《Shard Drifter》 Prologue The young man¡¯s breath was quickly escaping his lung as he tried his best not to fall. His hands were numb, the sickle stuck deep inside the rocks was his only saving grace. He could already see the peak, just a few meters away but it felt so far away. ¡°Urghh¡± was the only sound he made as he exhaled and began to climb once more. Those several minutes felt like forever, his consciousness nearly left him when he felt the flat surface under his arm, he then grabbed the closest secure rock he could find and used it as a leverage to pull the rest of his body up. He crawled several steps ahead, making sure he was safe. He then removed his backpack and lied on the ground, taking some deep breaths he owed to his body. His toned body was trembling from both exhaustion and excitement. He was tired, that¡¯s for sure. He had just climbed one of the tallest mountains in Asia afterall. The climb itself might be okay, but the freezing rocks he had to grab? Even the thickest glove wouldn¡¯t help, let alone his thin and worn out gloves he got from some old construction guy. The young man stayed on the ground for some time, letting his body rest. He knew that he outdid himself just now, perhaps by a huge margin, and he understood that his body required some rest, if not a lot. About 10 minutes passed by as he adjusted his breath, then he used both hands to push himself up. Finally, he saw the scenery of which he took 4 days to see.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Mount Damavand, one of the glorious mountains of Alborz range in North Iran. Haver had been planning this trip for months, from saving money to improving his body¡¯s fitness to support his adventurous journey. This may as well be his biggest life achievement, afterall he was not the kind of guy who possess the money nor equipments to support his journey. Haver was ecstatic, although he was almost numb from the cold breeze, he couldn¡¯t stop looking down at the mountain range and the valley under him, he was not even scared of the strong wind or the rocky ground. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was capable of anything, and that he knew that the world was almost limitless, as proven to the clear and boundless nature in front of him. Every moment, every sensation he felt there was unearthly. As he never felt anything even nearing what he felt right now. The young man felt satisfaction that he never expected to ever experience. He even began to think that this was his life calling. To be an adventurer, to explore all there was to this world, and to see everything God has created. It was almost an hour before the young man was done looking, then he set up his camp on the middle of the mountain summit, ate some jerky and drank waters before finally going to sleep. He wondered how it would be like, to live full of adventure and to feel thrill like he felt today, just like when he struggled to keep his life in those final moments before he finished the hike. The young man closed his eyes thinking that it was both great and exciting, but sadly impossible. Then he fell asleep. Chapter One : Take Flight Pain, that was the trigger of Haver¡¯s awakening, his whole body felt like he just walked through a forest of thorn, stabbing pain from all kind of places, so much that he couldn¡¯t identify the sources of the pain. Haver barely had any time to process what happened before he once more felt pain hitting his back, loud crashing sound was made as he broke through the object that impeded his fall. As of the moment, he realized that he was falling, and that those branches were the only thing that helped slowing his fall. Hands reaching outward, Haver tried to find anything to grab, so long as it helps to stop his fall. Sadly his effort was to no avail, as he passed through and broke several more twigs before then making it to the ground. The impact drove air out of his lungs, which resulted in several heavy coughes, before he finally lost consciousness. For the second time today, Haver felt pain when he woke up. His whole body was aching, he could barely hold himself from screaming. He then started recollecting the fall and how he barely managed to survive it. Inspecting his body, he was somewhat surprised that there were barely any wounds left on it. One on his left palm and one by the side of his stomach, and even those looked like they were almost healed completely. He didn¡¯t think that he was dreaming though, afterall his clothes were ripped to pieces and barely wearable. Feeling grateful that he didn¡¯t die, Haver began to inspect his surroundings, afterall he wanted to know about the reason of his fall. Yet everything felt unnatural, the trees were not the ones he saw at the bottom of the mounts, nor was the climate. It was like he was stranded in the middle of a whole different forest. Haver was confused by such difference, and thus was left in thoughts. Haver¡¯s thinking was interrupted by a sudden noise from his back. Instinct kicked in, Haver jumped to the side, trying