Liz calmed her breathing as she crept through the forest brush. Just a dozen meters away, a man-sized voidspawn rested, feasting upon a dissolving carcass.

Hunting Ant - Threat Level: F

Almost there…

She hefted the crossbow, carefully aiming for the creature’s abdomen. The day before, she had only hit the Marked Fox out of pure luck. Her crossbow skills weren't good enough to allow her to hit anything one-handed, and such a mistake had almost cost her her life.

She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Ready… Aim…

Fire!

The bolt blurred across the field, sticking straight into the ant’s torso. The cracking of shattered chitin rang in the air, and the thing chittered, bolting off at the sight of her rising figure.

She immediately pursued, pushing herself to a light jog to keep pace with the creature. The ginormous insects held impressive power in their jaws, but their ground speed wasn’t anything special. As she ran, she raised an improvised spear, which was really just a sharpened stick that she had trimmed down to be more aerodynamic.

“Gah!”

She threw the spear, but it just glanced off of the ant’s tough armor. No good.

Finally, though, the voidspawn stopped, turning around to face her. That was interesting. She had planned to pursue it until it bled out like her runner ancestors would have. Did it think that because her spear had failed to penetrate it she had exhausted all her resources?

“Scree!”

The voidspawn lunged, a pair of crushing mandibles grabbing for her left arm.

“Back!” A blue aura flared around her and she slashed with her knife, cutting a shallow gash across the thing’s head.

She wasn’t strong enough to truly injure it in its armored spots yet. Thankfully, she didn’t have to. The ant reared back, and she lashed out with a kick, crumpling a leg at the joint. It screeched in pain, and she took advantage of its panic to embed her knife into its eye.

Credits Earned: 6

“Status.”

Status - Elizabeth Sayler Titles: Marked Threat Level: F Marks: The Mark of the Healer* Credits: 137 Strength: 6(8) / 29% Dexterity: 8(17) / 92% Spiritual Strength: 14 / 85% Endurance: 10(12) / 33% Perception: 10 / 55% Spiritual Capacity: 13 / 73% Constitution: 8 / 30% Cognition: 16 / 83% Spiritual Regeneration: N/A

That was the third kill for today. She had amassed a steady supply of credits, but without a Shop to use them in they were worthless. Plus she had been forced to use another few seconds of healing energy on that last one.

She closed her eyes, looking within herself to detect the motes of golden-green essence. There was barely any remaining, which was a symptom of a bigger problem she held — she hadn’t eaten or drank anything since stepping out of the Void.

And while she could last three weeks without food, she had already experienced what a lack of water could do to her.

One and a half days in, and the effects were already starting to creep in. Her Strength and Endurance stats were already suffering, and if it weren’t for the stat gains she had gotten as a result of her constant running, she suspected she would be suffering even more.

Though of course running also depleted more water.

She sighed, taking out her map again. Twenty miles, over the course of a day and a half, and no signs of food or water. She figured that she should have planned ahead and bought some when she had access to the Shop, but how was she supposed to know that every house and cabin she found would only contain rotted scrap?

Her eyes wandered south of her current position, and a smile crossed her face. She might not have a solution to her food issue, but just a mile away was a small stream.

She gathered her things and set out in a jog.

* * *

Creekside Bank - Minimum Rank: G, Maximum Rank: F-

Liz smiled at the System message. It looked like most things here would actually be weaker than her, not that she could see anything even remotely threatening. She hadn’t encountered a single creature in the dozen or so minutes it had taken her to reach the creek.

The air even seemed purer than before, which might have been a result of the Void forcing humanity off their carbon-emitting toys. The sun blessed the flowing water with a slight sparkle, and a silver tower stuck out in the distance like a reassuring monument.

Why couldn’t more areas be like this?

She basked for a minute in the cloudless sky, and then got to work.

She pulled out a small ceramic teacup — the only one she had been able to find in any of the looted buildings, and scooped up as much water as she could. Then, she gathered some sticks and started cutting some rope.

She had never been the best at wilderness-survival type activities, but she had a secret weapon: modern technology.

She pulled out a scavenged lighter, igniting her makeshift pile of fuel in an instant.

“Ah, I’m so glad I didn’t have to do that by hand.”

She then placed her teacup onto the stack and sat down on a felled log.

While she waited for the water to boil, she pulled out the Voidspawn Encyclopedia she had bought from the shop. She had read it a bit last night before going to bed, but she had been far too tired to really absorb any information. Now, though, she turned to the page for Hunting Ants, carefully reading the small text.

