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I clicked the preview option on the Nephilim just to see what it was like to shift my race. Every pore on my skin instantly tingled. My flesh turned to liquid as it transformed. It didn't hurt; instead, it just felt like thousands of ants were crawling under my skin, pulling it to a new location. The sounds of my bones breaking filled the room as I grew taller. Yet that too didn't feel unpleasant. Eventually, I fell to my knees as my body was knocked off balance as the transformation came to an end.

I took a deep breath, and I could feel the strength that coursed through my veins. My eyesight was sharper, and I felt lean. But most of all, I could feel four wings on my back. I contracted the muscles around them, gave them a tentative flap, and grinned as they responded to me. Once I was satisfied with that, I looked over myself to get a feel for this form. If I didn't find a form that I liked, I would stay with this one.

The muscles in my arms were prominent, much like thick cords. From the tips of my fingers were short claws that shimmered dangerously in the light. Ah yes, I really did like this form. It made me feel as if I were invincible. I made a quick gesture and brought up my preview screen to get a birds eye view of what I looked like. Really, I still looked like I did as a human, just a Nephilim. I was really falling in love with how I looked. It was like staring into the face of an apex predator.

But, that was enough looking for now, lest I do something dumb and save this choice. I dismissed all the racial templates since I was done with them. I had three to start for now, but I wanted to see what else I can do.

The blue screen blinked at me incessantly, causing me to grow slightly annoyed. It was probably a good thing that I didn't choose a system that had this. It made me feel rushed and like I didn't have a choice in the matter. Thankfully, I would only have to deal with it occasionally after this point. At least it organized everything I had to do like a list. That would come in handy, I guess.

Anyway, I will finish my racial change here soon. I wanted to see what races I could work with and limit how many I could choose or make. I did some digging and found the menu and the counter. It said at my level, I could only have a maximum of five more races. So a grand total of eight to start? I wonder if that counts as races I design. What if races evolved naturally? I had questions that needed answers. Maybe after I gather my races and finish my racial change, I would create my companion, so at least I could move forward with more knowledge.

Now that I was in the races tab let's see what was available to me, especially with that boom that Malek gave me. As I was looking through, I found I had access to hundreds of thousands of different races. Looks like I would have to see if I could filter out choices and see what I can find. But first things first, I wanted humanity since they were what I was most comfortable with. I typed it in and quickly found their racial template and saved it.

Once it was saved, I scrolled through the list, trying to find something that I liked. From what I could tell, there was a species for just about anything that you can imagine. But I should narrow my list down so I don't waste time looking through every race imaginable. Let's just stick with the humanoid ones for now and go from there since that is what I am comfortable with.

I cracked my fingers as I shifted back and looked through what I gathered. So far, I have the Humans, Dark Elves, Dragon Kin, Goblins, and a monstrous race called the Arachne. Each of them was unique in a certain way that I think would be beneficial. The humans had an affinity for all magic and could quickly adapt to their environments. Physically, they were weaker than most of the races I had but made up for it in technological and magical affinity.

The Dark Elves held an affinity for only two types of magic. Which was dark and fire magic. They were slightly more robust than humans and seemed to prefer stealth and subterfuge over direct engagements. From what their overviews told me, they were excellent craft workers, as well as powerful mages. They lived rather long lives and were slightly impotent. They had dark flesh, with pointed ears and ruby red eyes. I would describe them as unnervingly beautiful.

The Dragon Kin was, well, the closest thing I could find to dragons. Physically, they are the strongest of the races within my templates. Though they weren't all that large, maybe just a few feet taller than humans. Really, I would describe them as giant bipedal lizards that were a hybrid between lizards, dragons, and humans. Glinted scales, and mashed faces, with horns that would stretch from their heads. They had built-in magic that was unlike anything else. It seemed to be innate magic that used voice and seemed to change based on the user. Reading through their overview, various subraces seemed to use a specific type. For example, the red dragonkin used flames and seemed to be the most common. Other variants like white and blue used water and air, but they seemed to be rare. There was also black dragonkin and yellow, well, really all colors of the spectrum.

The Goblins looked like humans but had a more inhuman touch, but they were still close enough to humans to pass as one. The average build seemed on par with a human in strength. They had a weaker magical affinity, yet they had a technology affinity that was slightly better than the humans. Not so much to make the humans obsolete, but enough to make a slight twist on things.

The last race I found was the Arachne. They were a unique race that was explicitly made by human and spider genes. They were masters at poison usage, subterfuge, with poison magic affinities. The best part about them was that they have various subtypes and variants. Some were giant spiders, while others were humans that were half spiders. There were even some primarily human variants with some spider parts and some that were borderline totally human. It would make things interesting in the future, I would think.

Overall I was pretty happy with the races that I had. I felt like I had some variety. All the racial templates also came with unique monster variants that would help stimulate their growth. I needed to use them to their maximum potential to help push them forward. All that was left was just finding one last race or making my own. But I should just go through the list once more and see if I can find something that I liked enough to use.

After going through the list, I found something that drew my eye. It was a strange space-like being that didn't seem to have a set form. It was just a strange conglomeration of gasses that somehow managed to be sentient. Even its genetic makeup seemed to be all over the place. I went through its overview and saw that it was named a star wanderer. It fed off various gases and sometimes stars. They were primarily docile as they floated from star system to star system. But as I stared at it, I grew curious. What if I merged it with one of my templates? But the question is, which?

I thought it over for a bit before I decided on merging it with the Nephilim template. There were still a few kinks that I wanted to work out, so hopefully, this would be the push it needed. The other templates all seemed okay, and if the Nephilim template failed, I would mess around a bit and see what I can do.

I brought two screens over and worked on tying together the genetic code, which, much to my surprise, was easier to work with. It was still significantly challenging to do it. I rolled my neck and cracked my fingers. Well, it was time to settle in and get to work. This was going to take a while.

After what felt like a lifetime of mixing and merging, I finally created a masterpiece. The preview only had one gender, and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Its skin was the color of the universe, with small clouds of gasses that seemed to float just beneath its skin. Tiny specks of light blinked across its flesh in rhythmic intervals. Attached to its back were four wings. Each feather was crafted from solidified gasses that seemed to leave a trail behind them. Two brilliant orbs of fire seemed to act as its eyes, and a halo of violet light sat floating above its head.

Without a second thought, I saved it, and a notification appeared on my screen. Looking it over, it was tough to determine if it was male or female. The overall shape seemed to be a mixture of both, but it's not like that mattered to me. I was absolutely enthralled by this template.

This is a unique template. Would you like to name it?

The screen blinked as it waited for my input. What would I name it? I mean, it is a derivative of the Nephilim, so it would have to have that in the name. I stared at the preview of the template, quickly shuffling through various ideas until I decided I wanted to call them the Celestial Nephilim. It was short, sweet, and to the point.

I quickly typed that into the box and confirmed it. The screen flickered for a second before it vanished. Now, it was time to try out the new template, and if I liked it, I would use it as my race. If not, then I would try again until I found something that I liked.