Caleb knew exactly what he was doing as his hands moved rapidly to edit, add or remove something from a sequence.
He focused on physical enhancements at the moment as he had no idea clue about how magic worked in this new world.
After half an hour of playing around with his genome, Caleb had come up with many changes that would explosively enhance his body in all aspects.
From sight, smell, hearing and reflexes, Caleb did it all.
He let out a sigh as he gazed at the work that was listed before him. When he was manipulating his genes to turn himself into a superhuman, there were some changes that blinked red when not applicable.
Activating some dormant genes in the wrong place could mess up his entire being, so he was careful where to make the changes.
"Even in this world, the introns look the same,"
He muttered, reading through the changes he had designed.
[Enhanced strength]
[Speed]
[Reflex]
[Sight… Smell… Hearing….]
[Core expansion]
These were a few of the changes he prepared to apply to himself.
'Power like this could have changed Earth's understanding of genomics. Sadly, I'm no longer there.
"G-system, make a numerical representation list of my body's physicals on a 100-point scale and compare it to how different it would be when I apply the changes I've created."
He instructed and the system prompted generated his response. He grinned in appreciation, liking how fast the system processed and did everything. There was almost no waiting time.
[Physical stats before]
[Strength: 67 units]
[Speed: 73 units]
[Stamina: 56 units]
[Perception: 50 units]
[Intelligence: 99 units]
'Hmm… the intelligence is the only thing that is high. Probably because of me.' He noted the values and saw how low most of the stats were.
It was like the being was a total weakling. Of course, this level of skewness was probably due to being exposed to overpowered characters in animes and novels.
Then he shifted his gaze to the side where the changes he wanted to apply were displayed.
[Physical stats after]
[Strength: 100 units]
[Speed: 100 units]
[Stamina: 100 units]
[Perception: 100 units]
[Intelligence: 100 units]
A slight smile appeared on his lips, but then he thought of another issue.
'Is it capped at 100 because I proposed a 100-limit parameter?' He wondered and decided to see if the values would change.
"Remove the 100-limit parameter set initially…"
Only then did the real magic happen, broadening the smile on his face like a lit-up Christmas tree.
[Strength: 350--- units]
[Speed: 345--- units]
[Stamina: 400---units]
[Perception: 600--- units] ~ [To evolve into Domain Sense]
[Intelligence: 1000--- units]
These values were only based on a system he just made up. But the results were very pleasant.
"I have cooked. I have cooked!"
He laughed loudly with spread-out arms, feeling elated like never before.
"Finally! It's just to become overpowered!"
After several seconds of maniacal laughter, Calen regained much of his composure before focusing on the interface before him.
"Huu... G-system, apply the changes."
He commanded without further delays. But then a prompt came up, making him raise his brow in question.
[All at once?]
[Y/N]
"What do you mean 'All at once?'? Is there like a limitation on how many changes I can make to my genome at once?"
There was no response as the prompt continued to stare at him in the face.
He understood very well the consequences of messing with the genome of an organism on a large scale as any slip-up, a change from adenine to cytosine in a location that shouldn't be touched could be the difference between godhood and genomic instability.
That was why he went over everything with a simulation multiple times to check for any instability that the changes might bring.
'Maybe I should do it one at a time.'
He just died and had no wish to die again anytime soon. Being fearful wasn't cowardice when it was the difference between making a foolish choice that could claim your life or save it.
He pressed the NO option and the prompt disappeared with the return of his created list.
"Okay then. Let's take it one at a time and see why the system did what it did."
He chose the strength for his first [Adaptive Mutation] and the moment he did, he felt a mysterious energy travel through his body making him moan in delight.
The feeling was pleasant and unexpected. He closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation with open arms when the real deal reared its head.
Suddenly, Caleb was assaulted with an agonizing pain that instantly made him collapse on the ground.
"Ahh…!"
He screamed in pain as the blinding pain travelled through his body like bladed weapons replaced the blood flow in his body.
He felt his tissues, muscles and bones break down as they were rebuilt at a rapid pace.
Caleb's body shuddered continuously as the shock eventually took his ability to even cry out. After 3 minutes of agonizing torture, the pain subsided and was replaced by the same euphoric feeling he experienced earlier.
But Caleb was in no condition to feel its effect. His body trembled from time to time with sweat all over his body, wetting the rags he called a shirt.
For at least another 15 minutes, Caleb remained on the ground with the occasional shuddering of his body. His body curled up in a fetal position as he eventually recollected himself.
'In all my life, I've never felt such agonizing pain!
'No wonder the system warned me about applying all the changes at once. I would be dead if I ignored its warning!'
The thought sent another wave of chill down his cold and sweaty back. Slowly, he sat up and called back the system interface.
[Strength: 360 units]
He sighed in relief seeing the change in his strength stat as well as feel the strength in his body.
Caleb inspected his raised hand in wonder, clenching and unclenching it to feel the power within.
'It really worked…'
He gulped and then looked at the rest of the adaptive mutations he had prepared. For a moment, his eyes trembled but were quickly replaced with a determined light.
'Nothing worth having comes cheap. There's a reason the saying goes: No pain, no gain.'
Caleb sat cross-legged with renewed determination. Even with the remnants of pain he could feel from the strengthening effect, he still chose to continue.
It was going to be a painful experience, but Caleb knew that at the end of it all, he was going to come out reborn and a force this world had never seen before.
With a deep breath, he muttered.
"Let's finish this…"