The atmosphere was dreadfully somber. Rain pelted down, soaking the woman’s fur-clad clothing, weighing it down with all the trapped moisture, as well as drenching her golden locks, hanging below the shadow of the hood of the cloak.

The woman shivered slightly as the coldness enveloped her, seeping into the bones. The torch did little to help with the rigid temperature, mainly providing a bit of illumination. Still, she didn’t turn back and run into the warm, insulated house not that far away; she was used to cold and wet conditions and her desire to know exactly what was happening was too strong to ignore.

All of this must be connected in some way; the rain, the lightning, the farmer setting fire to his own property…

The farmer didn’t seem too bothered by the rain, even with his older body potentially causing the temperature to feel even worse than it was. A combination of the cloak and his willpower, she presumed, were enough to keep him going under these harsh conditions.

His bow was out, though not drawn, and he stood straight, looking like a bastion of strength in the darkness. Determination was exuded by his form as his hardened eyes stared straight into the abyss in front of them.

And then, the faintest of shadows began to emerge off in the distance. They were so small, so far away, that the woman rubbed her eyes, doubting if she really saw anything. But she did.

As they both watched, the shadows grew larger, more defined, and more numerous. Some crowded the skies, dark spots against the lighter cloud cover and moving unimaginably rapid. They emerged from the treetops of the caldera, flying high in the sky before gliding towards them.

In addition, a deluge of shadows lunged from the lip of the caldera, tumbling and rolling down the hill like a gigantic mudslide. From this distance, it was like the mountain was actually moving, with how the ant-like shadows littered and covered the hillside, all moving in the same, uniform direction.

The woman could feel her heartbeat quicken, her muscles tighten, as the wave of moving entities made themselves more and more known in scope. It wasn’t just a few, just a pack, but a whole herd of creatures running with wild abandon down the caldera.

The flying creatures were gaining ground, far faster than their land-bound counterparts. The silhouettes were more dispersed the closer they got, but larger they seemed in perception. Their bodies were larger than any avian creature the young woman was familiar with, the beating of their wings slowly coming into view as the humongous canvases that were keeping them in the air pushed massive volumes of air.

Rather than any biological specimen, they much more reminded her of primitive, experimental mechanical prototypes of personal flying devices.

As they drew closer, as her eyesight continued to adjust to the darkness, she finally saw what they were in all their true glory.

Monsters. White, furless monsters. The same as the ones she had encountered on that fateful day back in the forest.

When she finally recognised them, her whole body shivered, far harder than what she had done from the temperature alone.

A light spasm shifted along her spine as her memories resurfaced; the pain, the proximity to death, the struggle. It was all still so raw in her memory that, once again, her heart rate spiked as she stared at the creatures with wide eyes.

Her breathing quickened, her mind slowly unravelling and losing focus as worries suddenly sprouted up to torment her mind.

Her hand wrapped around her wrist, feeling her worryingly high heart rate, as she closed her eyes and tried to sink into [Meditate]—the first time she was using the skill primarily for reasons other than the regenerative enhancements.

The roaring, turbulent seas that were her mental landscape began to soothe and soften as her senses gave way to an abyss of serenity. Her thoughts slowed down as her breathing became more stable.

In, out, in, out… She coached her breath, trying to gain control over her physical instincts. She needed to have a hand on everything—to not let anything get out from under her.

But even within the subsuming veil of [Meditate], anxiety continued to plague her mind. Rather than the extreme, sensational worries that exaggerated the situation, these worries, these bouts of nervousness, were rational and refused to be dispelled by this mental landscape.

The monsters were strong, she knew this. More health than anything she had seen before, and dealing more damage too. One of them, she could probably deal with at her current level of strength—two was pushing it. But three? Or the veritable horde that was charging towards them? There was no chance of killing every one of them and surviving.

As she felt her stress begin to mount once more as realisation encroached, the woman brought up her stat block, taking at least a modicum of reassurance over just how much stronger she had become.

Name Unnamed Level 7 Health 100/100 Stamina 64/100 Essence

220/220 Power 5 (5) Constitution 5 (5) Endurance 5 (5) Vim 6 (6) Essence

5 (11) Spirit

30 (150) Stat Points 0

This will have to do. The only reason she didn’t run away then and there was because the farmer didn’t.

As she opened her eyes, the monsters were far closer than they deserved to be. The flying ones would be within range of [Leech] soon enough while the grounded ones were, thankfully, at least an hour's distance away, assuming they maintained a constant speed.