Hunting Ants are one of the most common insectoid voidspawn present at low-level areas. They operate without a queen, and are usually scavengers that prey on weaker voidspawn and non-adjusted creatures. Any low-level Marked should have no problem taking one down, and even an Unmarked with a weapon stands a pretty good chance.

Their chitin is fairly tough, but due to its heavy weight, these creatures do not possess the immense strength of their smaller counterparts. If exposed to an excess of Void energy, it is possible for these creatures to evolve —

Something moved in the corner of her vision, and she jumped, knife ready to stab whatever was going to attack her.

Instead of a dangerous creature bent on murder, though, she found a chicken.

“What?”

She squinted at it, willing for a System screen to appear, but none did. Was that a regular chicken? It must have escaped from a farm once its owners got sucked into the Void. More importantly, though…

Her stomach growled.

It wouldn’t disappear after she killed it!

She slowly reached for her crossbow, feeling the smooth wooden handle as she inched it back into her grip.

It clucked at her.

She brought it up to bear, steading her breathing like a trained sniper preparing to fire a killing blow.

It pecked at the ground.

She put her eye through the sights, her finger ready to pull the trigger in an explosion of raw kinetic energy, and —

Something shook the earth, and the chicken clucked, fleeing with a speed that betrayed its oblivious demeanor.

“What the fuck? An earthquake?”

“Screee!”

A thundering screech boomed from the forest, and she slowly backed up, slipping her backpack on one shoulder.

What was that?

“Screee!”

It was getting closer. She hefted her crossbow, aiming it into the forest where the thing was coming from.

“SCREEE!”

A ginormous figure crashed into frame, felling two trees with its humongous bulk.

Irregular Voidspawn: Colossal Beetle - Threat Level: E+(?)

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

The voidspawn charged at her, and she unloaded her crossbow, hoping beyond hope that it would somehow slow the elephant-sized creature down. The bolt crashed into its chitin, barely leaving a mark.

Shit.

The blue aura erupted around her, and she sprinted away, desperately fleeing from the thing’s incoming horns.

“Scree!”

It made sense now why the ant had turned back, and why she hadn’t seen any voidspawn around here. She must have stumbled onto its territory.

She leaped over the creek, but the Colossal Beetle just crashed through it, ignoring the flowing water altogether. Tree after tree collapsed as it drew a destructive line towards her, and she pumped her legs even faster in fear.

She gritted her teeth. Her form was still perfect after years of practice, but she could feel her muscles straining to keep up with her mind’s demands. Her legs hadn't even fully adjusted to jogging, and now she was in a life-threatening chase.

She was simply too weak. This wasn’t the body she had trained three years ago — this was a body that hadn’t even functioned prior to yesterday. She was dehydrated and hungry, and even with the strengthening aura around her, she didn’t come close to her peak physical might.

Then, the aura started to gutter out. What little healing energy she had was gradually being consumed by her muscles, and she didn’t have any way of generating more.

There was no way in hell she would be able to outrun the beetle. But, at the same time, what other option did she have?

“Screee!”

She tripped over a root, and in the time it took for her to get back up, the beetle had gained another dozen meters on her. Blood ran freely down her leg, her healing energy too spent to do anything about it.

She was slowly running out. She needed an escape, something that the beetle wouldn’t be able to get her in —

Something silver flashed above her, and she realized where she’d been running. It was the silver tower, only it wasn’t a tower at all. She burst into the clearing, and a System screen blinked into existence in front of her.

Ironwood Tree - Threat Level: D

A ginormous tree stretched to the heavens, spreading out its branches to cover the entire swath of land. The beetle raged towards her, and she dove to the side, just barely escaping its furious charge.

She had to get up there. That was the only chance!

She rushed over to the lowest branch she could find, but the beetle was already on top of her again. She wouldn’t be able to escape it again.

So, rather than run away from it, she ran towards it.

It lowered its head, a deadly horn poised to strike her, and she slid underneath it.

“Scree?” It looked around for a second, confused as to where its prey had gone. She immediately backpedaled, reaching into her bag and throwing out one of her race medals.

The shiny golden circle glimmered in the sunlight, and just as she had hoped, the voidspawn instantly turned, stomping onto the foreign object.

She began climbing, but a second later it had refocused.

“SCREEE!”

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

She heaved herself out of reach just as the Colossal Beetle crashed into the tree.