《System Survivalist Book 1: Discovery.》


 Chapter 1 : intergration.

    System Survivalist


    Book 1: Discovery


    Prologue: Upload.


    Earth spun innocently within its orbit as it hurtled through the immense vastness of space. Unbeknown to the inhabitants of the sol system¡¯s oasis, the planet had come under review by a tendril of pure invisible energy.


    ¡°Seed world discovered. Analysing¡­ Error: unexpected evolutionary development. Calculating projected population values¡­ System harvesting overdue by over two thousand cycles. Uploading collective conscience¡­ Error: Planetary unity not achieved. Recalculating¡­ Resolving¡­ Error¡­ System administrator required for judgment¡­ Resolving¡­ Judgment resolved. System harvest imminent.¡±


    With its Analysis complete the Entity departed, reaching for the next portion of the milky way.


    Suddenly I shuddered and my vision was drawn to the night¡¯s sky. I snapped out of it, remembering that I was still live.


    Looking back to the camera lens, I said with a smile. ¡°Alright Wilders, I think I¡¯m getting tired, and I don¡¯t have to explain how dangerous it is to be tired in this unforgiving rainforest. This is Oscar Hollow signing off. Let¡¯s hope we get to survive together again tomorrow. Thank you all so much for keeping me company. Remember to sign up to the Patreon without your support surviving these glorious hellscapes would be impossible.¡±


    I pressed the button to end the live stream and, rubbing my eyes, I peered back through the canopy to see a strange dark spot in the sky. With the almost complete lack of light pollution above the amazonian forest-scape, the night¡¯s sky was one of the darkest and most star-spangled sights available to mankind. If it wasn¡¯t for density of the canopy¡¯s foliage, id have been able to clearly see the voids twinkling brilliance in its entirety, unfortunately from my position, on what I liked to call the balcony of my ramshackle tree house, all I could see was the edge of this strange black spot that seemed to absorb the light given from the night¡¯s crescent moon.


    Deciding that further investigation was needed, I grabbed my phone from the tripod, strapped on my head torch and spent about five minutes rummaging around to find my climbing spikes. I had only made the climb to the top of the trees once before, to set up the Starlink receiver when I finally found a liveable area within the rainforest. I don¡¯t know why this dark spot drew my attention as much as it did; maybe it was for the subscribers or just my own insatiable curiosity, but I strapped my phone to the rig on my vest, hit recorded and followed the internet cables up the tree trunk.


    On my way up, I had to hammer in extra foot holds just so I could stop every few minutes to explain to the camera what I was doing and hopefully gain a few more followers, if what I found was actually some postable content. Once I had gotten close to two thirds of the way up, I could see the spot much more clearly, it was kind of terrifying. In movies and games, you see singularities that suck in all matter around them and that¡¯s what my eyes told me I could see. It had to be a black hole, nothing else made sense. The star light around the thing disappeared into its small circumference and at its tiny centre was a blackness I could hardly describe.


    I climbed higher. My panicked thoughts where on the complete and utter destruction of the planet, no, the solar system. Black holes ate stars right, was this the end of everything. When I finally reached the top, my anxious attention was torn to a tiny critter that I¡¯m sure didn¡¯t belong above the canopy.


    ¡°Hey there, little fella.¡± I said to the oddly shaped mantis that sat atop the tree I was on. ¡°Did you come up here to witness the end of all things, too?¡±


    I could have sworn that the little Scyther nodded at me, but end of the world or not, it wasn¡¯t the time to be distracted. I detached my phone from its harness and held it up to the sight of what I believed to be a black hole for a few minutes then opened up my streaming account. Turning the camera on myself, I fixed my hair and wiped away the sweat that made my face shine like a beacon in the night.


    I said. ¡°Hey there Wilders. I know I said I was signing of but I.¡± I looked at my new little green friend and changed my mind. Picking him up and holding him to my face I started again. ¡°Ok Wilders me and little Scyther here just climbed to the top of the Amazon Fucking Rain Forest.¡± I quickly angled the camera to show the proof of my ascent and continued. ¡°To show you what we found, and man am I baffled.¡± I pointed the camara to the sky and through my screen it looked like the spot had grown. ¡°What in the name of all things Sci-fi, or I guess Sci-Fact, is that? Join my live now and help convince me it¡¯s not a black hole.¡±


    Posting the video, I placed Scyther back where I found him and promised him a cut from the stream if he stuck around. Again, it seemed like he nodded, but honestly, I was probably on the edge of mania from what I was witnessing. Pressing the button to start my live stream I looked into the camera with my long-practiced signature grin, and that¡¯s when the world turned black.


    Chapter 1: Integration.


    It felt like I had drifted off to sleep as I watched the dark spot grow into all-encompassing blackness. I lost control of my hands first, dropping my phone and losing grip of the climbing spike. Next, I fell. My limp body hung in the air for a moment before I felt a pull that whipped me upwards. I was in a void, nothing beneath, aside or above me and then the lights in my mind went out.


    Congratulations, you have been selected to join the System.


    I awoke to a feeling of numbness and the sight of white script floating in the inky void. I would have guessed it to be a dream, but I had learned from an episode of Batman that writing is illegible in a dream and if Batman is dream illiterate then so am I. when I focused on the words they changed.


    As you are new to the System, you have gained the following benefit during the integration period.


    Immunity: you are immune to all damage and status effects for twenty-four hours.


    This benefit comes at the loss of level gains and all experience will be automatically allocated to the skills you use to navigate the System in the effected time period.


    I let it simmer for a minute. Experience and level gains, like a game. ¡°Hello?¡± I let the greeting out awkwardly. ¡°Can you hear me?¡± There was no response, instead the script changed.


    Welcome Oscar Hollow. You are one of over five billion humans chosen to join the System. With the harvesting of the seed planet known as earth, biomes have been formed based on the planet¡¯s diverse ecology. Your starting location will be based on your last known location on earth. Please prepare yourself and use the integration immunity period to learn how to navigate the system. Your faculties will return to you in five, four, three, two.


    All of a sudden, the eternal darkness was replaced with, well, slightly brighter darkness. It was like opening your eyes in a dark room. My vision went from peering into an unceasing black void to looking around what seemed to be some kind of dark cavity. The strangest thing was that I wasn¡¯t breathing or at least I couldn¡¯t breathe but I wasn¡¯t suffocating. My surroundings were moist like I was inside an egg. Was I about to hatch into the system. I could move but it wasn¡¯t easy, whatever substance I was encased in wasn¡¯t supposed to be manipulated and as I did move the world moved with me. From outside the shell of my egg chamber came an erratic clicking with a high pitch crackling frequency, the funky noise sounded like an old dial up modem was arguing with a dolphin.


    To be honest my imagination was getting away with me and I struggled to focus on my situation. I had to close my eyes to centre myself. The first thing I did after beating away the thoughts of dolphins fighting androids over a giant Oscar egg, was pat myself down. I was clearly wet and slimy but luckily, I was also still very much wearing my clothes. My belt was there along with my belt knife and utility pockets, my vest was still on and when my hands explored my forehead, I remembered that my torch was strapped to my head. I¡¯d have exhaled in elation if I had air in my lungs, instead I twisted the torch on and felt like a god as I brought light to my surroundings.


    The light only brought more confusion. Analysing my surrounding I discovered that the slimy viscous liquid that surrounded me was pale green blood and the reason for the cacophony and thrashing that came with my movements was that I was causing some creature agony as I damaged its internal system. I¡¯m no biologist, so I had no idea what the ropey organs that surrounded me were but if I was going to get out of this thing, I knew I wanted it dead first. I decided to search for its heart and once I found it, I would give the creature a quick death and crawl my way out of it. Not fancying a trip through its digestive track, I chose to travel upwards. On my way up I used my belt knife to clear my way through. I hacked at what I guessed were the soft tissues found inside an insect. It took a good few disgusting and traumatising minutes, but I finally found the heart. It beat with a glow that lit up the few inches of biomass that surrounded it and was almost the size of my head. Focusing in on my target, I crawled closer and pressed my hand against it. My surroundings grew quiet, and the hearts beat doubled. The creature knew what was about to happen and seemed to have accepted its fate. Wanting to end the cruelty I was inflicting the thing as quickly as possible; I took to butchering the thick green veins attached to the heart. With each cut more and more blood filled the cavity and before I knew it the heart had grown still. With the stilling of my insectoid host a strange fanfare sounded in my mind.


    Congratulations you have defeated the area boss: Blade-mantis. you have gained the following: area authority, immense experience gains.


    Integration period note: due to your integration still ongoing all experience will be allocated to the following skills. Analyse, Butchery.


    Achievement earned: you are the first in system history to analyse the still beating heart of an area boss and thus have gained the following: unique skill: Deep Analysis.


    The voice that sounded in my head was oddly polite and as non-threatening as a mind invader could be. What it said was clearly interesting, but I was in no position to contemplate the meaning of area authority, or the lack of a quantifiable number attached to the amount of experience I had gained. What I did realise was that as I studied my surroundings, I was able make sense of my position within the Blade mantis. The heart was located in the abdomen, so my escape was a short tear upwards, with my belt knife in hand I hacked and crawled. Ravaging my way through the mantis¡¯s throat I saw my way out. With a final push I expelled myself through the mouth of the area boss and attempted to take my first breath in this system, as I tried to inhale, I began to vomit. Pale green blood gushed from my stomach, and I was thankful for the numbness my body felt as my body rejected everything it had been forced to consumed. Sure, my gut was empty, I gave breathing another go, I failed. The coughing that ensued was accompanied with more green blood pouring out of my mouth and nose. By the time I was done I just sat myself down and that¡¯s when I saw it.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The Blade-mantis was gargantuan. Apart from the blood that flowed from its mandible baring maw the creature¡¯s body was in pristine condition. I approached the thing and took in its details. It had all the familiar properties of a praying mantis however where a typical mantis had spikes used for gripping on its forelegs this thing had hundreds of jagged blades that looked more like savage spear heads. Being the curious idiot that I am, I reached out and touched one of the blades, it damn near sliced the tip of my finger off upon contact. I probably should have been surprised at the fact that I couldn¡¯t feel a thing but what shocked me more was that as soon as the cut was made the wound knitted itself back together. It was apparent that for the next twenty-four hours I was Deadpool, but without the psychosis.


    I spent about thirty minutes inspecting the Mantis¡¯s corpse and other than discovering all the sharp bits that were designed to shred prey like me, I also found that the things carapace was impenetrable. I had complete blunted my blade trying to make a scratch on the things armour and had absolutely no luck. I did however find a soft spot above its mandibles that allowed be to detach the things and had managed to acquire two hiltless machetes sharper than a keyboard warrior¡¯s Witt.


    With my inspection done it was time to figure out where in the hell I was. One gaze up told me I wasn¡¯t in my rainforest anymore, with the three planets that hung in the nights sky sharing the sun¡¯s light like green and blue mega moons It was obvious I wasn¡¯t even on my planet. Looking at the stars that struggled to twinkle in what space the sky had left I was also sure that I wasn¡¯t in the same galaxy anymore. Looking up there made my eyes so tired I gave up trying to make sense of it all and I set my gaze on my surroundings.


    I was in a clearing with grass underfoot, trees littered the edges of the clearing in a semicircle and behind me was a mountain. Off the edge of the mountain flowed a waterfall with a large reed filled basin that capped off the clearing with a picturesque view. Clean flowing water was both a blessing and a curse, on one hand I wouldn¡¯t have to fashion any water catchers anytime soon on the other whatever animals lived in this forest would definitely be attracted to the watering hole. Eyeing up the giant insect my mind wondered to thoughts of dinosaur sized tigers and prehistoric boa constrictors. Before I let my nightmarish thoughts make me wet myself, I wondered over to the waterfall¡¯s basin.


    From the size of the waterfall, I had expected an impossibly deep well at its bottom however what I found baffled me beyond belief. The water was of the clearest I had seen outside of a plastic bottle and because of the clarity I could see the bottom of the basin. I didn¡¯t have to guess the waters depth I somehow knew upon inspection that it was exactly five feet and two inches deep. It worried me that the deep analysis skill must have been affecting my brain at a cerebral level but what concerned me more was the fact a mountains worth of water was falling into a shallow basin and not overflowing. I searched the basin for drainage holes that could possibly filter into a subterranean tributary and found an answer that could only be present on an alien world. The water flowed into the reeds that populated the clear watered basin.


    The roots of the reeds didn¡¯t dig into the soil instead they spread out and spiralled keeping themselves three feet below the surface. Shrugging I grabbed for one of the closest reeds and pulled the plant out of the water and even though the reed¡¯s top hadn¡¯t been submerged it was wet to the touch. It felt more like a sodden towel than any plant life I had ever come across and for the sake of science a took my blunted knife to it. Slicing the reed was an interesting experience. It turned out that the long green demon was actually a pressurised water pump and naturally my face was as close as possible as I cut the damn thing. After receiving a hydro cannon to the face and falling flat on my ass I noticed that the reed was still expelling water, although with a much less violent flow. What could only be a thought brought on by deep analysis popped into my head whispering, ¡®dimensional storage¡¯ but out of resentment for the magical reed I walked away leaving the leaking thing for future Oscar to deal with.


    Making my way back over to the mega sized mantis I noticed something dangling over it. I may have been invulnerable at the time, but I was still in the middle of an alien rainforest and had just had my ass handed to me by a pond plant, with that in mind I slowed my approach keeping the dangler in sight. When I got closer, I saw that it was a spider. I thanked whatever god that reigned over the strange planet I was on that the spiders here weren¡¯t as big as the monstrous mantis. even though the odd arachnid was tiny in comparison to the mantis it was still pretty huge for a spider. It had a long and thick abdomen but a short stubby cephalothorax with large red eyes that glowed in the dimly lit surrounding. Although thin and wiry its legs gave it a menacing appearance, they spanned twice as wide as my hand and ended in sharp looking points.


    The closer I got to the spider there more detail I took in. it¡¯s blue and gold pattern glowed a little less than its piercing sanguine eyes and although it hung on a thin web strand it was moved by the breeze. My heart raced as it paid me attention and nervously, I took a step back.


    ¡°Hey buddy.¡± I said more to calm myself. ¡°I¡¯m just gunna grab those mandibles there, ok?¡±


    The spider dropped down onto the mantis and began to scratch at the monster¡¯s carapace.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s tough ain¡¯t it.¡± I said hoping it wouldn¡¯t realise my flesh was softer and much easier to access as I approached the mandibles I had dropped. ¡°I tell you what give me some space and I¡¯ll try and open it up for you.¡±


    To my surprise the spider climbed back up its web. Refusing to believe it understood me I rushed over to the mandibles and grabbed them by the blunt sides and hurriedly prepared myself for it to attack. It stayed immobile, either it understood me, or it wrongly thought it was more scared of me than I was of it.


    ¡°Ok, I¡¯m doing this.¡± I said pushing the blade of one of the mandibles into the mantis with visible effort. ¡°This is disgusting pal; you better be grateful.¡±


    Suddenly I was overcome with a feeling of intense hunger in my gut and weirdly a sense of joy and excitement. Those feelings seemed to coincide with the spider diving down into the rent I had made in the mantis¡¯ carapace. I assumed that it was the deep analysis skill kicking into action and I watched on. I exhaled in ecstasy as the spider nommed on the internal fluids of the monster and even though the sight was abhorrent, I kinda got it.


    ¡°Is that nice buddy?¡± I asked stupidly stepping closer.


    Another wave of pleasure hit me when the gold and blue arachnid looked up at me. That pleasurable feeling changed to a strong desire to be subservient. Rethinking my previous thought of my skill bringing on these feelings I realised it was the spider affecting my mind this time. I darted back. As if a mind-altering, human abducting system wasn¡¯t bad enough, there was also mind-bending spiders.


    ¡°Hey man,¡± I huffed out in terror. ¡°I thought we were buddies.¡±


    It dropped to the ground and slowly marched its eight spindly glowing legs towards me.


    ¡°Remember that time I helped you eat a mega mantis?¡± I quickened my pace, and the spider doubled its speed in return. ¡°I know it wasn¡¯t long ago pal, but I feel like we could be great friends you know.¡±


    I actually did feel that way for some reason. Like deep down somewhere I knew it didn¡¯t want to hurt me. Taking a leap of faith. stopped in my tracks.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to hurt me do you.¡±


    The spider filled me with a sense of companionship.


    ¡°OK, yeah, ok.¡± I said reaching out my hand. ¡°Comrades.¡±


    I knelt down, letting the arachnid place a foot on my hand. It filled me with a grateful glee and wrapped itself around my wrist. The way its legs wove around the base of my forearm they looked more like a set of glowing bangles. It was a thing of beauty, the body sat snuggly under my palm and its eyes looked like gleaming ruby.


    ¡°Do you have a name?¡± I asked, admiring my new friend


    It shot back a painful feeling of loneliness.


    ¡°Oh, buddy.¡± I tried to hold back tears. ¡°You¡¯ve got me now.¡± I said letting a few drops wet my cheeks.


    it replied with a feeling of security.


    ¡°I know dude, I¡¯ve been there. I won¡¯t leave you.¡± The interaction revived long dead emotions in me, and I changed subject. ¡°Ok how about a name?¡±


    It hit me with a positive feeling, and I thought about it for a minute. The spider was too beautiful for a basic name like Spinner or Legs and way to intimidating for a cutesy Pok¨¦mon reference.


    Hoping my assumption wasn¡¯t taken in bad taste I asked. ¡°You¡¯re a boy, right?¡±


    Positivity tingled my senses.


    ¡°How about, Anansi?¡± I asked giving the spider a soft stroke on its abdomen. ¡°He was a spider god on my planet, and you look like a god of spiders to me.¡±


    With his name uttered my heart filled with unbridled pride. The way Anansi transmitted emotions felt like a welcomed invasion, he kicked down a barred door and made me feel again, if just for a moment.


    ¡°We better see what¡¯s out their buddy.¡± I said, my eyes scanning the crescent rim of towering trees. ¡°we¡¯ve only got a day before I¡¯m mortal again.¡±


    This time the invasion wasn¡¯t so much as welcomed as it was needed. At the thought of leaving the forest clearing, my heart sank, and my every nerve trembled. I had to beat my chest with a fist to remind my lungs to release my last breath.


    ¡°Is it really that bad out there Anansi?¡± I shot the question between forced panicky breaths.


    My friendly wrist hugging spider buddy shot me a vision of my location covered in webbing. Each web held silhouettes of indescribable creatures, big and small. With the vision came a calming concept of safety. It took a few seconds for my heart to slow its pace and my lungs chest to regulate their rhythm. I was grateful for warning it gave me a semblance of reality. The mantis may have been a peculiarity for the forest, being that it was dubbed an area boss but before me lay a treeline of endless possible dangers.


    ¡°You¡¯re right bud.¡± I proclaimed stroking Anansi. ¡°If we¡¯re going out there, we¡¯re gunna need a safe place to come back to.¡±


    There was no way in hell, or whatever system inspired derivative existed on this planet, that I was going to let Anansi turn this place into a Jackson pollock web-scape just to feel a bit safer. The pristine clearing was too open to just set up a hovel and be spared from whatever creepy crawlies might encroach on my sleeping form, so, I decided to treat the place like the forest I had been taken from and build in the trees.


    The last time I was setting up a tree house I had cheated. I was already a sponsored survivalist streamer with the best gear afforded to me by more providers than I cared to list and on top of that I had the help of a near by town to source the processed materials to construct my tree fixed dwelling. Here I had next to nothing. Anansi made me frown with that thought and showed me an image of his webs forming a watertight shelter. The frown turned into a thoughtful pout, and I pondered on what else his webs would be good for.


    Inspiration struck and I approached the tasty looking mantis. the closer I got the more my mouth watered, and I had to really focus on separating my own mind from Anansi¡¯s projected desires. Ensuring him that he was about to get a treat quickly calmed his intrusive pleads. When I picked up one of the mandible-blades my mouth instantly salivated and cutting the desired portion of the bland mantis¡¯ hind leg only made it worse. When the juices dripped out of the exoskeleton, I dribbled in anticipation.


