Not a sound swept through the eerily quiet clearing that found itself home to two current occupants; a squirrel-like creature and a woman carrying nothing but a black, glistening knife.

Whether it could even be called a squirrel was questionable; much larger than the woman was used to, it had a dark green, acidic coat. Harsh to the eyes but probably helped with hiding.

The woman was prone on the ground, her nude body covered in marks and scraps, caked in dirt and mud. She was as silent as a mouse as she watched the squirrel’s erratic bursts of movement.

Only the pitter patter of the squirrel’s tiny feet and the slow, almost painfully-quiet breaths of the woman could be heard.

The squirrel wandered within two metres of the woman, and paused, looking around once again.

It’s body suddenly began taut, hunching over and curling inwards as it’s vibrant, saturated coat darkened with brown patches like stains in a carpet.

After three seconds, it fell to the ground. Dead

One might expect the average person to have looked upon the creature with pity. The woman, however, barely reacted, appreciating the squirrel for what it was; prey for a predator.

Her face was impassive, desensitised. She had waited a minute after the squirrel died before standing up, having displayed adequate caution.

Where are your friends, little buddy? She wondered, crouching down before it.

Two days in this forest and barely any squirrels to be seen. It was unnervingly sparse in fauna. The situation reminded her of the crisis when 90% of forests were devoid of life bigger than insects.

[Level up]

You have gained 5 stat points and 1 skill point

Fucking finally!

Levelling up is pretty exhilarating. Maybe getting kidnapped and having foreign technology jammed into my brain isn’t such a bad thing...

Ha.

There was a simmering anger to her thoughts but one she couldn’t address; not when her life was on the line every day. She simply had greater things to worry about.

A gust of air blew through her straight to the bone, making her hair stand on end and sending an involuntary shiver throughout her whole body.

I really need some fucking clothes. It's goddamn freezing at night and I'd appreciate the last thing a squirrel sees not being all of me. This lifestyle isn't really for me.

Rubbing her hands together and on her arms, she began to warm herself up just slightly before turning her attention back to her skill screen, for she could select a new skill.

After purchasing a 0th tier skill, the next tier had unlocked itself for her perusal.

Life

0th Tier

[Heal] (1/10)

Restore 5 points of health to a living entity

Cost: 1 es/sec

[Leech] (1/10) -Learned

Drain 10 points of health from a living entity

2m range

Cost: 1 es/sec

[Cleanse] (1/10)

Cleanse an entity from any toxin, disease, or contamination

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 1 es

1st Tier

[Sapping Curse] (1/10)

Prevent a living entity from recovering health for 1 hour

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 5 es

[Animate Critter] (1/10)

Raise a corpse smaller than yourself into a level 0 zombie

Cast Time: 5 sec

Cost: 5 es/sec

[Life Sense] (1/10)

Scan for either a general or specific form of life

Casting Time: 1 m/sec

1m radius

Cost: 1 es

[Last Words] (1/10)

Extract thoughts from an entity that died within the last hour

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 5 es

It began initially as a hypothesis based on her limited knowledge of games--killing things is how you levelled up and she had levelled up after killing the boar--but this was more evidence to the fact that it was true.

The only things she had done were kill, expend resources (stamina and essence) and use her skill.

Each skill had a (1/10) so she believed she'd be able to level it up somehow, maybe through resource expenditure, using the skill over time, spending a skill point on it, she reasoned.

It was a shame it hadn't levelled up yet but that was fine.

Without wasting a moment, she purchased [Cleanse].

Her reasoning was simple; water was solved by the stream and [Leech] helped her both find food and protect herself. Excluding dangerous animals, the biggest threat to her life was infection.

Even if you came away from a fight alive, you’d be dead days later if you were wounded.

Even with this strange, game-like interface, she was sure this was reality; infections were most likely real.

So, she had already resolved to buy [Cleanse] upon her next level up.

Unnamed Level 2 Health 80/80 Stamina 81/100 Essence

17/20 Power 4 Constitution 4 Endurance 5 Vim 6 Essence

1 Spirit

1 Stat Points 10

Ten stat points were now resting in reserve but she was a frugal person; she was doing just fine currently and so didn’t want to commit to anything she might regret later.

