A noise.

Alan shot upright. His head was spinning from being forced awake so quickly. Where was he? Was a guard coming to bring him food?

A noise sounded again in the distance, and he suddenly came to himself. The sound echoed through the small tunnel in which he lay. The memories of his escape flooded back to him and the dreariness of sleep was cleared from his mind immediately.

He needed to run away. But he could barely move, let alone run, so he forced himself to lie still and continued listening while checking his Stats quickly. His MP was fully recovered, but he would wait until the noises were closer to start Sensing outward further. Were there Skills that could pick up on his use of Sense?

[Hide] was at Level 4 *63/100 till the next level. It had been stuck at *58/100 for months, something had caused it to rise in the short amount of time since his escape. That was both worrying and revealing. [Hide] must be working against whatever was tracking him, but was it enough? He tucked himself further in the corner, the sound of his breath the only thing in the darkness.

He focused on breathing and listening for any noise, but there was nothing but silence around him now. A deep silence. [Hide] rose to *64/100. Something was definitely searching for him somehow, probably using some sort of Skill. Sitting in the silence, he began to notice his hunger. A deep and empty feeling. A weakness that affected his whole body...

He waited for some time, resting and dozing in and out, remaining silent and keeping an eye on his Hide Stat in case it started to increase. After nothing happened he worked his way up, forcing his aching body to move as best he could. His joints hurt and his muscles were sore to the point where even the smallest movement sent jolts of pain throughout his body. It hurt to move anything, and over all of the pain was a deep hunger and an even deeper feeling of weakness.

Slowly he was able to get up and start moving once more. He needed food quickly. [Endure] had almost risen to Level 7, and even so, he was barely able to muster the strength to get moving again. His hunger was becoming unignorable.

He shuffled along keeping his senses active and trying to remain hidden. The soft sound as his feet hit the ground was the only company in his world of darkness. He expanded [Sense] sparingly trying to not use up too much MP and relying on the shorter 3-4 meter default range to find his footing and know his surroundings. It felt like being in a small bubble outside of which all was unknown. That was his world as he made his way through the various tunnels and caverns, looking for anything that could be food: lizards, mushrooms, spiders, anything.

Then suddenly he smelled something. Something amazing. It was the smell of something cooking. Of herbs and spices. Of meat. He paused unsure what to make of it but he had already made up his mind. He needed to go towards that smell. He needed food. But he proceeded cautiously, trying to remain hidden by sticking next to the wall. Given he was in total darkness he didn't see how it mattered, but it couldn't hurt. And suddenly he noticed a light flickering up ahead around a curve. He crouched down.

He was drooling at this point. His hunger and exhaustion threatened to override his senses, but he just needed to hold on for a little longer. The flickering light was still far ahead but if he strained his ears he could hear hushed voices echoing in the distance as well. The whispers were unintelligible but someone or something was just up ahead. Had his pursuers passed him by?

Slowly he began to move towards the light and noise and smell of food. He worried about his stomach making noise, but luckily his body kept quiet. His Hide Skill progression went up by a point as he moved, but he didn't let it bother him. If anything it reassured him that his Hide Skill was protecting him from being discovered.

He went slowly. Methodically putting one foot down after the other, each step taken was soft and deliberate. It took time but soon he was close enough to the light where he felt uncomfortable out in the open so he crouched down and continued on the ground. He saw a silhouette and crawled towards it. As he got closer he could make out more and more of what he was coming upon, and it wasn't what he had expected.

In front of him, he saw a group of lizardmen huddled around a cooking pot.

There were three of them. Each was large and heavily muscled and were strangely quiet only letting out the occasional soft hiss. Alan had never seen any, but he had heard of them. These ones in particular were a bit different from what he had imagined. For one they were a pale, almost sickly white color, rather than the green he had assumed. And more frightening was the fact that they didn't seem to have any eyes, sunken holes where eyes should be. It made for a terrifying combination.

They were all wearing armor made up of some sort of rough hide and had crude clubs and spears that rested on the ground near their feet. Their tails were long and straight, trailing behind them. It was very quiet and he noticed them gesturing back and forth to each other as they ate. He vaguely wondered the purpose of their motions since they clearly couldn't see. Other than the gesturing, there was a stillness to them that Alan found eerie. They seemed to move in bursts, or remain very still.

Another strange thing was that the light he had assumed was from a fire was actually coming from a man tied up on the ground towards the back of the makeshift camp. He couldn't make them out well, but there seemed to be two prisoners in this camp. Oddly enough one was glowing. It looked like he must be utilizing some Skill in the hope someone might notice and come to rescue him. The lizardmen didn't seem to care or notice, but it appeared the lizardmen were blind. If they called these caves their home, they must use other senses than sight to get around these dark tunnels.

Now that he was close enough Alan expanded [Sense] to get a better idea of the situation. He made it brief and used up almost all of his MP expanding outward as far as possible. He didn't [Sense] anyone else nearby, just the three lizardmen and two normal men. More interestingly he recognized the two men from his Sensing. They were the guards who had been responsible for "delivering" him food in his cell. He had practiced using [Sense] on them whenever he had been given the opportunity, and now he recognized them instantly.