    ¡°Go on Anansi, have your fill.¡±


    The spider untangled himself from my wrist and attached to the opening in the severed mantis leg. The sounds were horrendous, the scraping of his legs on its exterior and scratching of his mandibles against the walls of its slowly hollowing interior were outdone only by the sickening slurping and gulping of the juicy green biomass filling. I was overcome with the projected ecstasy of the spider and my own personal disgust. In the movement I honestly didn¡¯t know if I wanted to vomit or cut another piece for myself. Luckily by the time my disgust wavered Anansi was done, and I could get to work. The piece of leg I had cut was just thin enough to hold comfortably in my palm and with luck I figured I would be able to fashion a sword hilt from it, all I needed was adhesive. Before I wasted my time I decided to try and show Anansi what I was planning. I closed my eyes and did my best to picture a step by step of crafting the mandibles into functioning machetes. My best spider buddy did not disappoint, he instantly got what I was projecting and sent back a few options on how he could use his webbing. One of the options he hit me with came with a vision of him devouring the entirety of the mantis¡¯ internal fluids and even though it wasn¡¯t necessary for making my weapons it would definitely be needed for my future survival.


    It took more than thirty minutes. Cutting and shaping the massive mandible was an intricate and delicate practice of will and patients. I must have sliced the same index finger off at least ten times while trying to whittle down the first mandible enough to fit inside the piece of leg I had prepared. When it was ready, Anansi filled the hilt length leg piece with a gooey web that acted like expanding foam and allowed the two prepared pieces to fit together perfectly. I left the first machete aside to allow the webbing to dry and harden while I inspected my freshly attached finger. It was weird, I hadn¡¯t completely severed the finger, however I had caused it to dangle by strip of flesh at a different point on the appendage each time and each time it was cut all I had to do was push the finger back in place and it would instantly heal. There was no pain, no panic, only a sense of detachment from what had happened and the reality of consequences. All I could think was that in less than a day any damage was going to be fatal out here, but before the very personal and ever-present feeling of existential dread could set in, a familiar tone sounded in my head.


    Congratulations you have crafted a system first original armament. With this achievement comes the following gains: superior skill Artificing, bug type damage resistance, bladed weapons damage resistance.


    When the voice faded, I called over to Anansi, who was feasting on the open wound in the mantis¡¯ abdomen. ¡°Hey, did you hear that?¡±


    Understanding flowed through me.


    ¡°What does it mean?¡±


    My mind was drawn to the remaining mandible and the spider made me want to work on replicating the machete. It took me all of five minutes to create the second one, not including the time it would take for my buddies webbing to dry. I hadn¡¯t even nicked a finger this time around and my understanding of how to cut, shape and fit the parts together was somehow deeper. The skill I had acquired had affected me in the same way analyse had and gave me the ability to work efficiently without years of practice. With my two machetes ready to go and Anansi hopping back onto my wrist with a full belly, I looked to my surroundings.


    ¡°It¡¯s time to build ourselves a camp, buddy.¡±

 Chapter 2: Sanctuary.

    Chapter 2: Sanctuary.


    The dim light of the system¡¯s night sky, struggled to break through the dense canopy overhead. Compared to the clearing I had arrived in; the surrounding forest was a dark and foreboding environment. Under foot lay various terrains that seemed to change by the minute, from soft mulchy soil, to dry nutrient void earth and my personal favourite, uneven spiney roots that shot out of the ground at random. If I wasn¡¯t immune to damage at the time, my first trip and fall would have killed me instantly.


    I had been walking for a little more than five minutes, obviously distracted by the beauty and purity of the forest around me and taking in the strange shapes of the surrounding flora, when my foot caught on a root that I was sure hadn¡¯t been there before. Suffice to say, I fell, and the two-inch spike that protruded from the root beneath me pierced my left eye in an instant. Again, there was no pain, only an uncomfortable pressure as my skull cavity was penetrated. I lay there half blind for a minute, screaming obscenities in the dry cracked ground before I grabbed one of my fallen machetes and hacked at the root from either side of my head. The damn thing was curved at an angle that made it tough to pull out of my fucking brain and my stomach churned at the squelching pop the thing made as I yanked it out.


    When I looked down as my eye and grey matter reformed, the offending root had disappeared from the ground. After that, I cut every root I came across. I walked in a straight line for another five minutes hacking a path around me, roots, branches and vines all suffered in my irrational wake. I don¡¯t know if I was suffering from temporary brain damage or if I was just letting off my frustrations from being deposited in this monstrous, and apparently homicidal, rainforest but it felt good to lash out, that was until I saw a boar.


    This wasn¡¯t your average Baratheon killing boar, that would have been bad enough but no, this boar had tusks design for goring its prey and was almost definitely a predator. The big black furred beast locked its eyes on me and Anansi made my mouth water at the sight of it.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re hungry bud, but this thing looks dangerous.¡± I said backing up slowly.


    At the sound of my voice the boar grunted and kicked up dirt in excitement. I knew the overgrown pig couldn¡¯t hurt me but if a root could puncture my skull, I could only imagine what the boar¡¯s tusks could do to me. Before I had the chance to turn tail and run, Anansi did his thing and changed my entire viewpoint. My heart quickened its pace, my fists clenched around the hilts of my machetes, and I roared out in rage. I pushed towards the boar, and it kicked its back foot again but this time with its bassy grunt came a shimmering light around its tusks.


    I ignored the abnormal sight and picked up my pace. When there was less than ten feet between us, the bastard pig flashed out of sight, reappearing in an instant with its glowing tusks piercing my gut and completely skewering me. Just like that damned thorn the tusks were curved enough to cause my body to become stuck. The lack of pain was the only comfort I had while the beast tossed its body around trying to free me from its clutches. For more minutes than I care to remember, I was thrown this way and that, smashed against trees, the ground and  at some point the homicidal pig threw itself to the floor and tried to kick me off, like I was some kind of free loader.


    While I suffered the embarrassment of being rag dolled, I felt Anansi crawl off of my arm and just as I was about to accuse the spider of betrayal, he did something I didn¡¯t expect. A web shot down from between the trees and lifted the boar and I into the air. I had to marvel at the tensile strength of the woven web as the boar had to weigh at least twice my mass. Shocked at its sudden dangling position the boar went stiff and with the given opportunity I acted. I grabbed the rough black fur of the thing and heaved, blood burst from the massive holes in my stomach and miraculously what was left of my intestines didn¡¯t fall out as I freed myself.


    Relieved that the boar no longer had me in its grip I let myself fall to the ground, at the same time the beast came too and began to buck, causing it to swing. I could tell Anansi was bothered by its movements as I felt annoyance creep in under the relief of freedom and my rapidly sealing wounds. Deciding to lend my saviour aid I searched for my machetes, finding them a few feet away I grabbed them and rushed the big bastard pig pinata.


    The blades had no effect. I slashed and stabbed, over and over, screaming my rage out for every beast in the vicinity to hear but nothing came of it. I didn¡¯t know if it was the bloodlust that Anansi had filled me with or just an adrenal response from the traumatic episode, but I couldn¡¯t think straight and at that point I needed to do more than banally swinging my blades at the boar¡¯s impenetrable hide.


    ¡°Buddy.¡± I huffed, trying to get the spiders attention. ¡°I need you to calm me down.¡±


    My heart slowed, my jaw unclenched, and I could finally think straight.


    ¡°Firstly Anansi, I want to say, never affect my mind that way without my permission.¡± A wave of sadness struck me from the spider, and I continued. ¡°Secondly, can you keep it still please?¡±


    The spider sprung to action, spinning its webs with intricate ease. When he was done, the pinata was more like a boar meat burrito dangling above me. I asked Anansi to drop the pig, and he complied. What I noticed most when it fell to the floor was the pained grimace upon impact; there had been no acknowledgment of my machete attacks, but an eight-foot drop bothered it. I considered having Anansi pull the boar up higher to drop it down to its deserved demise but after what it had done to me, things felt personal. My best spider buddy watched me as I circled the prone beast and it reminded me of the mantis, my knife couldn¡¯t scratch the carapace, but the insect¡¯s mandibles sliced through like butter. Was the boar¡¯s hide harder than the insects armour, if that was the case the bore definitely had a soft spot, and I had brought the perfect tool for the job.


    When you¡¯ve been as intimate with an object as having it penetrate your eye-socket, one simply does not discard it. Reaching to my belt I unhooked the offending root and jammed the prick directly into the boar¡¯s eye. With a reminiscent squelch and a final squeal from my foe, the beast died.


    Congratulations you have slain iron hide boar. You have gained the following: large experience, dual wielding, herbology.


    I breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of the notification. I knew I would find it annoying to have my mind invaded like that every time I achieved something, but it definitely quelled the fear that the boar had somehow survived. Regardless of my surety I still gave the big pig a kick in its smug dead face; it did after all put me through my second most traumatic experience in my short time in this strange new world. Standing back and looking at the huge beast, while my freshly broken toes clicked back into place, I felt intense hunger pangs from the bottom of my gurgling gut.


    ¡°Let me get the root out of its eye and you can eat your fill, pal.¡± I said to the spider that dangled above the boar. ¡°Actually Anansi, is there any chance you could tone down these sensations?¡± I imagined myself being peckish and tried to convey it to the spider. ¡°That¡¯s normal human hunger, dude. You ate a fair amount of mantis juice like an hour ago there¡¯s no way you¡¯re as starving as you just made me feel.¡±


    Anansi made my cheeks heat up with embarrassment and dropped the gut-wrenching hunger down to a mild craving. It was close enough.


    ¡°You really feel your feelings don¡¯t you, buddy.¡± I gave him a smile. ¡°Let me get that root.¡±


    As soon as I pulled the root out Anansi descended on the boar. Unlike his feast with the mantis this time he crawled into the beast through its mutilated eye socket, and I sat down to give him some privacy. The pleasure that spider sent me was welcomed. While I basked in the feeling of a slowly filling belly and the tingling sensation of enjoyment, I contemplated the system notification.


    It said I had gained large experience, I assumed that meant the skills I picked up would be gaining levels during the integration period but honestly, I had no idea what that all meant. So far, deep analysis and artificing had come in handy; I wouldn¡¯t have my machetes without them. Butchery was a weird one, and other than the fact that when I thought about it in regard to the boar I suddenly knew where and how to cut to get the best quality strips of bacon possible, the skill hadn¡¯t been of any use so far,  although thinking about it would I have known how to remove the mantis¡¯ mandibles or the angle to jam the root into the boar¡¯s eye without the butchery skill.


    Having knowledge downloaded into my mind was a difficult thing to think about. The sudden understanding felt more like a hazy memory had come to light than it did anything else. The new skills were dual wielding and herbology. Dual wielding made sense I fought the boar with a weapon in each hand, ok I thrashed at the thing senselessly, but the system still rewarded me for it. Herbology was weird, was it like artificing, gained from proper use of materials.


    Wondering what the herbology skill did for me, I inspected the sharp tipped root. The slurping sounds coming from somewhere inside the boar¡¯s carcass mad it hard to focus but with a deep inhale I managed to activate deep analysis. Suddenly there was only the root, all else was a blur. The first thing I noticed was that it was remarkably clean for something that had been stabbed inside two brains. Its light brown skin had thin hairs that stood on end as my hand neared. I played around with it, turning it over in my hand and noted that the areas I had cut had reformed protecting the core of it. the oddest thing I saw was that the tip of the thorn looked more like a syringe and when I pricked my finger on it the blood was sucked into the root. Not just that but any blood I dripped on the thing was also absorbed. My conclusion was that whatever plant this root came from was vampiric in nature. Understanding flooded my mind, and I knew that the plant could be trained to patrol a boundary if properly maintained with a diet of blood and fresh water. The question was, did I want to raise a plant like this in my little oasis.


    Before I could come to a decision, Anansi returned to my wrist and filled my mind with satisfaction. With his meal done I turned my mind to the boar. The system called it an iron hide boar, as in its skin was like iron. Had I just known its name I probably would have tried a completely different approach. Although, there wasn¡¯t much I could have done after it blinked through the distance like that. shaking my doubts aside, I inspected the big pig¡¯s corpse. Anansi had done a number on it; the beast was shrivelled beyond belief. Pocking and prodding it revealed that it was literally just skin, and bones and I shivered to think that in the time I had been playing with the vampire root the spider that was wrapped around my wrist had devoured every ounce of meat and blood inside the thing.


    Now, I¡¯ve never been a fan of hunting for sport, it always felt a bit cheap to me, man with powerful long range rifle murders animal with fuck all but teeth and claws, but dammit I fought this thing and well, if I wasn¡¯t currently immortal, I¡¯d have lost. so yeah, I wanted to take it home, if not as a trophy, then as a reminder that I had my ass handed to me. when I tried to lift it, I found that it was much too heavy to handle. The worst part was that the hide was actually pretty light and if I could cut and tan it, it would make for an impenetrable cloak, but the bones felt like they weighed a tonne.


    As I sighed with disappointment, my mind spider replaced the emotion with hope.


    ¡°What are you trying to tell me, Anansi?¡±


    He hoped off my wrist, entered into the boar¡¯s body through its mouth and exited again pulling a strand or webbing. He then did the cutest thing ever. Waving two of his little gold and blue legs at me he wiggled his bum indicating for me to help. I stooped down and he left the strand of webbing in my hand, it was oddly hard and rough to the touch. He then circled around the boar carcass and webbed up its hind legs, that web he attached to the trunk of a tree and when he dropped back down to the ground, the strands of webbing attached to the boar¡¯s legs pulled hard. It was a rapid chain of events, the web in my hand went tort, the iron hide flew towards the tree and a heavy parcel of bones slid out of the boar¡¯s stretching maw. For the umpteenth time I wanted to be sick.


    Deciding that my first little foyer into the forest was enough for the moment, I grabbed up the iron hide and turned back towards the oasis. With the machetes and vampire root strapped to my belt, the hide in my arms and Anansi on my wrist, the journey was a slow one. It took me around fifteen minutes to get close to where the root had tried to kill me, admittedly I was only going so slowly because I feared that said root might sneak up on me again, but with my eyes glued to the ground I saw no evidence of its presence.


    When I was about five minutes away from my destination, I felt an odd sensation come over me.


    ¡°Anansi, are you doing that?¡± I asked the spider.


    He doused my thought in negativity.


    ¡°Then why do I suddenly feel safe?¡±


    He made me feel responsible for my surroundings


    ¡°Wait is that the area of authority I gained. Does that make things safe around here?¡±


    He wriggled with a shared delight.


    ¡°How does that even work?¡±


    I almost shit myself in fear.


    ¡°Right. That was a bit much, buddy but I get it. anything that approaches will be afraid to come any closer.¡± I thought about the distance and the math did itself. ¡°So, are we¡¯re saying this authority should reach around a quarter of a mile radius, right?¡±


    We both smiled with positivity, and I walked on without a care in the world.


    When I first set out my goal was to discover what my new environment was like, and I had discovered that the rain forest was dangerous beyond belief. Returning to the safety of my oasis, my sanctuary, filled both me and Anansi with the purest sense of calm imaginable and for a moment I basked in the serenity of the secure location. The area authority given to me for defeating the blade mantis meant that nothing would approach this safe space, and I could do as I pleased without having to look over my shoulder or under foot for deadly roots.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    After I had deposited my gear and taken a second to fully appreciate my surroundings I decided to start on my building project. I needed a roof over my head and a place to store things. Again, I didn¡¯t want to live on the ground, the time I had spent in the trees of the amazon gave me comfort and so I looked to the tree line once more. Anansi¡¯s trick with the retracting web gave me an idea and with my thought, he sent me positive feedback. Aiming my hand at a particularly thick trunk with plenty of out stretching branches he shot a web that pulled me up in an instant. Obviously, I did the spider man hand sign as I flew through the air grinning to myself. The one thing I hadn¡¯t thought about in my giddy stupor was how to manoeuvre around the tree. So, for a minute or two I dangled by one arm feeling like a complete idiot. Asking Anansi for a hand he got me up to a steady branch and from there I began gathering wood.


    The mantis blades cut the thick branches with ease and before long, I gained a rhythm of zipping from branch to branch, cutting and dropping the majority of the log sized branches down to the ground. After an hour of this I had piled up enough wood to build a log cabin and Anansi had left my wrist to snack on the mantis. it took me ages to prepare the wood, even with the mantis blades stripping the bark was a tedious affair. Cutting the log like branches into planks and beams was a little more enjoyable as I imagined what I would be using each piece for as I crafted them but, on my mind, the whole time was the fact that I was slowly using up the integration periods immortality buff.


    When Anansi returned to me, I asked him to help with his adhesive webbing and the world¡¯s best spider buddy was happy to comply, within moments we had built a twenty-foot ladder, and my tree house dream was about to become a reality. When I stuck the final rung on the ladder the system notified me of my success.


    Congratulations, you have crafted an iron web infused ladder (superior) and have gained the following: carpentry.


    So, I was already a pretty proficient carpenter, but the added skill did something to me that people on earth would kill for. I went from being good enough to build a shed, to having the knowledge to build a wooden cathedral. Ideas flooded my mind, bespoke armchairs, embellished wardrobes and a king-sized bed with a comfort level over nine thousand. If this was what gaining a levelled-up skill was going to be like, I wanted them all.


    With the idea of gaining new skills distracting me from my goal of a comfortable tree house I decided I would have to at least do the bare minimum before setting off. up I went into the trees and with the help of Anansi¡¯s webbing, I had built the shell of my house in just a few easy minutes. The flooring was perfectly even, level and smooth. The frame was sturdy, and the roof was so airtight even a monsoon wouldn¡¯t be able to leak through. The last thing I had to do was attach the ladder to the hatch in the floor and I could set off on another adventure, this time I was going out with a purpose.


    Before I left for the dangerous wilds of the rainforest, I stopped by the ever-present mantis corpse as I had two things I wanted to try. Those jagged blades on its arms were perfect for a new weapon and with a new weapon type would hopefully come a new skill. This time I wanted to craft a spear, If I had a spear during the boar fight, ok incident, I might have tried piercing its eye socket earlier. Using the knowledge that came with the artificer skill I instinctively knew what parts of the massive mantis¡¯ leg would work well, and the butchery skill not only let me cut with perfect precision, but it allowed me to pry out the blades without damaging their roots making for extremely durable spear heads. While Anansi supped on the juicy meat of the leg, I whittled away at the blade root and when we were done, we worked together to finish the weapon. It was my finest work yet. The spear head ran deep into the pole affixed by Anansi expanding web adhesive and around the pole my spider buddy had weaved thin strands of webbing to help secure my grip. While I admired my work I waited for my notification, but it never came.


    Shrugging I asked Anansi to confirm something for me. ¡°Buddy, is you¡¯re webbing harder than it was before?¡±


    He made a vision of the boar flash in my mind.


    ¡°You got the boar¡¯s durability?¡±


    He hit me with that addictive positivity.


    ¡°So, when you finish eating the blade mantis?¡±


    Visions of all the times I had sliced off my finger turned my smile upside down.


    ¡°Hey, I didn¡¯t know what I was doing, ok.¡± I hit him back with the strongest annoyance I could muster up before continuing. ¡°So, does that mean you¡¯re webs will be sharp to the touch?¡±


    He compounded my negativity and then slowly raised it to a pleasant feeling of content.


    ¡°You can control it then.¡± I said, giving him a stroke while I enjoyed the peaceful feeling he shared. ¡°So why aren¡¯t you eating the bug right now?¡±


    My stomach ached with fullness, and I felt more bloated than an all you can eat taco Tuesday.


    ¡°You know, with everything you¡¯ve eaten today I¡¯m not surprised.¡±


    I suddenly felt exhausted and let out an involuntary yawn.