It would be silly to assume they were all endurance runners but they were monsters; who’s to say what was logical concerning them.

The woman reached beneath her dress to withdraw her dagger from the make-shift sheath she had wrapped around her thigh. It was a much more convenient way to store her weapon before she had clothes, as well as being a place where the dagger was unlikely to fall out from her movements.

Although it was unlikely to be of much use, simply wrapping her hand around the handle, feeling the solid material hold firm in her grip, provided some solace to her.

The first of the creatures drew close enough to be a threat. It was high in the sky, about the height of [Leech] but too far in the distance.

And then it began to dive bomb.

It rapidly began to gain speed, the wind whistling past its hairless body as its legs were extended, ready to pick up some prey.

The woman reach out with her mind, grasping at the figure shooting towards them, but no response. Still, she continued to try as the monster closed in.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then something, as the mental click resounded in her head, the connection being made and essence quickly draining from her body. The faintest appearance of green coursed through the sky like lightning before disappearing. Even though it was a resource with no apparent physiological connection, she could feel the expenditure throughout her body as a whopping 50 essence was drained from her; she was taking no chances.

The creature faltered, its wings suddenly billowing out randomly, its feet losing some composure and rigidity, before it quickly corrected, building up speed once more.

Not enough.

She established a connection again, flooding the channel with the same amount of essence. Forty metres isn’t very far when you’re travelling at such a high speed.

This time, the creatures spread out loosely as its body suddenly spun in the air, the asymmetrical appendages rotating and rotating the body as it span out of control.

It tumbled, its trajectory behind them into the field somewhere, before landing with a loud crash, a dust cloud billowing up around the impact.

[Level Cap] increased to 8

The farmer turned to look behind him, seeing the corpse marking the ground, before giving a quick glance towards the woman. He nodded, refocusing his sight on the approaching herd.

The woman let out a large gasp of air.

He’s okay with it. But does he expect me to deal with the rest? They have, like, 1000 health! I can only do one more.

And my level cap increased again? Something to think about later.

For now, her attention was dragged back to the nearest flying monster; it wouldn’t be here for at least another minute.

Is he not going to shoot at anything?

Wanting to make the most of this free time, the woman sank between alertness and [Meditate], periodically dropping out of that calming state to maintain awareness of the situation.

Each time she opened her eyes again, it’d take her a few seconds to get her bearings again—upon which, she’d promptly [Meditate] for a few more seconds.

By the time the creature got close to her viable range, she had already regenerated 14 points of essence. Not enough for another maximised [Leech] but better than nothing.

In addition, she had also devised another way to make [Leech] less costly to use these past few days; just before she was going to reach out with her mind, she activated [Essence Transformer], feeling her strength drain out of her until she was down to a measly 20 health; the highest amount of damage she could withstand. That garnered her an additional 8 essence.

And then it clicked, essence draining from her as the green bridge connected, instantly refilling her health back to max.

She held that connection for another second, the creature suddenly contorting mid air before falling rapidly.

Fuck these birds for being so fast. Their speed forced her to use her resources inefficiently.

As the flying creatures drew further and further apart since their initial reveal, the woman finally counted them. Nowhere near as numerous as their cousins but there were at least five still remaining in the air. Thankfully, none of them decided to be like their siblings, charging towards them; the rest remained flying above the herd on the ground.

That gave them at least a little bit of time.

The woman resorted back towards her [Meditate] alternation, generating as much essence as she could in the meantime. Like a stop-motion picture, though one of the horror genre, each time she opened her eyes, the enemies were closer, larger, and seemingly unfaltering. They maintained their prodigious speed, their onslaught inevitable.

She could only [Meditate] for forty more minutes, and only half of that time was actually using the skill, before the tide was upon them. Thankfully, the skill had managed to level up and she needed all the help she could get.

As she watched her essence refill to full, she felt grateful to her past self for specialising so much in regeneration.

As soon as the tidal wave of monsters came within what the farmer seemed to decide was his effective range, he dunked one fabric-tipped arrow into the viscous, black liquid, lit it on fire by a torch dug into the ground, and fired it towards the enemy.

He missed, the arrow lodging into the ground but the fire didn’t dissipate. It didn’t light up the surrounding grass, however, as soaked with water as it was.

