Alan sat in the dark for a time feeling every ache and pain in his body. He didn't let himself think. He didn't let himself care. He just lay there staring into the darkness. His side hurt. Any movement sent waves of pain through him. His back was cut to shreds and he felt it. And that wasn't accounting for the miserable state he had been in even before his escape. He was more of a large wound than a human at this point.

After eating the soup, he spent a long time hidden away in his cubby resting. Only moving to find somewhere to relieve himself, he took his time recovering and trying not to move too much. Eventually though, he would need more food.

After everything that had happened, at least he had gotten a decent amount of experience points for his Skills. Sense had finally risen to level 5. Alan checked out the more detailed description that had become available with the level increase.

Sense (passive/active): Level 5. *04/100 till next level

You can mentally visualize the world around you through all of your senses. By extending your Mana beyond yourself you have gained the ability to recognize ambient Mana and Mana within yourself.

Sensing occurs automatically without MP consumption within a radius of 3.3145 meters around you at all times. Beyond that distance, sensing requires concentration and uses up Mana at a rate of 1.034/second/cubic-meter. Low-level Hiding abilities are ineffective against Sense. You are immune to low-level illusions.

It more or less confirmed what he had already thought. Alan sighed to himself. Three Skill slots already used. He didn't regret it of course, as each one had probably saved his life multiple times over, but it still hurt to think about. Choosing Skills was supposed to be a deliberate thing done with your future in mind. Which actually reminded him.

He pulled up the Skills that had appeared when he had escaped and stabbed the lizard man.

You Have Been Granted the Skill "Escape" Level 1. Do you wish to accept? You Have Been Granted the Skill "Vital Strike" Level 1. Do you wish to accept?

He could guess, but he had no idea as to their actual effects. He had six days from their first appearance to decide, at which point the option would be taken from him and the Skills would be declined automatically. And once he declined a Skill, it would never appear before him again. He tried to look into them more to see if he was able to get more details but was unable. In most other settings there would be Skill books or people to help, but it seemed that all he had were the names themselves.

Of course they would be nice to have, but they didn't seem useful enough to waste his three remaining slots on. He mentally dismissed the options. No reason to decline them right away.

He expanded [Sense] momentarily and got a better idea of his surroundings. Not much to it, just an empty cave. The old lizard camp was too far away to [Sense]. He had initially rejected the idea of going back there as it wasn't worth the risk, but the more he thought about it the more he knew he didn't have much of a choice. It was the only place he knew where there might be food and supplies left.

And really, he had nowhere else to go. He was still hungry. He needed food. After his meal, [Endure] would make sure he wouldn't starve to death anytime soon, but he would have to eat at some point. Better the enemy you know or something right? Trying to remain silent he stood up. With the lizardmen fresh in his mind he wasn't about to make any unnecessary noise. He stifled a groan as his body protested the movement. His back stung and every movement sent a shock to his side. He hoped [Endure] gave his body some sort of healing boost.

He walked a good distance and stopped around where he thought he had encountered the lizards. He expanded [Sense] in the direction of the camp. With the recent level up, he found he could now expand it in any direction he choose rather than just radiate out in a circle from his position. This was good. It would help him conserve MP. Soon he [Sensed] the camp. The pot was still there and not empty. The dead guards were still there as well, though the lizard he had killed was gone. That was something.

So they had been back for their fallen comrade, but had they truly gone? Perhaps they had left traps, why else wouldn't they take the pot of food back? He continued to check [Hide's] experience to see if it changed. It was getting to be a less and less of a reliable method as [Hide] grew in level, since each experience point took longer to go up. Still, can't hurt to keep an eye on it.

He set about [Sensing] around the camp in every direction he could, as far as he was able. It took some time as he had to wait for his MP to refill multiple times, but after an hour or so he was satisfied that he was probably alone. Getting up he made his way into the camp. First, he slowly approached the body of the dead guards. So far so good.

The smell was horrendous. Alan grimaced as he [Sensed] the caved in skull and unblinking eyes of the dead man below him, and he steeled his mind as he set about his gruesome task.

He started with undressing the dead man. Though the clothes were stained at this point, the guard's long tunic shirt was in surprisingly good shape and Alan took it off the corpse and put it on himself. It felt strange but good to wear something again. Less vulnerable. He continued searching the body and found a belt to put on. Nothing else useful turned up, the lizards must have taken everything of value already.