    ¡°Woah buddy, I can¡¯t afford to sleep right now, but if you¡¯re tired have a nap I¡¯ve got a few bits left to do before we head off.¡± With that said he put me back in control, but I had to ask. ¡°Hey, you know that feeling of content you hit me with earlier, would you mind?¡±


    And boy did he. I smiled like an idiot while I worked on gaining my next skill. Hoping for a gathering skill or maybe even an autopsy skill I began removing every spear head that jutted out of the mantis¡¯ two front legs. Having the jagged blades just piled up on the ground would have been a bit too inefficient for me so I improvised and used the iron hide boar as a bag. The best thing about Anansi¡¯s appetite was that he didn¡¯t leave a shred of moisture in the remains of his victim, so I knew that the spear heads would be clean and safe to move around. In total there was two hundred and seventy-five jagged spear heads to remove and after I had removed the first hundred my disappointment levels pushed passed the content that Anansi had lent me. I hated to leave a job undone so regardless of the fact that no skill was coming to me, I popped out the last blade and stuffed it into the iron hide bag.


    Congratulations. You have successfully harvested a full yield of blade mantis spikes (unique) and have gained the following: harvesting.


    The notification repelled my disappointment and taught me something important about the system; skills only came after a job was completed. If I wanted a spear wielding skill I was going to have to go out and kill something. Ready to set off I deposited the iron hide bag at the bottom of the ladder to my tree house, noting to myself that I would have to build a pully system, and with a gentle stroke on his blue and gold back I woke Anansi.


    The last time I left the oasis, I travelled in a straight line with my back to the waterfall. This time I turned left and used the mountains edge to indicate my path home. Without knowledge of the constellations above there was no way to track my direction, so, if the mountain rounded off, I would have to follow its curvature. Walking would have been too slow for the foray I had planned and honestly, I really enjoyed the web slinging that Anansi enabled so with the copyrighted hand gesture, I took to the trees.


    The speed at which I zipped from tree to tree meant I failed to take in my surroundings within a minute or two I had covered the quarter mile radius of my authority and was once again venturing through the ever-dangerous rainforest. I slowed my progress when I saw a tree bearing bunches of small vibrant red fruit. Thanking the system for the herbology and harvesting skills, I zipped over. The fruit were cherry sized pears on thick black stems and let of a sweet aroma. I had to have one in my hand to gain the knowledge of its property¡¯s but that was hardly a problem. If eaten, the little red pears would begin a slow full body healing process but if gathered and crushed into a poultice they could be used on a wound to instantly regenerate damage. If something like this existed on earth, there would be no questioning its worth and naturally big pharma would gate keep the shit out of its use. I stuffed as many of the pears as I could fit in my belt pouches and continued on my journey.


    In the short time I had been zipping through the forest I had easily travelled at least three miles and the mountain¡¯s impossibly steep edge had yet to change. It was as if it were a barrier, or a wall designed to separate the forest from the world above. I had considered giving scaling it a go in an attempt to earn a rock-climbing skill, or would it be mountain climbing, whatever the skill would be I dissuaded myself at the thought of having to finish the impossible task to gain said skill, but that was when I had a brilliant idea. Ahead of me, just a few quick web zips away grew a tree much shorter than the gargantuan redwood type trees I had been zipping between. I figured that I would have to start at the ground and reach the top to potentially gain anything and when I put my theory into practice, I was right.


    Congratulations, you have successfully scaled a tree and have gained the following: climbing.


    I¡¯d have liked to have known why I didn¡¯t receive the skill after climbing the ladder I had built, maybe it was something about the effort involved or maybe a restriction involving things made by people. Before I could fall deep into my musings my full attention was drawn to a sound in the near distance. Not just any sound a voice.


    ¡°Oh god, my eyes. No, God no, you damn cat.¡± Screamed the agonising voice.


    The deep guttural scream was loud enough to startle the birds above and with the words spoken in my native tongue, I hurried towards it excited to meet another person who had been stolen from earth by the system. What I found made me stop in my tracks. High enough to go unnoticed I watched three ants, the size of God forsaken Pitbulls tearing apart a massive person. My ocular senses were overwhelmed as I took in the sight. The ants had tough looking mandibles at the front of their angular heads and all about their candy red carapaces jutted spikes with tips that looked almost as sharp as my spear.


    Their quarry was definitely not human, but he was defiantly a person dressed in a heavy wax jacked and a pair of oddly made combat shorts was an extremely muscular green skinned man. I couldn¡¯t describe the alien¡¯s face as evidently it no longer had on. What I would have assumed had been a brutish and intimidating visage was now a blackened mess, dripping and oozing. Its skull showed in places and where the lips used to be protruded what looked like tusks.


    While the ants where distracted in their attempts to dismember the hulking figure, I inhaled deeply, positioned myself above the largest one and gave my spider buddy a stroke for luck. Removing the spear from the sling I had Anansi weave for me, I let out my breath and dived. Wet jungle air swept my hair back as I plummeted down from the twenty-foot drop. With my spear head aimed for the ant¡¯s head I gripped the shaft tightly and readied myself for a rough landing. As the spear head connected, I drove the pole deep into the ant¡¯s head smiling at the satisfying crunch of its exoskeleton and squish of the juicy bits that sent Anansi into a mind warping craving for ant innards. Holding onto the pear shaft to steady my broken jellified legs, I eyed the other two ants as the notification ringed in my ears.


    Congratulations, you have slain: acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience, Drop attack.


    ¡°Not the skill I had expected but Beggers can¡¯t be choosers.¡± I said feeling my shins reform. ¡°What did it say about acid?¡±


    Before I could finish the sentence a glob of green liquid splashed my face, and I smelt what seemed to be a strong bleach like fragrance. Wiping the spit away, I realized half my face was numb and I could only see out of one eye, when I looked down at what was left of my hand it was evident that the aforementioned acid was going to be a problem. My face knitted itself back together and I leapt back as another glob of acid was spat at me. with my spear stuck inside the ant and the skin of my left-hand reforming, all I could do was dodge and roll as the angry Ants charged me.


    Taking a chance I backed up, positioning myself for a risky manoeuvre. With my hand fully healed and my successful evasive action, I had grown quite confident as the ants stared me down clearly growing irritated at my actions. Stroking Anansi once more for luck, I ran towards the two monsters. The ant on my left charged me, while the one on the right spat at me, the acid landed on my chest and with the lack of pain, I simply shrugged it off. Dodging the charging Ant I pushed out my hand and Anansi splashed it with a web, I could hear it struggling behind me as I ran full pelt towards the corpse that held my spear. The other ant was hot on my heals and I felt my ass go numb as the thing definitely bit a chunk of tender rump. That was fine though as I had reached my goal. With a leap of self-belief, I vaulted over the dead ant and grabbed the shaft of my spear. With a yank the spear was free, and I was once again armed.


    With hope in my heart, I ducked down and my prayers were answered as the charging ant clambered over its fallen sistren. for a split second I wondered if the ant matriarchy roles would be the same on the system as they were on earth but before my obsessive thoughts could distract me fully, it was time to act. With a powerful thrust of my spear, I drove the blade through the ant¡¯s mid-section, instantly pulling it out again and rolling to the side before I could get covered in guts. The thing bucked and chittered erratically in its death throws until it went still, and that glorious voice sounded in my head.


    Congratulations, You have slain: acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience, evasion, pole arms.


    I felt like Neo, the mix of the evasion and pole arms skills filled me with the knowledge that only a shaolin monk could have honed from decades of practice. Sprinting a using my spear to pole vault over the dead ants I approached my remaining foe. The fury in it multifaceted eye did nothing to temper my vainglorious charge. It spat and I dropped to my knees sliding under the green globule. Once clear of the acid I pushed my spear down into the ground and used it to properly me bodily into the angry chittering angry. I felt like a fucking god as I hurtled through the air my spear held high and my voice box vibrating with a mighty roar.


    Congratulations you have slain acid spitter ant (worker) and have gaind the following: medium experience.


    ¡°Fuck yeah, I did.¡± I cheered. ¡°Go on Anansi, eat your fill.¡±


    Naturally the greed bugger zipped directly over to the largest ant and began feasting, so, while I enjoyed his projected ecstasy I inspected the closest deceased ant. Up close and with time to really take it in the thing was horrifying and with the classification of ¡®worker¡¯ I really didn¡¯t want to meet a soldier ant. Once Anansi had his fill I fully intended to return to this location and see what I could harvest from these ants. The mandibles looked like they would make amazing clubs or if I could cut and shape their carapaces perhaps, I could make a decent spiked shield.


    Before I could let my musings indulge in my creative mind, I saw something in the corner of my vision, hobbling over to the hulking green corpse next to the largest ant. Paying it my attention I saw that the thing was a little furry black cat person. The mini-Khajit wore what I could only described as rags and had blood dripping down its leg from what looked to be a crossbow bolt embedded in it¡¯s thigh. Its movements were painstakingly slow as it searched the corpse for something. Giving up and letting out a loud and desperate mew, the cat fainted.


    I rushed over feeling sorry for the little guy. He looked helpless and was clearly brutally wounded by the dead green dude it had been trying to ransack. Looking him over, or at least I assumed it was a him, the only wound I could see was the bolt in his leg. Snapping to action I pulled out the healing pears from my bag and grabbed up an errant rock, crushing them in my palm and grinding them into a poultice, I acted without hesitation. I applied the healing sludge as quickly as I had pulled out the bolt and breathed a sigh of relief as the wound began to seal but the cat didn¡¯t wake.


    Scratching him behind the ear I said. ¡°C¡¯mon little guy wake up.¡± He was still breathing although his breaths were slow and laboured.


    Congratulations. You have successfully crafted and administered high health poultice (poor) and have gained the following: first aid, chemistry.


    The skill gains were welcomed but I was terrified of losing the little fella. Feeling my fear, Anansi hurried over and sent me calming thoughts, then he filled me with huger.


    ¡°No.¡± I reprimanded the spider. ¡°We don¡¯t eat the innocent.¡±


    My best buddy hit me with a feeling of absolute stupidity and took a pear out of my pouch, rolled it into my red stained hand and once again hit me with the hunger.


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry.¡± I said pinching the bridge of my nose. ¡°you¡¯re right I¡¯m stupid.¡±


    Taking out a few more pears I crushed them up and force fed them to the cat. Still, it didn¡¯t wake, but its breathing regulated and what was a pained moan became a relaxed snore.


    ¡°What should we do?¡± I asked Anansi desperate for guidance.


    He made me home sick and he was right, I needed to get the cat out of this dangerous portion of the jungle, if any more ants came protecting him would be impossible. I lifted the cat onto my back and Anansi secured him tightly with a weave of soft yet sturdy webbing, I then angled my spear away from the cat and Anansi crafted me a fresh sling, tighter and more secure than the last one.


    With a determined glare I looked to the trees and said. ¡°Right buddy, let¡¯s get home.¡±

 chapter 3: preparations.

    Chapter 3: Preparations.


    I don¡¯t know if Anansi could feel my desperation or if he just understood the situation we were in, but he matched my will for haste without hesitation. We zipped through the air, from tree to tree without delay and when we made it back to the oasis, the little fella hopped off my wrist and stumbled towards the mantis¡¯ corpse. I supposed that the rapid and ceaseless use of his webbing had tired him out. I felt guilty for putting him through such an ordeal without considering what it might do to him, and if I didn¡¯t have a creature in dire straits strapped to my back, I probably would have gone over to comfort my little buddy.


    The earth near the waterfall¡¯s basin had thicker and softer grass, so I decided to deposit the slumbering feline over there. The webs Anansi had used to affix him to my back, shrugged off with ease and I gently lowered the cat person down to the soft ground. Looking him over, I saw that he was young, almost a kitten. At just over four foot tall he reminded me of a vulnerable child and thinking about having to pull a crossbow bolt out of his furry black leg made my blood boil.


    ¡°You¡¯re safe now.¡± I whispered, scratching behind the cat boy¡¯s ear. ¡°I won¡¯t let anyone hurt you.¡±


    His sleeping form brought me back to a place I kept locked away. The painful memories flashed through my mind as I inspected his emaciated frame. Through the soft fur I felt arms that were practically devoid of muscle and when I removed his rags, I found filthy matted fur that twinged my nose with its sour aroma. I brought the cat closer to the basin¡¯s edge and began scooping water out with my hands to wash away the filth.


    As I washed him, I began to sing. ¡°Everybody wants to be a cat.¡± Tears formed in my eyes as the present merged with the past. ¡°Because a cats the only cat, that knows where it¡¯s at.¡± Before I knew it, I was back in my family home sponging down my little brother. ¡°When playing jazz, you always has a welcome mat. ¡®cause everybody digs a swinging cat.¡±


    By the time I was finished washing away the blood and filth, tears streamed freely down my cheeks. My little bro was in a much worse condition than the cat that slept in my arms, regardless of that fact, I still felt as helpless as I did back then. I would sing him his favourite song from his favourite film, he¡¯d call me O¡¯Malley and I¡¯d call him Berlioz. We had a great few years together before the cancer had gotten the best of him and I had never been closer to anyone else in my life. I made a promise to myself in that moment, I would care for the cat in my arms and give him the life I could never give to my little bro.


    Drying my eyes I stood. ¡°Listen little guy, I¡¯m gunna call you Berlioz and when you wake up, we¡¯re gunna be the best of friends.¡±


    I walked away from the cat boy and over to Anansi, who was angrily scraping at the giant blade mantis¡¯ lower section.


    ¡°What¡¯s up buddy?¡± I asked feeling his excitement at my approach.


    He made me feel claustrophobic and frustrated at the same time.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you get to that bit?¡±


    He danced around on the spot.


    ¡°Ok, ok. I got you buddy.¡±


    I stabbed my spear into the mantis and before I managed to return the spear to my sling the spider had climbed inside the giant bug. The wave of pleasure he sent me made my mouth water and I was one intrusive thought away from digging into the bug myself. With my best spider buddy having his fill of mantis guts, my thoughts went to Berlioz, the cat boy would need something to eat soon, and I needed to hunt.


    I wasn¡¯t sure about the inner workings of my authority, I understood that it caused intense fear for predators outside it¡¯s bounds, but I had seen birds perching on trees within its zone and figured that maybe I could find some prey somewhere in the safe zone. Leaving Anansi to his well-deserved meal I took off, this time to the right of the waterfall. I slowly wandered through the forest for a while, paying close attention to my surroundings, scanning the ground and plant life around me for any signs of life. At first my ears only picked up the usual sounds of bird song and the wind rustling through the leaves, but soon I heard another source of running water. In the near distance I could hear the familiar crashing of a waterfall but as well as that, the racing of a river could be heard. As I drew closer to the second waterfall, evidence of life began to show.


    Broken stems, half eaten leaves and what looked like large rat droppings lead me to another clearing similar to my oasis. This clearing however was flooded. I drew low as I approached the swampy area and took care not to be noticed. Inspecting the waterfall¡¯s basin, I saw identical reeds to my own, but these reeds had been nibbled on. Each one of the water-storing reeds had a few bites out of them and were spraying like broken faucets. The flow of the reeds had caused the area to flood and had generated multiple tributaries. Unfortunately, the swampy ground was too thick and muddy for me to attempt to wade through and I had lost hope of finding whatever creature had lead me there, that was until I turned around.


    ¡°Oh man, I can¡¯t do this.¡± I whispered to myself as a capybara innocently looked up at me.


    It had to be natures friendliest giant rodent. The docile thing just gazed at me without a shred of fear or anxiety, just curiosity and kindness twinkling in it big black eyes. I pulled out my spear and it cocked its oversized head to the side.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to do this.¡± I sighed. ¡°But Berlioz needs to eat and all I know is that cats need meat.¡±


    At the sound of my voice, it drew closer as if it wanted to die.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you attack me or something.¡±


    I almost shooed it away, but I had to do it. my heart raced faster than ever before and I had fought a teleporting boar, three acid spitting ants, crawled out of a giant mantis¡¯ and been un-consensually skull fucked by a vampiric root, but murdering an innocent creature was by far the worst thing I had experienced that day.


    Congratulations you have successfully tracked your prey and have gained the following: tracking, hunting.


    The skill was great and all, but the way the notification was worded showed that what I did was most definitely murder and I think the ease in which my spear head pierced the capybara¡¯s grey matter also compounded the guilt I felt. I had to tell myself it was just an animal as I lifted it up and carried its corpse home with me.


    When I arrived home Anansi was still going to town on the mantis, and I had to call him three times before he came to me. I asked the spider to just drink the blood from the creature and he actually turned his tiny little nose up at me, hitting me with a feeling of disgust and shame for bringing him such a meagre prize. With plan A for draining the poor rodents¡¯ fluids shot down, I resorted to plan B. I wasn¡¯t sure how I felt about using the vampiric root again, but it was desperate times, and I was a desperate man. The needle tip spike slid through the capybaras flesh with ease, piercing its heart and extracting its sanguine nutrients. In the palm of my hand, I felt the root pulse as it drank and within minutes it was done. When I began skinning and gutting the creature there was barly an ounce of blood left in its entire body.


    To wash the creature, I used the reed that had blasted me in the face earlier, it was actually I brilliant jet washer although it did take some time to empty out after I had removed it from the water. The last thing I had to do was build a fire and a suitable spit. it took some time to find enough large rocks around the mountains edge to build the desired base for my bonfire but when I piled up the last rock I received a sweet surprise.


    Congratulations you have successfully gathered basalt rocks and have gained the following: gathering.


    ¡°Finally.¡± I cheered and then my mind sparked with hope.


    Basalt was rich in iron so perhaps there was iron to be had in the heart of this mountain that stood before me. a mining skill would be a fucking must. Shaking off my revery I took to organising my rocks and shaving down some of my spare wood. The wood shaving were deposited between the rocks and before I knew it my fire was ready to light. A flint would have been great but instead I had to rub two sticks together. Five minutes later I had the fire going and the capybara roasting on a spit. For a bit of added flavour, I stuffed a few healing pears inside the thing and after a long while of rotating the rodent on my perfectly crafted spit I received yet another welcomed surprise.


    Congratulations, you have successfully prepared roasted capybara (fine) and have gained the following: cooking.


    Four skills for one simple task of feeding my cat bro, I really couldn¡¯t complain. With the smell of the fine quality roasted rodent in the air I went over to Berlioz to check if his state had changed. He still lay peacefully at the water¡¯s edge, and I found myself in a state of worry. I wanted to be there when he woke, I wanted to make him feel safe but at the same time I wanted to prepare for the end of the integration period. The planets that shed light from the abyss above had started to lower and the distant horizon had begun to grow brighter, signalling that my time was running out.


    Even though I had been at it nonstop for hours since I had been brought to the system, I wasn¡¯t tired or hungry at all. I felt like I could run back-to-back marathons without tiring and that thought gave me an idea.


    Congratulations, you have successfully broken the human record for metres sprinted and have gained the following: athletics.


    That one felt good. I instantly became more sure-footed, and I was sure I was suddenly stronger. All I had to do was sprint in a wide circle for thirty minutes and that beautiful jingle sounded in my brain. The only downside to my success was that I was absolutely drenched in sweat. Needing to wash I took off my clothes and realised that I had been walking around a completely ruined T-shirt and vest. Blood stains mixed with dried on mud and both of them bore multiple large holes from the acid that was spat at me and the tusks that skewered me. checking over my trousers, I saw that they were similarly ruined, even my underwear were wrecked from when the ant bit a chunk out of my ass. Jumping in the basin I considered what I could do about my sudden lack of clothing. I couldn¡¯t cut the iron side boar¡¯s flesh, and I really didn¡¯t want to slaughter anymore capybaras, perhaps I could fashion something out of the mantis.


    I swam for a good few minutes, allowing my thoughts to roam free while keeping clear of the swirling roots of the water reeds and when I climbed back out of the basin, there were a pair of bright blue feline eyes staring at my naked form.


    ¡°Oh hey, Berlioz you¡¯re awake.¡± I said grinning gleefully.


    The cat boy looked around and then pointed to himself.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve been calling you while you slept. Do you have a name?¡±


    He let out an odd mew that I had no chance of replicating, and the air grew awkward for a moment as I wondered if he could even understand me.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just gunna find something to cover myself up with. I made some food for you, so just dig in and I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡±


    Berlioz purred at the sight of the roasted rodent and bowed to me before slowly approaching it. walking back to the mantis I found Anansi sleeping on the big insect¡¯s head and had to shake his little body to rouse him. Once awake he climbed back onto my wrist and closed his eyes once more.


