You have slain an enemy that was quite beyond you!

Hyper Predator Slaughtered!

+3000 XP!

Level Up x6!

HP, MP, and SP restored to Full!

+120 HP

+60 SP

+30 MP

+60 Strength

+30 Speed

+30 Agility

+60 Intelligence

+12 Wisdom

+6 Luck

New Perk Unlocked: Giant Slayer

New Perk Unlocked: Cunning Hunter

New Perk Unlocked: Abyssal Maw

Scan Leveled Up!

Scan is now level 3

Telekinesis Leveled Up x4!

Telekinesis is now level 7

Class Level up!

You are now: Rogue level 3

Critical Hit Chance +15%

Critical Hit Modifier +30%

Class Perk Upgraded: Unseen Predator (3)

Class Perk Unlocked: Assassin

New Skill Unlocked: Blink

New Skill Unlocked: Shadow Step

Greater Magical Beast Core absorbed!

+200 Strength

+100 Intelligence

+50 Agility

Qi Incompatible...

Converting...

Psionics Enhanced!

New Skill Unlocked: Mind Flay

Your Eldritch Soul is rousing...

Lothien hummed a soft and sweetly tune as she danced and weaved across a tapestry of trees, moving as though she were at one with the winds themselves. Wherever she passed, colors rang vibrant and life seemed to brighten at her presence. The birds and the woodland beasts sang with her, chirping and howling as the elven maid glided down the treeline, flowing like water, before soaring up into the canopy. Falling leaves followed her, and flowers turned at her direction; predatory beasts were at peace with her and prey creatures felt no fear even as she laid her hands upon them.

A great white wolf, a magical beast of immense power, was cooed by her touch, eyes closing delightedly as Lothien scratched behind its ears. The creature was the size of a small dragon, its teeth were the size of daggers and it stood taller than any horse. And yet Lothien's presence dwarfed the magical beast as it lowered itself onto the ground, where it rolled over to expose its soft belly. "You've been eating far more than your fair share, Unwe. Do not be greedy, my friend."

The wolf whimpered, but otherwise acquiesced, for none dared question the lady of the woodlands. Lothien smiled as she pulled her hand away, watching as the great magical beast scampered into the woods, turning away from the elk that would've been wasted meat had Unwe gotten its jaws around its neck. The prey animal turned and bowed towards the elven maid, before running away.

The wind blew harshly, sending a great blast of air and dried leaves her way. Lothien held out her arms to the sides and became one with the wind, gliding down the hills and the woods, going wherever the elements willed. And so she wandered, the lady of the woods, the mistress of the Eternal Glade - there were many titles bestowed upon her by the mortals, though most of them could be argued to be mostly accurate.

Lothien sang her songs and danced at the tune of her voice, which echoed along the tops of the mountains and into the clouds. She flew with the birds and the dragons in the sky and swam with the fishes in the rivers and lakes. All was well within her sanctuary; despite the influx of magical beasts and the increasing number of cultivators mucking about at the edges of her forests, all was in balance - all was well.

Until it wasn't.

In all of her existence as Lothien, ever since the goddess Arwatar chose her to be the guardian of the Eternal Glade, she had kept to watching over the perilous natural balance, which mostly regulated itself if she was being honest. Oh, she intervened from time to time, usually to prevent large-scale disasters that would threaten the forest itself - a rampaging dragon, for instance. As such, Lothien had kept a close eye on all of the most powerful of the magical beasts that dwelled in the Eternal Glade, among their number was the fearsome brute, the Necrosaurus Rex - a creature, whose presence she only begrudgingly accepted after it proved to be a natural deterrent to the population boom of Red Dragons as the creature seemed to favor the taste of their flesh above all others.

Like every other creature in the Glade, the dull, but powerful, carnivore had its purpose.

Its death throes echoed all across the Eternal Glade, resonating through every blade of grass, every leaf, and every stalk. It'd been around for so long that its sudden absence had caused an immediate chain reaction.

Her emerald green eyes dawned upon the distant grey mountains. Already, Lothien felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere. The red dragons felt it as well, the dying throes of their greatest enemy in the Eternal Glade.

The elven maid soared high into the air, just below the clouds, her eyes scanning the realm entrusted to her.

"Who dares disturb the balance?" Her words, more akin to a song, echoed into the woodlands, into the senses of every living being. The forest heard, and the forest answered; a singular image was sent back at her - the source of disturbance. Lothien's eyes widened, not in shock, but in confusion. 'A brown bear?'

A larger than average brown bear slept upon blood-stained ground, its life force fluctuating rapidly.

Was it dying? It felt like it was dying; a fluctuating life force usually meant a creature was close to death. How an ursine, of all things, managed to kill the Necrosaurus Rex was beyond her; there were only three things in the Eternal Glade even capable of hurting that thing and two of those were asleep and the last one usually avoided trouble - Glauthwe, the Blue Dragon, whose fiery breath could melt stone and metal in seconds.

