Sam groaned, the essence within him warring as it reformed his body. He’d thought he was used to the pain, but how wrong he’d been. This was excruciating. Every cell in his body might as well be on fire. He closed his eyes, picturing something peaceful to counter the charging energy within him. That didn’t work, so he focused on the wild animal he’d killed, a draka. It was something like a large lizard with wet, scaly skin. Its slimy exterior shone as if slathered with gel. A strange liquid leaked from under it, where Sam had skewered it with his new spear. This one was better, sharper than the one he fought the mutated lix with.

  His body trembled, but he felt the effect ease slowly. Something was soothing about the after-effect of leveling up. He felt it three days ago when he leveled up, but he wasn't sure because it was his first conscious level-up. It was different from when he triggered the EoM count and yet similar. His senses improved, but nothing as sharp and disorienting as that. His heartbeat was calmer as if he was unbothered by anything in the forest. He closed his eyes and spread his perception. He’d been experimenting with that, and now it was even easier. He stretched it as far as he could, trying to see if it had increased with attaining level nine status. He felt water roll off flower petals, soft to his senses.

  It stayed briefly, as usual, and then it all snapped back to him, reducing its scope and detail. His coverage area shrank, and he could hear, feel, and perceive minor surface details. But he knew when he was alone and when he was being watched. He opened his eyes to the message.

  [Achievement log]

   — EoM count exceeded!

   — You have leveled up! [Level 9]

   — All attributes adjusted accordingly

  He expected he’d get a skill soon, but once again he got nothing. That dampened the thrill of leveling up, but he’d begun to realize that his normal understanding of gaming mechanics didn’t apply to the System of Ascension. For one, it hadn’t prompted him to pick a class yet. That was something he would have gotten immediately after he started leveling up. And there was that thing about the legacy function. He couldn’t summon more information about it. Also, he’d expected that there would be an inventory, but there wasn’t. Or perhaps he hadn’t gotten to that yet. He had so many questions and was getting very few answers. It was beginning to frustrate him. He stared at the draka. There was a bare semblance of a dragon in it. Its short legs made it slow, but its scales were tough, which made it difficult to pierce. That had been the first problem Sam encountered fighting it. And the fluid running all over its body had a numbing property. He’d been lucky.

  Sam shook his head—luck had very little to do with it. He was getting better with the spear, even though he was still using it by feeling alone. There was no skill to how he swung and stabbed. It was mostly blind jabs and frantic swings, but now he’d learned to look for openings. And the spear gave him distance, which helped to keep him out of reach of whatever he was fighting. Except for barags. Those damn squirrelly things were a nightmare to fight. They moved like they rode the wind, using trees to escape or attack. He was lucky he hadn’t met a mutated barag. Sam touched the scar under his chin, his frown deepening. A barag with ability and strength like the mutated lix would have killed him in minutes or frustrated him endlessly.

  He stood up slowly, testing his feet to see if the numbing had faded. At first, he’d panicked, scared that he’d become a cripple. That would have put a wrench in things for him. He pulled his spear off the ground, twirled it adeptly, and smiled. He was proud of the work. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough. The balance was off because of the sharp stone head, but not by much. He almost didn’t feel the imbalance because of his growing strength. He could carry a boulder now, easily too. That was why he could go farther into the forest. And he was beginning to notice things he didn’t have a sense for before.

  He’d noticed it the night before when his EoM count had reached eighty percent after he killed a large pheasant. Some parts of the forest glowed at night. Not just the leaves, but the tree trunks, the soil, and the branches. It felt like the darkness let the flow of essence pop out prominently. It was beautiful, but then it occurred to him that it wasn’t the darkness doing it. It was the density and his attunement to essence. He could feel it so much more than he could before. His senses had grown to where he could see the impression of essence moving passively.

  The air there was cleaner and weightless. There was a small sense of impurity, but it was so vague he couldn’t get a good grip on what was causing it. Sam forgot it almost as quickly as he’d discovered it. He slept in a small cluster of low bushes, bending the middle space to form a soft bed of grass and sweet-smelling flowers.

