimeter long tactical sword.

(Image)

10 IV rations, each capable of sustaining me for about a week.

A few maintenance tools including sharpeners, needles, a variety of threads.

A utility watch, capable of timekeeping, measuring vitals, mapping (Unfortunately not the videogame minimap kind, for that I would need a drone, no, this only measures things like topography and where I have/haven't been.), measuring things like atmospheric pressure and scanning for toxins and chemicals, and has an integrated compass.

It has more features of course, but most are inaccessible considering the lack of infrastructure and equipment to support them.

And a medkit containing any medicine I might need, bandages, surgical tools, suturing equipment, disinfectants, tourniquets, etc.

Satisfied with my equipment, I repack my bag, and start walking north, luckily this planet seems to have a magnetic field, whether or not north and south go to the poles or not I don't know, but it doesn't matter much.

I quickly find a tree tall enough to pop up over the others, and pulling off my gloves, I tentatively reach out my hand, my nails seeping into the wood with so little resistance it might as well not exist, as I quickly pull myself up its body, metal spikes in my boots helping grip the tree, although even with all my equipment, I feel like I may as well be naked considering how light I feel.

Finally pulling myself up over the dense foliage, I stare out into the distance, although I see no signs of civilisation, I see a single large mountain surrounded by smaller peaks about a days walk from my position, so I make my way there, deciding to use it as another vantage point to get a feeling of my surroundings, as a smile creeps its way onto my face, as I can't help but feel excited for my coming adventure!

(an, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I think it turned out pretty well, the mc's adventure in the world of Danmachi officially starts here! also yes I know, "eww mc is edgy." sorry about that I just think this look is cool. he isn't chunni either.)