I ran.

I heard it howl behind me, even as I slipped deeper and deeper into the forest of reeds and farther and farther from the entry gate. The path was unrecognizable, indistinct terrain whizzing passed me. Then I heard it howl. It was awake. I hadn’t even thought to inspect it before I ran, opting instead to delve deep into the forest. I jumped over rocks and slid down banks of soil, the time spent running quickly blending together as I picked up several new scrapes.

Blood pounded in my head. In the distance, I could hear it howl again, its paws tearing through the sparse vegetation with ease, whereas I missed footfalls, throwing myself over the rough terrain. But it was falling behind. It was wounded. Its howls slowly were replaced by yelps, sounding farther and farther away, before stopping entirely.

Humans were never the fastest or the strongest animals. We just ran the longest. I panted, finally coming to the stop at the bank of a muddy river. I caught my breath, hands on my knees, as I scanned the thinning forest line. Nothing moved, the world instead filled with an oppressive, foreboding silence, as what just happened set in.

Fuck.

I closed my eyes again, sensing for the mana of the gate, but I could only feel the wolves. Which most likely meant it was a boss, and the gate wouldn’t open in this region until it was killed. Even if it did, I had no idea how to get to it. I bit my lip, considering my options. There's a possibility of other gates being open in other regions of this world, but since this isn't Ares, it wouldn’t be reliable. The sun still hasn’t set here. Lee’s party…

They had clearly fought with the wolf, wounding it seriously. But there was no sign of them here. Had it run from them, retreating to its nest to heal? No. I haven't sensed any mana from my party members. Which meant they either actually found a gate, and left… or…

No. I have to end that train of thought. They were probably out there, somewhere. Besides that, it should be the middle of the night right now. I looked up towards the evenly colored red sky. Shit. Exhaustion was starting to set in as I made my way upriver, heading towards the source of the water. I walked as far away from the wolves den as my legs would carry me, eventually sitting in the shadow of a bulbous trunk, from which jutted twisted, browned branches.

I don’t know when sleep found me, but it did.

It took two days before I gave in and drank the muddy water from the river. The red soil mixed with the water tasted of metal and earth, but was clear in my hands when I skimmed it from the top.

At least, I think it took me two days. The world here was perpetually day time, with no demarcator of the time. The world was as still as its unmoving shadows. The water did nothing to alleviate my dizziness, at least not right away. I ate my rapidly diminishing rations, sensing outwards for new fluctuations of mana. I only sensed the mana of the wolf, growing stronger by the day. In the woods it had been vaporous and indistinct, but now it was quickly coalescing. The monster was healing, and there was no sign of Lee’s return.

The unnerving red light beat down incessantly on the world, and I knew that this wouldn’t last.

Today was the day I had decided to hunt, no longer able to stand the rumbling in my stomach. I had to hunt. Before my body started destroying my own muscles. I had killed monsters before- lots of them. Not just last hitting. I had been raiding for years now.

Sure, most of the monsters were not much stronger than a man and weren't much smarter than a fish, but that didn’t change much.

I knew that there was a hell chicken roost not far from here, and I used what precious crumbs still remained of my rations and torn scrap from the bag that had contained them to lure one away. Alone, away from its roost, and isolated. It clucked as it tore up the scrap, inching step by step closer towards where I laid in the twisted branches of the tree.

It wasn’t long before I stared down at it. It clucked as it moved in circles around the makeshift camp below me. Its body was undulating rolls of fat, misshapen and lumpy, like a giant potato made of meat.

It was strange that its name was a Hell Chicken, as it looked much closer to a turkey, except for that gross, gooey red flesh that was normally on a turkey’s neck covered its entire body. It stood several feet tall, and on a previous raid, I had seen one kill someone with just its claws. I would wretch at the thought if there was anything left in my stomach. As it was, it was the most delicious thing I had ever seen.

The monster's gigantic, serrated beak ripped through what remained of my bag, chewing it apart. There were no longer any crumbs left in it, but I had bet on it smelling of food to the monster’s enhanced senses. Perfect bait. I adjusted the dagger in my hands, waiting. The monster stopped suddenly, going perfectly still. I held my breath as it craned its neck around, scanning the horizon.

For several dangerous seconds I waited.

Then I dropped out of the tree, landing on top of it. I screamed.

It squawked.

I stabbed.

It screamed.

The gigantic bird bucked wildly with me on its back, and my knife failed to find purchase in its flesh, reinforced by mana. I stabbed again and again, slicing across its boiled leather like skin. Each stab left a new shallow cut, but failed to kill the bird as I held on for dear life, digging my fingers into the rubbery layers of flesh on its side. Finally, my knife found purchase, digging deep intos it neck. I inspected it.

Hell Chicken

189/200

Bleeding

Drowning

Good. It would choke on the blood in its neck… any second now. I clung to it perilously as it squaked its death throes, continuously bringing my knife down into its neck. It bucked about, wobbling back and forth, before slamming into a treat. I felt my own HP drain from the impact.

Hell Chicken

94/200

Bleeding

Drowning

I brought my knife into its neck with renewed frenzy after seeing how quickly its health dropped. My muscles were sore when it finally collapsed, dozens of feet away from the makeshift camp I had lured it to. I was covered in sweat and blood, more so than usual, and ravenously hungry. Unceremoniously, I dragged it back to the camp. It was only feet away, but each step seemed to drag on the journey, as if it was hours long.

“Finally,” I spoke to myself outloud, nearly drooling. “But first…” I opened my notifications.

You’ve earned 392 XP! Congrats!

Level up! Error- Conditions not met. Reverting changes.

“Fuck!” I cursed aloud, kicking the corpse of the chicken. “Still!?” I had paid over 200 dollars to accompany my party on this hunt. They had been missing since the first day I was trapped here. I bit my lip. I had been raiding since I was 18 without ever gaining a level to show for it. And no levels meant no class.

No class meant no skills.

And no skills meant there was no party that would take me.

I took out my anger on the Hell Chicken’s corpse, cutting roughly into its flesh. The mana that had enhanced its body was quickly dissipating, allowing me to tear into it. I wasn’t sure which parts of a chicken were meant to be edible, but the gore and blood had awoken something primal in me. I wasn’t just hungry. I was starving.

Eating was all I had been thinking about for days now.

So there I was, trapped beyond a gate, alone, partyless, and starving, holding up a lump of raw, uncooked meat like I found a brick of solid gold. Dark, viscous blood flowed over my hands. I would like to say that I could find some dry twigs and start a fire with nothing but sticks, skewer the rough cut meat that I hoped was a chicken breast, and slowly roasted it, but I am a proponent of the truth.

The truth is that I did what I needed to do to survive. I couldn’t start a fire. I wasn’t a boy scout. I couldn’t start a fire with sticks and drive, or a spell, and I didn't come with a flint and steel. I was trapped, alone, in a dangerous, alien, world. There was no telling when, or if, rescue would come.

And there was viscous monster blood running down my face.

Honestly, I didn’t know if eating monsters would kill me. I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time. The only thing on my mind was an instinctive, all consuming compulsion, a directive that was the very core of my nature: Eat.

The taste of monster meat was odd. I expected something rancid, like rotting flesh. Instead, it was sweet. Infact, it might have been one of the best things I ever tasted.

Then something really unexpected happened.

Condition met. You have leveled up.

Class unlocked: Devourer

Dexterity increased by 1

Select skill:

or