    ¡°Hey buddy.¡± I said waking the spider, receiving a wave of annoyance in return. ¡°I know you¡¯re tired, but my clothes are fucked any chance you could help me patch them up.¡±


    Grumpy impatience flooded my system as the spider climbed up to my shoulder and stretched its long legs. What he did next both tickled and amazed me. soft and silky webbing released from his spinneret as he raced around my top half weaving a snug and comfortable long-sleeved shirt. He then did the same to my bottom section being sure to make the tights he wove thick enough to hide my modesty. It took him all of three minutes to dress me in the most comfortable silk I have ever adorned, well it was the only silk I have ever worn but regardless the clothes felt amazing. My feet felt free yet protected and my limbs had more flexibility than they had in my lose fitted gear, sure I didn¡¯t have any pockets, but I could remedy that with my utility belt and a new vest, I might even be able to make something with those water reeds. After he had finished, he took to my wrist and fell into a deep sleep.


    ¡°Thanks bud.¡± I said, stroking his back. ¡°You really are good to me you know.¡±


    Seeing as I was dressed and felt less exposed, I approached Berlioz with a smile. The four foot cat person was tearing meat from the spit and devouring it with a delighted look on his feline face but froze when he saw me.


    ¡°Hey, hey.¡± I said softly, slowing my movements. ¡°We¡¯re all friends here no one¡¯s gunna hurt you.¡± I drew close enough to reach behind his ear and gave him a gentle scratch. ¡°I¡¯m gunna look after you ok. You can call this place home.¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Berlioz purred deeply and I petted him like the good little kitten he was. After he was fed, I told him all about my experience, The mantis, the boar, the bastard root and how I came to find him. He listened to every word and even let out a chuckle when I described my futile attempt at slashing the iron hide boars side wile it dangled above me.


    A short while later we walked together through my zone of authority and when we reached its edge he stumbled back in fear. It upset me to see the look of abject terror on his face but at the same time, it filled me with pride to know he felt safe in my little oasis. We walked for a few more hours, slowly surveying the entirety of the protected zone. It didn¡¯t feel like a waste of time to me and even when the blazing orange sun reached its zenith I wasn¡¯t concerned about the loss of my immortality. It honestly felt like I had a mute younger brother and together we discovered everything my area held. There were more prey animals and no predators, which I found might become a problem if I didn¡¯t hunt them periodically, but I supposed I could always use their corpses as bait to lure an enemy in for a drop attack.


    We also found that the rivers that flowed from the swamp lands continued far beyond our visual limits which gave me the hope of finding a safe way in and out of the forest without having to tire Anansi. Soon we grew bored of searching high and low and took to gathering the nibbled reeds, while we did so more capybaras showed up and I had to wonder if I had murdered their loved one. We gathered over thirty of the reeds and cut their tops and emptying the gallons of water in each. We aimed each reed at the edges of the thin tributaries, widening them into one large mainstem that flowed beautifully and matched the speed at which the water fell. I hoped that in time the swampy ground would dry out, now that it was no longer being actively flooded.


    Returning home with the reeds we laid them out and Berlioz looked at me expectantly as if I had some kind of master plan. Desperate not to disappoint him I picked one up and inspected it. I thanked the system for the herbology skill when ideas started pouring in. With my mantis machete I cut the root away saving it for later and sliced the hollow reed down it¡¯s centre. I then began to slice the reed into ribbons. When I was done, I took the ribbons and wove them together. The intricate weaving was only possible with the combination of deep analysis, herbology and artificing and the look of aw on Berlioz¡¯s face made everything I had been through worthwhile. I had only used one reed so what I made was small, regardless of its size the crisscrossing pattern matched Anansi¡¯s flare with weaving and the little green pouch was perfect.


    Standing with the pouch in one hand and my machete in the other I put it to the test. The blade almost cut the rim of the pouch as I pushed it in but apart from the near miss my idea worked perfectly. The two-inch back bag stored the eighteen-inch machete in an incomprehensible dimensional space. Although the bag was delicate on the outside, I knew it would be able to store a triggered grenade safely within its void, granted if anyone ever removed the grenade they would be in for a big surprise. Sure, that it would be safe I allowed Berlioz to remove the machete, and he smiled wide as he pulled the thing out.


    ¡°Pretty neat, isn¡¯t it.¡± I laughed. ¡°Want me to teach you?¡±


    At first it was a slow process with tonnes of mistakes and a few lost reeds but after Berlioz got into the rhythm of it, he made three perfect pouches without aid. I got him a mantis spike and fashioned a dagger out of it, so he could continue the repetitive yet therapeutic task and began my own project.


    I wanted to surprise my little cat bro with gear to protect himself so while he weaved away, I grabbed the prepared pouches and took to the iron hide bag of mantis spikes. Two daggers were better than one so that was my first job. I took care with the second dagger and etched a spider web design into its hilt to match the webbing Anansi had provided to affix the two mantis parts together. Next, I made him a spear that was almost identical to mine expect for its shorter length and while I was there, I transferred all the spikes from the bag to the pouch. When I damaged the pouch with one of the jagged spikes, Anansi covered its rim in webbing and suddenly the thing was impervious to spikes intimidating sharpness. Letting the sudden intrusive thought win I turned the last spike on myself and pushed it as hard as I could and nothing happened, no matter how hard I tried the dangerous to the touch spike couldn¡¯t pierce the silken top.


    ¡°Wow, Anansi I didn¡¯t know you could do that.¡± I said lovingly stroking the world¡¯s greatest spider friend. ¡°Did you get any abilities from that ant you ate.¡±


    He made me feel hungry.


    ¡°You needed to eat more, huh. We can go out now if you want, Berlioz is safe and its bright out.¡±


    I suddenly craved mantis brain.


    ¡°Is that all that¡¯s left of it? well shit, why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier.¡±


    I rushed over and took a dagger to the mantis¡¯ skull where a pulsating grey orb lay.


    ¡°Anansi that Is not a brain.¡±


    He tried to explain with a confusing mix of pride and oneness. The oneness was an amazing feeling that I would really have to get him to repeat later but I really wanted to know what the orb was.


    ¡°Can you still eat it if I take it out?¡±


    I welcomed the familiar positivity and pulled out the grey orb. My mind fucking blew.


    Congratulations, you have successfully harvested monster core (epic) and have gained the following: core mechanics.


    With the removal of the core came the knowledge of how the monsters of the system generated. Every one of them including Anansi and Berlioz started out as an atom gathering energy from their surroundings and through the manipulation of the system thy were formed into these intelligent beings. With this knowledge I learned that if I could meet the right conditions then I could actually help guide the process further, and the first step was having Anansi consume that core.


    ¡°Fucking have at it, little buddy.¡±


    He danced his spider dance, nommed the monster core directly from my palm and then crawled onto my wrist for a nap.


    ¡°That¡¯s it bud, you grow stronger.¡± I said stoking his form with a grin. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see what you become.¡±


    Berlioz had taken to weaving with gusto and was three reeds away from finishing when I returned. Not wanting to distract him from his focus I inspected the pouches he had made; each one was a perfect replica of the first one I had made, and I was proud of the little guy. Even though deep down I knew he was a system generated monster I still felt like he and my spider buddy were more than just magical creatures, after all, humans merely started off as sperm cells didn¡¯t they. My jumbled thoughts were pushed aside when Berlioz¡¯s eyes glazed over before he jumped up and let out a cheery mew. Laid before him were three more perfect little pouches.


    ¡°Did you just gain a skill?¡±


    He nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s fantastic.¡± I said scratching behind his ear. ¡°Well done, kid. I¡¯m proud of you.¡±


    For a short while I embraced him, and he purred softly in my arms while stroked his little head. He was family to me now and so was Anansi, the three of us would survive this rain forest hellscape and learn to thrive together.


    Pulling back, I said. ¡°Oh, I made these for you.¡±


    I presented two web-rimmed pouches, and he reached in the first to discover the spear.


    ¡°There¡¯s another dagger in the other one.¡± I said smiling as I watched him twirl the spear. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go back where I found you, and I really want you to be safe.¡±


    His eyes went wide and his pupils dilatated as he nervously stared in the indicated direction.


    ¡°you¡¯ll be ok. I¡¯ll protect you, plus now we have these pouches we can collect more of those healing pears.¡±


    I gave me a solemn nod and I thought of one last idea.


    I watched from my perch on the branch of a healing pear tree as Berlioz easily leapt the distance. Dressed in the same pale grey silken armour as me, he looked like an acrobat as he grabbed vines and swung through the air reaching a pear tree, I would have had trouble zipping to. We had stripped every tree we could find on our way to the area I had found him in and still had more room than we could possibly fill, in the pouches we had strapped to chests. The extra dimensional spaces were timeless, nothing could rot or wear no matter how long it stayed inside. With luck and possibly some kind of farming skill I¡¯d be able to plant a grove of these trees within the bounds of my authority.


    Before we had left, I had asked Anansi to make a few adjustments to the pouches we made, and he did not let me down. It turned out that my friendly neighbourhood spider guy was quite the artist. Showing him the healing pears, he went above and beyond, encasing the pouches in webbing that clung only to the bandoliers he had made for us and detailing them with perfectly woven renditions of the pears. The best thing was that he could change the colouring of his webbing, so when I saw the little red pears stitched into the casings of the pouches, I practically begged him to do the same for our weapons. On either side of my hips rested black pouches marked with white machetes and on my back was strapped my dagger pouch. My spear pouch rested on my left side and Berlioz¡¯s layout was much the same. I had promised the cat boy that I would find a way to craft him a pair of swords that equalled my machetes, but he just gripped the spear I gave him and shook his head.


    Inspired by Berlioz¡¯s graceful movements, I decided I wanted an acrobatics skill and gave it a go. Leaping and grabbing hold of a vine, that I realised I had made a grave mistake. I swung through the air at an exhilarating speed, let go of the vine and reached for an another and before I could do the classic Tarzan yell, I plummeted. I went from Tarzan to George of the jungle as I crashed into a tree and fell backwards landing headfirst on the ground. My face was in the mud while my neck was bent all the way back and definitely broken. Berlioz dropped down and panicked at the sight of me. When my body flopped over the broken bones knitted back together and I stood patting myself down.


    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll try that in a safer environment next time.¡± I laughed before zipping back up to safer heights.


    With the embarrassing episode over we hurried along to the sight of the dead ants and there we found even more of the acid spitting monsters. This time there were four of them, three workers and one twice the size, that I could only assume was a dreaded soldier ant.


    From our hight in the trees we couldn¡¯t be seen and I hoped that I couldn¡¯t be heard as I turned to Berlioz¡¯s


    ¡°I¡¯m going to try something stupid.¡± I said placing my hand on his shoulder ¡°Whatever you do, don¡¯t try to help me.¡±


    With the help of Anansi, I lowered myself down to the ground hiding in the nearby shrubbery. The three worker ants were busying themselves, breaking down and consuming the ones I had previously killed that day. Whispering my plan to Anansi the spider crawled off my arm and up to a nearby tree. Doing my best to think the sneakiest of sneaky thoughts, I crept into position and less than a second later my spider returned to me. The clear ground between me and my foes felt both too short and too long for my idea to work, but clearing my doubts aside, I let out a sigh and went for it. Reaching into the pouch at my back I withdrew my dagger, and my spider attached a string to it, next I through the web bearing blade as hard as I could. The jagged dagger flew true and pierced the back of the closest worker ant¡¯s head.


    Congratulations, you have slain acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience, sneak, knife throwing, sneak attack.


    ¡°Believe it!¡± I yelled channelling my inner Naruto.


    The remaining ants turned towards me and practically vibrated with rage. Simultaneously they spat their nasty green gobs at me and my body reacted instinctively. I rolled back and pushing up with one hand I turned my roll into a cartwheel, when my foot touched the ground, I span with a pirouette and yanked the thrown dagger back to me. The blade returned to me before the acid hit the ground and I had hoped to have thrown the jagged thing once more, but the ants proved to be too fast.


    One worker charged while the other spat, and the soldier merely watched waiting for an opening. The speed at which the ant moved was astounding but I was prepared.


    Withdrawing my spear I roared. ¡°Come get me big boy.¡±


    With my taunt uttered, I ran towards the ant and just when it was closing in, it fell for my trap. The ant¡¯s body was cut in two as it charged into the thin razor-sharp translucent web that Anansi had strung between the two trees either side of me.


    Congratulations, you have slain acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience.


    Before the notification sounded, I zipped up into the air and grabbing a vine to halt my momentum I pushed myself back down with my spear tip aimed at the third worker ants back. The blade punctured the monster¡¯s carapace, and I drove it deep through its guts and out the other end.


    Congratulations, you have slain acid spitter ant (worker) and have gained the following: medium experience.


    Leaving my spear inside the ant I leaped off it and pulled out my machetes. Up close the soldier ant was pretty damn huge and if it wasn¡¯t for my invulnerability, I¡¯m not sure if I would have had the courage to face it. Green gelatinous liquid oozed from its gnashing mandibles as it focused its compound eyes on me. Its antennas twitched erratically, and it spat, I dodged to the side, but the ant had already anticipated my movement, and it raced towards me. The chittering bastard crossed the rough earth between us in a second. I was too close to a tree to dodge left and the acid to my right was bubbling away blocking my escape. Just when I thought I was about to be bisected by its acidic mandibles, a streak of grey and black fell from the heavens.


    Berlioz hissed as he drove his spear into the Soldier¡¯s gaster. My valiant cat bro had saved me but was struggling to hold on as the ant thrashed about. I was sure in that moment that Anansi could read my mind as he leapt of my wrist, took to the tree line and with a lightning-fast web pulled Berlioz away to safety. With the gifted opportunity I acted fast. I thanked my past wisdom for gaining the running skill as I powered through, darting to the side of the soldier and amputating each leg on its left with surgical precision.


    ¡°Three down, three to go. You nasty bastard.¡±


    It crashed down and I deposited one machete into its pouch and pulled Berlioz¡¯s spear out of the ant before stabbing it back. With visible effort I forced myself forward, using the pole of the spear to build momentum. With speed and grace, I hacked the first leg, slashed the second and fucking decimated the third. By the time I was done the Ant just laid their accepting its demise.


    ¡°Hey, Berlioz.¡± I called up to the cat above me. ¡°D¡¯ya want the final blow?¡±


    The cat boy dropped down and in one smooth move stabbed his dagger into the ant¡¯s thorax.


    Congratulations, you have slain acid spitter ant (soldier) and have gained the following: large experience, blades.


    Without time to dally I instructed Anansi to eat his fill and Berlioz to look out for more ants while I worked on a solution to removing the evidence. I took four spare pouches and dismantled them. As quickly as I could I wove a much wider bag and quickly got a thick dry rope of webbing from Anansi to use as a drawstring. We worked fast in fear of our fight attracting the attention of the defeated foe¡¯s colony. I cut the Ants up into sections that would fit in the mouth of the bag and Berlioz ferried them in while Anansi slurped up any stray biomass that fell out. With the disgusting task done we took to the tree lines, and I was pretty sure we were all in agreement when I said.


    ¡°I¡¯d be happy to never see one of those acid spitting freaks again.¡±


    By the time we were home the sun was beginning to set, it had been a long day, but I¡¯d be damned if it wasn¡¯t a fun one. Existential threats aside I was actually enjoying the system¡¯s chaos, and that fight was the first time since I arrived that I came out of an altercation unscathed. In that moment I wanted to dance naked as the sun fell beneath the horizon but I¡¯m sure Berlioz would have disowned me if I did, instead I got to work. There was only a few bits left to do before we settled down for the night and I discovered what it would be like to be mortal again. First, I emptied out the bag for Anansi to feast on the ant parts, next I finished putting up the walls of my tree house and then much to the spider¡¯s chagrin, I begged him to pause in his meal and had him weave two hammocks.


    As the nights trio of planets rose and Berlioz yawned in the hammock beside me, I sang a selection of old Disney songs, that my brother would have loved. For the first time since being snatched from earth I felt tired, my thoughts were on the troubles ahead, but I sang those fears away knowing that as long as I had my cat bro and spider buddy by my side I would survive.


    Warning: the Integration period has ended.


    All remaining experience points shall be lost.


    Your Character sheet has been generated and may be accessed upon waking.

 chapter 4: New game

    Chapter 4: New game.


    I couldn¡¯t remember falling asleep but when I awoke, I appeared in the void. Inky blackness surrounded me, and in the distance, floated an orb darker than the surrounding darkness. It felt as though I was paralyzed, there were no sensations to be felt and even my eyes couldn¡¯t move, but I found that I could focus them. Just when I was about to focus my vison on the impossibly black orb, a system notification appeared in huge letters Infront of me.


    Congratulations, you have gathered and levelled the requisite skills to unlock an achievement and have gained the following: god¡¯s eye.


    As soon as it appeared, it was gone again. The ever-confusing system stayed true to its nature and left me pondering on what the achievement was, what the skills in question were and what in the actual fuck was the god¡¯s eye skill. Was I going to be like Neo and see the world in code, trying to shrug I screamed out obscenities in my mind as the system refused me even that simple action. focusing again on the orb pale blue script floated over it spelling out, Experience. Ok, I thought, that tells me absolutely nothing. Before I fell asleep the last notification said something about a character sheet. As soon as I thought about it more blue text appeared


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Oscar Hollow</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Race: Human</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Class: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Linked familiar: Anansi</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 16</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 28</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 22</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 29</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Resistance: bladed-weapons 50% bug-type 50%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: none</h2>


    It was both a lot to take in and nowhere near enough information.  My entire being was laid out on a single page. Next to the level number sat another black orb identical to the one that was still far off in the distance. When I focused on it a warning popped up.


    Warning: your experience gauge is empty.


    So that answers that question, I thought deciding to pay attention to the other numbers on the screen. Each attribute determined a physical stat, and I assumed these numbers would grow as I levelled. A tutorial would have been nice or at least an explanation as to why my dexterity and wisdom were close to thirty while my charisma and constitution were sitting so low. It couldn¡¯t have had anything to do with my life pre-system abduction as my career as a live streamer literally depended on how charismatic I was while trying to entertain my followers for hours on end. Was it something to do with the Skills I had acquired. Thinking about my skills shooed away my character sheet and replaced it with a list.


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Skills:</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Athletics: (Expert) Str2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blades: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Climbing: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Butchery: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Drop attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dual wielding:(Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Evasion: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Harvesting: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Knife throwing: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Pole-arms: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Herbology: (Expert) Con 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Chemistry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Carpentry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Cooking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">First aid: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Gathering (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Tracking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">God¡¯s eye: (Unique) Wis 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Artificing: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core mechanics: (Journeyman)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Hunting: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Rainforest oasis authority: (Unique) Wis 5</h2>


    The new page gave me some answers after a minute of speculation but also hit me with a few more questions. Doing the math, I found that the skills I had acquired boosted my attributes, meaning that when I first arrived here everything was at ten. I needed to level up to see how my stats would be effected but that meant gaining experience. Batting away the terrifying thought of fighting monsters, now that I was no longer immortal, I took to working out what everything I read could mean.


    The miniscule amount of information given spoke volumes when I allowed myself to read between the lines. The one skill without a number designated to an attribute had Journey man next to it, all the rest either said expert or unique. The other thing the skill had was another one of those blacker than black orbs. So, I had to assign experience points to skills from this sheet and once I gained expert rank, the skill was complete, and I would receive two points for an attribute. This seemed to be the case for all but two of the skill, my authority and the newly gained god¡¯s eye, they both gave a much higher bonus and were labelled unique. I wanted to test out my theory by gaining a new skill but first I had to figure out how to exit the sheet. Just like that, the urge to exit returned me to my body.


