Sarah woke up and had to cough for a few minutes. She had to cough so hard, that she nearly passed out again. While clinging to her consciousness, she tried to calm her breathing.

 

After some minutes, she managed to do it, and was able to concentrate on her situation. With horror, she noticed that she still couldn’t see, apart from the various system prompts. The rest of her body felt pretty sore, and her stomach still felt horrible. But apart from that, it could have been worse.

 

To avoid thinking about her lost eyesight, she concentrated on the system prompt. She was hoping for anything that could help her in this situation.

 

 

<Various poisons and acids could be integrated into your ability "Poison Body." A new sub-ability, "Walking Hazard," has been created.

 

The sub-ability "Poison resistance" has been strengthened and upgraded to "Poison and acid resistance".

 

Achievement "Poison gorger" has been obtained.

 

Due to overcoming a near-death situation, your Life Force has increased by 1.

 

Level up.>

 

 

"Shit." She muttered. There was nothing that could help her eyes. She went on and looked at her status screen.

 

 

Details:

 

Level: 3 Name: Sarah Anna Fischer

 

Class: None Race: Human

 

Status: Blind, injured (Strength reduced by 10%, dexterity reduced by 50%)

 

HP: 10/60 SP: 25/30 MP: 10/30

 

Achievements:

Affinities:

 

Mind (Mid) Body (Mid) Energy (Low)

 

Specialisations:

 

Mind (0/2) Body (2/2) Energy (0/1)

 

Poison Body Mutation

 

Basic Stats:

 

Strength: 4 Dexterity: 11 Endurance: 4

 

Resistance: 3 Intelligence: 20 Force: 1

 

Special Stats:

 

Magic Power: 3 Life Force: 3

 

Active Skills:

 

None

 

Passive Skills:

 

Poison Body (Adaption)

 

Metamorphosis (Mutation)

Struggle (Conditional passive)

 

Slightly crazy

 

Mean eye

 

It was pretty shocking to see that she was really blind now. And it didn’t seem like a temporary kind of thing. But she still had hope. She had leveled up, and her Life Force was now one point higher. That meant that she could mutate again.

 

‘Show me the list of available eye mutations.’ She mentally commanded the system.

 

<Mutations on the sensory organs are not recommended. Proceed?>

 

Without even having to formulate a yes in her mind, she was shown a list of possible eye mutations.

 

<Mutation: Sensory Organ "Eyes". Listing available options:

For more options, increase your level and/or heighten your Life Force>

 

 

She was immensely happy, that her blindness didn’t affect her mutation choices. She was half worried that, with her being blind, it wouldn’t be possible anymore.

 

She wondered what the exact difference between the "Vision" and "Eyes" mutations could be. Would the vision mutations change her eyes, or her brain? She wasn’t quite sure how it would work. In any case, it was quite possible, that the "eyes" mutations would change the basic structure of her eyes. Therefore, it could heal her blindness by restructuring her eyes and forming new ones. Just like with the wounds on her legs.

 

But seriously, what the hell was the illusion vision for? Was this the system telling her, that she could just lay around? Living in a self-created illusion instead of facing reality? Was this some kind of sick joke?

 

Tired of thinking about the weird sense of humor the system sometimes seemed to have, she focused on what she would do.

 

Because she didn’t want to spend both of her free Life Force points, she decided to choose the "Predators eyes". They seemed the most useful. Especially in an environment where many beings camouflage themselves. She hoped that with these eyes, she could spot poisonous animals and insects, before coming near them.

 

As always, the system knew what she wanted. This time, it didn’t even ask for affirmation. Maybe it was able to learn.

 

Luckily, the pain wasn’t as bad this time. Maybe because her eyes were already destroyed by the poison.

 

When the transformation stopped, it was surprisingly unsettling to be able to see again. She gagged and tried to suppress the influx of information her newly mutated eyes gave her. It felt like her brain wasn’t made to accommodate that much visual information. And it also seemed to be night. She didn’t want to know how it would be during the day.

 

When she pressed her eyelids together, the nauseating feeling somewhat subsided. Now she could only see through a tiny slit, but it was better than the nausea. This seemed to need some getting used to.

 

"At least I can see again." She mumbled to herself and made herself comfortable on the dirty ground. By now, she was very dirty and had passed out a lot in the mud. She didn’t really care anymore about staying clean or whatever.

 

The change in her mindset happened surprisingly fast. In the end, one of the most outstanding abilities of humans seemed to be their adaptability.

