Slow, scraping sounds echoed downstream, accented by the trickling of water.A woman sat with a long, somewhat straight branch laid across her thighs, knife in hand.

Methodically, the knife chipped and shaved down the wood at one end, carving it into a fine point. Her gaze rested upon the sharpened tip, concentrating until satisfied and consequently placing the make-shift spear on the ground, throwing it amongst a pile of three other, similar sharpened sticks.

Finally, having finished with the three she planned on making, she stood up and stretched her body, pushing out all the kinks and knots that had developed in her muscles from being hunched over for so long.

It’s not many but at least I have options.

With two long, fibrous, flexible strips of inner bark, she tied them around the pile of spears, collecting them all together. The knots were loose but she didn’t need them very tight for her purposes.

As a gust of wind blew past, she let out a loud, involuntary sneeze, her body shivering as she cursed the lack of clothes during what seemed to be autumn.

Just my luck I didn’t wake up during summer, huh.

Happy with her precautionary, defensive measures, the woman grasped the bundle as her stomach grumbled at her, heading off down the stream she had been traversing the past few days.

She had woken up in this forest four days ago by now, and still no sign of civilisation other than that ominous, blackstone tower the other day. Yet, she wasn’t despairing--at least patience was one of her virtues.

It helped that she kept moving. Waiting and hoping someone would stumble upon her wasn’t her style--and the isolation would kill her before that anyway--but moving, doing something, was progress. She was being productive and that helped. A lot.

Water was not an issue--she travelled alongside the stream. Possible infection from natural water wasn’t a problem either; [Cleanse] cleaned the water into fresh, potable drinking water--albeit with far fewer minerals involved.

Food, while far more temperamental, hadn’t posed a problem yet. The squirrels and rabbits she had found were easy enough to sneak up on--which, now that she thought about it, was quite strange. It was like they had a surreal ignorance of their surroundings.

The ecosystem as a whole was rather strange; she had encountered one boar in her days here and the rest were small herbivores. Where were the predators? Why were all the animals by themselves? What kept the balance of nature?

I wonder if something has been done to them? Artificial culling of the population, lobotomising creatures so they’re minimal threat to humans? An introductory zone, perhaps?

Dropped in a forest with nothing but a weapon. Access to a system that allows me to [Heal] and stave off infections. In essence, a way to survive. Couple that with animals that behave disturbingly docile and rare enough my days are relatively peaceful.

That’s too many coincidences surely.

So, what’s the idea? A large organisation owns a tract of a forest, possibly more beyond that. They have genetically engineered creatures and a magic-like technology to… train people? I guess?

I thought it was a game but I’m not having a lot of fun.

What are they training? Soldiers? Survivalists? The last war was fucking decades ago, for fucks sake. Is this a fucking doomsday cult, then? Preparing for the end of the world?

The woman ran a hand through her hair in exasperation.

Too many questions and not enough answers. I gotta stop thinking about this shit.

She had taken a seat during her ruminating, now falling backwards onto the bunched up leaves and stared at the canopy above her.

No birds, no wind, no scuttling of feet. Just water.

It was… peaceful.

I suppose that’s one benefit of my situation. It sure is beautiful.

The warm, morning sun shone through the orange leaves, illuminating the forest floor with a golden glow. The hints of green accenting the pumpkin orange, with the cool browns of trees making it feel like she fell into a pastel painting.

Even with the manicured, artificially beautiful forests back home, they could never reach the pinnacle of beauty quite like this. There was something… special, to nature.

For a while, the woman stayed on the ground, appreciating it all. She had been so busy, fussing over her own survival she hadn’t taken a minute to relax.

People were unpredictable. Societal systems endlessly complex. The simplicity of nature was a welcome reprieve from that, one she often indulged in. She had a certain level of control, here. Her destiny was in her own hands.

Getting up, she gave herself a once over, cleaning all the dirt off her as best she could, and then patted herself down with [Cleanse].

The description for the skill wasn’t the most verbose thing out there but gradual experimentation led to some insights on what it could affect.

Amongst the things that it worked on, blood and saliva when on the exterior of her body were swiftly removed as well as dirt, allowing her fingernails to remain surprisingly clean out in the forest (she kept them short). Dirt not on her body wasn’t removed, however.