The guards were bound tightly and both had their legs broken. The one not glowing moaned softly, prompting the nearest lizardman to deliver a kick to his stomach. The guard made a rough grunt and then kept silent.

Now that Alan paid closer attention, the lizards themselves seemed to be in rough shape. All three were covered in wounds that were smeared with some sort of thick mud. Some of the injuries were rather severe. For whatever reason, [Sense] had a hard time penetrating bodies, but he thought he could make out at least a few broken bones in the creatures.

It was a strange situation, but Alan focused on one thing. The food pot. That was his goal. It was the source of the delicious smell and was placed in the center of the camp. He watched as one of the lizard men went to spoon up more food into a small stone bowl before sitting back down in the corner.

He could assume from the situation that the two tied up guards had been pursuing him after his escape, and that they had followed his trail using whatever Skills they had available to them. At some point in their search, they must have been captured by the lizardmen who dwell in these tunnels below the earth. But none of that really mattered. They could very well be only a small part of the search party that was looking for him. It would be stupid to assume he was safe from pursuit. What mattered was getting food then leaving this place without being seen.

He wanted to wait, but he also worried that they would eventually eat the entire contents of the pot. For all that he knew, lizardmen only had one meal a week and this was it. He couldn't hesitate here. At least one way or another this would be over. One way or another. He waited for his MP to recover while he thought over his options.

The scene before him didn't change much over the next several minutes. The lizards continued to eat and occasionally gesture or hiss softly to each other. The three lizardmen were positioned around the food pot and he could only hope that they wouldn't move while he allowed his MP to recover. The captured prison guards were tied up to the side a little away from the food. Both were motionless though one continued to glow softly, lighting up the scene.

He had a rough if simple plan and decided to go for it. Alan waited for his chance. Once his MP was full and before he could rationalize what he was doing, he moved into action. His heart was beating wildly and the surge of fear and adrenaline that coursed through him gave him a momentary reprieve from his overall weakness. It was now or never. He picked up a stone from the ground and threw it with all his strength towards the other end of the camp.

It wasn't much of a plan.

He would throw a rock and if the lizardmen heard the resulting noise hopefully they would rush towards it. While they were distracted he allocate some of his precious Points into Dexterity and would quickly sneak up and steal the food pot. [Hide] should keep him from being discovered too quickly and he would run away as soon as he had the food.

It was actually a pretty terrible plan, but he had nothing else and he was so so hungry.

Alan watched with his heart in his throat as the rock soared through the air quickly moving out of eyesight. When it landed the distinct sound of stone hitting stone echoed through the tunnel.

It was like an alarm sounding. For a moment the world seemed to pause. Then there was commotion everywhere. Two of the lizard men moved fast towards the noise, and the last headed towards the captured guards. The two guards started screaming for help and the large creature quickly bashed them over the head with a dense and brutal looking club. It happened quickly, and when the lizard clubbed the guard who was glowing, some counterattack seemed to have been triggered as the creature let out a loud inhuman screech in pain.

Whatever had happened to the lizard, the glowing guard must have also been hurt because the world once more plunged into darkness.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, and Alan had not moved. It had definitely been a bad plan.

The lizards were too spread out. He couldn't expand [Sense] to cover a wide enough area without draining his MP too quickly. The lizardmen were hissing loudly at one another and Alan heard them moving around in the dark. Now was the time. He would use his MP in two bursts of [Sense]. One now to get his bearings and one once he had picked up the food in order to find his way back. Aside from those two bursts, he would expand it outwards an extra 5 meters around himself during the whole process. He should be able to [Sense] about 15 meters in each burst, which all together would take his MP close to 0 once he had escaped.

He flashed [Sense] outwards. The food was still up ahead and belatedly he hoped he could carry the pot, it actually seemed rather large. One of the lizards was fanning out to search for the source of the noise. The lizard who had hit the guards was now on the ground unmoving, and the other one was beyond his [Sense] perception. Using that brief glimpse, he tried to visualize the path to food in his mind. The layout of the ground. The places to avoid.

He allocated 7 Points into Dexterity. He didn't dare do more for fear of the drawback. He ran as the allocation hit him.

He felt it immediately. Different than either Luck or Vitality, his Dexterity allocation made him feel... well dexterous. Suddenly he could make no wrong movement. He was in precise control of every action he took. His body became fluid and easy and fast. It even seemed as if his thoughts had sped up as well. He was in complete control of himself. Where his Luck allocation had been control of.. well of something? Vitality had been solidity and warmth. Dexterity was precision and speed in all things.

He ran quickly and silently. Or at least he thought he did.

Shortly after he had moved, he heard a louder hissing from the lizard men. Afraid of being attacked Alan changed his plan. The main pot was still far but the bowl one of the lizards had been eating was closer.

Alan flashed his Sense again finding the bowl on the ground not too far from him. During that brief moment, he felt his fear spike. The lizard who had clubbed the guards had been close by and was almost on him. Alan had assumed the creature had been incapacitated by whatever the glowing guard had managed to do to it, but it looked like he had been wrong.