    Regaining feeling, the first thing I did was shrug. The next thing I did was freak the fuck out as what I could only describe as a semi-transparent heads up display obfuscated my vision. At the top of the Hud lay a bar that moved as my head turned, first revealing the letter S then E, and I smiled as I realized I had a compass in my brain. Down to the left corner of my vision sat three bars, each a different colour, the top bar was red, the middle green and the bottom blue. From what games I had played, I remembered red to be health, blue to be mana or magic and green to indicate stamina, some games did things differently, but this was what I remembered to be the common colour code in video games.


    I had to wonder as to why this Hud was designed in such a fashion, or how in god¡¯s name humans managed to get such a particular feature right without prior knowledge. Before I could speculate further, I noticed a little bag icon on my right and when I peered at it a menu opened up displaying a list of items I had on my person, I had removed my clothes, so the list simply read the word, underwear. That was it, I knew what direction I was going in, what I would be carrying and had a few gauges that meant pretty much nothing to me at the time. If this was the unique god¡¯s eye skill it didn¡¯t do much for me.


    I laid in my hammock for a while longer, just feeling sorry for myself and wishing I had just another day of immortality. Maybe it was the return of the mild aches from rough sleeping or the fact that Anansi wasn¡¯t attached to my wrist, but I really woke up on the wrong side of the hammock. When my stomach gurgled and I remembered that I had left a perfectly good roasted capybara to eventually go bad in the sun, I figured that I may as well see to feeding myself and storing the rest in a dimensional bag. Rolling out of my hammock and slipping on my silken armour, I yawned and stretched.


    ¡°Good morning, Berlioz.¡±


    ¡°Good morning, Oscar.¡± Replied an unfamiliar voice.


    I didn¡¯t so much as leap out of my skin as I leaped into action grabbing for my machetes and scanning the room for an invader, when Berlioz slipped out of his hammock with his hands up.


    ¡°Calm down.¡± He said in a young yet wise voice. ¡°I understand that you¡¯re startled but I couldn¡¯t speak until the silencing wore off.¡±


    I didn¡¯t even bother sheathing my blades, I just dropped them to the ground and ignored the fact that they cut through my flooring as I rushed to lift Berlioz in an excited hug.


    Squeezing him I said. ¡°Dude this changes everything.¡± I let him go but couldn¡¯t drop the grin I was baring. ¡°Oh man, I thought I was gunna be spending my life with a couple of mutes.¡±


    When I stepped back, I noticed a floating eye icon above the cat¡¯s head. Before I could say anything, a page opened up.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Berlioz</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Monster type: Sapient Beast</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Species: Panthera</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 17</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Resistance: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: Fire</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core quality: poor</h2>


    ¡°You¡¯re a monster?¡± I spat more accusingly than I had meant to.


    Berlioz raised his paws in a placating gesture. ¡°You couldn¡¯t tell?¡± He stopped and thought for a second ¡°Wait, did you just analyse me?¡±


    ¡°I think so.¡± I said scratching my head. ¡°How did you know?¡±


    ¡°Your eyes glazed over for a moment and then you looked shocked.¡± He eyed me up and down. ¡°How did you even do that? You¡¯re level one without a class and on your second day of life. You shouldn¡¯t have the analyse ability.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not an ability, I think it¡¯s a skill. I picked up a lot of them yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Is it a unique skill?¡± His jaw dropped as I nodded, and he shook with excitement. ¡°Oscar, do you know how much of an advantage that is? What¡¯s the attribute buff?


    ¡°Umm, ten to wisdom.¡± I answered, awkwardly failing to match his excitement.


    ¡°Ten! Ten points straight into wisdom. That would be like having a bunch of skills hit expert rank all at once, and at level one, you lucky kitten.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I nervously laughed. ¡°I kind of have that too.¡±


    My words hit Berlioz like a taser to the nuts and he just stood there for a moment, looking like he was calculating the meaning of life.


    Before he could sum it up to forty-two, he simply asked. ¡°How many? With a defeated sigh.


    I went through what I could remember, which was surprisingly a lot considering my brief skimming of the character sheet. I had to chock my sudden increase in memorization up to the boosted intelligence stat and wondered if getting it higher would give me an eidetic memory. While I listed the expert skills, I had ranked up the previous day and recited my attribute point scores, the cat-boy looked at me like I was the messiah, or Goku revealing yet another overpowered form.


    ¡°Tho, those numbers.¡± He stuttered. ¡°it¡¯s like you¡¯re starting at level twenty. Is this why you¡¯ve been racing around collecting skills?¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Honestly I was just excited about the knowledge boost as the skill levelled up.¡±


    ¡°Ranked up.¡± He corrected. ¡°You rank up a skill. I swear on my core, this is more ridiculous than how you killed the area boss. You have more expert rank skills than a master-classer and you¡¯re just laughing it off like it¡¯s nothing, do you know what I could do with that kind of advantage.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± I said sternly. ¡°I was brought here yesterday and have been through fucking hell. So how about we go have some breakfast and you can tell me all about it.¡±


    We found Anansi by the waterfall¡¯s basin amongst the hollowed out remains of the ants we had gathered. The scene was morbid, the segmented exoskeleton parts were spread out in neat piles. As if he were some kid of ocd stricken serial killer, the hungry spider had devoured the juicy biomass and then taken to cleanly dissecting and categorising the individual monster parts. Amongst the horrid array of ant pieces, the mandibles stood out as potential tools and honestly if I wasn¡¯t so damn hungry, I probably would have gotten straight to work. With my thoughts on the succulent spit roasted rodent my eyes scanned to area to find that it was no longer there.


    ¡°Anansi.¡± I spoke allowing my hunger to affect my tone. ¡°Where¡¯s the capybara, buddy?¡±


    The spider looked up at me and I filled with embarrassment of my own will as he dragged over a two pouches each labelled with a perfectly embroidered rendition of the large rodent roasting above a fire. When I reached in the bag, I found that not only had Anansi stored the meat he had also cut it up into strips that delighted my palate as I took a bite.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the bones and all the guts you just left out to rot in the sun?¡± queried Berlioz picking up his snack pouch and slowly backing away from the spider god.


    I brushed off the cat¡¯s apparent fear of my spider buddy and answered. ¡°That¡¯s a good question.¡±


    Looking at Anansi for an answer he indicated another pouch with a wave of one of his long legs. This pouch just had a big X on it, and I supposed that for now we would use it for disposing waste. When Anansi climbed back onto my wrist, we sat down amongst the ant remains and enjoyed our breakfast in companionable silence for a while until I did something that bothered Berlioz. I hadn¡¯t thought anything of it, I simply noticed an eye shaped icon floating above the strip of meat I had taken out and focused on the icon.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Capybara meat (poor)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Alchemical benefits: none.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Uses: nutrients</h2>


    ¡°Oh, neat.¡± I said taking in the useless information.


    Berlioz huffed. ¡°You just used that skill to analyse the meat, didn¡¯t you.¡±


    ¡°Why is it bothering you so much?¡±


    The cats gaze fell to the ground. ¡°It¡¯s not bothering me it¡¯s just¡­¡± he sighed. ¡°Never mind.¡±


    ¡°No come on, there¡¯s clearly something up. Earlier you got pissed that you didn¡¯t have my advantages, what do you need them for?¡±


    ¡°We were taken.¡± He clawed at the ground as he spoke. ¡°Those of us too weak to fight and the rest were slaughtered.¡± His feline eyes filled with tears. ¡°It was a cooperative dungeon. Our people thrived for thousands of years and just like that a single band of orcs.¡± His words fell away, replaced by silent sobbing.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    I drew closer to him. ¡°You escaped but left your people behind.¡±


    ¡°I ran, you would too.¡± He shot back defending his actions.


    In my eyes there were no actions to defend. ¡°You gave yourself the opportunity to save them.¡±


    ¡°How? The orcs are all above level twenty and I¡¯m just a level five Panthera.¡±


    ¡°Well first of all how many are there?¡±


    ¡°Fifteen.¡± He thought for a second. ¡°Fourteen, the ants got their tamer¡±


    ¡°So, let¡¯s go take care of them.¡± I stood as I spoke placing my hand upon my empty machete pouch. ¡°We can take care of a bunch of orcs.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have your skills, Oscar.¡± He rose and his gestated aggressively. ¡°And you¡¯re not immortal anymore.¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re right I¡¯m not but we can gain new skills, and we have all of this around us to make weapons and armour, maybe even some traps.¡± As I looked over to the pile of ant remains, I noticed another icon. ¡°What level were these guys anyway?¡±


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Acid spitter ant (worker)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Monster type: Bug</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Species: Legion Ant</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 22</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 45</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 37</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 25</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 7</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 0</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 0</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions:</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Resistance: Acid 100%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: Piercing</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core quality: common</h2>


    ¡°Hey, look.¡± I said pointing over to the carapace pile. ¡°Those ants were level twenty-two, and I¡¯ve killed a bunch of them without any help.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Berlioz looked at me expectantly while Anansi made me feel deep seated guilt. ¡°Woah, ok, ok. My point is if we train up and get to crafting, we will have more or less what we need to go save your people.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you want to risk your life for me, Oscar.¡± Berlioz looked up at me with glint of hope in his eyes.


    I gave him my signature grin. ¡°I¡¯ve got you little bro.¡±


    If this new life were a movie there would have been a fantastic training montage with the three of us growing stronger as the sun rose and fell in the horizon, instead we sat there for a while awkwardly twiddling our thumbs while I tried to work out where to start. After about five minutes of brain fog rolling over the valleys of my mind, I finally came up with an idea. I reached for the dagger at my back and placed it down in front of me.


    ¡°When I found you, there was a crossbow bolt in your leg.¡± I took out a healing pear. ¡°When i crushed some of these up and applied it to the wound I got a few skills. So, how about we start there?¡±


    A few of the basalt rocks at the base of the fire, were small enough to grind the pears into a poultice. It took a few attempts and wasted more of the precious fruit than I cared to see but eventually Berlioz managed to produce what looked like a viable poultice. When I grabbed the blade, the cat boy held out his arm and winced in anticipation, but the sound of my pained grunt made him realize my plan. I had only cut the palm of my hand however the wound was quite deep, and the blood welled up fast enough to make me woozy. I had to hand it to the little Panthera, his reaction was fast and precise. without hesitation Berlioz grabbed me by the wrist and smoothed the slimy red poultice into the rent in my palm.


    The numb throbbing ache of the fresh wound was replaced with a fascinating sensation that felt like a well scratched itch and a warm fire on a cold day. The immortality was nice, but the lack of pain had been bothersome. We need pain to indicate what¡¯s bad for the body but on top of that we need it to put pleasure into perspective. The pain of the cut made everything feel real again and the pleasure of the wound instantly healing with the help of just a couple of crushed up pears, made me feel like there was hope for survival. I inspected my red stained hand, and it was as good as new. Before I could wipe it clean, I noticed Berlioz gain a giddy smile.


    ¡°I got three skills for that.¡± He cheered.


    I chuckled ¡°Herbology, Chemistry and first aid, right?¡±


    He jumped up. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡±


    ¡°Do you have any weapon skills?¡±


    ¡°Only drop attack and that was at expert rank the day I was born.¡± He scratched the back of his head. ¡°It¡¯s all a bit of a haze but I vaguely remember you using that skill after the ants killed the orc. It sounds stupid but I thought you were one of the elders come to rescue us.¡±


    I laughed remembering the state of my legs when I dropped down on the ant without the skill. ¡°I didn¡¯t even have drop attack when I did that and I¡¯m pretty sure the drop shattered my tibias.¡± Looking around the oasis I felt reluctant to voice my next thought. ¡°Ok so, the thing is we can either build a bunch of skills up now by gathering rocks and running around in a circle for a while, or we could go and stab a boar in the eye and gain some XP.¡±


    Berlioz pulled out his spear and said. ¡°I like the sound of XP.¡±


    Before we left, I briefly turned my attention towards the scattering of ant remains. The three pairs of worker ant mandibles looked like they would make pretty useful hammers but would do little to aid us in our boar hunt however the soldier ant¡¯s mandibles seemed to maintain their gelatinous layer of acid and that was too good to pass up. I probably could have taken my time messing around with the corrosive object, but I was anxious enough about leaving the safety of our oasis and if I let myself get carried away, I never would have left, so I quickly whittled down part of a mantis leg and had Anansi secure the two bug parts together forming a club. Being careful not to allow the mandible to touch the edges of a medium sized reed pouch I attached it to my side, and we took off.


    We didn¡¯t hurry on our way, instead we took our time to scan the forest around us. The god¡¯s eye skill filled my vision with icons every time I focused on anything for more than a couple of seconds. Trees, leaves even twigs on the ground beneath us and for the most part I ignored them until a small mound of earth caught my eye. The soil was a richer colour than that of undisturbed ground around it, and when I focused on the icon I understood why.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Iron hide boar droppings (rare)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Alchemical benefits: slashing resistance, piercing resistance.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Uses: manure, chemical reagent.</h2>


    I didn¡¯t want to pick up the pig shit, I didn¡¯t even want to get close to it, but it had a use, and I wasn¡¯t about to let it go to waste. Reaching into my machete pouch with the intention of using it as an improvised poop scoop I realised that I had left both of the mantis blades stuck in the flooring of my tree house. With a defeated sigh I lowered myself down from the tree line, with the help of Anansi¡¯s webbing and scooped up the faeces. As if the disgust I naturally felt wasn¡¯t enough, my spider buddy compounded the feeling with his own personal views, and I couldn¡¯t help but wretch as I squished it into a pouch that would forever be designated as the shit bag. The warmth of the excrement as it broke apart between my fingers made my throat fill with vomit, but it also filled my mind with purpose as it told me one thing; A boar was close.


    Already having the hunting and tracking skills It would have been easy to find our prey but the whole point in our foray was to push Berlioz¡¯s attributes up, so I let him take the lead. Signalling the cat boy down to me I showed him the small mound of earth and explained what we would be looking for. I don¡¯t know if it was his instinctual nature as a cat or his familiarity with the woodland setting, but he noticed evidence of the boar¡¯s passing almost instantly. Rough warn bark on the trunks of trees, more mounds of soiled earth and what looked to be foraging attempts. After less than an hour of tracking and collecting valuable poop, we spotted a boar in the distance. Berlioz had enjoyed my comical retelling of my first encounter with the last boar and knew not to get close to the thing, so we took to the sturdy branches above us once more.


    My heart pounded as we stalked our prey, and I had to request calming thoughts from Anansi. From my limited understanding of the systems rules this kill had to be Berlioz¡¯s for him to gain the skills, but that didn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t help with a plan. While the boar scraped its tusks against a nearby tree, we whispered through our options. There was no need for debate as we worked out our plans and contingencies and before long, Berlioz dropped down from the tree line with Anansi following behind him.


    I watched on from my vantage point feeling helpless as my little cat bro approached unseen. Berlioz was a predator, and the boar was his prey. Silently stalking the big pig, the cat moved in being sure to take cover between the trees. Completely unaware the boar snuffled at the ground presumably searching for grubs or whatever it was boars ate in the wild. In its foraging attempts the boar drew closer to Berlioz and I whistled in the hopes that I could distract its attention. When the big pig was little more than ten feet away from the Berlioz, the cat acted. Without hesitation he broke the short distance and aiming for the boar¡¯s left eye he thrusted his spear. At the last second the boar twisted its bulky neck and caught the spear head between its tusks. Berlioz had been disarmed but not discouraged.


    Leaping back, the cat boy pulled out his impossibly sharp daggers and waited. The boar did not have the capacity for caution, instead it kicked its foot back grunted loudly and charged covering the distance between the two of them in an incomprehensible flash of movement. Berlioz waited for the grunt and leapt up at the sound of it, as the boar appeared beneath him, he positioned himself in the air and dropped onto its back. The boar tried to react but had fallen for our trap. Invisible to the naked eye set between two trees was a thin, sticky and ridiculously durable line of webbing. Even with the incredible speed at which the boar moved it was incapable of breaking the web, instead the line tore the old bark it was attached to and tangled around the boar¡¯s legs.


    Berlioz stabbed with delighted ease into both of the bounded pig¡¯s eyes, pushing the blades deeper and deeper as it feebly writhed in agony. There was a quick popping sound from one of the ocular cavities and the boar grew still. While Berlioz¡¯s danced atop his fallen prey I climbed down the tree with effort and hurried over scooping up Anansi along the way. The spider and I filled with unmitigated pride as we looked upon our cheering hero.


    ¡°What skills did you get.¡± I asked interrupting Berlioz¡¯s passionate victory dance.


    He looked at me with glee in his eyes. ¡°All of them. Hunting, tracking, sneak, small blades and even sneak attack and pole arms. I think the blade of my spear must have nicked the tusks and that counted as a successful attack, oh and to top it all of the thing gave me a large XP gain.¡± He looked around for a second. ¡°Hey, did you see where my spear went?¡±


    I ran over and grabbed the fallen spear and stopped suddenly when I thought I saw something creeping through the nearby under growth. ¡°Umm, Anansi did you see that?¡±


    The spider shoed away my concerns about the prior vampiric root incident and I returned to my little cat bro¡¯s side.


    ¡°Why are you looking around like something¡¯s going to sneak up on you?¡± Berlioz asked noticing my distracted gaze.


    I didn¡¯t look up at him as I returned his spear. ¡°I swore I saw a root.¡±


    He leapt back onto the boars back. ¡°Oh, shit where?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I¡¯m sure of it.¡± I said, joining him and scanning the area.


    We stayed up there for a while until I decided that I must have been mistaken due to the lack of evidence shown by the god¡¯s eye skill.


    ¡°I know this is your kill but is it ok if I try something.¡± I said bulling out my corrosive mandible club.


    Berlioz simply shrugged and I brought the thing crashing down onto the boar¡¯s head. The skull cracked like a coconut and the iron hide flesh sizzled, letting of a sour aroma. After a few seconds there was naught, but the fractured bleached skull left connected to the pristine body via the undamaged spinal column.


    Prying apart the skull and pulling out the monster core I asked. ¡°Anansi can you¡¯re webs do something similar now that you¡¯ve devoured those ants?¡±


    I jumped with joy at the positive vibes that got sent my way.


    ¡°D¡¯ya want this buddy.¡± I said hovering the core next to the spider on my wrist.


    He made the core feel useless in my hands and I almost discarded it before I thought to focus on the icon that floated above it.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Monster core (rare)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Origen: Iron hide boar.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Abilities: iron hide, flash step, light foot.</h2>


    The core contained the monster¡¯s abilities, and my mind raced with ideas but remembering the possibility of a root being out there somewhere, plotting my demise, I hurried on. The last boar I had killed weighed more than me and there was no way I could have carried it back to our camp but this time we had corrosive webbing. With a fine string of webbing Anansi opened a line down the centre of the boar and I used my dagger to clear the meat beneath the hide and in a matter of moment, thanks in part to my so far unused butchery skill. We had a boar pelt and a bleeding mess of pork on the ground. I couldn¡¯t lift the fat pig so Anansi had to help once again by webbing its legs and hoisting it up but with a pouch and my trusty dagger I cut piece after piece of the boar securing fine cuts of bacon, pork chops and joints that would be perfect to gain Berlioz the cooking skill, I did  however decide that the ribs would be saved for when I crafted a barbecue and found a reasonable replacement for barbecue sauce.


    With one pig down and the sun barely at its zenith, we stowed the boar pelt in the trees with a vibrant orange web and went out to find more of the little piggies. The deeper we traversed into the forest the more signs of boar activity we found. A few times we had stopped to track one of the pigs, only to lose the trail regardless of my expert rank skill. It wasn¡¯t until an hour after our first encounter that we discovered a nest, it was the Capybara all over again, there was mummy boar, daddy boar and even two boars I decided to name Peppa and George. When I turned to leave them be, Anansi filled me with shame and Berlioz didn¡¯t understand.