The tedium of waiting for her essence to regenerate was boring but there was nowhere near enough animals around for it to matter much.

Now, all she had to do was to use [Cleanse]. Once again, information flooded her system much like it did with [Leech] but, thankfully, far less paralysing this time. She didn’t even collapse!

Just like last time, the majority of the information was useless. There were some parallels between skills but, bizarrely, the instructions were completely different. It wasn’t like [Cleanse] was an alternative way of using essence--with the same foundation as [Leech]--but as if they were completely disparate things!

Maybe there’s some sort of duality to essence? Light can act as both a wave and a particle so maybe essence is somewhat similar? I don’t know, The woman huffed.

If you’re gonna give me information each time I get a skill, why not actually make it useful for once? She thought, shaking her head at no one in particular.

Well, science is an iterative process. Let’s make [Leech] as fundamental as possible. I am a body that is empty. Particles move from a full body to the empty body, like through diffusion. Okay; how do I apply that to [cleanse]?

Well, I want to get rid of a possible disease so maybe try to get essence to function like my immune system? It’s a far cry but I’ll try.

Matter settled in her mind, the woman visualised a plethora of particles moving about within her form, much like she did for both plants and animals.

The particles had a reddish hue, a colouration she applied to indicate health.

Next, she looked towards where her wound was--where the blade she held in her hand used to reside. She swore she could faintly still feel the pain.

Instead of red particles, near the entry point, she imagined the particles were browning, like overcooked tomatoes. They were diseased, she declared mentally.

Just like with [Leech], she gave a mental command and imagined the particles within her focusing on the infected ones, rushing towards them and ingesting them, much like how white blood cells acted.

She felt the familiar mental click once more, indicating the skill activated, as the particles converged upon the infected ones, mimicking exactly what she hoped they would.

And then, they settled down, herself a bastion of pure red particles.

Did it work? She didn’t know; just because she won’t get ill in the future doesn’t mean she wasn’t going to in the first place.

Short-term goal accomplished!

Walking over to the squirrel carcass, she bent down to gently stroke the fur, closing her eyes and quietly thanking the beast for the food it would offer her, before picking it up and carrying it back towards her make-shift camp.

She felt a little stronger than when she woke up compared to being half dead with a knife stuck in her, it wasn’t a fair comparison.

At least it’s not like I don’t like camping. Sure, I’d normally bring a tent or a hammock with me but I can make do.

On the way back, she picked up sticks and twigs of varying sizes whenever she spotted them.

Her ‘camp’ couldn’t exactly be called a camp. While the overall terrain was on an incline, she had managed to find a relatively flat portion of ground.

She had cleared away all the dead and desiccated leaves and, in the middle of this small clearing, was a bundle of sticks and twigs. The remains of her fire last night. She cleared it away as she began anew.

Firstly, she took her kindling of small sticks and began stripping off the bark to get to the dry interior.

Next, she took some tinder (of even smaller sticks) and laid it on the floor. She began to stack the kindling in a conical shape around the tinder and eventually placed a few bits of larger wood on them.

With the wood prepared, it was time to make the fire.

To do so, she took out her flatish piece of wood, of which there was a divot cut out with her knife, and rested it upon a leaf and a pile of kindling as well as some kindling in and near the divet of the fireboard.

Withdrawing her slightly sharp spindle, she pressed that down into the divet and then began spinning it between her hands, rubbing them back and forth.

She had done this before but rarely since she was often far more prepared when camping. At least knew what she was doing.

As her arms started to tire after rubbing for a good few minutes, the beginnings of a fire started to emerge.

Gently, the woman shifted the burning kindling onto the leaf with the rest of the kindle, blowing on it carefully, transferring that to the fireplace.

She continued to blow gently, making sure the air didn’t put the fire out, as she watched it grow, as the rest of the kindling and tinder began to catch. She had made a fire.

With a smile on her face, she got to skinning the animal.

The squirrels were strange, and even with a regular squirrel, she had no knowledge on how to skin or cut one. Some parts were off limits entirely--like the head--but she could find the squirrels easily enough that what parts she did eat were enough to fill her. The legs, primarily.

