I Don’t Want to Die as a Mob in My Second Life! ～A Story Where I Kept Training from Inside the Womb and Ended Up Being Mistaken for a Monster～ - Chapter 06: Fully Modified Kanata! And Then, Birth—!

Chapter 06: Fully Modified Kanata! And Then, Birth—!

“Uwoooooooohhhhhh!!”

It’s been almost two months since that day, I think.

In that time, I’ve essentially become a regular member of the “Train-Until-You-Pass-Out Club.”

As soon as I woke up each day, I’d dive straight into meditation. I’d picture the silhouette of my physical body and the shape of my soul, and then tirelessly extend Spiritual Pathways from my soul, weaving them through my entire body.

“Slowly… steadily… apply pressure…! And don’t forget to twist them a little…! Oh, and don’t skip adding elemental coloring!”

In my mind, the Spiritual Pathways extending from my soul wriggled around in bizarre patterns.

Here’s a basic rundown of my process:

First, grow a super-thick pathway. Stretch it out with a Bi~yon! A mild soul shock hits me, and I pass out for about an hour.

Next, compress the pathway. Squish it down to increase its density several times over. Naturally, the shock knocks me out for another hour.

Assign an element to the pathway. In my previous life, this wasn’t possible, but my current fetal soul is so pliable that I can infuse pathways with specific elements by focusing hard and thinking, “You are now fire-aligned!” If I do it right, the pathway changes to a fiery red color.

Then, repeat the loop.

Step 1: Grow another pathway. Pass out.

Step 2: Compress it again. Pass out.

Step 3: Infuse it with an element. Pass out.

Bundle them up! Once I’ve created several sets of Spiritual Pathways, I gather them together and braid them tightly, like tying up pigtails into one big bundle.

This opens up more internal space for even more pathways to be laid down in my body.

Of course, I pass out at the end of this step too.

“Whew, another day of productivity well spent!”

“Kanata, gross~“

“Shut it.”

Even as the Conceptual Spirit Trio teased me, I stayed laser-focused on modifying myself.

Thanks to my relentless efforts, my internal body was now packed to the brim with compressed Spiritual Pathways.

If you pulled up a transparent diagram of me, it’d look… pretty unsettling. Honestly, like a box of wriggling parasites stuffed together.

Since Spiritual Pathways are non-physical, they don’t squish my organs or anything, but… yeah, I might’ve gone a bit overboard.

“Oh wait, I can still weave pathways into each finger! Let’s stretch them out there too!”

Well, the more Spiritual Pathways I have, the stronger my spiritual energy gets. And let’s face it, you can never have too much spiritual energy.

It boosts the effectiveness and duration of body enhancements, and it strengthens your resistance against soul-damaging attacks like curses.

With this many pathways spread throughout my body, even mid-level curses might just bounce right off me.

“Plus, by feeding spiritual energy to my Conceptual Spirits, I can temporarily boost their abilities.”

Take the Conceptual Spirit for [Match], for example. Normally, it can only produce a flame about the size of a fingertip. But if you pour spiritual energy—think of it as gasoline—it can unleash a much fiercer blaze.

Additionally, a Conceptual Spirit infused with spiritual energy becomes temporarily recognized as an extension of myself. That means I can manipulate them directly to trigger all kinds of phenomena.

And that’s the core principle behind the four types of Spiritual Arts.

“The first type is Spirit Hosting:”

This is a technique where you allow a Conceptual Spirit to possess your body, granting you the ability to wield its power.

For example, if you hosted the Conceptual Spirit of [Muscle], you’d become super ripped and insanely strong.

The more skilled (or higher-ranked) you are, the more efficiently you can manage your spiritual energy consumption. If you master it, the excess spiritual energy can even form temporary cells that wrap around your body, allowing for complete fusion with the Conceptual Spirit.

In the case of [Muscle], if you perfected its hosting, you’d probably turn into a freakish creature with muscles exploding out from all over your body. Uh… not a fan of that idea.

“The second type is Object Imbuing:”

This technique lets you imbue objects with the power of a Conceptual Spirit, altering their properties.

For instance, if you imbued the Conceptual Spirit of [Blade] into a ruler that vaguely resembles a sword, that ruler would gain the ability to actually cut things.

