I wiped a bead of sweat from between my brows, sighing deeply as I held the last fusing plank in place for the outhouse. Then, I walked to the side where a polished oak stable stood, with a cup of refreshing cold water on it, downing it in one gulp.

  'Ah, cool water after some hard work is really refreshing; it totally hits the spot.'

  After that, I edited the sweat off me, my clothes, and made myself clean, casting one final glance at the outhouse as a sudden idea struck me.

  'Should I or should I not add a Firewood torch inside it?'

  Having a Firewood torch outside would provide a great deal of limitation, but it would stick out like a beam of bright light in the dark. The alley I currently call home was a dark, cold, and cramped place; perfect for concealing a hidden base. If I were to light up the place now, even though the place was far from any known habitable place, it was best to be on the safe side of things.

  'Who knows, one day somebody might be passing by, see the light, get curious, and before you know it, everyone knows about my little man cave.'

  'Can't have that, can't have that at all.'

  I'll just place it within, and modify it to be like the one within the house; bright, controllable, and produce zero smoke, or burn the wood above it.

  'Simple, neat, and efficient; just my style.'

  After thoroughly cleaning up the site, I went inside and poured myself another cup of water, and took out a portion of jerky from my loaded food chest and simply ate until I felt full. After that, I began formulating my plan to join, or rather, rejoin the Movematch gang.

  The first question on my mind was naturally if anyone would notice me, because, if they did, the entire operation might veer off course, into a direction I couldn't control. If they began suspecting me after discovering that I had zero knowledge of this world, things would become complicated. But, if I could somehow discreetly gather the relevant information under a different persona, then join the gang with the identity of my body, things would be significantly smoother.

  Hmm, who says I have to be low-key, either? One identity could be high profile but secretive, while the other could be active and low-key.

  'I like it, but, it can be even better; make an organization with a high-key identity, use it to gather information, resources, and anything useful, and then feed it back into the low-key identity.'

  But, creating an organization from scratch in the lowest rugs of the world was both easy and impossibly hard; easy because of the lack of laws and regulations, and impossibly hard because if one didn't have the means to protect what they had built up, they'd be devoured by the very people who helped them, or larger powers.

  But the most important resource for me was information; I needed to know how to run an organization, how to start one, and how to select the right people.

  ‘Regardless of how one looks at it; the most efficient way is to remain low-key at first, gather up the relevant information, and resources. Then, after triple checking everything, establish the organization and grow it.'

  One of the reasons I was so adamant about making such an organization was the fact that one's persons effort, time, and understanding was limited, and I was by no means a genius when it came to anything; I was just a lad, one who happened to have a cheat I'm entirely reliant on. With an organization behind me with actual smart people, and vast, intricate connections, things would become significantly easier going forward.

  'Low-key identity first, then.'

  I didn't plan on going to such a dangerous place unprepared, though. So, I emptied the bone section of my medium treasure chest, and transformed the entire pile into a type of new bone for an idea I had in mind.

  [Highly Mutated Flexible Rat Bone:

  A super comfortable, flexible, and absurdly tough type of bone born of a rare highly mutagenic process. Extremely dense and paradoxically light, flexible, durable, tough, scentless, and odorless; a walking paradoxical mixed bag.]

  [Skill: View Information (3) > View Information (4)]

  [Skill: Edit Information (3) > Edit Information (4)]

  A very pleased and satisfied smile printed itself on my face; this was my most impressive creation yet, and with the new skill levels, I could probably make it a little bit better.

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  [Highly Mutated Flexible Rat Bone:

  A super comfortable, flexible, and absurdly tough type of bone born of a rare highly mutagenic process. Extremely dense and paradoxically light, flexible, durable, tough, scentless, high force dissipation properties and is completely odorless; a walking paradoxical mixed bag.]

  The smile on my face somehow became even wider, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear; this was the perfect material for making armor. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I sprang into action the next instant.

  'Should I upgrade my current outfit with this, or make a separate set to fit underneath what I'm wearing? Upgrading made more sense, to be honest.'

  'Why not a mix of both? Why limit myself with one method of making things, as they say, children pick and choose, adults get to take home everything!'

  If I fuse, it'll save more materials; the way my power worked was simply out of my mind. Shouldn't it logically take more to fuse rather than create? But, then again, my cheat dealt with pure information, and rarely moved alongside with logic. I took a piece of bone, specifically a piece of upgraded tailbone, took off my common serf robe, placed the two together, and edited them so that they'd fuse, mixing the properties of both to create a superior piece.

  [Bone Infused Serf Robe:

  A serf robe made from primarily highly mutated flexible rat bones, mutated ratskin, and flexible wood. These materials grant it the following traits:

  Temperature regulation

  Cut, stab, tear, and force resistance.