No matter how she cooked the meat, it tasted disgusting each and every time. Although she was grateful for the food, and tried to not waste much, she couldn't help but feel slightly ungrateful at having to subsist off this substandard diet for as long as she had.

Even when she went hunting, she'd often bring at least some seasoning, even if it was simply table salt, so she could better appreciate the life that she had taken. A strange way of thinking, yes, but she didn't want to make that which she killed feel like a waste.

She had to force herself to swallow the damn thing, not breathing through her nose as she tried her best to taste it as little as possible.

What I would give for some chicken.

The woman extinguished the fire once she was finished and picked up her knife again. Having to carry whatever you needed without putting it into a sheath or even pockets was annoying, but clothes were low on her priorities for now, the temperature warm like a wooly blanket for the time being.

She began once more trailing the river downstream, just like she had done yesterday. She had yet to find any sign of civilisation--in fact, the forest seemed to get even more dense--but doubling back on herself would mean she wasted all her progress thus far, and she couldn’t be having that.

Call her stubborn but that was her decision and she was sticking with it.

So, she trailed down the hill to wherever the stream led to.

She walked for a solid few more hours, burning through the energy she gained from eating whilst traversing through the same, familiar environment over and over again.

As the sky was just beginning to darken, her stomach peeped up once more, hunger lacing her system and encouraging her to wander off the path in search of sustenance like a malevolent temptress.

Taking a glance around her environment, trying to remember what it looked like, the woman began to head off, away from the stream in search of food.

However, what she found was not food, sadly. There seemed to be some sort of trail in the dirt--a conspicuous lack of foliage--but she couldn’t tell for sure. Trampled by repeated passages, she guessed.

What she did see, after following this supposed track, was civilization. Or, rather, the remnants of one.

It was a tower. A great, big, black, glistening tower. The stonework, though chipped and ruined after being harried by rain and wind over how many years, was shiny even in this dim light. The stones were large, carved blocks, only possible by masons.

She was no geologist but it reminded her of basalt, only shiny.

Strangely, it was leaning on its side rather than standing upright like a famous building everyone knew.

The bastion was still a fair distance away from her when she spotted it, the dark stone contrasting the rich, autumnal colours around it, but she crept up close to it slowly, wary of traps.

Call her superstitious but a desolate, isolated tower of darkness in the forest with no sapient life? It smelt of evil to her.

She approached as slowly as she could, taking care to place her feet on relatively clear ground, not wanting the crunching of leaves to give her away to the local life.

The woman could see the building far better now. It was leaning because it was buried in the ground. What she assumed was an open entrance turned out to be a window of some kind, just barely above the ground. How odd. It’s got to be ancient.

She stopped. Her heart began beating faster and faster as her pupils dilated to see better in this light.

Movement. Out from the window directly in front of her clambered a hideous looking thing. It had no eyes, a long snout, and thick, smooth skin that was distinctly not fur.

But, most glaring of all, it was white. It initially reminded her of a polar bear but something different was at play here; a polar bear had black skin--it was just that its fur reflected light in such a way the fur was white. This, however, was white skin, as smooth as silk and pulled taut over the large muscles.

Immediately, the alien nature to this creature set the woman on edge. At least, with the boars and squirrels, though they were distinctly different from what she was used to, at least they were recognisable variants of animals she knew.

By the time this creature got its whole body out of the tower, she could see its true form. Hulking, great forelegs but small back legs, topped off with large claws. A snub of a tail. A monstrous jaw of razor-sharp teeth.

Hair on end, the woman hid herself as best as she could in the foliage, not wanting to make a sound. Her rapid breathing sounded impossibly loud to her ears. Her hands were shaking.

The creature, now fully outside, sat on its hind legs as it raised its snout to the sky. The lack of eyes was eerie but the intimidating appearance warned the woman not to underestimate this monster.

It stayed like that for a few minutes, as if scoping out its surroundings through its other senses.

Eventually, it raised itself down back onto all-fours and began plodding off, its form non-threatening but betraying its powerful musculature underneath its skin. Each step was paradoxically loose but firm, like a gentle giant.

The woman didn’t dare move for a good few minutes until she felt like it should’ve been far enough away. A large sigh escaped her.