As with Spirit Hosting, the more skilled you are, the crazier the effects become. The imbued object might develop a spiritual energy coating and undergo massive, complex transformations.

In the ruler example, it could turn into a giant katana.

“The other two techniques, Charm Crafting and Curse Wielding, also require spiritual energy. Ugh, running out of fuel is the worst…”

I remembered my battle with the Meat Angel from two months ago.

As a weak mob character back then, my spiritual energy reserves were laughably small. Even though I fought at full power, my energy drained within seconds.

Spiritual energy is the heat of the soul. If it runs out, the soul begins to dissipate, heading toward its end. And even with all the risks I took, I couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on the enemy.

That fight showed me the overwhelming gap between a small fry like me and a natural disaster-level Conceptual Spirit.

“I’d like to get a bit stronger just to be safe, but… ugh, it’s getting harder. Training in techniques is something I can only do in the real world, after all.”

Training within the Spiritual Domain, the internal world of my soul, is specialized for mental and spiritual exercises.

Inside this domain, I’m essentially the king. I can summon manga, conjure up delicious meals, or even recreate pleasant experiences from my past.

But that’s all they are—recreations of experiences and sensations I’ve already had.

I can’t create new manga I’ve never read or dishes I’ve never tasted.

In the cage of the soul, progress is limited. There’s no moving forward into the unknown here.

“The feeling of wielding enhanced techniques with my newly modified body and amplified spiritual energy… yeah, that’s something I won’t know until I actually try it in reality. Guess I’ll just have to wait to be born.”

Alright, is there anything else I can do?

There’s less than a month until my birth. This is my last chance to make bold changes to myself.

“My body’s already been thoroughly modified… And thanks to [Doll], my appearance has turned into something outrageous.”

“Outrageous!?”

“I mean amazing, amazing.”

I casually praised [Doll], who clung to me for compliments, while reflecting on my body’s current state.

The base is still me, a humble mob, but I’ve edited it to the extreme. Now, I look like a premium avatar with white hair, golden and red eyes, and way too many features crammed in.

The thought of being born looking like that is… ugh, the pressure’s intense.

Having the inside of a mob like me in the body of what looks like a young angel or goddess? That’s just too much to handle.

“I’ve stuffed every inch of my body full of Spiritual Pathways. At first, I was just extending them throughout my body, but figuring out how to compress them and increase their density? That was a stroke of genius. Haha.”

I mean, no one else has probably ever done this.

Because, let’s be real—just filling your whole body with Spiritual Pathways is considered impossible in the first place.

Being able to compress Spiritual Pathways? Yeah, I’m probably the first ever to pull that off.

—Wait, hold on.

“That’s it…! Right now, I can create anything I want…! And not just Spiritual Pathways!”

I opened a window, pulling up the transparent diagram of my body that I’d already finished tweaking and left alone.

“Perfectly aligned muscles… A beautiful skeletal structure… Truly ideal. But this is only an ‘realistic’ ideal. Now, with my current abilities, what if I went further…? For example…”

I focused on the fetus’s arms and issued a command:

“Delete arm bones.”

The arm bones of my baby-self vanished. In a short while, this command would execute, and I’d be born without arm bones.

Yeah, no thanks. That’s way too weird. So next:

“Compress arm muscles.”

I pulled the surrounding muscles inward, filling the space where the bones had been. Then—!

“Form exoskeleton!”

Beneath the skin, an exoskeleton began to take shape, wrapping around the compressed muscles like a protective shell.

And with that, it was done.

Underneath the skin of my arms, I had transformed myself into an exoskeletal creature—like an insect.

“Heck!?“

“Insect arms. I specifically modeled them after a cockroach.”

“Cockroach!?“

When it comes to creatures with explosive instantaneous power, insects far surpass mammals.

Insects are incredible. Their exoskeletons work in tandem with their muscles to enhance their movements, allowing them to perform feats of strength that far exceed their body weight.

Sure, the downside is a loss of flexibility, but let’s be honest—your upper arm, forearm, and wrist bones (humerus, ulna, and radius) don’t need to be all that flexible anyway.

As long as the elbow works properly, you’re good. So, I focused on heavily modifying those areas. The goal? Throwing insanely powerful punches.

“C-C-Coc…!?!“

Whoa, looks like [Doll] is having a bit of a meltdown. Did hearing “cockroach” trigger some kind of girly shock?