  Extreme flexibility

  Extreme lightness

  Extreme durability

  Force redistribution]

  Holy good traits!

  This turned out much better than I expected, way better than I expected, actually; the fusion was a resounding success and went beyond anything I had hoped for. With this robe, I didn't have to worry about a lot of things, but there are some things that can still be added, like myriad river water resistance, acid resistance, heat, and filth resistance. I'm almost certain I'll encounter these things eventually, so it was good to be fully prepared.

  [Bone Infused Serf Robe:

  A serf robe made from primarily highly mutated flexible rat bones, mutated ratskin, and flexible wood. These materials grant it the following traits:

  Temperature regulation

  Cut, stab, tear, and force resistance.

  Extreme flexibility

  Extreme lightness

  Extreme durability

  Force redistribution

  Myriad River Water resistance

  Acid resistance

  Heat resistance

  Filth resistance]

  Much better, significantly better, actually.

  And you know what was the best part? It doesn't look any different from an ordinary common serf robe, which suited my needs perfectly; I did not want to stand out, at least not quite yet.

  Up next were the boots, which I had a lot of plans for; they had to be self-cleaning, comfortable, warm, and provide extra running speed, at least. I didn't know if I could grant them the ability to grant me extra running speed with the level of my skill, but I was going to try regardless. So, I took them off, and first inspected them.

  [Common Serf Boots:

  A pair of common serf boots, made from slightly mutated rat beast flesh and slightly burnt wood.]

  Hmm, so not very outstanding at all, which made sense; It was made when my skill level was only at level one, and could only do the most basic of things, now, however, was different, so I got to work.

  [Bone infused Serf Boots:

  A pair of serf boots made from highly mutated rat bones and skin, designed to look exactly like the common serf boots, but boosts the users agility, comfort, and has the following traits:

  Cut, stab, tear, and force resistance.

  Extreme flexibility

  Extreme lightness

  Extreme durability

  Force redistribution

  Myriad River Water resistance

  Acid resistance

  Heat resistance

  Filth resistance]

  Enhanced Agility]

  After that, I did the same thing for my underpants, minus the enhanced agility, and made a few extra ones. I even tried to add a self cleaning feature, but that was apparently too much for my current skill, and it did not work.

  But, I wasn't disheartened; one day, my skill will grow powerful enough to make stupidly broken items, hopefully. The edits I could do now were utterly basic, so I had to use my brain sometimes to get what I desired.

  I deliberated on making pants and shirts, but, from what I was able to gather so far, people on the first floor did not wear those; only robes that reached their feet, and shoes; that was it.

  'Anything else would be too expensive, I'm assuming.'

  I would've done it if my skills were powerful enough to grant them the ability to in and out of the serf robe at will, but they weren't, not quite yet, and I didn't want to end up in a situation where people were targeting me just for my clothes.

  Next up: my weapon.

  Now this was vital, more important than even my clothes, as it was the only great equalizer in my possession, aside from my cheat.

  With my bone machete, I've solved a lot of problems.

  I had a lot of plans in mind for it, a lot of plans; it had to be significantly more powerful than it is now, and have a lot more traits.

  My mind was awash with ideas; from a flaming variant, to a poisonous variant infused with a special type of myriad river water, made by me just for it. Ideally, I'd just coat it once, and forget about it, but, my skills weren't strong enough for such a thing quite yet, I think. I would also need to make the weapon completely harmless to me, lest I end up offing myself accidentally somewhere. I also planned to make a scabbard for it, just to be on the safe side.

  If the poison idea didn't work, I could make it really, really sharp, maybe attempt some transmutation, too?

  If I get my hands on some iron, or steel, wouldn't that practically make me unbeatable?

  But then again, for someone who's trying to be low-key initially, that would be too flashy.

  'But then again, if I can perform transmutation, hiding its true nature would be child's play.'

  But, my intuition flared up again; the same one that seems to have awakened after the partial successful duplication incident, warning me not to try, at least not yet, so maybe at level five?

  'Aw man, there goes that, I suppose; I guess I'll just have to wait 6 more years for the next level.'

  Still, it wasn't too bad; I'll make due with what I have at the moment.

  So, I got to work, and in a few seconds, the first version was done, born from just basic fusion.

  [Highly Mutated Bone infused Machete, Primal:

  A bone machete that has fused with some highly mutated rat beast bone, awakening some of its past, deeply hidden potential and earning itself the name Primal. Has the following traits:

  Blood drinking

  Force multiplayer

  ????????????

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  ????????????

  ????????????

  ????????????

  ????????????]

  Okay, what the flip? Wasn't this supposed to be a normal femur bone? How did it end up becoming something so cryptic and nonsensical?

  Suddenly the past description flashed across my mind, and a wild, but potentially very possible theory formed in my mind.