The fact she hadn’t needed to use a toilet for the past few days suggested it also worked inside the body as well, which made sense.

Picking up her bundle of spears, she got to walking again, and ended up trekking for a good few hours.

But, as humans were wont to do, boredom seeped in. The scenery, while outstanding, was fairly similar. The exercise, while fulfilling, began to grow tiring with the uneven ground and demanding constant vigilance lest she fall over.

And so, her focus began to drift away from survival and more towards something new--something magical.

This interface.

Name Unnamed Level 2 Health 80/80 Stamina 59/100 Essence

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

1 Spirit

1 Stat Points 10 Health Regeneration 100/day Stamina Regeneration 120/day Essence Regeneration 100/day

She had played around with her stats a bit; whenever she tried to apply her stat points, it required her to confirm the allocation. That barrier suggested they were non-refundable, adding to her hesitance to use them.

One point in power increased her health by 20, endurance did the same for stamina, and essence for, well… essence.

Constitution, vim, and spirit were harder to decipher but not by much. For some reason, her regenerations weren’t on the statblock by default but a bit of grumbling by her added them, which was nice. The interface was surprisingly customisable.

Vim increased her health regeneration by 20 per day. Compared to the 20 added to stamina, it seemed strangely lackluster in comparison.

Constitution and spirit were strange in that they didn’t really do anything. Odd. Maybe it was a bug?

Regardless, she guessed that constitution contributed to health regeneration and spirit for essence regeneration.

An interesting quirk of the system was that the stat points increased maximum, not current. If she was sitting at 40/80 health, adding 1 point to power would bring her up to 40/100 health.

Constitution increased health regen by 20 per point, vim increased stamina regen by 20 per point, and spirit increased essence regen by 20 per point.

Currently, she was still unsure on what to actually spend her points on. She couldn’t expend more resources than she gained back at the end of the day so regeneration didn’t seem necessary but she also wasn’t particularly lacking upfront either.

Afterall, little critters posed no threat under [Leech].

She suspected there may be more to the stats than simple numbers; with a name like ‘power’, her first thought wouldn’t be that it increased health. Strength, damage, stuff like that was what she’d expect.

So, until she learnt more about the stats, she decided to not spend them anywhere just yet. It was prudent to wait until she could apply them more judiciously.

After that came skills--or, in other words, magic. Not all of them were magic, as it turned out. The life skills were definitely magic but there were other trees, like one dedicated to archery and expended stamina rather than essence.

There seemed to be an infinite number of skill trees but the woman had endeavoured to start looking through them.

There were also other magic trees. There was a water one that seemed to break the laws of physics, allowing you to conjure Water from thin air (maybe it was rapidly condensing water vapour and so forming an instant, miniature rain cloud?).

Something that caught her attention was the fire skill tree. For one, unlike the water skills she could see, the fire ones were explicitly offensive.

There were two 0th tier skills that seemed identical.

[Firebolt] (1/10)

Launch a bolt of fire that deals 10 fire damage

2m range

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 1 es

[Solar Ray] (1/10)

Fire a continuous ray of heat that deals 10 fire damage

2m range

Cost: 1 es/sec

Having redundant skills seemed strange but that wasn’t what piqued her interest the most; the fact that [Solar Ray] felt more fitting to be classified as light magic than fire, since it sounded like a laser more than anything else.

The more she read, the more skills she was exposed to, the more excited she became about exploring this magic, such as how you would be able to configure enough energy to power a laser hot enough to deal damage, or cool the air enough to condense water.

The implications of those skills appealed to her classical sensibilities; they emulated real-world phenomena but seemingly at the will of an individual. [Leech] was a whole other ball park; it delved into the metaphysical realm rather than just the physical one.

What is life? It’s an age-old question but, sadly, not one she could answer for she quickly came across yet another track heading away from the stream.

Reflexively, the woman crouched down and withdrew a spear from the bundle, awkwardly holding it with one hand. When push came to shove, she’d drop the rest and fight with two hands.

The way she hunted thus far was slow and methodical. She’d track down trails and once she spotted the animals, she’d wait quietly until they were in range of [Leech].