Next, he moved towards the pot of food. There was still food in there, just enough for a bowl or two. And he could even smell it. Slightly soured but still food. He wanted to test the pot for traps and couldn't think of any better way so he picked up a rock and prepared to throw it at the small cauldron to see what happened. Rock throwing seemed to be the solution to a lot of his problems lately.

Trying to do so with as little noise as possible, he tossed the rock over. The sound that rang out in the silent cave as the rock hit metal made Alan cringe. Holding his breath he waited. Nothing happened.

Ok, step two. He threw another rock inside the pot. Less noisy, it landed with a dull plop and again nothing seemed to happen.

Shrugging to himself, Alan took his empty bowl and moved forward. He needed food and here it was right in front of him. Without a second thought, he dipped the bowl into the pot gathering up the congealed soup, making sure not to spill any. Satisfied and a little uncertain, he began to eat. The flavors were the same as before, if slightly sourer and with a congealed texture that had not been there previously. For him, it was still delicious. He made sure to not eat too quickly this time.

He didn't bother checking around him. Whatever happened would happen. He fully expected to fall over from poison or for lizardmen to come surrounding him at any moment. But at this point in time, he could no longer care. He ate his fill. Filled his bowl once more and brought it with him back to where he had slept the night before. Belly full for the first time in a long long time, he sat down and let his exhaustion take over.

His base was a good ten-minute walk from the abandoned lizard camp, and he spent the next several "days" exploring the area. He had not found any hints of water or food or anything really, but he didn't dare go too far. He had briefly tried to go back the way he had come from, but the caves were extensive and he had been half delirious and panicked when he had made his way here. If he set out too far trying to go back there was a good chance he would be lost forever. Not that he wasn't already lost, but still.

Mostly he rested and tried to let his body heal as much as possible. He rationed the remaining soup, but too soon it had run out. While eating the last of it, he had made his decision.

He would attack the lizardmen. He would find them, and he would kill them. Perhaps he could eat them or steal food. Whatever the case he was done being so careful and afraid. He was done being a victim. He brought up his Skill choices in his mind.

You Have Been Granted the Skill "Vital Strike" Level 1. Do you wish to accept?

It looked like he had run out of time to accept [Escape]. Luckily that was not the one he was interested in. He accepted [Vital Strike]. For his plan to work, he needed an offensive Skill and that was the only choice he had right now. He checked it out.

Vital Strike (active): Level 1. Multiplier: Dexterity. Cooldown: 5 seconds. *00/100 till next level

Deal critical damage when attacking vital areas. Increased speed and accuracy when attacking a vital area. A chance to instantly execute a secondary critical attack after the first one.

Requirement: must be performed with a sharp object.

It was surprisingly descriptive for Level 1. Perhaps it was a higher tiered Skill? Usually, you needed to evolve an existing Skill for that. Either way, he could work with this. His Luck might even be helpful here for the secondary critical attack though he certainly couldn't rely on it and was not even sure what it meant entirely. He checked his Stats.

Human Male, Age 15 MP (mana) 74/86 (*regen 0.58/second) SP (stamina) 0/460 Stats (Un-Allocated: 48) Strength: 1 Vitality: 46 Dexterity: 9 Intelligence: 3 Wisdom: 0 Luck: 51

He had 48 more points he could throw into Dexterity. Based on his recent experience, the allocation boost would last around 6 or 7 minutes until the recoil hit. He could use this. The question was how many of his ever-dwindling supply of Points should he use?

He spent the rest of the day testing his new Skill and exploring his surroundings. He had stupidly left the knife buried in the lizard, so he walked around looking for sharp rocks and trying to "use" [Vital Strike] with them. He wasn't quite sure how he would know if it worked, but his other Skills had eventually turned out to be rather intuitive. He hoped [Vital Strike] was the same.

He stared down at the body of the dead guard he had dragged over. It was starting to decompose at this point and somehow smelled even worse than before. The way he would have to test his new Skill was not one he would have preferred. Whatever, he had been through worse.

It took a lot longer than he had thought, and as he stabbed down at the body he wondered if the Skill would even activate on a dead person. It was a messy process. His hands were covered in decomposing gore, and he had to force himself not to throw up the little food he had been able to acquire. The guard's body quickly turned into a mess of blood and guts, much of which ended up on Alan. Good thing he had put his stolen shirt away before he had started on this process.

He had to manually sharpen the rock a bit himself, but finally, after many attempts, he stabbed down towards the bloody remains of the guard, where the heart should be, and he felt it. It felt smoother, faster and more deadly. The air whistled as the makeshift knife passed through it and then buried itself deep into the messy remains with an audible "thunk" sound. Focusing his mind a bit he could somehow sense the cooldown period.