What it did do, in fact, was stall the arrival of the monsters. Illuminated by a warm glow, the creatures practically skidded to a halt as they ran up to the arrow, legs straightening and trying to keep away much like a cat would.

The farmer fired another shot, missing again.

By the third shot, she began to think that he was purposefully missing; the arrows were beginning to mark out a line, a flaming perimeter, that stopped the monsters in their tracks.

Or, at least they would if the farmer wasn’t such a bad shot; the arrows were far enough spaced out that the monsters slowly walked between them like they were land mines before beginning to rush forwards once more, unimpeded.

By now, the main group was close enough that some of the winged variants wanted to try their luck.

The first one to break away and dive towards them quickly met the same fate as the woman, chock full of essence, dealt it a lethal blow in two seconds.

With all the arrows the farmer was firing, with how congested the group of monsters was, what happened next wasn’t much of a surprise; a stray arrow found itself whirring through the air before landing right in the skull of a monster, the creature panicking briefly before slumping to the ground, apparently dead.

So that’s why they’re scared of fire.

At the same time, the farmer took a quick and abrupt step backwards, quickly whipping his head to and fro before speaking quickly. He waited, spoke a bit more, and then waited, like he was carrying on a conversation with someone.

He did this for the better part of a minute, his voice hurried and anxious, before his whole body spasmed suddenly.

This time, everything was different; his arms pulled with more strength, his back was in a far better form for archery, and even his stance was more grounded and stable. It was like his previous inexperience was suddenly replaced by knowledge.

The arrows fired faster, hurtling through the air with previously unseen speed. Where once, they landed oddly in the ground, far away from their intended locations, these ones mostly found their marks, striking deep into the heads of these monsters with far more penetrating power.

Even the average number of arrows needed to kill a monster gets brought down from three to around one as he gets more used to the bow and form.

The farmer's swift improvement wasn’t the only strange thing to happen; another notification, one unlike anything else she had seen before, appeared for a split second in her vision.

You have joined Renald's Party

Shit; a party?

Hurriedly, the woman brought up her stat block, looking on in quickly rising fear at her far lower spirit and essence values.

This is fucking bad. I don’t want to be in a party!

And, just like that, her stats were restored to how they should be. All she managed was a large, relieved sigh of exasperation before closing her stats, focusing back on the situation in front of her.

Even with the sudden sharpshooter the farmer had become, there were far too many monsters; they were close enough now that the woman reached out towards the nearest one on the ground, using maximised [Leech] for two seconds to kill it.

There’s too many; my regeneration can’t keep up, especially since the [Leech]-[Essence Transformer] combo no longer works with both skills at level 10.

They were making ground scarily fast; as she [Leech]ed one, another appeared to take its place. Even the sudden skills of the farmer weren’t good enough to keep the monsters at bay.

Desperately, she used [Leech] at a monster that was less than 20 metres away, draining herself dry but barely doing a dent in its health. The old man was the one that killed it in the end.

But, sooner or later, the inevitable happened; the man ran out of arrows. Stoically, he pulled out his knife he had brought as he threw his bow onto the ground, picking up the torch in his off hand.

The woman looked between the old man, looking so strong but so weak at the same time, and the wave of monsters.

“I’m sorry!” She shouted at him, her voice barely audible under the din of the torrential downpour as well as the scrabbling monsters, before turning around and running away, planting one foot after the other.

She knew she was being a coward. She knew she was consigning the farmer to die, even after all he had done for her. She knew there was no way someone would judge what she was doing as the ‘good’ thing to do but she didn’t care.

Her feet nearly slipped as they pounded against the slick, muddy ground she was running on. The rain slapped against her face, blurring her vision as she desperately wiped her eyes as her legs carried her forwards.

She knew where she was going but she didn’t have a destination in mind; behind the farmer's house, a little ways away, was a gravel road that led straight to the village she had seen from the top of the caldera. These past few days, she had been scouting around, getting a lay of the terrain.

She crested a small hill, the fighting now far outside the range of [Leech], before finding her feet giving out from under her, and ankle buckling against the slippery ground, and she tumbled down, head over heel.

Bruised and battered, she quickly dragged herself back to her feet, dashing towards the muddy, gravelly road which was now in view before turning to run down it.

She had only managed to run a few metres, her feet slipping and sliding as her watery shoes failed to get a grip, before she felt two thick appendages grab both an arm and a leg, pulling her weight out from under her and lifting her into the air.