 

With a sigh, she stood up. Being a bit disoriented with her new eyes, she stumbled around, looking for the spot where she drank water. She definitely needed some fluids right now. Her body felt as parched as if she had been lying in the sun for a whole day without drinking anything.

 

She didn’t find the same spot again, but at some point she toppled over, splashing in some muddy water. She quickly scrambled out onto more or less stable ground and checked her body over. She really didn't want some kind of leech sucking on her blood again. But to her surprise, there was nothing. She more or less expected by now that every mistake she made would cost her dearly.

 

With some reluctance, she kneeled down. Then she started scooping up the disgusting water full of bacteria, parasites, and who knows what else.

 

It had a seriously horrible taste. But she was so thirsty that she thought about plunging her head into the water and drinking like an animal. But she had already seen one of the disgusting denizens of the swamp, so no thanks. She didn’t want a leech stuck in her face or, even worse, her mouth.

 

She shoveled water into her mouth as fast as she could for a few minutes until she felt full again. Afterwards, she spat out the bits and pieces of dirt and other stuff that she had in her mouth because of the water.

 

After she finished, she sat down with a sigh and waited for the potential system prompt. But nothing happened. It seemed that her resistances were so strong by now that it wasn’t even worth mentioning what she just consumed.

 

With a happy smile, she patted her stomach. It was now a toxic and acidic death trap for anything that wanted a piece of her. "Who is a good stomach." She mumbled while still patting her stomach.

 

While doing so, she summoned up her status window and was relieved to see that her status seemed to have improved.

 

Status: Injured (Strength reduced by 10%)

 

HP: 20/60 SP: 30/30 MP: 15/30

 

Her HP, SP, and MP seemed to restore themselves again, even though she didn’t know why her MP was drained. Some abilities and mutations seemed to need MP, but until now she never used it. Well, she also had no idea how to use Magic Power anyway.

 

It was also nice to see, that she leveled up again. This seemed to add Magic Power, Life Force and some improvement to her HP, SP, and MP. She was a bit disappointed to see that her basic stats didn’t increase at all. It would be really useful in this situation to be stronger or smarter.

 

She also noticed that her level seemed to increase every time she made some progress with her abilities.

 

"How nice." She said in a dry voice. "I need to mutate and poison myself to level up, huh? Are you some kind of pervert, getting one while seeing me suffer?" She asked into the empty air, but as always, when she spouted nonsense like this, the system didn’t answer.

 

Feeling a bit better after insulting the system, she thought about what to do now.

 

She had to survive and get stronger and more resistant. She didn’t know whether she would have to swim through some parts of the swamp. And she didn’t trust her dense skin enough to risk something like this. Even worse, she didn’t know if there were insects or snakes in this swamp that could overcome her poison resistance.

 

For now, she would concentrate on consuming poisonous stuff and drinking this disgusting water. All of this was to improve her poison resistance. Maybe she could level up again and improve her mutations. Who knows, maybe she could just make herself some super muscles. Then she would swing around in the treetops like some weird, naked ape. Maybe, like this, she could find a way outside.

 

With a firm resolution, she stood up and started gorging some plants down her throat.

 

Trying not to think too much about what she was doing, she repeatedly ate random plants and drank some water. She waited afterwards for some time until she could feel that the poison she consumed had subsided.

 

At one point, she even ate something that temporarily paralyzed her. For a few horrible minutes, she lay on the ground, afraid of having eaten the wrong plant. Luckily, she could also subdue this poison. And she even got a system prompt, that her resistance got strengthened.

 

Like this, the day went by. When the light started to fade, she stumbled to the clearing and let herself slump down into the grass. She felt bloated and gross from eating so much stuff that humans really shouldn’t eat.

 

As she lay on the ground, she watched the small part of the sky she could see get darker and darker, until the first stars could be seen. As the evening progressed and the night set in, the sky was practically flooded with stars. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

 

"I must be really crazy," she mumbled to herself. "Here I am, in danger of dying and having almost died a few times in a short while. But why the hell am I enjoying this shit?" Even though she thought she had to be kind of disturbed, for some reason she wasn’t. She enjoyed progressing in level, getting stronger through mutation and her poison resistance.

 

"The taste is really horrible, though." She mumbled, "But I guess one can not have everything."

 

With a relaxed smile, she watched the beautiful night sky and fell into a deep slumber.