I woke up to the distinct sound of claws, specifically rat claws, and teeth, seemingly nibbling on something, something quite delicious, too.

  Wait, what?!

  I shot off the bed in alarm, naked as the day I came into this world, but it wasn't as I feared; the rats hadn't somehow gotten inside and were feeding on the jerky stored within my precious treasure chest. They were outside, though, and were attempting to force their way in, too.

  'Breakfast in bed? How nice!'

  I clothed myself, and grabbed my trusty bone machete, which now had a leather handle for increased grip and durability, and went outside to slay the vermin. The front of the house was clear, though, so I moved around to the back, and spotted the source of the commotion; an extremely mutated rat, covered in a thick, polished bone exoskeleton, a long, whip-like tail, blood-red eyes that burned like two balls of fire. The bone exoskeleton was like a second skin, covering every inch of its body seamlessly, the parts that weren't covered, like the joints, had a sot, jelly-like substance coating them, one that shone even in the faint darkness. Oh, and did I mention that it was the size of a fully grown dog, had no whiskers, and had teeth the length of my fingers, and looked lethal to even get close to?

  [Highly Mutated Rat beast, Boneguz:

  One of the many highly mutated rat beasts on floor 1 and is infamous for devouring only bones. Boneguz has terrorized the local gangs, especially Movematch, for a very long time, since its founding, actually, killing their members every time they come to or pass near its territory while on their way to the myriad river. Sometimes, when bored, it'll go for a stroll through their territory, particularly on the far edges to eat the outcasts.

  Skills:

  Spray acid (2)

  Bone exoskeleton (1)

  ????????]

  I barely had time to contemplate the description before the rat hissed at me, and a jet of sickly yellow substance was ejected from its mouth, forcing me to dodge, lest I end up without a face. It fell to the ground, and splattered all over the place, some even got on my house, and ate away at some of the wood.

  'No! Now you've gone ahead and done it!'

  With a thought, I edited the wood below it to fuse with its legs as the rat attempted to reposition itself to spray me with yet another stream of yellow acid, and it let out a confused squeak as it looked at the ground, then, I exploited the window of opportunity to make its exoskeleton soft, the, I dashed over, lifted my hand up high, and swung down.

  Bone met bone, and mine proved to be superior, cleanly slicing through the neck of Boneguz, severing it from its body. Then, I dove my bone machete into the belly of the now headless rat, and wrenched it until I couldn't anymore. After that, I pulled it out, and kicked over the now stiff body leaking a mix of milky white substances, blood, and yellow acid.

  'That was easy, I was expecting more from what seemed like a min-boss. But, then again; my powers are unpredictable, and that will only grow in that direction as I accumulate more combat experience and levels. Never in its wildest dreams could the rat have imagined that its very foundations would turn on it, much less its own exoskeleton.'

  If all future battles ended up like this, what was there to fear?

  But, such a thing was unlikely; one day, I'll face people with real combat experience, and the ability to adapt to the unexpected, with great powers, too.

  'Best not to get conceited; that has always been the reason for the downfall of many great and mighty figures in life, and I don't want to end up like them.'

  Still, this was good; if I could hold my own against such a highly mutated rat beast, I would be fine against most people here, even if they had a weapon.

  'Anyway, time to clean up this mess, repair my house, get something to eat, and go to the market; I want to see if they have any form of currency here, what is being sold, and so on.'

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  With a quick edit and a few thoughts, all the blood, white stuff, and acid that had leaked out of the beast evaporated into fresh air, and the corpse began to leak them once more.

  'Sigh, don't tell me I'll have to do this a few more times, until this thing is completely dry?'

  'Nope, not doing any of that, there's a faster method of doing this: editing!'

  With a thought, the corpse description changed from a bleeding corpse to a corpse that has completely bled out, saving me a great deal of time and effort in an instant. After that, I did the same with the head, hung them on the rack I had made for the first dog-sized rat, and began the butchering process.

  Wait, couldn't I just edit the description to say this was a butchered corpse, and my power would make it work for me?

  'Sometimes, I really don't use this brain of mine.'

  I tried it, and the edited description just fizzled out as the original description overtook it.

  What? What was so unreasonable about that?

  'Honestly, sometimes I feel like this thing has a mind of its own, and can decide when to work or not. But, that'd be too crazy, and unnecessary in my opinion; why would a power like mine need to be alive?'

  That would make things too complicated for me; I wanted results, not conversations.