She lacked the strength to turn around and see what he picked her up but she knew well enough; she twisted and turned, struggling against its grip.

The monster flew low, its large, heavy wings beating powerfully, struggling to gain air with the added weight. They climbed little but flew many metres in the direction the woman was running.

Desperately, she flailed her knife through the air, trying to contort her body to slash at the clawed feet that grabbed her, the talons uncomfortably digging into her flesh.

And then, they let go. One moment, she was held captive in the grip of a beast then the next, nothing surrounded her but the cool, frigid air whistling past her.

She windmilled her arms as she felt herself falling, mind unable to grasp what had just happened as she saw the ground hurtling towards her.

Instincts took over, preparing herself for a hard landing; she relaxed her muscles as best as she could, bracing for impact and to roll over.

The second before she hit the ground, she brought up her stats and sunk into [Meditate], the world collapsing to darkness before her.

She felt nothing, saw nothing, and smelled nothing. The only change she could observe was her health plummeting from a health 100 down to a dangerously low 40, ticking down to 30 and finally settling on 22 after a second or two.

Her body must’ve been broken by now, bones sheared and skin torn open. Bleeding was undeniably.

But she didn’t instantly leave [Meditate]; the prospect of her condition scared her.

Just how badly broken am I? The moment she’d open her eyes, she’d be introduced to a whole world of pain.

What finally snapped her out of this stagnant way of thinking was seeing her health tick down to 21; she needed to do something quickly.

And so, she reluctantly opened her eyes, immediately gasping for breath and spitting out mouthfuls of blood as pain assaulted her senses.

Her vision was obscured, grass filling most of it, tainted red.

An unimaginable amount of pain emanated from her shoulder; even a little attempt at moving her left arm felt like she was ripping the limb off from her body.

It was just too much to bear; she craved relief from this pain.

With her 10 essence left, she desperately tried to settle her mind, build a connection with the grass and [Leech] off it.

It was a shaky few seconds, her mind too much in turmoil to stably visualise the system.

But, eventually, she managed to do it. The bridge was built, her mind focusing on the bone marrow repairing itself, cells undergoing mitosis, splitting and reproducing, fixing up cracks and gaps. Her muscles sewed themselves together, blood cells rapidly being regenerated to restore what was loss.

Her health jumped to 100 in an instant, though the painful sensations remained for longer than that.

Her mind, now able to focus on something else, began to recognise the sounds she could hear. It wasn’t just the rain, her heartbeat, or the far away sound of fighting. Rather, footsteps. No, not quite.

Lazily, the woman pushed herself up onto her butt, gazing at the road.

Off to the other side was a crumpled heap of a monster, large wings splayed out and bloodied with holes torn into them. Two arrows stuck in its head.

On the road itself was a horse with a man sat on top of it. In his hands was a large war bow, a quiver on his back, and bedecked in mail.

His helmet obscured his features but his large form suggested that he was indeed a man.

Turning her head, she could see further down the road, towards the farm, were a group of more horses, each topped with a rider wearing similar armour, all riding towards where she was running from.

The man on top of the horse drew closer before saying a few words. He pointed up the road, towards the village, with a strong arm before wrapping the bow back around him and galloping off to rejoin with his group.

The woman, however, did nothing. This whirlwind of events happened too fast for her to register easily.

I-I was picked up. By that. And then… It was shot down? I fell. They shot it? But where did they appear from?

The provenance of this group was unknown but that didn’t matter much. She had a decision to make; continue on to the village or double back to the farm.

She stared in the direction of both; the village, she’d probably not be able to make it towards before dawn broke. She was tired, hurt, hungry, and a whole multitude of other things.

The farm, however, was well within her reach. Provided the group quells the monsters, there’d be shelter, food, and water.

That, as well as the lingering guilt of abandoning the farmer to his fate. She didn’t regret what she had done but that didn’t mean it sat right with her.

For a few minutes, she agonised over the decision, wondering what to do, before finally making up her mind.

Pulling herself to her feet, she quickly found her dagger amongst the grass, sheathed it, and patted herself down. She was dirty, with mud caking her clothes, her skin covered in dirt and grime and even blood.

Even though it was a frivolous use of essence, she spared a [Cleanse] on herself, the blood sizzling to nothing as well as the dirt and mud disappearing into nothing, like they were eaten by the air itself.

It’s not much but at least I feel a little better, now.

Slowly, she began her slow, lumbering stumble back to the farm