Day 3

  In the morning, I was pleased to find my arm had almost completely healed. It was sore and stiff, but usable. In addition, I had but yawned and gazed around when I saw a lone frog, hopping almost directly across the river. Grinning, I swam across, careful to stay as silent as possible. And dispatched him. Just as its body crumpled, another bunch of notifications popped up.

  I hesitated. As much as I hated the name of the growth rate I had, it was heavily leaning towards physical attributes, which seemed the most useful. And the random chances for improvement…

  Reluctantly, I selected yes.

  ……

  This system had to be fucking with me. I decisively pressed no.

  I scratched my head. Mutation?

  My head began to throb. And then it burned. I gritted my teeth and began to shake. Sharp lances of pain pierced my spine, as if someone were shoving spikes between my vertebrae. The agony slowly spread, until my entire body felt simultaneously doused in ice and struck by lightning.

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  Then all at once, it stopped.

  ...What? All that for-

  No not-

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

  I was panting, tears and snot rolling down my face. What… What was that? And why does it keep on failing?!?!

  I tensed up, knowing what was coming.

  This time, my body just trembled, my muscles instinctively flexing. Then the tremor passed, and I felt fine.

  Still breathing heavily from the pain, I brought up my status screen.

  I was indeed much stronger than when I arrived. I tested it a bit, jumping and leaping, finding myself to be capable of things that the impression within me seemed to believe were possible for a human, but clearly close to the limit. Most noticeable was the +3 to agility that I received this level. I was clearly much quicker, in movements and reactions. Unfortunately, that often led to me tumbling over, when my body reacted faster than my brain could handle. And I didn’t quite have the balance that I needed to control my new strength, when I was going full speed.

  I suspected these were related to Dex, and I resolved myself to gather even more Biomass, getting a better growth rate. After all, I didn’t want to risk a failed mutation again.

  The rest of the day I spent catching groups of frogs. It was almost too easy at this point. By the end of it, I had gathered 68 Biomass. To sleep, I returned to the area below the tree roots and curled into a ball.