[Vital Strike] cooldown 1/5

[Vital Strike] cooldown 2/5

[Vital Strike] cooldown 3/5

[Vital Strike] cooldown 4/5

[Vital Strike] cooldown 5/5

One [Vital Strike] every 5 seconds. He checked the Stat progression: *0/100 till next level.

It looked like using [Vital Strike] against a dead opponent didn't count for experience. Expected but still disappointing. He very briefly considered [Vital Strike]ing himself to gain experience points, but quickly decided against it. It seemed as if he needed to use it in a meaningful way for it to count.

Even so, he practiced using [Vital Strike] and other moves against the dead guards, warming up his aching body to movement. It was scary how quickly you could become desensitized to something. He no longer shied away from the gruesome reality of what he was doing. Still, he would be rubbing himself all over with dirt from the cave after this was done.

He found 2 other rocks that he could use [Vital Strike] with and put them in the belt he had stolen. Eventually, he felt good about his progress and fell asleep in his normal spot.

Over the next couple of days, he continued practicing [Vital Strike] and going over his plans. He scouted the area as well and though he was worried about expending too much energy, he practiced running and moving quickly using Sense and [Vital Strike] together in the darkness. He would arrange the mutilated bodies in different areas of the cave and set himself up some distance away. Then he would run through self-made obstacle courses and use [Vital Strike] as he passed by the guard's bodies. He found that attacking the heart, neck, head, kidneys, or liver would usually activate the Skill.

Finally, he felt ready. It was do or die. [Endure] would only support him so much, and the corpses were now in a state where he really couldn't use them anymore. He needed more food. He had hoped to find a source of water somewhere in the caves but he had not had any luck. He would rely on the lizards for that as well it seemed.

The next morning (or what he called to himself as morning) he began his trek. He walked determinedly in his pocket of [Sense] towards the direction where the lizards had run off to. He would occasionally flash [Sense] to get an idea of his wider surroundings. He was getting rather good at keeping an image of an area in mind from brief flashes of [Sense]. If he expanded each [Sense] flash out to around 19 meters it consumed somewhere between 7 and 9 MP meaning each Flash lasted around a third of a second. If he expanded it only in front of him it consumed 4-5 MP. His MP refresh rate was not great. The boost from 2 Dexterity was negligible so for all intents and purposes it only refreshed at an un-allocated rate. So every 20 seconds or so he would [Sense] in front of him to get his bearings, and occasionally he would wait another 15 seconds or so to [Sense] out 360 degrees to get a complete picture and make sure no one was coming up behind him.

He had done the calculations earlier, but it was becoming more and more second nature for him to the point where he no longer was constantly aware of his lack of sight. If anything he "saw" a lot more than he had back when he had lived in the light. However, he still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in the periods between [Sense] flashes.

He had wanted to make similar calculations with SP as well. And while he had pieced it together somewhat, it was less straightforward due to the fact his SP had yet to go above 0 (he was constantly hungry and exhausted) and was affected by too many variables to work out: his injuries, his [Endure] Skill, food, and rest to name a few.

He continued walking through the empty tunnels, keeping a steady pace and trying to remain quiet. The longer he walked the more uncertain he felt, the anger from before was fading and being replaced by a deep and weary determination. After what he assumed was several hours he began to worry that he had gone the wrong way, that there were no lizards nearby at all, and that he had made a mistake. All of his plans were based on him finding more lizardmen. It was hard to keep being vigilant and on edge for so long. But he kept going. He had no other options.

Flash. Walk. Flash. Walk. Over and over. Just empty caves with no signs of life.

Flash. Walk. Flash. Walk. Flash.

Something was there.

Alan immediately became alert and stopped in his tracks straining his ears. He didn't hear anything, but remembering how silent the lizardmen had been, that was not surprising.

He took his time creeping up and flashed [Sense] farther out in the direction he had noticed the movement. His heart beat in expectation as he let his MP fill up while moving slowly forward. And finally, he [Sensed] it. There were two lizardmen up ahead.

His body ached. His ribs were still broken. His back was scabbed and itching. And though he was no longer completely starving as he had been before eating the soup, he was still exhausted and aching from hunger. He was beaten and dirty. But he was no longer prey. He moved to the corner of the passageway and a smile crept over his face. No matter how it ended, he was in control of his own fate now. He was not a victim.

He [Sensed] towards the lizards ahead.