to avoid whatever that was trying to ambush him, however the impact upon his right thigh told him of his failure. Trying his best not to succumb to the pain, his eyes focused onto the ambusher. It was a boar, a big one, yet a boar nonetheless, with a single horn jutting out of its forehead. It then turned around and charged onto him again. This time Haver was prepared. Ignoring the stinging pain on his thigh, he rolled to the side smoothly and took cover behind a tree. The existence of a one-horned boar was something Haver never heard before, thus made him questioned this forest for the second time. He didn¡¯t think for too long though, the boar was ready to charge onto him once more. Haver was uneducated, but he was not stupid. He quickly realised that such a beast was prone to have little to no flexibility while it was charging. He faced the boar, with the tree behind him, ready to dodge once more. This time, Haver waited until the boar was close before then making a swift roll once more. He then heard a boom behind him and turned around. What he saw made him smile, the boar¡¯s horn was stuck deep onto the tree, and it was incapable of pulling it out. Haver then began to inspect the boar closely, its body was full of muscle, its front body was covered with bloody hides. Haver then saw the boar¡¯s eyes and found that it looked mad and savage. He sighed, at least he got a source of food out of the trouble. He then went around to find a sharp branch and stabbed the beast right around its throat.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The boar thrashed around for several second, its feet struggling wildly upon the virgin soil. When Haver noticed that the boar was making some progress, he stabbed the boar¡¯s neck several times before it eventually stopped moving. Haver then closed his eyes, fighting the nausea after looking at so much blood. Then he heard a DING!!! Haver was surprised, never before had he heard a voice other than his own inside his mind. He looked warily for another foe. After making sure that there was nothing near him, he began to relax, and noticed that there was a blinking light at the edge of his vision, then he began to focus onto it, and a blue screen appeared in front of him.
You have slain a Lv.3 Boar, +15XP!!! Congratulations!!! You have leveled up!!!
ow Haver was intrigued, having no money didn¡¯t mean Haver never played any online game, he knew about level and experience, yet having these things appear right in front of your eyes? Now that was new. He began to wonder whether there was gonna be any status table too. Then another bigger blue box appeared in front of him.
Name Haver
Class -
Level 2 (15/30)
Title First Drifter (Earth)
STR 11
AGI 9
DEX 9
VIT 10
INT 7
WIL 12
Free Stats 4
Skills -
Shard Coins 0
Haver was caught unprepared, yet he quickly composed himself, as this was within his expectation when he saw those notifications before. Inspecting the screen for a moment, he found several points of interests. Now the possibility that he was not on earth was blooming within Haver¡¯s mind, especially after reading that title. Still, he was not quite sure what a ¡°drifter¡± really meant. Though it was not the most surprising thing after suddenly dropping from god knows how high without any apparent reasons. His wondering did not last long, as a new screen popped out, overlaying his Status Screen.
First Drifter (Earth) : The first human on earth to drift into foreign Shards. +3 All stats.
This information was all it took to convince Haver that he was no longer on Earth. The same information also told him that being the first human here, which can only meant two things. It was either Haver drifted into this new world together with other people as part of a wide scale phenomenon, or he had to face the reality of being the only human in a foreign world. The gravity of the situation was enough to push Haver onto a state of panic. Gone was the euphoria of adventuring in a no man¡¯s land. He might have to live alone in this jungle to his death, fighting for food everyday, he might not even be able to sleep safely. Hell, even if he meet other people, he was pretty sure he wouldn¡¯t be able to communicate with the foreigners, if they didn¡¯t kill him on sight. The panic last for a long time, before his hunger return his mind on track. Haver then refocused on the task at hand, he had to eat. So he began by pulling the boar out of the tree, it was surprisingly easy. It seems that all the struggling the boar did helped loosened up the hole, thus pulling it was quite simple, although some effort was still required. He then used the sharp wood to skin the boar, at which he failed. Haver was about to look for a sharper branch when he noticed that the boar¡¯s horn looked super sharp. Reprimanding himself, Haver then stomped hard on the horn¡¯s base, breaking the horn off the boar¡¯s head and used it to skin the boar. The rest was easy, he already knew how to start a fire by using the woods and leaves. He began to spin one wood on top of another.