How in all the blasted heavens did a brown bear take down the Necrosaurus Rex?

A team of top-class professional monster hunters? Sure. A Green Dragon? Maybe. A flight of five Red Dragons attacking all at once? Plausible.

But a fucking bear?

A mystery to be explored after she'd dealt with its consequences.

Scowling, Lothien turned away. 'I'll deal with that thing later...'

Several red dragons emerged from their lairs in the peaks of the Grey Mountains, where the unnatural cold kept their burning eggs alive; roaring into the wind, the red dragons spread their wings aloft, before soaring into the sky. All across the Eternal Glade, Lothien felt the sudden shift in the balance; the Necrosaurus Rex was the one thing that kept the Red Dragons at bay as the brutish lizard was the only thing that actively hunted them.

Now, there was nothing standing in their way, except - of course - the Guardian of the Glade herself. While, Lothien would've preferred to stay out of nature's path - sometimes, things had to be forced. And so, with a wave of her hand, a great and fearsome wind blew across the tops of the trees, sending the red dragons tumbling down as even their mighty wings could no longer keep them afloat.

Lothien followed them in their descent.

Dragons were a prideful sort, even the red ones, who were the weakest of the children of Ignis; she may have to remind them just why she was the Guardian of the Eternal Glade.

When my eyes slowly fluttered open, the first thing I noticed was the immense strength within my limbs, within my muscles and bones. The power that lay within them had grown drastically; they were a lot lighter and limber as well, as though all the weight that should've been there simply wasn't. The second thing I noticed was that my mind was decidedly sharper; I wasn't quite sure how that worked, but I knew I was now far more intelligent than before - more than any beast, actually. Plans, ideas, and stray thoughts whirled in my head and I understood all of them. The third thing I noticed was the fact that the Necrosaurus Rex wasn't here anymore; I must've killed it then, but its corpse wasn't here.

The only trace of it was the blood-soaked ground and I'd found myself in, matting my fur red and brown.

If I'd truly killed it and its corpse was absent...does that mean I ate the whole thing? But then it was far bigger than me and there's no way I could've eaten the whole thing, right? At the very least, there should've been remnants of bones or even scales, but there was none of that.

Blood filled the air - still sickly sweet, but not nearly as pungent as it had been when the Necrosaurus was alive.

I should probably take a bath.

Pushing myself up off the ground was a lot easier than it usually was; my limbs jerked and I lurched upwards into the air as though I'd lept, before landing back with a eerily silent thud upon the grassy soil. My eyes widened; just how strong had I become? Inhaling sharply, I took a single step forward and almost immediately found myself soaring off into the treeline shortly afterwards. Splinters and debris rocketed outwards as I slammed into solid bark and out the other side, stopping only when my face met the cold surface of a boulder.

It didn't hurt as I expected it would; in fact, I hardly felt anything even as I slammed against hard rock. A few bits of dirt got into my left eye and that was definitely annoying, but nothing more than that.

'No pain...' Was this all due to the immensity of my growth after eating that Necrosaurus Rex? From what I understood, my power increases each time I devour one of the strange beasts - I did gain a suitable increase from that one, powerful human, but it was never a good idea to antagonize those creatures...at least, not yet. 'I suppose that means the stronger beasts will provide even greater increases to my power.'

Still, I shouldn't get too hasty.

It'll probably take a while to get used to this newfound strength.

My senses extended outwards briefly as I closed my eyes. Over to the east of here was the gentle rush of a stream, further north was roaring winds and ominous tempests, where the air was filled with the scents of thousands upon thousands of other strange beasts - the closer one got to the tall, distant mountains, it seemed, the greater their number. I'd have to get through them at some point if I wanted to go further than I've ever gone before - beyond the woodlands themselves.

Sniffing the air for signs of danger, I began walking towards the direction of the stream - matted fur made movement uncomfortable, and it wasn't as though I was in any hurry to get out of here. A quick bath would do wonders for my fur. I'll venture onwards to the Grey Mountains after that.

The stream wasn't nearly as far as I'd thought, a few hundred steps away and there it was, nestled at the center of a large clearning, smooth rocks on either side and clear waters flowing in from the cold mountains. It wasn't as deep as I'd hoped, but it was deep enough for fishes to swim through without worry. I leapt into the waters and began rolling around over its surface, sending splashes everywhere. Previously dried blood flowed into the stream, creating a trail of crimson that fed further downstream, leading all the way back to me.

I drank from the crystalline waters, though the taste upon my tongue was seeped in blood for the first few moments, it eventually gave way to a sweet and vibrant taste, quite unlike the rivers that flowed near my den. I drank until I could drink no more. Lowering myself into the deepest parts of the stream, which wasn't all that deep as the water barely arose higher than my shoulders, I closed my eyes and focused inwards - into the source of warmth that bubbled in my chest.

True to my feelings, within me was a raging maelstrom of energies, untapped power.