  Now he battled with the idea of going further into the depths of the woods. He still had some of the barag to roast for dinner. But he needed a wash first. He stretched, playing with his spear. Deciding to carve the bottom end of the spear to a sharp point had been a good idea. It gave him double attack points and made his clumsy stabs twice as effective. He felt immeasurable pride at what he’d been able to build. He expected the system to give him a point for creativity, but perhaps it didn’t see anything new about the weapon. Sam didn’t mind. He was more focused on strength, endurance, and perception. Those were the attributes keeping him alive at the moment.

  The stream was far from his current hideout, but the walk was worth it. He took off the scavenger robe, and then his clothes. The robe was in tatters. It had served as basic armor against the claws of most of the creatures he’d encountered since he got here. He pushed off his shoes and thrust his spear into the ground beside his things. The water was cold as usual, which was why Sam loved it. He waded into it, relishing the coolness against his skin. It was reminiscent of stumbling into the shower after a grueling or boring day at work. Except this place was different. He closed his eyes, a flash of excitement burning in his chest. He wasn’t super strong yet, but he wasn’t weak. Not anymore. And that was enough to make him smile. He summoned his stat window, eager to see what he’d earned from fighting nonstop for weeks.

  [System of Ascension…analyzing]

  [Legacy function detected!]

   Name: Samuel Ayer [analyzing legacy data]

      Age — 27

      Specie — Human

          [Racial deviation detected!]

      Level — 9

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  [EoM: %8]

  There was still no explanation for what the system meant about racial deviation, but Sam wasn’t completely worried about that. He only had to keep leveling up. The answers would come at some point. And at the moment he still felt human, whatever the system thought didn’t matter. He had other things to focus on at the moment, so he moved to the next part of his stats window.

  His strength had increased significantly, but he needed it higher. He would have to go hunting again, but it was beginning to feel slow. He’d have to kill more animals than usual to tip over the EoM count for his level-up. Animals were not enough anymore. He’d have to look for real monsters like the mutated lix. Or perhaps something stronger. That wasn’t a problem though. He suspected that the denser the essence, the more absurd the animals would be. So, perhaps, at the center of this forest, he’d find really strong monsters to help him level up. Hopefully, soon he’d get to the point where he could pick his domain, and he knew what he’d be picking already.

  He closed his eyes and dipped himself into the water. The silence with its depths subsumed him, filled him with calming peace. Somehow he’d created order in the cluster of chaos. He was progressing and soon he could venture far away from here. All his fears coalesced and vanished. Sam pushed out of the water and started to wash himself. The sun was down and he’d wasted enough time enjoying the water. He had to walk a long way back and although he was familiar with his preferred route now, there were things he couldn’t control. He bathed hastily, washing hard and fast, and then came out of the water.

  He noticed something was terribly wrong when he started his journey back and noticed the silence. He could hear the wind and nothing else. The rustle of leaves was sharp in his ear. Sam inhaled, taking a long drag of the air, and perceived that sharp tang of impurity, this time louder than before. He broke into a run, his legs faster than they’d ever been.

  He’d been careless. Perhaps leveling up had made him feel stronger, dangerous, and complacent. There was something with him in the forest, and he hadn’t noticed it. He ran faster, taking the familiar bends he was now used to. If whatever was out there was as strong as Sam felt it was, it’d notice him. Another stupid mistake.

  Sam broke his run when he heard the first howls. That…that wasn’t what he had expected. He would have preferred a wild beast. Or even five of those wild mutated lix things. How had he been so careless? He’d expected the night of turning, but he thought they’d be far from him, all the way to the west. That was what Hendal had told him. But perhaps that was before he killed them. Maybe they were looking for him. His heart plummeted and suddenly he felt sick. If they were looking for him, and they had come here, that meant they had a way to track him. That stole every hope Sam had of escaping. He needed to move far away from here, perhaps he’d survive if he had help. That pulled up two possibilities. He could go back to the Scavenger’s cave.