    ¡°It¡¯s a family there man.¡± I said gesturing for Anansi to shoot a web. ¡°I can¡¯t do it.¡±


    Berlioz laughed as Anansi crawled off my wrist before making his point. ¡°They¡¯re savage beasts, Oscar. Practically walking bags of meat and experience, they would sooner gore you for fun than show you any sympathy.¡±


    I sat on the branch and began digging at the bark. ¡°Look at them, living peacefully and you want to just go down and ruin that.¡±


    ¡°Come on, you¡¯re joking right. Look at that little one its basically trying to kill its dad.¡± He pointed at Peppa while she head butted the larger of the two adult pigs. ¡°If you don¡¯t join me; I probably won¡¯t make it.¡±


    My eyes went wide, and I panicked as Berlioz dropped down. ¡°Hey, wait. What the fuck are you doing.¡±


    The moment Berlioz reached the ground he started to jump up and down waving and shouting for the boars¡¯ attention. The big daddy pig lost its shit. While the mother guarded the two little once steaming with impotent rage, the terrifying giant boar charged. Berlioz was at least forty feet away but with successive flash steps the boar reached him in an instant. Luckily my cat bro realised that the potential for impact was coming harder and faster than expected and before the final flash step he leapt to the side, narrowly evading what would have been a fatal blow even with his impervious web armour. From where I was the best I could do was attempt hit the boar in the eye with a thrown dagger and so I let my blade loose, figuring that the worst that would happen was gaining the boars attention, giving Berlioz an advantage.


    The blade hit but failed to stick. Blinded in one eye the boar bucked and grunted in pain before searching for me and ignoring Berlioz all together. Ignoring the cat was the last mistake the daddy pig ever made. Berlioz leaped onto the raging boars back and gripping a tusk to steady himself he shunted a dagger deep into the monster¡¯s eye. Before he could celebrate the slaughter, a manic squealing sounded behind him, and we both looked back to see the two baby pigs dangling in web sacs. The mummy pig was irately squealing and grunting at the sight of her helpless piglets, which gave Berlioz the opportunity for a sneak attack.


    Proud of himself for creating the distraction, Anansi returned to my wrist and snuggled on tight. Finally free to zip between trees I positioned myself above the mother boar and waited. Just when Berlioz thought he was about to get a critical sneak attack in, I dropped down and forced my spear through the boar¡¯s eye. My aim was impeccable the only problem was that the angle was wrong. instead of piercing the boar¡¯s brain or core, I wasn¡¯t sure, the blade broke through the eye socket and glided out of its mouth affixing the poor thing to the floor.


    ¡°What did you just do?¡± Exclaimed Berlioz. ¡°It¡¯s bad enough you tried to steal my kill but you¡¯re torturing the thing Infront of its children.¡± He gestured at the piglets in an over dramatic fashion. ¡°What happened to trying not to ruin their little family.¡±


    ¡°Oh man, oh fuck dude. This is bad let me just.¡± I pulled out my corrosive club and with a heavy heave I brought it slamming down onto the struggling mother¡¯s head. ¡°There, I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    Congratulations, you have slain iron hide boar and have gained the following: large experience, blunt weapons.


    The skill gain felt different from the other times. Before I would gain a skill and the knowledge that I needed to use it, but this time it felt empty. Shrugging it off, scanned our grim surroundings and longed for home.


    ¡°Should we butcher the meat, grab the pelts and head home?¡± I asked yanking my spear free and looking over towards the daddy boar for my dagger.


    Berlioz looked up at the two piglets. ¡°What about those two?¡±


    ¡°I still feel bad for them.¡± I was probably going to regret it, but I said. ¡°We¡¯ll look after them.¡±


    After murdering the piglets¡¯ parents, I wasn¡¯t going to subject them to the utter horror of watching me butcher and harvest their remains, so I had Anansi bundle them up in tight webbing leaving only a hole to breath from and we got to work. After finding my dagger embedded in a tree trunk, I guided Berlioz through the process of skinning and butchering the boars. The first one took ages with his blade constantly failing against the interior skin layer and ricochetting into the meat of the thing, but he still got the butchery skill and made short work of the second one, gaining us enough pork to feed an army.


    Carrying the three pelts and two piglets as we zipped and swung across the tree line was exhausting and for the first time, I actually paid attention to the colour coded bars in the corner of my vision. The quickly diminishing green bar worried me but the ghostly glow of the blue bar intrigued me. its mere presence meant that I was capable of using magic, like fire balls and light night strikes out of my fingers and that daydream allowed me to push on through to our home. Each time the bar dropped a bit too low, I focused on the blue bar and thought happy wizardly thoughts. Before I could finish my daydream of becoming the systems strongest spell monger and crafting a tower of stone into my waterfall bearing mountain, I heard the water rushing into the basin and realised I was home.


    Congratulations, you have successfully meditated through the pain of bearing a heavy load and have gained the following: meditation.


    There was nothing sweeter than an unexpected skill gain. Suffice to say, we were tired. Berlioz dropped the boar hides and the couple of meat pouches he was carrying and hurried his way up to the tree house, while I had to take care of the piglets. Anansi¡¯s webbing was weird to me, it reacted to his will and with a strand connected to his spinneret he reabsorbed the majority of the webbing. I didn¡¯t know what to do with my new pets, but I knew I couldn¡¯t allow them to roam free in my oasis, so carrying them kicking and squealing over to the western edge of the clearing, I secured web collars around their necks and tide each of them to a tree. The web ropes I used were long enough to allow them to reach the basins edge for a drink or wander through a small area of the forest. I wasn¡¯t sure what the boars would eat but figuring it couldn¡¯t hurt I dropped a bunch of healing pears within their reach and returned to my tree house.


    It hadn¡¯t taken me long to secure the boars, but by the time I reached the tree house Berlioz was already snoring away in his hammock. If this was earth, I wouldn¡¯t be napping with so much to do, however the system¡¯s night sky was almost as bright as the day, so a short rest really wasn¡¯t going to impede our activities. Laying in my hammock, I listened to the rhythmic snoring of my little cat bro, it was a bassy sound with soft purring vibrations and it soothed my busy mind.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let me sleep too long, ok Anansi.¡± I whispered stroking his back.


    Positivity and calm washed over me in reply.


    With my eyes closed I pictured using Anansi¡¯s acidic webs to work on the boar hides and wondered what the possibilities were with the monster cores we had collected. It had been an eventful morning with plenty of gains, but we would have to do a lot more if we were going to take on a camp of orcs. Visions of massive green men bearing boar like tusks and heavy axes popped in and out of my exhausted mind and before long, my pig like snores joined Berlioz¡¯s bassy purrs.

 Chapter 5: Assault.

    Chapter 5: Assault.


    I expected to have had some kind of violent nightmare involving a pack of rabid boars savagely murdering Berlioz and I, but instead I just awoke in the void mind space. There was a slight difference though, this time that darker than black orb in the distance was now larger and glowing with a bright white light. So that¡¯s what large experience looks like, I thought also noting that the light did nothing to banish the all-encompassing darkness. My mind wondered to an even darker place, was this void what awaited me when I died, but before I could give in to my existential panic, I called up my skills list.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Skills:</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Athletics: (Expert) Str2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blades: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blunt weapons: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Climbing: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Butchery: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Drop attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dual wielding:(Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Evasion: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Harvesting: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Knife throwing: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Pole-arms: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Herbology: (Expert) Con 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Chemistry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Carpentry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Cooking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">First aid: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Gathering (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Tracking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">God¡¯s eye: (Unique) Wis 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Artificing: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core mechanics: (Journeyman)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Hunting: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Meditation: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Rainforest oasis authority: (Unique) Wis 5</h2>


    Seeing the two new skills there, instantly filled me with gratification, and I wished I had taken out more than just the one boar. Core mechanics was staring me in the eyes just begging to be ranked up, all that juicy knowledge of monster cores was just some experience away from being mine, but I had to be logical. A random human and his spider buddy planned to help a little cat boy wipe out a camp of villainous orcs, monster cores weren¡¯t going to help with that and so far, the corresponding wisdom stat was already my highest. What I needed was at the top of the list. I let my mind¡¯s eye focus on black orb that sat next to the Blunt weapons skill and a dim light glowed within it.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blunt weapons: (Novice) rank up (Apprentice)</h2>


    The light of the experience in the background flickered slightly but over all there was barely any change so I focused in on the skill once more and imagined pouring everything I could into it.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blunt weapons: (Apprentice) Rank up (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    The light in the distance went dark and my hopes of getting a second skill ranked up extinguished with it. my disappointment was however short lived for with one outing I had pushed my strength stat up to eighteen. I promised myself that I would level core mechanics as soon as I had spare experience, but honestly, I needed to push my physical stats as high as I could before I went out to save Berlioz¡¯s people. With my dexterity sitting pretty high I needed to focus on my strength and constitution but so far, the only skill I had found that contributed to the con stat was herbology, it was frustrating to think that a longer and healthier life was only a few unknown skills away. Dismissing the mindscape and coming to wake in reality I thought to myself, I¡¯d give my left nut for a game guide right about now.


    I awoke to a sharp pain in my forearm, at first, I panicked thinking some kind of venomous bug had gotten into my hammock with me, but Anansi doused my flaming frontal lobe with calming vibes, and I realised, that the bug in question was my friendly wrist hugging spider. Stretching while I let out a yawn made my hammock twist this way and that, I might have fallen out if my dexterity wasn¡¯t as high as it was instead when I slide too much to one side, I rolled my body and landed with my feet on the ground. It wasn¡¯t impressive but it did give me an idea of how to get the acrobatics skill.


    Putting my thoughts of new skills aside, I carefully approached Berlioz¡¯s hammock and scratched behind his ear in an attempt to gently wake him. The cat boy woke with a start, his arm lashing out towards me with his claws fully extended. I might have lost an eye if I were just an inch closer but luckily for the both of us, he quickly came to his senses.


    ¡°Oscar, I, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Said Berlioz his eyes refusing to meet mine.


    I reached back in and scratched behind his ear, smiling wide. ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot, buddy. Did you sleep well?¡±


    ¡°Forget about the sleep, I managed to rank up two skills to expert with only two kills, what level were those boars?¡± He practically vibrated with excitement. ¡°After ranking up small blades and Evasion, I just stared at my character sheet in amazement. It¡¯s crazy, I mean, four whole points in dexterity after a couple of hours out in the jungle. You know this would be impossible under normal circumstances right.¡±


    Being that ranking up skills was pretty much the norm for me, I just shrugged and said. ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°I keep forgetting that you¡¯re new to the system, by the way your earth sounds like a weird place.¡± He dropped down from his hammock and stretched before continuing. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll start at the beginning. We¡¯re born at level one, practically useless with no knowledge of skills or even any real sentience, it¡¯s just milk from mother¡¯s teats and mewing to be carried around. We stay like this for months, I¡¯m not sure how many, I wasn¡¯t around long enough to witness another litter.¡± His eyes went dark all of a sudden. ¡°And then it clicks, suddenly you wake to words in the blackness of your mind, and you have knowledge of how to move through the trees with ease and how to pounce on your prey. With that knowledge comes the urge to kill, small things at first, rats, snakes, whatever critters you come across really. All of this for miniscule experience. You kill and you gain, you gain, and you kill and then the elders escort you to the contested zone.¡±


    ¡°Was it that bad?¡± I asked, shocked at the unfamiliar look of hopelessness.


    The black of his pupils swallow the blue rings around them as his eyes meet mine. ¡°For some it was easy, for most it was hard, but for us.¡± He blinks away a tear that loses itself in his fur. ¡°For us it was hell. We all reached level five around the same time, that was the cap for the starter zone.¡±


    ¡°What are these zones?¡± I ask not wanting to interrupt but desperate for the ability to understand him.


    With a face palm he replies. ¡°I forgot your weird planet probably doesn¡¯t have those, no levels no zones. It¡¯s weird that you literally own a level one hundred zone and have no idea what it is.¡± He shakes his head at the ridiculous thought. ¡°Ok, so everyone gives them different names from what I¡¯ve found in my time outside the dungeon but where I¡¯m from it works like this. We are born in the nesting zone, it¡¯s a protected location and only accessible if our monarch falls. When we age up, we move to another protected place called the training grounds, where until we reach level five, we can live safely hunting creatures that could only give us superficial wounds and then it¡¯s off to the contested zone. Being a dungeon its linear and from point A to point B the levels of the monsters are allowed to rise in multiples of ten, depending on the size of the dungeon, this could reach up to level one hundred but that¡¯s really rare.¡±


    ¡°And your dungeon was raided by the orcs when you were moved to the contested zone.¡± I correctly assumed.


    His helpful explanation held back the overbearing emotions for a moment but with his mind reliving his experience, the pain came back all too soon. ¡°They didn¡¯t just raid, they invaded. They slaughtered every elder they could find and caught every Panthera that was under level twenty, it was cruel, the way they treated us. We are tree climbing creatures and they confined us to the ground, locked in covered cages and fed the scrapings from their plates. The beatings were the only thing that broke up the monotony of being deprived even light to see by. I prayed for the chance to gain some levels, maybe at level ten or twenty I could have done something.¡± Berlioz lost his calm and cried freely as his claws extended with the mixed emotions. ¡°That¡¯s why I ran yesterday, I saw my chance to get out, to get another five percent to my stats, to kill and gain and kill again. I knew the area was dangerous and that they would come after me, but I had to get out and level not just for myself but for the Panthera we had left behind, not just at the camp but back home too.¡±


    ¡°Berlioz, I am determined to keep you safe and if that means taking these orcs on in your dungeon then that¡¯s what we will do.¡± I placed my hand upon his shoulder. ¡°My stepdad taught me something that I¡¯m going to teach to you. Overwhelming odds in the light of day can be just that, overwhelming. But block out the sun and suddenly the odds are up for grabs.¡±


    The cat boy looked deep into my eyes and said. ¡°What the fuck is that supposed to mean.¡±


    I tried explaining the obscure saying in a few different ways but eventually gave up. To be honest, originally my stepdad had said the phrase in Nepalese and had later translated it into extremely broken English before leaving me to fend for myself, so I might not have really remembered what he said in the first place but at least I tried to inspire the little guy. After the emotional story I felt like busying my mind with the artificer skill and gaining some extra defence, the silk armour was great and all but I kind of looked like a psycho trapsing through the jungle in a onesie.


    The armour I had in mind was going to look both intimidating and majestic just like the creature I was making it out of. Apart from where I had cut openings for Anansi to enter, the mantis¡¯s body was practically untouched. I probably could have fashioned something out of the boar hides by having Anansi use thin corrosive webs to cut and shape the parts but if I was being honest, I really wanted to be the guy literally wearing the former boss of his zone. My design was pretty intricate, I took my time and cut free the segments of the blade mantis¡¯ abdomen. Needing mobility more than anything else I pushed my blade across slicing paper-thin sheets that were as flexible as clothe but still more durable than steel.


    The more I sliced the more focused I became until I had more layers of the remarkable material than I actually needed. When I was finally finished my head was pounding and I noticed that the blue bar in the corner of my vision rested at half the size it was before. I could only assume that the maintained use of the artificer skill was draining the bar somehow, but with much more work to do I threw caution to the wind and began cutting the mantis fabric into shape. There was no needle on earth that would have pierced this material, it also felt like there wouldn¡¯t be many metals in the system that could either but luckily for me, my mind reading spider had a solution.


    Anansi let out a thin line of webbing that was only an inch long but as solid as a rock and as sharp at the tip as my spear. I took the needle web from his spinneret and as I pulled it out a flexible string of webbing attached to its base flowed from the spiders back end. I spent hours of deep focus sewing away at my new outfit, attaching layer after layer cutting the required shapes and fitting the perfectly without having to measure once. By the time I was done the light of the moons above me stung my eyes and the sound of Berlioz mucking around in an attempt to gain yet another skill, made me want to stab the needle into my ears. Looking to the corner I saw that the blue bar was almost empty, and I figured that making outfits for both me and Berlioz at the same time was probably biting off more than I could chew but as I added the final touches to the collar of my coat, I gained a welcomed surprise.


    Congratulations, you have successfully crafted blade Mantis light armour (Epic) and have gained the following: Tailoring.


    My head hurt too much to truly appreciate the extra skill, and I groaned as I looked over at Berlioz¡¯s unfinished armour. I struggled to finish the garment, my eyes felt heavy, and I just couldn¡¯t keep my focus. I pricked my finger more than a few times but using every ounce of will power I had I pushed on and got the job done. When I stood it felt like I was standing on a dingy racing through rapids, my heart pounded almost as hard as my head and my vision blurred. Anansi tried his best to calm me but even his near mind control had no effect on the very real symptoms I was feeling. When I looked down, I discovered two things, firstly that the blue bar was gone and second that floor was quite quickly rushing towards my face.


    ¡°Oscar! Oscar!¡±


    A familiar voice came from the distance within the void as I came to. In the distance lay the empty experience orb and I wished I had hunted a boar before passing out. With no gains to be had in the void space, I willed it away and regained consciousness.


    ¡°Oh, God. My fucking head.¡± I moaned into the grass beneath me, before rolling over to stare up at the night planets. ¡°Berlioz you could have at least rolled me over.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know what to do.¡± The cat boy said, kneeling down closer to me. ¡°I was carrying the last rock over to my pile when I saw you swaying. You went down like a sack of shit, and I panicked.¡±


    ¡°What about your first aid skill. You should have rolled me over, checked my breathing, checked for head trauma. You might not be expert rank but that¡¯s some pretty basic stuff.¡± I said remembering to check my head for cuts and bumps.


    Berlioz¡¯s tail waved to the side and his face adopted a frown. ¡°What part of panicked don¡¯t you understand?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± I sat up rubbing my burning eyes. ¡°I¡¯m never letting that blue bar go empty again.¡±


    ¡°You drained your mana?¡± Berlioz looked at me as if I were stupid. ¡°Do you know how dangerous that is?¡±


    ¡°Well, I do now don¡¯t I.¡± I said with a huff, reaching out my hand. ¡°Help me up please I¡¯m still a bit woozy.¡± Rising to my feet I looked upon the two master pieces I had prepared and smiled. ¡°Dude you¡¯re going to love this.¡±


    The outfits I had made were in three pieces, combat trousers with dimensional reed lined pockets, tunics with extra padding actress the chest and a medium length coat with a high collar to protect our necks and faux pauldrons on either shoulder because it looked intimidating, and I figured that the first fight is with the eyes. Everything was pretty much the same shade of green, only differing in colour where the fabric was made up of thicker layers.


    When Berlioz slipped his gear on over the silk under armour, he danced about to test out its functionality. He abused the knowledge gifted to him by the evasion skill, leaping this way and that flipping and rolling, ducking and diving and when he was done with that, he pulled out his daggers and started flamboyantly murdering the air. I loved my outfit as much as he loved his, but my head was in such a sorry state that just bending to pull up the trousers made me feel like I was going to pass out again. looking over to that bitch of a blue bar I saw that it was still almost empty.


    ¡°Any ideas on how I can fill that bar Anansi?¡±


    My eyes closed with the sleepy feeling the spider sent me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have time to sleep right now.¡±


    My stomach growled and I felt a deep level of disappointment.


    ¡°Yeah, I could eat.¡± I said looking over at the stones Berlioz had gathered. ¡°But why the disappointment?¡±


    Existential dread made my heart skip a beat and for a moment I felt like the world was going dark.


    ¡°Are you saying I could die if I don¡¯t get some sleep soon?¡±


    I rolled my eyes in annoyance with the negativity he forced on me.


    ¡°What then?¡± The feeling lingered longer than it should have. ¡°If I overuse my mana and don¡¯t sleep, will I die?¡±


    It was weird having a positive vibe about a possible brain aneurism, but I was hungry, and the fire had yet to be lit.


    With the way I was feeling any manual labour was out of the question. Just going from a standing to sitting position next to the fire pit was enough to aggravate my headache and nausea, but Berlioz was happy enough to follow my instructions as he stacked stones and built a makeshift oven. We crushed some healing pears up and smeared them over a couple of fresh cuts of boar meat and the cat boy placed them above the fire to roast. The smell was tantalising as the pork chops roasted and soon enough, they were cooked through.