She slunk through the undergrove, placing her feet on empty patches of dirt as she tried her best to follow the disturbed path of leaves and twigs. The presence of an animal was hard to make out but she’d lived in this forest long enough by now to get used to the signs.

The path led many metres away, and the woman was following in a crouched form for a while, her back beginning to ache but she was determined to continue.

And then, she found it. Not a singular animal, no, but two of them. And a home, it seemed.

Boars.

They were vicious foes; unnaturally fast and with tusks that could pierce skin with ease. Their immense forms and powerful legs meant the momentum they carried far outweighed any force a human could quickly muster. Dangerous opponents.

They’re occupied, but is it worth the danger? I nearly died last time but I’m stronger now. However, there are two of them.

The women began to consider all aspects, measuring the danger against the potential upside of food, resources, and level ups.

The boars were standing outside a raised section of ground. It looked like a naturally occurring, small hill, but there was a strange hole leading into it--almost like a hobbit hole. The hill was bare dirt, no grass, and littered with sticks and stones at the base.

Do boars burrow? Another sign of human interference.

The two boars were both large, of similar sizes, but their colourations differed. One was like the boar the woman had fought earlier; mostly black fur but with brown patterning around the rear of its body. It’s tusks, similarly, were as thick as her arms and almost just as long.

The other boar, however, was different; it’s coloured fur was a dark purple with some brown stripes woven in. It’s tusks were slightly shorter and thinner than the other, but it looked a bit larger overall. Was this natural variation or an observation of sexual dimorphism? Seeing a pair of animals in the wild, it’d be natural to assume they were mates.

And then, the most unfortunate of things happened.

The woman sneezed.

She tried desperately to hold it in, even as the leaves rustled, her hair flowed, and the all-encompassing shiver travelled through her body. But, alas, she was not successful, her mere mortal form giving into the inevitable.

She pushed her nose into her elbow, staunchly held her breath, and hoped.

An immense noise suddenly shot out from her, stupendously loud in the near silence and disorientating her for a second.

The woman raised her gaze, seeing two boars looking right at her.

Fuck it. I guess I’m fighting them.

Without hesitation, she sliced the woven rope with her knife, the bundle of spears clattering to the ground as she chucked one straight at the boar in front.

Shit, She thought, watching the spear fly wide and bouncing off a tree in the distance.

Should’ve joined the javelin club in uni. She picked up another spear, dashing out of the bush she was hiding in and opening some distance between her and the beasts.

The boars reacted quickly. The smaller, brown boar hurried towards the opening hole of the burrow while the larger, purple one began to move towards her.

It quickly fell into a mad dash, covering the distance surprisingly fast as its stubby but powerful legs propelled it towards the woman.

Without taking much time to aim, the woman pulled back her arm and launched the spear with as much strength as she could muster.

Right on target. The spear pierced the boar’s head but bounced out immediately when the beast shook its head to the side, the weight of the large skull proving too much for the willowy stick.

Shit. Not deep enough.

Quickly, the woman jumped out of the way, a tusk narrowly grazing her leg as the boar whistled past, struggling to slow down.

Her leg burned as the line of blood began to dye her flesh red. Promptly, she flashed her stat block up.

Name Unnamed Level 2 Health 50/80 Stamina 46/100 Essence

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

1 Spirit

1 Stat Points 10

A mere graze did 30 points! I need to end this quickly.

The woman clenched her jaw as her firm grip around the dagger tightened.

The inertia of the boar carried it a few more metres before it came to a standstill, only to whip back around and stare at the woman.

It’s black eyes held no emotion but she convinced herself of the animosity emanating from the huge beast.

Wasting no time, the boar began another charge with surprisingly alacrity for it’s size.

The woman held her ground, turning her focus to her mind. She unfurled the mental construct, visualising the boar as a whirlpool of particles as she felt the bridge between them click into place.

Energy began to flood her body and as the beast closed in, she dodged at the last moment, feeling the incredibly sharp tusk clip her stomach as she simultaneously plunged the knife into the boar’s head, the blade sinking in deep up to the hilt.

Almost immediately, the boar collapsed, its momentum pulling it along the ground, digging up dirt and stones as it slid.