“Relax. The skin and fat layers are still intact, so visually, my arms still look like the angelic body you worked so hard to design.”

If anything, the thick veins are now hidden under the exoskeleton, so my arms might look even paler and smoother—just like Doll’s vision of perfection.

“Fine!“

“How is that fine!?”

As expected of [Doll], a Conceptual Spirit embodying emptiness. As long as the outside looks good, it doesn’t matter how inhuman the inside is.

“Sure, I want to be born strong, but I’d rather not be born a freak and end up persecuted for it. Gotta keep the outer appearance polished.”

With that in mind, it’s time for the next step: modifying my legs.

“When it comes to legs, insects aren’t the best reference. Their exoskeletal movements are incredibly powerful, but for a human who has to move their body weight on two legs all the time, the strain would be too much.”

Unlike insects, which crawl on the ground with multiple legs, humans rely on just two legs to defy gravity.

An exoskeleton, combined with the extra weight it adds, would quickly ruin legs that have to bear that load on only two limbs.

So, instead…

“I’ll base the design of my legs on a snake.”

“Snake!?“

Once again, [Doll] was shocked. Her expression didn’t change, but her eyes practically screamed, “What are you doing to my divine design!?”

“Relax,” I reassured her.

“The strength of multi-jointed structures is incredible. During movement, each joint can act like a ‘whip,’ amplifying the force and supporting the muscles, similar to how an exoskeleton works.”

Of course, there are drawbacks.

“This isn’t ideal for a biped like me, though. Why? Because joints bend. Imagine having four or five knees on each leg—they’d buckle under gravity and collapse instantly.”

“Useless!“

“Not quite.”

The modification I had in mind wasn’t for the thighs or the area from the knees to the ankles. Instead—

“It’s for the soles of the feet! By introducing cartilage into key bones—like the heel bone, navicular bone, cuboid bone, cuneiform bones, and metatarsal bones—I can make the entire structure flexible, like a whip. And don’t worry, it won’t look any different from the outside!”

“Fine!“

“‘Then it’s fine,’ you say!“

With [Doll]’s approval as my character designer, I altered the transparent diagram of my foot bones to include multiple joints.

Visually, the feet would look perfectly normal. But when pushing off the ground, the soles would flex and snap like a whip, generating immense power with each step.

“Whew… I might’ve pushed myself a bit beyond human limits here. But hey, with this, my spiritual energy should also…”

At that moment, I suddenly felt light and drowsy, like I was floating.

“Ahhh… I have been messing around with my soul a lot lately… Maybe it’s starting to get tired or something?”

Looks like I need to take a deep, proper nap this time.

I’ve extended my Spiritual Pathways as much as possible. My body modifications are finally complete.

Guess I’ll just sleep until it’s time to be born…

“…!“

“Huh? What’s up, [Blank Shot]? What? You want me to tweak your voice to sound better? Oh, right… your concept includes celebratory gun salutes and intimidating warning shots, so sound is pretty deeply tied to you, huh…”

Ahhh, no good. My brain’s already half-asleep. Makes sense, though—my soul itself is trying to shut down.

“～～～♡”

“Pretty… and intimidating…? I dunno anymore. Do whatever you want~…”

Half-conscious, I started to drift off, while [Ittan-momen] and [Doll] wrapped themselves around me.

“Tie it up?!“

“Huh? What is it now, [Ittan-momen]…? Wait, what? You want my hair to be super silky, shiny, and long? Oh, right… your concept involves ‘fluttering,’ so I guess you’re into that kind of thing… Yeah, whatever. Do what you want…”

“Kanataaaa~!“

“And what do you want, [Doll]…? Nerves? What about them…? Ugh, I don’t even know anymore…”

At this point, I just gave blanket approval for everything. “Fine, fine, it’s all okay. Do whatever you want. I’m too tired for this…!”

““”Yayyyyy!”””

The three of them celebrated noisily as I thought to myself, So loud…

And with that, my consciousness faded into sleep.

Alright then… goodnight…

◆ ◇ ◆

And then—

“The demon child has been born!!!”

(Ha?)

When I next opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by people who looked like Reisoushi.

What the heck is going on here?!

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End of Act 1: Fetus Arc

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