    The taste of the pear infused chop was something of dreams, sweet and savoury mixing effortlessly in my palette and the whole thing was moist enough that I didn¡¯t need to take a single drink as I chomped away. As soon as the meal was done, I saw that the blue bar had gone up by half and could feel my headache starting to fade. With the decrease in pain came a modicum of clarity and my thoughts turned to reasoning, deciding that if there were healing pears perhaps there were stamina apples and mana mangoes, or something like that. We hadn¡¯t really been looking for food on our hunts before but now with the near miss of my green bar falling earlier and the absolute fuck up of letting my blue bar deplete, rejuvenating flora were on the hunting itinerary.


    ¡°What skills did you get?¡± I asked Berlioz, while I shrugged on my bandolier and repositioned my spear.


    The cat boy did the same and adorned his coat. ¡°I managed to get athletics, gathering, carpentry and cooking. Although, I don¡¯t really think I deserve carpentry for building such a shoddy contraption.¡±


    I inspected the bird house without using god¡¯s eye and in my opinion, it was great work for a novice carpenter. ¡°The locking joints are a bit rough, but the system recognised it as a finished job and I¡¯m sure there¡¯s at least one bird in this forest desperate enough to make a home out of it.¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s going in the fire when we return from our hunt. The best that death trap is good for is warming our next meal.¡± He picked up a long bit of wood. ¡°Besides when we get back, I want to try making a bow out of this, do you think Anansi will be happy to help with some string?¡±


    Positive vibes hit me, and I answered. ¡°Yeah bud, he¡¯s looking forward to it.¡±


    We set off and found that the new light armour we wore actually made it harder to see each other as we passed through the tree line. Just like a mantis we blended in with the giant leaves of the colossal trees we used to traverse the forest. More than a few times I had to call out for Berlioz to make his location known, but then something in my mind clicked and with a little focus, my god¡¯s eye skill placed a cat symbol on my compass. After that we travelled without a care, Berlioz searching for boars to kill and me searching for medicinal flora.


    I found plenty of edible plants as we journeyed deeper into the Boar¡¯s zone and stuffed my seemingly bottomless pockets with them ensuring that we could have a sustainable and balanced diet, especially if I turned my hand to planting the seeds. When we finally found a lone boar, we didn¡¯t kill it right away instead we stalked it for a while. I wanted to know what it¡¯s odd scraping of the trees was for and what it¡¯s diet might consist of; I did after all have two piglets back home to care for. What we discovered was interesting.


    After ramming the ridiculously tough trunk, it gnawed at the cracked bark until it revealed a sticky sap. The Boar suckled on the sap for a time before wandering off and I let Berlioz follow while I lowered myself down to investigate the sap¡¯s properties.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dreadwood sap</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Alchemical benefits: Stamina recovery</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Uses: glue, chemical reagent.  </h2>


    Stamina recovery was a great find, especially as the section of the forest we lived in was literally teaming with these massive versions of the redwoods back on earth, but I really wanted to find something that would help me stay on my feet after crafting something as intricate as my armour. I considered extracting some of the sap however when I saw movement in the corner of my eye, I said a mental nope and hastily zipped back up to the tree line. It took me a minute and honestly, I thought I was going crazy, but I finally saw it slithering away like a snake. Long thin and spikey with a tail end that dipped back down beneath the earth was the evil vampiric root that had gotten a taste of me and clearly wanted more. In that moment I swore to myself that I would track down whatever tree or bush it originated from and have my skull fucking vengeance.


    I hadn¡¯t spent too long investigating the sap or searching for the root, but it turned out that the Boar travelled fast and so when I set of in the direction indicated by my compass, I had to zip across the tree line with increasing speed just to catch up. The forest around me blurred as I hurried along missing out on my opportunity to search for a mana recovery source. When I caught up with Berlioz, he spotted me and raised one furred finger to his lips. In complete silence he gestured to the ground beneath him where an actual herd of iron side boars rested.


    There were no piglets in sight, and I had to assume that the boars paired off and nested elsewhere to raise their young. What we did find was at least twenty fully grown boars either laying amongst the mutilated bases of the surrounding dreadwoods, scraping at the ground for grubs or play fighting to assert their standing within the herds hierarchy. Berlioz got in close for us to formulate a plan and I lowered my voice to ask what I believed was a vital question.


    ¡°Is it a herd or a pack of boars?¡± I asked receiving an eyeroll.


    ¡°Are you serious, right now?¡± The cat boy looked me up and down. ¡°It¡¯s a sounder, but that¡¯s really not important, is it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like they know we¡¯re here.¡± I replied with a shrug. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s figure out how we¡¯re going to murder an entire sounder of boars. Sounder,¡± I tested the word. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it doesn¡¯t really sound right to me.¡±


    ¡°Come on focus, Oscar. Did using up all your mana cause damage to your core.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a core.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not a monster, I have a brain.¡±


    Berlioz looked at me incredulously. ¡°What¡¯s a brain?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to put it. it¡¯s kinda like this big squishy grey thing in my head that controls my body¡± I laughed. ¡°Now who¡¯s not focused.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like a core to me.¡±


    We quietly bickered about why a brain isn¡¯t a core and how it was definitely what set monsters and people apart, which left me apologising for implying that Berlioz wasn¡¯t a person and accepting that my brain was just a less useful and inefficient version of a core. After all that we made our plan of attack. We were massively outnumbered, and I discovered using god¡¯s eye, that we were also disgustingly out levelled.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Iron hide boar</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Monster type: Beast</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Species: Elemental boar</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 52</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 120</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 20</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 200</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 0</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 0</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: none</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Resistance: Piercing 100% Slashing 100%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: internal damage</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core quality: rare</h2>


    After seeing the monster¡¯s stats laid out clearly before my eyes, I had to repeatedly tell myself that nothing had changed, the plan was still the plan, and we were going to dominate this forest for the sake of Berlioz¡¯s people. We dropped down on opposing sides with the majority of the boars between us. I took it slow, trusting that Berlioz and Anansi would do their part while I did mine. My cat bro only had the sneak skill at novice despite his natural instinct to stalk prey, so it was up to me to dispatch as many of the oblivious boars as possible.


    My heart pounded a thunderous rhythm as I crept through the underbrush, blending seamlessly with the hues of green around me. with my dagger at the ready I approached my first victim, it scrapped at the ground pointlessly searching for a meal it would never get to finish while I drew closer. Clutching the dagger in my clammy palm, I wished that I had Anansi on my wrist to fill me with confidence, alas my thundering heart, beat like a war drum as I crossed the open space moving at a steady pace. The boar let out half a grunt followed by half a squeal while my blade finished with a sucking pop as I pulled it out of the boar¡¯s eye socket and slunk back into the greenery.


    The next boar I faced was rolling around, enjoying a vigorous back scratch and I took a risk when I rushed in with my spear. The monster exhaled with a pleasurable grunt before the sharp tip made sure it would never inhale again. Before I slunk back into the bushes, I smiled as I watched Anansi silently creep over to a slumbering boar and tie its feet together without disturbing it at all. I faintly heard the all too familiar squelch of a penetrated ocular cavity as Berlioz took care of Anansi¡¯s captured prey, while I stalked my own.


    On the move but traveling slowly, my third target checked tree after tree, finding none that hadn¡¯t already been savaged by its kin. Either annoyed or just plain stupid the thing decided to ram the tree closest to it anyway. Birds flew out of the quivering branches and every boar that wasn¡¯t blissfully sleeping turned their heads towards my prey. I dropped to my belly and froze, afraid even to swallow. Anansi, however, took the opportunity to bind three more boars and even Berlioz pushed his luck, sprinting to catch up with the spider.


    The boars watched as my prey butted the tree again and again to no avail. Eventually another boar trotted over, huffing with what I assumed was annoyance. My assumption was validated when the slightly larger beast grunted twice and kicked its back foot. It crossed the distance in a flash and hit the tree butting boar in its side with audible force. The poor boar squealed in agony as the force of the blow took it off its feet and sent it skidding across the ground. I winced in sympathy at first but when I realised that the assaulted monster was skidding towards me my eyes went wide.


    There were still too many left to fight, even with Anansi and Berlioz doing there thing. So, when it came to a halt just a small distance past me, I knew I had to act fast while it whimpered in pain, so I crawled close enough to reach out from the brush and pushed the tip of my blade close to its closed eye. Once it opened its eyes I would have less than a second to act. I kept a tight grip on my dagger and positioned my free hand over my fist for added driving power. The seconds felt like hours, the forest went still to my ears, there was only me and the boar before me. the eyes opened and the boar reacted to the sight of me with a panicked grunt but before it could roll its thick body upright, I drove my blade into its eye.


    The boar thrashed for less than a moment before it fell still, and I crawled back like a viper. From the safety of my position, I looked on as the assaulting boar investigated the corpse before me. it sniffed and snorted, pushing its tusks into the corpses side, probing for life. Discovering that the thing was indeed dead, the boar acted in a way I didn¡¯t expect. The seemingly stupid creature had a level of instinctual intelligence as it used its considerable strength to push the body further away from their camp. I followed for a while and when we were far enough away from the other boars I withdrew my corrosive club, leapt out of the bushes and put everything I had into my attack. The force of my blow to the boar¡¯s head was concussive and the corrosive acid worked face, melting the things face. I feared the tortured sound it would have made, if it hadn¡¯t been knocked unconscious while the acid dissolved it skin and muscle.


    For a fourth time I ignored the system notification and made my way back. What I found was disturbing to say the least. The corpses that lay on the floor were nothing compared to the ones that dangled from the trees, I was gone for a few minutes at most and could not fathom how Anansi and Berlioz had managed to string up the remaining boars like big old pig pinatas.


    ¡°How?¡± I asked while Berlioz executed another helpless boar. ¡°Just fucking how?¡±


    Turning around and donning a shit eating grin, Berlioz spoke with a giddy excitement. ¡°Oh man you missed it, I almost died like eight times. That boar by the tree woke up while I was doing my stabby thing and just went mental. By the time I had pulled my dagger out of its skull it was too late for me to run; every single one of these beasts were staring at me like I was a tasty little fish.¡± He pointed down at a boar with both its eyes mutilated. ¡°That one came at me first and I timed it perfectly, flipping up and then as I landed, double stab.¡±


    I laughed. ¡°And then they surrounded you, didn¡¯t they?¡±


    He gave me a quizzical look. ¡°Were you watching?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s just a bit obvious that Anansi saved your tail while you probably did your best to stay alive.¡±


    ¡°It was a bit more impressive than that, but yeah you got the gist of it.¡± my little cat bro¡¯s excitement deflated. ¡°Anyway, that was the last one. I guess we should start harvesting the cores and butchering the meat.¡±


    I let Berlioz harvest the first core in the hopes that he would get the core mechanics skill as well, but we weren¡¯t so lucky, it seemed that the skill was only awarded for harvesting the core of a much more deadly foe. The proud Panthera didn¡¯t care about gaining the skill however as he told me he gained a much more useful skill called assassination. Personally, I believed that I deserved the skill more than him, seeing as I did the harder job of sneaking up on conscious boars while he just poked a bunch of hog-tied sleepers in the eye, but the skill probably had something to do with killing a defenceless target.


    Regardless of who deserved what and why, we worked together to butcher the surrounding boars. By the time we were done exhaustion made us sluggish and I noticed that the green bar was resting at half capacity. There was no way we were going to carry any of the hides back that night, so we stashed them up in the trees and had Anansi mark them with vibrant orange webs. The two boar corpses I had left behind weren¡¯t too far away so together we headed towards them. When we got there, we immediately turned around, made our way to the tree line and raced home without saying a word to each other.


    ¡°What the fuck was that, Oscar?¡± huffed Berlioz, trying to catch his breath.


    I was perhaps in a worse condition despite my dexterity being higher. ¡°I, I told you I saw it.¡±


    Berlioz spoke over my wheezing coughs. ¡°That wasn¡¯t just a root, that was bigger than most snakes. It had the boars up in the air and had pushed itself into every fucking orifice.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± I said, with my eyes closed and my mind focused on breathing. ¡°We must have been closer to the main body of whatever the root is feeding.¡±


    ¡°I refuse to die like that.¡± He started to climb the ladder to our tree house. ¡°I don¡¯t even want to think about that thing anymore. I¡¯m going to rank up.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± I said remembering his good idea. ¡°What about making a bow?¡±


    ¡°I need the carpentry skill higher for that remember.¡±


    He might have needed the carpentry skill higher, but I didn¡¯t need the carpentry skill at all. bows were exactly what we needed to pick off the orcs from the trees, we could even take on the ants if I could make arrows strong enough to pierce their carapaces. Thinking about the ants I wondered if I could use parts from their remains and mix them with what was left of the mantis to make a set of bows, but what parts were best. I searched for something flexible but strong and while I paced between the different piles of bug remains, I imagined what I could make. A compound bow was out, I didn¡¯t have the tools or knowledge of engineering needed for such a complex system. I wasn¡¯t a fan of a short bows or a standard long bow, too basic and also too difficult to actually use. That left a recurve bow, with the decision made ideas flooded my mind, it was like I just needed to find the key.


    Another weird thing happened as I looked for the required parts, my hud lit up the bug piles with a kaleidoscope of colours, most were red, but a few bug parts glowed green and even less of them shone with a purple hue. In the corner of my eye another colour shimmered and when I turned to take in the golden glory of the blade mantis¡¯ antennae, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I immediately got to work cutting the antennae to shape, using my dagger with graceful precision. While I worked, I took care to watch my mana bar as it slowly depleted. The bendy antennae were soon perfectly fashioned into the upper and lower limbs needed for our bows, but I still needed a riser and for that I revisited the soldier ant pile.


    Theoretically I could have whittled away at any part of the ant¡¯s carapace and made the solid component with ease but either gods eye, or the artificing skill or maybe even both of them, wanted me to use the best materials for the job. The entire pile lit up with a display of opaque colours and I had to rub my eyes to refocus. The golden glow I had hoped for came from a part of the ant that Anansi hadn¡¯t recognised as different from the rest of its gaster and I quickly removed the part. The petiole nodes that connected the ants front to its back were apparently perfect for my design for reasons only the skills knew, honestly, I didn¡¯t mind at all, the dark red went well with the pale green of the antennae.


    Half an hour later and with judicious use of my mana bar two perfect recurve bows were crafted. My next job was crafting arrows, I let my mind summon the image of an arrow and to my surprise there was no accompanying epiphany. Nothing glowed around me and I didn¡¯t instantly know what to do, it felt like I had been abandoned by my own brain but then I realised crafting an arrow must have been connected to a different skill.


    I used my knowledge of carpentry, to shape a perfectly balanced shaft, then artificing to attach a sharpened scrap of mantis carapace and all that was left was the fletching. What was I going to make the fletching out of, I had no feathers and no way to catch a bird in the short time I had before my stamina and mana depletion forced me to sleep, then I realized that birds weren¡¯t the only things with wings. It took considerable effort to pry open the mantis¡¯ back, but the reward was more than worth it. the mantis wing was perfect and large enough to make more arrows than I¡¯d ever need. Making an arrow from a vague memory from a past I¡¯ve mostly repressed led to more failures than id willingly admit but eventually I was rewarded with clarification that I had gotten it right at least once.


    Congratulations, you have successfully crafted blade mantis arrow (shoddy) and have gained the following: Fletching.


    With the skill came some basic understanding of arrow making but not the amount I would need to craft anything better than what I had made already. Moving on to my next goal I corrected my failed arrows and grabbed my bow. I figured one successful shot would gain me the archery skill and I would be able to finally get some sleep and rank up. I was worse at shooting a bow than I was at making an arrow. I aimed for a tree to the east and somehow managed to miss it every time I shot. I almost gave up when I figured that I just had to get a little closer and pray that the system reprimand me for cheating.


    Congratulations you have hit your target and have gained the following: Archery.


    I celebrated with a pump of my fist then immediately set off for my next skill. This time I was sure to get it on the first try. A low hanging vine hung between two branches just ten feet from the ground and I was determined to take the opportunity to get the acrobatics skill. I zipped up to a branch, leapt to the vine grabbed hold and swung but when I leapt from the vine I overshot and fell on my ass. The fall was enough to leave my bottom aching, and my pride diminished, so deciding enough was enough, I ate a healing pear to soothe my sore bum and took to the tree house for a nice long nap.


    The void was lit by an orb of light that was approximately four times larger than before, however regardless of the size of the bright orb in the distance it did nothing to light the surrounding darkness. I wasn¡¯t there to wonder how much experience I would have to accrue to light the darkness of my mind, I was there for the skills.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Skills:</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Athletics: (Expert) Str2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blades: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Blunt weapons: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Climbing: (Expert) Str 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Archery: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Butchery: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Drop attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dual wielding:(Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Evasion: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Harvesting: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Knife throwing: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Pole-arms: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Sneak attack: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Herbology: (Expert) Con 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Chemistry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Carpentry: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Cooking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">First aid: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Fletching: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Gathering (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Tracking: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Tailoring: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">God¡¯s eye: (Unique) Wis 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Artificing: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core mechanics: (Journeyman)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Hunting: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Meditation: (Novice)</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Rainforest oasis authority: (Unique) Wis 5</h2>


    Five skills ready to rank up and four counts of large experience to use on them, it was a hard choice but, in the end, I figured meditation could wait. Trying something new I thought about filling my four preferred skills at once and I watched as the light dimmed significantly.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Archery: (Novice) Rank up Archery: (Expert) Dex 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Fletching: (Novice) Rank up Fletching: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Tailoring: (Novice) Rank up Tailoring: (Expert) Int 2</h2>


    Warning prerequisites for core mechanics (skilled) not found, progression denied.


    That was new. How amazing did a skill have to be to need prerequisites, or did I already meet the requirements for all my other skill, and this was the only one I hadn¡¯t blindly stumbled into. I was disappointed but on the bright side I could always meditate on the matter.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Meditation: (Novice) Rank up Meditation: (Expert) Wis 2</h2>


    With that done the orb went black and I called up my character sheet.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Oscar Hollow</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Race: Human</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Class: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Linked familiar: Anansi</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 18</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 30</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 26</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 31</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 2</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Resistance: bladed-weapons 50%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">bug-type 50%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: none</h2>


    My stats were heavily unbalanced but in a good way, I couldn¡¯t hit hard, but I could move fast and with the weapons I had at my disposal I just had to hit once. I could have done with another skill or two that rose my constitution but to be fair having the wisdom to avoid a fight will always keep me alive longer than being able to take a punch. All in I was happy with my progress and when I dismissed the void and woke to the sight of Berlioz dancing around in glee it was pretty obvious that he was too. Deciding to take a sneaky peak I activated gods eye on my cat bro.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Berlioz</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Monster type: Sapient Beast</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Species: Panthera</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 16</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 31</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 14</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 20</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 16</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 12</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Resistance: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: Fire</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Core quality: poor</h2>


    ¡°You¡¯re stats are looking good, Berlioz.¡± I said, rolling out of my hammock.


    The Panthera was startled out of his celebratory motion. ¡°Whoa, hey I didn¡¯t know you were in there. Did you analyse me again?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said with a cheeky grin. ¡°And your numbers are high.¡±


    ¡°Not as high as yours would be if you hit level five now.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be levelling up anytime soon, I want as many skills as I can get ranked up to expert before I start pouring experience into my level.¡±


    Berlioz muttered something under his breath before saying. ¡°I hate that I agree with you but levelling up now would just be a waste of potential gains.¡± He noticed the pair of bows next to the hatch in the floor. ¡°Is that smaller one for me?¡±


    Before I could say anything, he grabbed the bow and a few arrows, dropped down and started firing at the trees. He only missed twice before climbing back up and slinking into his hammock.


    ¡°Wake me up once I fall asleep.¡± He commanded and I meditated while I waited.


    Instantly falling into a deep trance, I felt calmer than ever as I processed what was to come. We were practically ready to assault the orc camp, it had to be done but I also had to admit I was frightened. So far, I had only fought unintelligent creatures, sure the ants were capable of spitting acid that could melt my flesh in an instant and the boars could destroy me with single gore, but the orcs were as capable as me. sentient creatures that had lived long enough to reach level twenty, they had far more practical experience in the system than either me or Berlioz. Sure, I had enough skills at expert rank to match their stats, but did I have enough knowledge to out maneuverer them. Feeling my rising panic Anansi pushed a sense of confidence through our bond and in my meditative state I could feel it emanate from his core.