She had let go of the knife, quickly, avoiding being pulled along with the creature.

She could not rest. As soon as the body fell, the sound of thundering footsteps grew louder and louder Without taking time to look, she jumped at the corpse, grasping for her knife, her hands slick with sweat.

Somehow, she pulled the weapon free, barely jumping backwards and narrowingly missing the charging boar.

Another check showed that her health was at 60; she could confidently take one graze but probably no more than that.

The knife blade was pristine and unstained, the blood just sliding off like water on a hydrophobic material.

It was an oddity of the weapon but not important currently.

From a standstill, the beast launched itself again, its acceleration frighteningly fast. With such speed and mass, it could probably tear through metal with it’s tusks.

Positioning herself behind the corpse of its mate, the woman stared, unflinching, at the boar as her body held strong, dagger in hand.

Breathing rapidly, she tried to calm her beating heart, clamping down on the rising fear.

Three metres. Two metres. One metre. The boar swung out with its tusks, running just past the corpse and far enough away for the woman to dodge out of the way as the large beast came sliding past with.

As the beast struggled to regain it’s footing, fighting against it’s own momentum, the woman darted forwards, not wanting to miss a moment.

In one last hopeful attack, the boar swung it’s huge head towards her, missing as she practically lunged at it.

Her hands dug into it’s thin, fine fur as she pulled herself up and onto it’s back, almost falling off, before plunging the dagger down into its spine and using that for her grip.

The blade barely dug into the flesh at all before she tried again, this time managing to wedge the knife between the discs of the spine. Again and again, she plunged the weapon down, splattering herself with blood, as each stab drew closer and closer to the boar’s head..

The beast grew weaker with each attack, the wild shaking and twisting of it’s head becoming powerless until, eventually, with one final, vicious attack, the attack sank into the base of the neck and the large beast finally collapsed, dead.

[Level up]

You have gained 5 stat points and 1 skill point

Huffing like she had just ran a marathon, her shoulders slumped as she fell to the ground, tilting her head up to the sky, eyes closed, as she took giant gasps of air into her body.

As energy began to seep out of her muscles, the adrenaline wearing off and lucidity returning to her mind, comprehension dawned.

“That was… too… fucking… close,” She gasped out through lungfuls of air.

She didn’t speak, didn’t think, for a while as her body began to recuperate. She was used to long-distance running; these rapid explosions of power weren’t her sort of thing and she was reasonably tired by it.

After ten minutes of just kneeling there, she decided she’d better get going; it was already late in the day and she didn’t want to be snuck up on by something.

Things to not mess with: weird clouds on the ground and more than one boar at a time.

[Leech] was a literal life saver there. The level up was nice but it was not worth it at all. If I want to do this again, I’ll need to get stronger somehow.

Her gaze drifted to the two spears left unused in the battle.

They’d need to be upgraded. Sharpened wood just won’t cut it; I need to use stone instead.

With an exasperated sigh, she clambered to her feet as her body ached and groaned with her movements.

As she walked over to pick up her spears, leaning down, she turned back once more, looking at the corpses of the boars and at the hill they were seemingly protecting.

She left the spears where they were before beginning to make her way over to the hill.

The tunnel was small--smaller than herself--but at least it was wide. She wasn’t a particularly tall person so, going down on her hands and knees, she could crawl with enough ease.

Leaves lined the tunnel itself while the dirt and mud of the walls was hard and compacted. Underground, there was a niggling worry that the whole thing could collapse in on her but after feeling the walls, their hardness alleviated that anxiety somewhat.

The tunnel itself was only a few metres long before it opened up into a much wider room. The leaves were piled up heavier here, softening the ground, but it was still dark as hell, with the only light being what could seep in from the tunnel.

Compared to the cold, hard ground of the outside, the leafy mattress underneath felt pleasantly soft.

The last part of the day was like a haze in her mind. She vaguely remembered crawling out of the hovel, gathering rocks and then piling them at the entrance while she was still inside.

The darkness, the softness, the exhaustion in her limb and bones… Before she knew it, the woman was lying down in the warm interior, the musky stench aggravating to her nose but nothing she couldn’t deal with, and she quickly fell asleep.