I could see it, I could feel it, but I couldn't yet draw it out; there was a barrier of some kind that ensured I could not access the fullness of my power, but that barrier was thinning, and already I could feel the trickles of power flowing outwards. It wasn't nearly enough; I needed more and more - I wanted more. Sighing, I retreated from within myself and returned to rolling over the stream, washing away the blood that'd stuck to my fur. Every once in a while, a plump salmom would swim by and all I needed to do to eat it was to reach out with my mind and pull the fish into my jaws.

After some time had passed, I got up from the stream and walked towards the bank, where the ground was mostly dry, with a few bits of grass and shrubs sticking out of the gaps between the smooth rocks. The sun was high in the sky, bathing the clearing with its light. And so I shook away as much of the water from my fur as possible, before finding a good, flat rock to lay on my back. Going out into the woods with wet fur was uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that it'd be a good way to sully my freshly cleaned fur with mud and grime.

And-

I turned to look at the distant Grey Mountains.

-the cold winds that blew from that place chilled me to the bone, even when my fur was dry and hot from the sun's rays. Winter was an ever present thing that I'd come to accept - eat and store fat, before hibernating. I knew the cold and I knew the death that came with it, but the cold that came from the Grey Mountains was different. There was power, woven into the frost. I searched for a name that seemed to be at the tip of my tongue - a name that encompassed the power in me, the power that flowed within the heart of the woodlands, and the power that drifted down the sides of the mountain.

I believe I'd heard it before from a group of humans, who'd wandered too far into the woods and got lost. I hadn't understood anything that came out of their mouths then, but - looking back - they did mention a specific word that described the richness of the wilderness and why there were so many strange creatures lurking about.

Magic.

That was the word of power.

Magic...

What the heck is magic?

"Ah...so you're the one, who killed that bloody lizard."

My eyes snapped up; there was a human with pointy ears...but the scent that came off of it seemed...distantly familiar. I stayed in place, the entity emitted no aggression or violence. The strange human was hovering above ground, floating near the tops of the trees, just above me. It looked serene, and not at all out of place amids the woods and the leaves and the beings of the wild. The human, as strange as it was to believe, seemed at one with the wilderness itself.

It glided down from the canopy, still hovering over me, but much closer now. I could probably reach the human if I stood on my hind legs, but then it'd probably just fly off anyway.

"Who are you?"

Huh...I can actually understand the sounds that were coming out of its mouth. How peculiar; I certainly couldn't understand human sounds yesterday...I think.

"Ur..sus..."

That was the name, given to me by Volos, right?

Wait, did I just...talk?

Basic Status:

Name: Ursus

Race: Ursine Sapien

Title/s: The First

Class: Rogue (3)

Level: 8

HP: 1140

MP: 135

SP: 1070

Strength: 820

Speed: 235

Agility: 225

Intelligence: 250

Wisdom: 19

Luck: 17

Critical Hit chance: 40%

Critical Hit modifier: 130%

XP: 340/700

Perks:

Gaze of the Watcher: Illusions have no effect on you. At all times, you are able to perceive only the true nature of things.

Mind of the Beast: Your intelligence is not like those of humans, and so the concept of Karma does not affect your soul in the same manner as it does humans. Good and Evil has no claim over you.

Eldritch Soul: Your soul is a twisted amalgam that has never truly been witnessed before in all of creation. Given enough time, it may evolve into something more. You are able to communicate with other Eldritch beings.

True Name: By having a true name, human mages and cultivators will not be able to bind you to their will.

Blood Rush: You move 2x faster when chasing down or moving towards injured prey.

Qi hunter: You can track down Qi users without having to rely on your basic senses.

Psychic Speech: You can bypass the need for language by speaking directly into a living entity's mind.

Unseen Predator (3): When stalking prey, you remain unseen until you are within 12 meters of their current position.

Assassin: You deal double damage to enemies if they have not detected you.

Giant Slayer: Deal 10% more damage to enemies bigger than you.

Cunning Hunter: Physical weaknesses of your prey are immediately known to you once you are within 2 meters of their current position.

Abyssal Maw: You are able to devour whole anything that you've personally killed, no matter how big.

Skills:

Scan level 3: You are able to discern an entity's given name, alongside their total HP, MP, and SP. Costs no MP.

Telekineses level 7: You are able to move objects, weighing 350 kilograms or less, with your thoughts. Costs 5 MP per second.

Nuokinesis level 1: You are able to control the minds of small insects for 24 hours. Costs 5 MP per entity.

Cosmokinesis level 1: Alter 1 Cubic Meter of reality for a period of five seconds. Costs 100 MP.

Blink level 1: Instantly teleport a up to 20 meters away, as long as your desired location is within your vision. Costs 10 SP per use. Cooldown 10 seconds.

Shadow Step level 1: Instantly dash a distance of up to 5 meters. Costs 5 SP per use. Cooldown 2 seconds.

Mind Flay level 1: Disable the target's senses for 5 seconds. Costs 20 MP. Cooldown 100 seconds.