After a long hour of agonizing pain and tears, Caleb lay on his back near the flowing river with heavy breaths.
However, the smile on his face could not be missed. He had done it and applied all the [Adaptive Mutations] he made.
He could feel his body had changed on a fundamental level. Even his body had gained a few added mass as his muscles had become more defined and robust.
Strength literally flowed through his body.
Slowly he stood up and went to wash his body once again while checking on his new stats.
[Strength: 355 units]
[Speed: 350 units]
[Stamina: 405 units]
[Domain Sense: 500-meter radius]
[Intelligence: 1000 units]
A quick wash later, Caleb remained standing in the river with a pondering look. He felt like testing his newfound strength.
His right hand dipped inside the river as he swirled the water around before abruptly swiping out.
*WHOOM!*
Like an energy blast that skimmed the surface of the river, a long trench was formed, splitting the river into two and extending for an effective distance of 50 meters.
It resulted in a new channel that the river water rushed into and then came to a crushing halt after reaching the end of the trench.
"Whoa… That is sick."
He muttered and stared at his hand like a new toy. He was in disbelief as what he just did was something he could only dream about just a few hours ago!
He didn't even go all out and this was the result.
Pleased with his test, he came out of the river and stared at his clothes.
"I can't keep wearing this…"
His stomach also released a loud growl, complaining for its due.
"And now hunger is part of the list."
But clothes first, food can come later after he found a town or something.
"If only he had a spare lying around."
But then he recalled he had a storage space in the system.
"G-system, open my storage space."
A screen popped before him as the storage space was displayed to him and as luck would have it, he had clothes inside.
"Haha… This must be my lucky day."
He checked out all the clothes he had and noticed they all had a resemblance to those on Earth with a few changes.
The clothes were put in inventory-like boxes to separate each set from the other. Some had weapons within. It was an entire store that doubled as a storage space,
Then, there were sections that were greyed out despite having what appeared to be clothes, weapons or something he didn't recognize.
"How do I access the locked items?"
[Take suggested quests and win items]
It was straightforward and needed no further explanation. Since there were no quests at the moment, he guessed they would appear when needed.
Putting that aside, he chose a set of clothes to his liking; a typical black shirt with a black trench coat.
"Mm, this is nice." He nodded in satisfaction before turning to look at his surroundings.
"Now where do I go from here." He began moving away from the riverside as he searched for anything that might provide a clue like a trodden path or something.
However, after searching for a few meters around the riverside, he came up with nothing.
'Wait, why am I looking around when I have a system with a whole lot of cool features?' He chided himself for being stupid.
"System. Bring up your functions again."
It complied and a status window appeared with the functions it revealed to him earlier.
"HUD and Areal scan should do the trick."
He muttered and chose the two options.
Following his choice, the window disappeared for a moment and integrated with his new and improved eyesight, making the blue of his eyes more prominent.
The HUD brought up a whole new field of view with a list of his stats in the corner, storage space, and a small circular map that had a point indicating his real-time location along with other small details.
Anything his gaze focused on, the HUD would identify and name for him. It was like his own camera lens he could use to identify objects.
'With the HUD, I don't have to see the system window like a screen in front of me.'
"Scan the area."
[Effective range of scan: 250-meter radius.]
The system prompted instead of doing what Caleb instructed. But this was quickly followed by a suggestion from the system.
[Host should fuse Domain Sense with Areal Scan to increase range.]
"Oh, okay. I don't even know how to use my own abilities," he chuckled at his reality.
But he could not be blamed as he had just transmigrated. There was no way he would know everything about his newfound abilities.
He closed his eyes and imagined himself spreading his awareness outward as moments later, an invisible pulse that was almost indetectable spread out from him.
Everywhere the pulse passed, Caleb could see like he was right there and the level of details he spotted put the microscope to shame.
He saw a variety of plants, animals and insects he had never come across before, yet all that was but a minor detail the appraisal function couldn't solve.
His mind absorbed all the new knowledge the scan generated on the fly.
'Tsk. It only loses to the electron microscope. But I have a feeling it wouldn't stay that way for long.'
There was still more to learn about his system and its capabilities.
Caleb's jaw remained lunging as his Domain Sense covered more and more distance until it reached its 500-meter radius limit.
"Mm, this feeling of power is incredible. It can definitely corrupt."
Having to experience what having power at your fingertips felt like, he understood what the saying meant.
Shortly after, the system did its thing and found a path that led out of the forest.
"Bingo," he muttered with a small grin and bolted from his spot with a loud boom that shattered the ground.
He zoomed past the trees, bushes and animals as his figure became a blur the creatures couldn't even spot. They could only raise their heads to look around and when they spotted nothing, returned to whatever they were doing.
After several seconds, he reached the edge of the forest where a clear footpath led out.
Yet that was not what caught his attention, but the walled town a few kilometres away from where he stood.
"Finally," he smiled. "Hang in there, buddy; I'm going to get you something real soon." He rubbed his stomach to calm the little guy.