    Giving the spider a stroke I opened my eyes and stood to shake Berlioz awake. His eyes shot open, and he smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready to kick some orc ass.¡± Said Berlioz dropping out of his hammock.


    I had to agree I was ready too. ¡°I¡¯ll craft some more arrows, and you can make some spears. I want your people armed as soon as we free them.¡±


    After our final preparations were done, we set off to where I had found Berlioz. On our way we stopped to harvest some more healing pears in case any harm fell on us or the Panthera we were trying to liberate. The journey was much longer than I had anticipated and a few times I had to question Berlioz¡¯s directions as he frequently stopped to gain a sense of where he had been. While we travelled through the trees it became all too clear just how dangerous the forest ground was. What started as a few acid spitting ants soon became a hub of activity beneath us and we had to stop and marvel at the sheer amount of ants that busied themselves harvesting plant matter.


    ¡°If any of them see us we are cooked.¡± I whispered brushing sweat from my brow.


    Berlioz got closer to me. ¡°Then why are we talking? Let¡¯s get the fuck out of here.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t say how far west we went but after a couple of hours we saw wafts of smoke curling through the towering trunks of the tree ridden horizon. Closing in, we found the camp. it was unimpressive, just a bunch of tents dotted around a large fire pit and what looked to be some wood working supplies. It seemed as though the orcs were having trouble sourcing materials for the border of their camp and I couldn¡¯t blame them for their lack of progress. Felling one of the dreadwoods that Berlioz and I perched upon would take more than just a two-man hand saw, honestly, I was pretty sure that even the machines back home would struggle with how tough these huge trees are.


    The lack of defensive fortifications meant that the orcs patrolled the perimeter of the camp, but you could use the term loosely, apart from a few of the more serious looking green guys, most of them were chatting amiably and drinking from large wooden mugs. We stayed together circling the camp from the branches above, our goal was to spot any weaknesses in the camps organisation to exploit and find where Berlioz¡¯s people were being held. There was supposed to be close to thirty Panthera, however only three were out in the open. I had imagined that all of them would be similar to Berlioz, black panther cubs with varying features, I couldn¡¯t have been more wrong.


    The first we saw was a sandy furred mountain lion, ferrying vegetables from the tent closest to the fire pit and depositing them into a large by cooking pot. Its movements were sluggish indicating that it wouldn¡¯t be partaking in any of the food it had been cooking. The next we saw was a sad sight, a tiger cub with thick stripy fur was tied to a post and around its paws were wrapped blood-soaked bandages. The third and final visible Panthera was a sight to behold, and it sadden me to think that if ever there was a lion with such brilliantly white fur, alive on earth it would surely be poached. The white lion carried a comically massive pitcher, and I would have laughed at the sight of it, the pain of her struggle wasn¡¯t evident in her piercing blue eyes as she struggled to deliver in to the nearest orcs.


    Our initial reconnaissance revealed seven large tents, three loose Panthera and twelve patrolling orcs, visible within the forest camp. The orcs we could see were mostly equipped with crossbows and heavy metal clubs, the size of my entire leg from ankle to thigh. If we had spent more time searching the forest for alchemical ingredients and less time killing boars, we might have been able to concoct a poison deadly enough to slip into their drinks or the food that the mountain lion chef was preparing. Unfortunately, we were going to have to pick the orcs off the hard way. Sniping them from the trees was an option but we would quickly be found out with the bodies just laying there. There was a chance that we could take a few of them out with drop attacks and drag the bodies back into the forest but once they were alerted, the leather clad tusk bearing bastards were going to be an overwhelming problem. A quick whispered conversation devised a solution and before we set our plan into motion, I scanned the nearest orc for a better idea of our odds.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Gurohk Durhh</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Race: Orc</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 21</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Class: Scout</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 26</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 27</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 28</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 26</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 26</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 26</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: Tipsy</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Resistance: Pain 25%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: Balance</h2>


    Even at level twenty-one the orcs stats weren¡¯t as high as mine, sure his strength and constitution were superior but I as sure my weapons were strong enough to bridge the gap. It also looked like he hadn¡¯t gained many if any expert rank skills, so maybe these orcs weren¡¯t really a problem at all. clearly not needing Anansi¡¯s influence to gain confidence I moved into position and gave Berlioz the nod. We dropped down our spears aimed for the heads of the much larger orcs and in an instant they both fell with us.


    Congratulations, you have succsefully killed an orc (scout) and have gained the following: low experience.


    We chose to attack the northern most section of the camp as the scouts there were out of eye shot from any others and although we weren¡¯t exactly quite, we were still discreet enough to drag the two orcs behind a tree. Next, we made our way back up to the branches and Berlioz took off with Anansi on his wrist, while I maintained my position with my bow at the ready in case he was caught.


    I watched the Panthera as he sneaked between the tents, keeping low and using the undisturbed foliage to obscure his presence. When he neared the large central tent, he paused by the mountain lion and handed him a reed pouch before slinking back into the shadows. Even from my vantage point it was hard to keep track of Berlioz¡¯s movements as he darted in and out of sight, but he eventually reappeared next to the barrel that the white lion was filling its pitcher from, and I could have sworn he adopted a flirtatious posture as he spoke to it.


    I got that he wanted to show off, but flirting at a time like that was just damn foolish. As he slunk away, I vaguely remembered him mentioning a silence spell being cast on his people and wondered which of the orcs was capable of magic and if maybe I would be able to do the same someday. While I let myself get distracted, I also completely lost sight of my little cat bro, and I held my breath as my eyes darted this way and that in search of him. A few moments later he reappeared next to the wounded tiger, and I could finally exhale. With his foray done, he pointed his hand towards me, with his paws in the classic spiderman sign and I was proud to say that he was the Miles Morales to my Peter Parker.


    ¡°It¡¯s done.¡± Said Berlioz returning to my side.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were into guys.¡± I said watching the white lion continue its duty without pause.


    ¡°That¡¯s a girl, Oscar.¡± Berlioz sighed. ¡°Why are you so easily distracted.¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± I said pressing my hands on my chest in mock offence, ¡°you¡¯re the one that risked getting caught so you could flirt with the lion girl.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a lion?¡±


    ¡°She is. The main, the face shape, the toned muscles, that¡¯s what a lion looks like.¡±


    Berlioz rolled his eyes. ¡°Is that an earth creature?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re all similar to big cats from earth.¡±


    ¡°And these creatures have squidgy brains right.¡±


    ¡°Well, yeah.¡± I answered with a shrug.


    ¡°We¡¯re Panthera, not big cats and we have monster cores, not slimy balls of meat in our heads.¡± He gestured towards the camp. ¡°Can we get on with this, my people are waiting.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re not balls, but yeah let¡¯s do it.¡±


    We made our way to the other side of the camp, closer to the tent that held the captive Panthera and Anansi shot a line between the trees. Walking across his web, the spider shot line after line until he reached the point that sat directly above the Panthera¡¯s tent. Dangling down, he ran a rope of webbing to the entrance and cut it of before crawling in. With arrows nocked, Berlioz and I kept our sights on the closest scouts as they patrolled the perimeter. It said a lot about the treatment of the Panthera as the Orcs felt secure enough in their domination that they didn¡¯t even bother setting guards to watch them.


    I could see why the Orcs were so confident when cat after cat sidled out of the tent and climbed the rope with visible effort. Each one of the freed Panthera were emaciated and filthy, dressed in rags and not a single one of them looked fit enough to fight. Once all of them had vacated the tent and climbed up to the tree branches, a wild looking leopard handed out spears and daggers from the bottomless reed pouch that Berlioz had provided them. It seemed the Orcs where none the wiser to our efforts and if it wasn¡¯t for the three Panthera that remained in the open, under the eye of the patrolling guards, we could have left without alerting anyone, although Berlioz made it clear that whether we could get out unseen or not he wanted revenge.


    With things moving quickly and all the Panthera in position, we took our next step. Two arrows whistled through the air, embedding themselves in the skulls of the orcs closest to the Panthera tent. The sound of the slain scouts falling to the ground stirred confusion around those on ear shot and I laughed as I imagined little question marks appearing over their heads while they searched the distance instead of turning their sights towards the camp. Whatever they had come across out in the monster ridden hellscape of the forest had clearly gotten them spooked. Pushing our luck, we traversed the tree line, getting into position and knocking our arrows once more. With a click of my tongue, I signalled for Berlioz to loose his arrow and mine followed shortly after. The last two we had downed were attentively searching the distance for signs of movement, these two were chatting loudly, that was until an arrow protruded through one of their heads.


    I winced and fled my position as my target yelled out in shock, before my arrow reached him and those imaginary question marks formed into big old exclamation marks. I had to remind myself that this wasn¡¯t metal gear solid, and the Orcs weren¡¯t algorithm based npcs that would forget their friends had been murdered the second another distraction arose. A scout from the left ran to his fallen allies and called out.


    ¡°Kilog and Gurrh are down.¡± His booming voice filled the camp. ¡°Search for archers in the trees.¡±


    From the other side of the camp another voice arose. ¡°Amech and Frohl too. We are under attack sound the horn.¡±


    Beneath me, a scout withdrew a horn, and I loosed an arrow just as his lips touched the brass instrument. He had raised his head to blow and as his eyes met mine my arrow penetrated his skull. The orc next to him was quick to react, pulling his cross bow up towards me and without time to think I leapt from the branch and pulled out my spear. From skull to rectum, the spear disappeared within the towering figure as I landed behind him. Four more orcs stood with their crossbows at the ready either side of me. one to left fired upon me, the bolt missed me by an inch and found its way inside the orc held up by my spear. The scout next to him went down from an arrow fired by Berlioz and out of nowhere the white lioness pounced on the orc that shot at me.


    She wielded two mantis daggers, and she struck with such ferocity and speed that it looked as though she had four arms, as she made Swiss cheese out of the orc. In that moment I saw her as the demon slaying Hindu goddess Kali. My admiration of the slaughter before me almost got me killed, when another bolt hit the deceased orc shield I hid behind, and I quickly dove out and threw my dagger at the scout that still had a bolt in his crossbow. My aim was true but I could only successfully hit the orcs thigh as I rolled. The scout fell to a knee and Anansi zipped the web attached to my dagger back to my hand but before I could throw it out once more the other Orc charged me with his club held high.


    The Orc roared in rage as it closed in and all I could do was withdraw my own much smaller club, hoping that it would be enough to block the powerful attack aimed at me. time froze for a second as I lay on my back looking up at the massive club that was sure to end my life. I pushed up and the two clubs collided but the force I expected wasn¡¯t there, looking into the eyes of my foe I recognised the empty stare of dead and from behind the orc smiled the sandy furred chef.


    ¡°Yes, Chef.¡± I cheered before withdrawing my machetes and rushing the kneeling Orc.


    My blade sliced cleanly through the scout¡¯s neck and his head rolled until it bumped into the base of a tree. With twelve down there was sure to be only two left, but where could they be. My question was answered when the wounded tiger flew through the air from the direction of the largest tent. He landed a few feet Infront of Chef, Kali and I, before letting out a pained roar and throwing a jar towards the tent. The sight of him reminded me of a story my step-father had told me about a famous Gurkha soldier, and I smiled as I watched the jar take off. My eyes followed the flight of the jar until it landed with a shattering of glass and an eruption of flames at the feet of the largest Orc I have ever seen. Without thinking I focused on the symbol above his head.


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Name: Jugag durhh</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Race: Orc</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 35</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Class: Berserker</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 68</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 52</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 60</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 25</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 10</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 5</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: Enraged</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Resistance: all damage types 50% pain 100%</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: blind rage.</h2>


    I wasn¡¯t sure if his stats were so imbalanced because of his class or because of his status condition, but what I was sure of was that he was a goliath of an orc. The flames that burst before him were drawn around him and a much smaller but somehow more menacing orc stepped out beside the berserker.


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Name: Ragnich Durhh</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Race: Orc</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Level: 40</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Class: Shaman</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Attributes.</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Strength: 25</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Dexterity: 25</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Constitution: 67</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Intelligence: 76</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Wisdom: 76</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Charisma: 67</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Luck: 1</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Status conditions: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center"> Resistance: None</h2>


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Weakness: None</h2>


    My second scan confirmed that classes warped stats and that regardless of that, compound interest was a bitch to deal with. The flames pulled into the skull topped cane held by the Shaman and my jaw dropped at the futility of the sandy furred Panthera¡¯s attack.


    ¡°Chef, Kali, get behind me.¡± The two Panthera either side of me understood that I was talking to them and complied. ¡°Anansi get them to safety.¡±


    Without hesitation the spider leapt off my wrist and onto Chef¡¯s back, before zipping the mountain lion up into the trees. Kali stepped forward, bravely baring her daggers, ready to face the impossible odds by my side but a web hit her in the chest and pulled her up and away to safety. The tiger I had decided to call Lachhiman, finally remembering the name of the famous Gurkha, let out a rebellious roar and just as he pushed himself forward to attack, a web yanked him away too.


    It was just me, the Berserker and the Shaman. The gigantic orc¡¯s breathing was laboured, and his eyes looked wild as he stared at me. I could tell he wanted to rush in and destroy me, however with a word from the shaman, the wannabe hulk waited.


    ¡°Are you one of the humans that have recently spawned into the system?¡± Asked the Shaman, with a gruff yet distinguished voice.


    I wasn¡¯t sure how to react, Berlioz had no idea what I was, but this guy seemed to have vital information I could use. ¡°I am.¡± I answered, reminding myself that no matter what, he had to die. ¡°What¡¯s it to you?¡±


    ¡°I am the revered Ragnich Durhh, harbinger of the great warlord himself. His eminence would gladly have you as a cherished pet.¡± He clicked his fingers, and the faux hulk stepped forward. ¡°Or perhaps you would prefer to be a snack for Jugag.¡±


    ¡°Listen,¡± I said raising my arm. ¡°I¡¯m not really into submissive pet play, so how about you guys just kindly die.¡±


    As I let my arm fall, spears flew from the trees. Reacting without thought the berserker sheltered the shaman with its humungous frame and was subsequently peppered with spears. What I had thought to be a quick and decisive attack, turned out to be an utter flop. One spear had hit its mark, stabbing through Jugag¡¯s shoulder. The rest either scratched, grazed or missed the big fucker entirely and just when I thought things couldn¡¯t get more embarrassing, a keening laughter sounded from beneath the hulking meat shield.


    ¡°You are a sneaky little monkey.¡± Jibed Ragnich. ¡°Do you cherish the lives of these monsters more than your own?¡±


    ¡°Oscar, we fucked up.¡± Said Berlioz dropping down next to me. ¡°I forgot that none of them have any skills.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, me to buddy.¡± I said patting his back. ¡°Me too. But on the plus side, if we survive this a lot of you might get a spear chucking skill.¡±


    Just then Jugag rose up and pulled the spear out of his shoulder. as he aimed, Ragnich laughed once more. ¡°The skill is called javelins. Allow Jugag to demonstrate.¡±


    The spear flew from the berserker¡¯s meaty hands with so much force that I couldn¡¯t even attempt to evade it. The blade couldn¡¯t pierce my armour but that didn¡¯t stop the impact from taking me off my feet and definitely breaking at least one rib. Peaking at my health bar, I saw that it had a chunk missing and also noticed that my stamina bar was blinking. When I tried to stand, I realised that it was indicating that I was winded, although the pain in my chest did a pretty good job of that too.


    ¡°You big bastard.¡± Screamed Berlioz.


    Before I could say anything, he was running at the Berserker, while I was still struggling to get up. The next thing I knew there were two thick fingers lifting my chin and the most horrendous green face pushed into mine.


    ¡°Watch as that Panthera, dies for your honour.¡± Ragnich¡¯s tusks caused him to spit in my face as he spoke and the smell made me gag.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Closing my eyes and centring myself, causing the green bar to stop flashing. ¡°You.¡±


    I pulled out my dagger and thrusted upwards, aiming for the shaman¡¯s throat, but he darted backwards and my blade merely nicked his chin. My machetes had fallen, and my spear was inside a scout, but I still had my dagger and club. I thrusted and stabbed while he tried to back up, keeping on the cane wielding shaman pushing my dexterity to its limits. He muttered something unintelligible and the skull on his cane let out a scarlet glow, seeing it I pushed to the side swapped out my dagger and slammed my club down on his outstretched arm. A blast of light careered off into the forest, the sulphuric stench of it stung my nostrils but the fumes from Ragnich¡¯s melting forearm made my eyes water.


    The Shaman¡¯s cane fell to the ground, and I kicked it away as I rose my club. One head shot would end the battle, but as I brought the heavy weapon down, Ragnich flicked a finger and a spear flew into my shoulder, causing me to drop my corrosive club. The shock of the blunt force trauma to my shoulder made me stumble and as I regained my balance, I saw a cheater running about the camp. Too dazed to think about what it was doing; I shook off the distraction and refocused on the Shaman.


    Both of us were unarmed and wounded, but when our eyes met the murderous intent between us was palpable. Ragnich had backed up, held his hand over his melting arm and a red glow evaporated the acid, leaving only the smell of burnt flesh. He smiled at me, let his injured arm hang limply and raised his hand up. I adopted a boxer¡¯s stance and scanned my periphery for any potential projectiles. I ducked and weaved as spears flew, some scraping against my resistant armour, but most missing entirely. I got closer and closer, while the Shaman struggled to concentrate on both attacking and creating distance. A spear flew for my head, and I dropped down to my knees, rolled, thanked the system for the evasion skill and rose up with an uppercut that would have made Mike Tyson proud.


    Ragnich spat blood and his hand glowed a more vibrant red than previously, but I clinched in, wrapping is arm in mine, ensuring his hand was away from my body and slammed my forehead into his fat green nose. The glow dissipated as I smashed my head into his face with headbutt after headbutt, until he cried out in dismay and my vision blurred with dizziness. A knee to the gut caused the orc to fall and I followed him down, my hands clutched around his neck and my eyes staring into his. I was lost in the moment, barely able to feel the projectiles that slammed into my back as I wrung the puke green bastard¡¯s neck. My stamina bar plummeted but I held on, squeezing as tightly as I could, until I had to close my eyes and meditate through the nauseating effect of my dwindling green bar. I think I held my breath the entire time and only exhaled as the notification rang true in my mind.


    Congratulations, you have killed an Orc (shaman) and have gained the following: medium experience, unarmed combat, endurance.


    I almost swore at the system for only giving me medium experience for such a tough opponent but as I looked up towards the fire pit, I saw a sight that took what little breath I had left away.


    Berlioz flipped back and the berserkers huge club smashed into the ground. Roaring, Jugag charged in for a gore but with a roll to the left the Panthera evaded. Dipping in he stabbed at the orc¡¯s side with his dagger and darted back out. The orc felt no pain and showed no mercy as he swung his mighty club with ease. My eyes felt heavy and with every blink I missed Berlioz¡¯s rapid movements, flips and rolls, weaves and dodges, all executed with the precision of an expert fighter, allowed Berlioz not only to survive but to orchestrate the flow of the fight.


    A blur fell from the sky, then another and another. My blinks lasted longer each time I tried to focus on the battle happening before me. Berlioz was almost wiped out when Jugag spun with the force of a hurricane, but his motion stopped when another blur fell from above and I realized that it was Chef, executing a perfectly aimed drop attack to the orcs back before sprinting out of the way. With Jugag raging and swinging his club wildly, the Panthera dropped from above, over and over again until the spears they wielded turned him into a mean green incredible pincushion. The hulking figure slowed, panting with labouring breathes and Berlioz took up a fallen spear and aimed. The black furred Panthera, focused his piercing blue eyes, took one step and in true form he launched his spear. The last thing I saw before my blinking stamina bar completely depleted and I passed out, was the mantis blade spear, flying through Jugag¡¯s ugly snot coloured face.