  But, that's just another crazy theory of mine, one that's very unlikely to be true.

  I shook my head, and continued my work, not stopping until I was done. The amount of meat, flesh, and bone was significantly higher this time, which surprised me; was it that I was getting better, or did the rat have more meat, flesh, and bone on it than the last one? Could be a mix of both, to be honest. Regardless, it was a good thing, but, you what wasn't good? The fact that I somehow forgot to build an outhouse, and I was now out of materials. Well, out of proper materials; I could always make the improper proper.

  But seriously, how could I forget such a vital thing, was I even human anymore?

  And, it wasn't because I was feeling the need to go right now, but, I'd need to go eventually, so, it made sense to make one now.

  'Might as well clear out the junk, and the remaining pieces of wood, and transform it into something useful.'

  But first, I needed to process these into edible food, and place them in the food chest, maybe fashion some useful weapons, too.

  'I have a fair bit of bone right now, so maybe some bone knives? Wait, what about a bow? Hmm, ideally something capable of killing from a distance, as I disliked close combat; the chances of death, injury, or something going wrong were exponentially higher in my opinion. Distance was king; if I could kill something from a mile away, I'd be good. Not only would they not know, couldn't react, or dodge in time.

  'Well, it depends on the method. If I'm using a sniper, for instance, they'd stand no chance, but if it were a regular bow, then maybe?'

  It really depends, actually, there's a lot to consider; such ideas only seem good in one's head until the time has come for them to be implemented, then, problems will start popping up everywhere you look. But, I still think distance is superior, and until something fundamentally shifts my mindset, that opinion won't be changing anytime soon.

  But, I'd have to stick to melee weapons right now; they were the most logical choice in an environment such as this. This entire place was cramped, full of obstacles, and most importantly, dark. So, anything ranged had to be thrown out entirely.

  Unless....

  Maybe it could work if I somehow managed to give myself night vision, the ability to control projectiles, and see from a very great distance away?

  It could work, maybe; I think its entirely possible, if I had enough levels in my skills, that is. In fact, I don't think there's anything impossible for me to do, given enough time and levels, that is.

  But, that was for the future; I had an outhouse to build now. The heap of burnt, cut, and broken wood alongside used Firewood torches had shrunken significantly; so much so that I don't think I'll have enough to make the outhouse how I truly wanted it.

  'Maybe I could do it, just have to use that brain of mine some more.'

  Thinking as such, I got to work immediately, using, repairing, and making plank after plank, until I had a nice neat stack of them for use and the pile of wood was no more; everything had been used. Now, aside from the rat refuse and suspicious yellow, white, white, and red stains, charcoal, and scorch marks, the alley looked pretty clean, kinda.

  Now for the most important question; how would the outhouse handle the produced waste? Would it just store it, or would it be put to use for something else?

  Hmmm, decisions, important ones, too.

  Where would the storage unit for the stuff even be? Common sense said below the outhouse itself, but this world didn't work on common sense, and I felt like it was a bad idea to dig down without being powerful enough, especially after reading the description for the AlleyWood. The ground was the foundation of Woodcity, so, there had to be powerful defense mechanisms within it, ones surely capable of killing me in an instant.

  'Hmm, so I'll have to place it to the sides of it, or something, or behind it, too. To be honest, either would work.'

  Doesn't have to be anything large, either; I didn't plan on letting anyone use it anyway, nor did I plan to use it often. So, instead of making the storage unit big, I could make it small, or even medium, about the size of a mini-fridge, or something. Then, I could add the necessary functions I wanted into it, like compression, decomposition, enriching, scent removal, and so on. I could even add a wood shredder to shred wood, until it was small enough to be mixed in with the stuff, transforming it into soil, super stuff soil rich in all the essential nutrients.

  'Honestly, a part of me is utterly disgusted, while the other part is grinning from ear to ear; the idea was as efficient as it was genius as it would kill two future birds with a single stone.'

  But, I wasn't going to go that far, at least not yet; I didn't want to get too attached to this place, only to end up losing it, that'd be a real shame indeed. Even when one wasn't looking for trouble, it often finds them; just look at the highly mutated rat beast that found me as soon as I woke up, and even had a name, too.

  And I felt like it was only a matter of time until something else popped up, either here or when I joined the gang once more; I could just feel it. Once I picked up that book, it was as if I sealed off my fate, and could no longer swim to the surface.

  But, fate be damned; I'll cut down anything hostile that stands in my way, human or monster, none of that mattered, at least not anymore.