[Sense] had also shown him a discarded knife on the ground not too far away from him. Abandoning the bowl of food, Alan dropped down and sprang for the knife instead, moving with the sure-footedness of his allocation.

He kept [Sense] expanded to a seven-meter range. And suddenly both the knife and the attacking lizardman were in that range. Each heartbeat sounded loudly in his ears, almost as if he were underwater. He pushed his body, pushed his will to its limits. The stagnant underground air rushed by his ears as he moved faster than he ever had in his life. He was entirely focused on reaching for the crude knife when the lizard slammed into him. Pain spread through his side instantly as his ribcage caved in. He flew against the wall and landed with a thud. The lizardman had managed to hit Alan with his large club and literally slam his body away.

Air was forced out of his lungs and Alan crumpled to the ground struggling to breathe. He could [Sense] several ribs were broken and he choked for air as he rolled to his side. Not all was lost, in his hand he clutched the knife he had been after. His body was facing the wall of the cave, not moving on the rough stone floor. He [Sensed] the lizardman who had attacked edge closer.

He clutched the knife tighter. The lizardman was moving extremely slowly, and Alan Sensed something wrong with it. He had not been wrong, on top of its existing injuries, the glowing guard must have done something in that brief moment further wounding the creature. Its tongue flickered in and out, presumably testing the air for something. Alan held still, body tense.

The lizardman hissed something and then darted forward suddenly. Alan moved at the same time. Using the last of his strength he waited till the creature was just about on top of him. Then Alan turned and stabbed. Faster and faster. The knife caught the lizardman by surprise and was buried halfway in its throat instantly using the creature's own momentum to do the job. Alan felt hot blood against his hand just as its club battered him once again but this time in the shoulder. It was a glancing blow but pain shot through his arm and neck.

The lizard struggled even with the knife in his neck, tearing at Alan. Sharp claws raked his skin leaving trails of blood. Alan held on afraid to do anything more. His arm felt like it was coming out of his socket but somehow he managed not to let go as the lizard screeched and flailed hitting Alan and clawing deeper into his skin. Alan focused on holding the knife in the creatures neck, trying to bury it deeper, and slowly its struggles weakened.

After what seemed like an eternity, his enemy crumpled to the ground, and Alan almost crumpled with him, but he gritted his teeth and Endured. He stood in the darkness, panting over the body of his fallen enemy. His shoulder rang with pain. His back was dripping blood from claw marks. It was hard to breathe.

A window popped up.

You Have Been Granted Skill "Vital Strike" Level 1. Do you w...

He dismissed the prompt and checked himself.

MP 11/86 SP 0/460 Status: - broken ribs

- light internal bleeding

This was not good, there were still lizardmen out there and he was wounded, almost dead, exhausted, and he had very little MP left to use [Sense]. The status confirmed what he already knew from [Sense], though the internal bleeding was news to him. He didn't like the sound of that, but at least it was light? Not much he could do about it now.

He expected to be struck down at any second, but he would be damned if he would give up before then. Ever since his village had been attacked it had been one thing after another. He was sick of it. But somehow the injustice of his treatment, the anger he felt at his situation, these things just drove him harder. He might die, but HE WOULD NOT GIVE UP AND DIE. Fuck the rest of the world, he would struggle till the end.

His breath came raggedly. He felt blood on his side and down his back. Ignoring the larger pot, he limped over to the bowl of food, somehow miraculously unspilled, picked it up and began limping away from camp. The silence in the darkness betrayed the violence that had occurred just moments before.

Each step Alan took was harder and more painful than the last, and each step he was surprised to still be alive. He kept on going. That was all he could do. Just keep on going.

And no one stopped him. There were still two lizards out there. But as far as Alan could tell they had disappeared in the darkness. Of course, they could be just right outside the range of [Sense] and he would not know. Nothing he could do about it. What he could do was keep walking away.

So that's what he did. Fully expecting to die any second he eventually found a hiding place out of the way to sit down. And he placed the bowl to the side while he waited for the drawback to hit him.

It didn't take long. It was SHARP. It felt as if millions of needles were being stabbed into his body. But 7 Points was nothing to him at this point and he clenched his jaw and waited for the stinging agony to pass. When it was over, Alan let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding in. The sudden absence of the intense pain made his body shudder in the darkness.

And then he ate the remains of the lizardman soup.

It was bliss. The soup was hearty. It was a thick sauce filled with meat and mushrooms. A whimper escaped him. It was the best meal of his life. He was thankful lizardmen apparently had similar tastes to humans, he had considered that he might have been risking his life for food that was inedible.

The bowl was large and still plenty full and Alan savored each mouthful. He had lived on rancid food and foul water for so long that the tastes he was experiencing seemed impossible. He could almost die happy.

After finishing the bowl, he gently lowered himself to the cold hard cave ground. He was alone, buried who knew how deep under the earth, and at most only a hundred meters away from a camp of hostile lizardmen. But he had eaten a delicious meal.

Tears dripped into the now empty bowl, leaving a lingering salty taste as they fell over his mouth, wasting precious water.