Chereads / Birth to a New Earth / Chapter 2 - Powering Up

Chapter 2 - Powering Up

I woke up with the feeling that I was driving. Someone dumped water on me to wake up. My vision was blurred but I could tell it was a woman. She was shorter than me and very skinny like she had not been eating properly. Her lips were moving but I could not hear what she was saying. I was still dazed from the fall. After a minute or so I finally gained my hearing and vision back. I tried standing but my arms and legs were locked into the ground from the impact. The woman asked if I was okay and as I look down I said I think. She helped me out of the ground and offered to let me into her house. There was an actual house down in this deep hole. I asked how she survives down here and she says she just gets by but she is running out of food. I could tell she was not eating properly because of the way her body looked. I then asked if there were any others. To my surprise, I was the first human that she had seen since she had woken up. She asked if I wanted to stay to which I agreed because I did not have anywhere else to go. She questioned how I survived and I just told her my body had evolved while I was asleep. I couldn't fully trust her since I just met her. I did help her get an easier way in and out of the hole she was basically trapped in. The only benefit is it protected her from the monsters. We had to sacrifice some of this protection to get more food. I made a makeshift spiral staircase that would make it easier to get up and down only issue is it took ages. By the time it was finished 2 weeks had passed but we had made getting food easier. Another main issue was the rain. It would flood the hole. She had the idea of making a hanging base. I suggested we make a floating one. Hypothetically if it was a bad flood and the hole completely filled up out base would simple float to the type and stay afloat. It would mean rebuilding the base but I'm no longer a normal human. While destroy countless trees to get the wood for the new base I figured that I am not just stronger muscle wise but I'm subconsciously enhancing my body to be stronger. Just like with working out, the more I do it the stronger I get. At the start of punching trees I would take 15-20 hits for it to fall over. But over time that gradually decreased to 2-5 because I developed a technique aswell as I was getting stronger. I also began to wonder about something else. I should have scars or cuts from the things I've been through but I didn't have a single blemish. I would have assumed it was fast regeneration but it's most likely me subconsciously healing myself somehow. I needed to master these 2 things. I started punching rocks. I have to admit it hurt like hell but it was actually showing progress. The toughness of the skin on my hands increased as well as the force when I punched. I also went on long runs to learn the layout of the land I was in. I was strengthening my legs while doing so increase my speed and jump height. I also had to strengthen my mind to keep up with processing everything. While I was running around I found another one of those strange fruits. This one smelled sweet and bitter but it still looks juicy. I didn't know if I could eat more then one or what would happen if I did. Worst case scenario is a die. I still didn't really have anything to live for so I just accepted it and chowed down. I finished the fruit and nothing happened. Not pain or anything like the first time. Well it was a slightly warm feeling in my body. A feeling a can't explain. I just shrugged it of and assumed I wouldn't get stronger by eating more of them but they are a good food source. While thinking of things I could enhance my body I thought about my eyes. Being able to see far would come in handy for recon and allowing my eyes to keep up in combat. I climbed a near tree and tried enhancing my eyes. I could see miles away but after 5 seconds blood started dripping from my eyes. It hurt badly but it wasn't as bad as the first time I ate the fruit. The fruit that still didn't have a name. While I was in the trees I got hit with a rock in the back of my head. The hit was strong and caused me to loss balance and fall out of the tree. It was another human but he wasn't so friendly. Immediately after I stood back up he attacked. It seemed he was enhanced as well. It was high speed hand to hand combat. He seemed stronger then me but slower. He swung a upper cut that I narrowly dodged. Even though I dodged it the shock wave did damage to my body. It wasn't a lot but I could tell if he landed a hit I'd be in serious trouble. Out of anger and frustration I swung a wild left hook and it looked as if I was going to miss but then I got that warm feeling again. From when I ate the second fruit. Right as my fist narrowly missed my hand seemed to burst into flames. It didn't no damage to me but the heat alone scorched his face and managed to blind him in one eye.