  He liked that least of all. It would mean taking the danger to them. And he wasn’t sure what they could do for him. They had the System of Ascension, but none of them was strong enough. Not even Maxim, and he was the largest person— except for D’Araks— Sam had seen since he dropped on this damn island. He took a moment to think through his options and decided the latter was better.

  He’d seen a group of people earlier. The day after defeating the mutated lix. He’d followed them up North for a bit and turned back. That was better than going back to the Scavengers. If he was being tracked, there must be a way to hide away from them.

  He ran for his hideout and found that his things were still hidden. He slung his pack on his back. He picked up his spear and turned in the general direction of the North. He’d pick the correct path as he ran. The howl filtered through to him and Sam swore, sweat building up on his face. They were close. Too close. He wasn’t sure how his speed would fare against the D’Araks, but he was grateful for the head start. He ran through the forest, burning long distances in minutes. There was no need to be careful about running into other wild animals. He was sure everything was hiding away from the D’Araks. The silence had been the first clue. The presence of something stronger made everything else cower.

  Sam caught the first hint he’d left behind. It was hard to see at night, but he caught the strip of dirty clothes he’d tied to a tree to mark it as the road to take. He kept running, searching for another to confirm the path. The howling filled the darkness behind him. He tried not to look back. He was almost sure that he’d see them coming, claws out and golden eyes flaring with hatred. He shut the thought from his mind and instead focused on running.

  The world came in and out of focus. He almost stumbled and fell, but he caught himself, biting hard on his lips to take his focus from the building fatigue. He had no option but to continue running. The wind changed. The cool air became warmer. Something moved beside him. Sam ignored it, not wanting to give life to the fear forming in his chest. Yet, he knew, even before he saw the glowing red of its eyes and the silver sheen of its armor. Sam knew. And he tried not to freeze in its step. He tried to run even harder. But fear had a way of seeping in and destroying whatever resolve he had. He panicked, lost focus, and kicked a jutting rock half-buried into the forest floor. The force launched him forward and had him tumbling as though he was a boulder thrown by a titan. He slammed into a large rock, this one jagged and huge. The boulder cracked and a small dent formed where Sam’s back crashed into it.

  He groaned, standing frantically to continue running, only to realize he’d been caught.

  “You run like a mouse,” the Alpha said. His uniquely red eyes shone in the near darkness of the forest shade. Then he was completely illuminated once he walked out of the line that split vegetation from hard ground. He was taller than Sam remembered, looming like a dark spawn sent to wreak havoc in dreams. Sam scrambled away from it.

  “Now attempt to go home? There will be no rescue for you, Forger. We will tear you into a thousand pieces. There will be no other life for you. No peace.”

  Sam sighed, his back to the boulder. This was it? The end of all his struggles? It felt so brief. He pulled himself up. Except for the minor stings from the battles he’d fought days ago, he felt alright. There were no other D’Araks except the Alpha in front of him. The Alpha seemed to catch his thinking because he looked behind him too and scoffed.

  “You think I need them to shred you to pieces?” he asked. “You will learn why they fear us. You will see the truth of our superiority and it will be too late for you to repent.”

  Sam chuckled, shrugging his pack from his back. He retrieved his gun. Above him, the large disjointed moon shone down, helping him find his spear. Sam felt stupid. He’d fought with many monsters and yet, somehow, he’d dreaded meeting the very one in front of him. He thought he’d moved past his fear, but he’d been wrong. This was the only way.

  “Your tricks won’t work,” the Alpha said, taking slow steps forward. And before Sam squeezed the trigger, the Alpha moved. So fast that Sam almost missed the fist coming for his head. He jumped left and the D’Arak’s fist smashed the boulder behind him, taking a chunk out of it. Sam rolled onto his knees, turned, and fired. The shots rang, echoing into the distance.