The fallen trees and branches all sang together to compose the wet fauna's home that seemed so cleverly placed by the complexion of Gaia, if those gods even exist.
The ancient mutant-cypress trees' brittle facade was no secret when one looked up to see the towering life force of each tree slowly leaving its vines twisted beautifully about, together with their infected trunks of decay coated in moss.
As if two pictures joined one above the other, the green moon painted in just added to the mood while the colors disappeared into the night, slowly cascading away as the sun finished setting.
In the small area of fractured glade was a curious individual, gowned in long and humble blue-sea hair, crystallization of her deep blue gaze pierced the hue. There are numerous materials beside her whether it was organic or ores, she then placed her wrists forward.
Firstly, MF analyzed the newfound gene schematics within her saved memory, comparing them with the current body's DNA programming to find the compatible variable.
The history of Livil was coursing through her veins.
'Tungsten Muscle Coating'—it sounded horrifyingly crude from its concept. Tungsten is the sixth densest metal below plutonium, in which they are extremely heavy and compressed where you couldn't even move your muscle tissues because of those bloody thick layers.
"Turns out the Calamities way of thinking is reflected upon their nucleus, dense as hell."
Processing the active skill within the mind—Genes Fractioning!
The sly schemer doesn't call herself a 'Skillionaire' for nothing except metaphorically and literally. She divided every unlocked possibilities and potential into categories and referred to them as skills. Especially when she started the gene modifying a few hundred years ago.
Active skill, passive skill, and memory skill. Those three are the three major plus-ultra simplified versions of MF's complex database management within her incomprehensible brain.
The active skills include every elementary aspect to many branches of capabilities she can actualize with a result after process activation, hence 'active skill'. Gene Fractioning is one of them.
Commenced the fractionation of 'Tungsten Muscle Coating'.
Two passive skill's schematics were dissected.
'Muscle Material Coating' schematic acquired.
'Tungsten Production' schematic acquired.
MF frowned in disgust. "The 'Muscle Material Coating' is garbage, adding any kinds of layers upon the muscle tissues will restrict not only my choices, but also my sanity."
As if she had any sanity.
"Exactly."
Don't break the fourth wall!
After many millennia of solitary lifestyle, she began to develop a habit of talking to herself, and also the mindset of imaginary self-awareness that she was being narrated in a story, which was really perplexing for any author who tried to link her existence into the quills of the right page.
Bland in both gaze and taste, she curled her lips in the effort of commencing the crucial part. "Time for premature testing, I guess."
By using the late knowledge from the past, she placed her left hand upon a carcass of the beast she hunted. Utilizing the new cryptic skill of 'Tungsten Production' which is just a plain single path from alchemy. She then converted the organic material into a surplus of energy before she tried to produce the dense metal beneath her wrist.
The concentration process from the tungsten resulted in severe oxidation on MF's skin. Together with the toxic alchemical process, the skin tissues began to melt into gooey liquid horror where there is a big chunk of skin absent on her right arm.
Despite having her body modified many times, she doesn't change the fundamental aspect of her creator's blessings.
Pain, she didn't remove any of her pain receptors at all, the surge of electrifying and mind-crushing waves from the wound had occupied 80% of her sensory perception.
Sneering smile widened with the teeth pressed by the jaws hard enough to crush her own skull if she was a normal human. The spark of determination was still there, MF only smiled away the pain as she took it. "As many times as I did this, it's still too much."
The agonizing forging took three hours to finish.
By using the 'muscle material coating' as the reference, she developed a new path of codings to encapsulate the muscle tissues with contracting tungsten steel-like material of nano contraption akin to a real muscle. After she finished with the wrist's muscle, she began her unorthodox physical cultivation as her entire being was molded into steel.
With the motoric action can be conceptualized more easily than before, she had acquired the first passive ability that tremendously enhanced her winning probability in a fight!
'Tungsten Muscle' passive skill acquired.
A passive skill is a referral to a non-managed augmentation, implant, or even continuous ability that she needs to remove to disable its effect. A passive implementation, hence the name, 'passive skill'.
"Cowards die a thousand times, hero's made of wood. A god of war to do a thing, a person never could." Her mind was filled with an ambrosia of strength, her current state of body looked more like an abomination with black-steel muscles with no skins, and her inside was barely melting. With the smell of cobalt encapsulating the swamp, there was no other perception other than the rust of metal if someone happened to be near the place where it unfolded.
The only thing that was keeping her alive was pure determination as she held her whole body intact using the consciousness strings.
It took another three hours for her to regenerate her exterior beyond the muscle tissues anew, while the vicinity was corrupted with every lifeforce being sucked by the terrifying existence who strived for power. Nevertheless, she was slender and beautiful with her fair skin on.
Perfect sized bosom, not too small and not too big, then again, she can shape it as her will depending on her target, together with a hip large enough to entice the magnum of men—it seems like her appearance had been fully restored.
"Hnnn~ aahh~ such a wonderful time to be alive." MF played with her fingers, her tongue craved for specimens to test her new height into the power level akin to those pesky Usurpers.
Her physical vessel became heavier, which is both good and bad things. Although having a Tungsten-hard muscle means strength and resistance, utilizing them requires great energy.
Unlike those cultivators, her body is the equivalent of impurities, especially from the very start of her fingers that touched Calamity's heart. A path nobody ever ventured before.
"I have two other new schematics to experiment, but my hunger was out of bound." She slouched as her stomps left a deep footprint onto the wet soil, tired, her stomach grumbles more despite the saved energy.
Passive skill, 'Energy Accumulation'—was a complex mechanism within her body that allowed her to store physical energy endlessly. For simplification, this also included a manageable metabolism and the condensation of calorie into the cells.
Six months worth of energy was used for the pseudo metamorphosis. Although she still had one month worth of energy left within her body, she needs to resupply it with something nutritious.
"It takes a while to get used to this muscle contraction."
After mindlessly trekking, MF encountered a B-rank Calamity. A humanoid cladded in armor and large mane, stood two times taller than the girl with a firm flaming axe on its grip. Kaleya, an ogre-like pure Calamity who already ventured the 'Longing Evermore' before even MF set her feet upon the swamp biome.
Unlike before when she tried to avoid this rank of monstrosity at all cost, now her face was filled with euphoric excitement of how much she can go beyond her usual limit.
"It's time for me to declare the true owner of this place—oh my ugly beast, where is your visa?"