Now, she was presented with a dilemma; her goal was to find civilisation and while not exactly civilisation, it was at least a sign of one. Could she learn something if she ventured inside?

Do I risk the creature returning while I’m still here just for the chance to learn something?

She agonised over the decision but, in the end, there was always only one option. And I thought mum and dad were exaggerating when they said I couldn’t help myself.

Trying to settle down her heartbeat through rhythmic, calm breaths, just like she had always done, she began to edge forwards, her head whipping from side to side to maintain a wide field of view (she was beginning to grow envious of rabbits) as she meticulously placed her feet on the ground as carefully as she could.

The tower itself was strange but normal to the touch. The dirt and mud was clumped up to the outside and it looked like it had formed around the structure through years of accumulation.

It’s been here a long time.

Mustering up her courage, she clambered on through the window.

And fell down onto a wooden stair well. The wood was a bit rotten, and had some plant life growing through, but seemed otherwise stable. It creaked and groaned upon her landing.

Inside was nearly pitch black, whatever light so late in the day barely filtering in through the window.

Curious, she brought up her stat block. It was always bright to her eyes--painfully so at night--but, oddly, it didn’t glow on the stone around her. It was like it wasn’t emitting light, but that was impossible because she could see it, which meant light was being reflected onto her eyeballs.

Just another question on the pile, She thought, before closing the box.

Arms spread out, searching for the wall, the woman began to make her way down the tower, one step at a time.

From the outside, the tower seemed tall--though, still shorter than the gigantuan trees that made up the forest--but, now she was inside and going down under the ground, the tower clearly wasn’t as short as she thought it was.

She kept walking and as she expected to find the end, the tower continued to descend.

She descended for a good two or three minutes before finally finding something.

Fog. Or, rather, something similar to fog. It was pure white and opaque, blinding to her eyes. Strangely, it had a similar effect to her interface; it was bright to her but emitted no light on its surroundings. The wall immediately next to the fog was as dark as any other.

It felt like a hallucination in a way. Perhaps, the same thing as the interface?

Overcome with a sense of curiosity, the woman picked up a stone from the ground--this stairwell is suspiciously clean--and chucked it at the fog.

It bounced a few times before the sound trailed away, too quiet to hear. It seems like the stairwell carries on, then.

Getting a bit closer, she pushed her face right up to the fog, trying to see if she could make out anything.

Nothing. It was a pure white void.

Only now, so close to it, did she realise she could hear the sound of wind. A sound she hadn’t heard for a while, the trees of the forest breaking apart any gales that threatened to come near..

In this tower, however, the whistling of the wind was fairly audible in the otherwise silent soundscape. Now that she noticed it, she also realised the sound gradually had gotten louder and louder as she descended, echoing off the smooth, stone walls.

Keeping her hand close, but not quite touching, the fog, she could feel no heat coming off of it. It was calm and just seemed like a really opaque cloud.

Is it really just a cloud? A metaphysical manifestation like my interface?

Taking her knife, she dipped the blade into the fog for a few seconds before withdrawing it, tentatively touching it. Normal.

She stayed looking at it for a minute or two, gradually building up courage.

No heat, no light, no smell. It doesn’t seem dangerous.

She sighed. Here goes nothing.

Extending a forefinger, she tentatively dipped it into the fog.

Searing pain immediately coursed through her. She felt her finger ripple and deform in the cloud, alternating between frost-bitten temperatures and heat as hot as hell itself as her skin twisted and threatened to rip itself apart.

Everything happened in less than a second, though the torturous agony felt so much longer.

She pulled her arm back, fear clear on her face as her eyes were watering, vision blurry, and scrambled up the stairs, no longer caring about not making a sound.

Clambering and falling through the window, the most she could was throw a look for the creature before reason finally began to return to her.

Immediately, teeth clenched and eyes strained, she activated [Cleanse] on her finger, visualising herself as the body of particles once more, her injured finger grey and rotten particles.

Her healthy ones rushed over, enveloped them, and as she did so, as the click went off, the pain began to ease as her mind was released from the throes of agony.

“Fuck!” She hissed out through staggered, heavy breaths. Stay away from the fucking fog!