Green eyes snapped open to look out on the awakening forest. The vibrant green leaves were lit with the dim light of dawn. Misty dew was all around him, reflecting the first light of the day and forming a field of minuscule stars across his vision.

Octavius blinked the sleep from his eyes and pulled up the status screen of the Emergence. The timer told him that he had almost seven hours until the preparation period was over. Waving the blue screen away, he arched his back and stretched.

Surveying the forests all around him, he took in the chirping of birds and the final calls of crickets. It took him but a handful of seconds to untie the knot that secured him and his belongings to the tree. His boot depressed the wet grass as he reached the ground, and he inhaled deeply. The cool morning air flooded his lungs as he took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the forest around him, but alas, there were things for him to do.

It took him a few minutes to set a fire in the middle of the clearing. Once the fire was burning, he set his copper pot next to the flames. The water inside would take a while to heat up, just long enough for him to hunt some breakfast. This meal had a chance of being the last heated food he consumed for five days, so he was going to make the best of it.

A short warm-up had his blood pumping and body ready for the day. With his spear in hand, he set out to find breakfast. It took hardly any time at all for a light-colored blur to catch his eye. The rabbit paused for a second and sniffed the air. During the single moment that it was stationary, Octavius used identify on it.

Common Woodland Rabbit (Lvl 3)

It was level 3, which meant that it would be a trivial hunt for Octavius. It hopped towards a tree that was near Octavius, and he struck out at it. Using his instant thrust skill, his spear flashed across the distance as he stepped forward.

The razor-sharp blade of the spear cut cleanly through the small animal’s center mass before it had time to move any distance enough to escape him. The blade pierced clean through the rabbit, the momentum behind the fine edge barely facing resistance from the animal’s body.

He returned to his fire with the rabbit in hand, collecting a few root vegetables and leafy greens that his identify helped him to find along the way. By the time he had dressed the rabbit and cut the meat into appropriately sized pieces, the water had begun to boil.

Placing the various ingredients and spices inside, he left it to cook while he got some things done. The previous day, he had determined his plan along with various contingencies. He would set his rucksack, along with most of his water and smoked meat, high in the trees above. It was important that he secured it somewhere he could get to, but not somewhere that one of the Sanctuary’s teams of gunmen would discover.

He had selected a perfect tree the previous day and now scrambled deftly up the tree he had slept on to gather his supplies. The location where he had chosen to hide them was barely a three-minute walk away from his campsite. There, he laid eyes upon a massive tree that stretched from the soil beneath his feet to the roof of the canopy high above.

The tree didn’t have any low branches, thus making it a challenge to climb. That was the reason Octavius had chosen this tree specifically. Instead of attempting to climb the trunk of the massive tree, he walked over to an adjacent tree that did have a few low branches.

Climbing up, it was hardly a challenge for someone with Octavius’s stats, and he soon found himself at the location where a large branch that stretched from the massive tree ran parallel to a branch from the tree he was on. After crossing the small gap, he moved to the trunk of the massive tree and climbed a single branch higher before securing his rucksack and deftly climbing back to the ground.

Octavius sat on the hard surface of the stone. His hand traced an absent-minded design over it as he looked over the forest around his perch. The Soulsilver spear resting in his lap glimmered with the reflected light of the noonday sun.

His position was carefully chosen after a great deal of consideration. It was well outside the perimeter set around the Sanctuary by the teams of gunmen in the trees, but close enough that he could easily make out the sound of any possible gunshots from the direction of the Sanctuary.

The boulder he was on was the one he had noticed at the start of his run two days prior. It was well within the area of the Sanctuary that was undefended by natural barriers and an ideal distance from the Sanctuary itself. On top of that, the high vantage point it offered him by the elevated position would allow him to see any approaching threats from far away.

As the final few minutes counted down to the start of the Emergence, his mind drifted to Ava. She was the only person he really knew within the entire tutorial, and he didn’t even know her all that well. Still, he hoped she would survive the Emergence. He knew she would be guarding the fence of the Sanctuary, along with all the other high leveled combatants that didn’t use guns. She had asked him what he was doing to do during the Emergence, but he just smiled and told her that he’d be around.

Shaking his head, he watched the final minute countdown until there was only half a minute left. He adjusted his position so that he crouched on the boulder, spear in hand.

10…

9…

His eyes scanned the forest floor for any signs of what was to come.

8…

7…

His breathing slowed, as it always did before a battle.

6…

5…

The final few seconds seemed to crawl by at the corner of his vision.

4…

3…

His grip on the silver spear tightened.

2…

1…

The Emergence (Nightmare Difficulty) has begun!

A Lord of Beasts had emerged into the world. Its mere presence bolsters the strength, level, and ferocity of its brethren. The Lord of Beasts has given its brethren the ability to sense the location of the sapient population centers near them.

The Lord of Beasts will reach the main population center of this instance in 4:23:59:43

Hint : Survive

Octavius inwardly groaned. Of course, the most dangerous part of this challenge will come directly to Sanctuary. Snap out of it; you have work to do. He admonished himself silently.

His eyes scanned the forest for any changes, for anything that might give him a hint as to what bolstering “the strength, level, and ferocity” of the beasts meant. The first thing that indicated something was amiss was the soft growl from far below. The second was the scraping sound of a hard material against the stone surface of the boulder behind him and to his left.

Spinning around, his eyes focused on the spot where the sound was coming from. Focusing, he held his spear in a low offensive stance, ready to skewer whatever came at him. For a long moment, there was no visible movement. Suddenly, a tan-colored blur lept from just below the range of his vision and straight at him.

The blur was far too small and moving too fast for him to be confident in catching it on his spear’s tip, so instead, he jerked his spear upwards. The metal haft of the spear just below the blade slammed into the creature, sending it soaring to the side and off the edge of the boulder.

Octavius listened intently for a moment but heard nothing else. Carefully, he edged over to the side of the boulder and craned his neck to see below it. There, on the ground, he saw a rabbit. It was not too dissimilar to the one he had eaten for breakfast, and judging from the screen telling him of his gaining forty-seven experience points, was most definitely dead.

An eyebrow crept up his forehead. What the fuck? He wondered, I guess that is what it meant by increasing their ferocity, but that rabbit wasn’t noticeably stronger than any other. Maybe the strength and level increase the system mentioned grows over time?

Returning to the top of the boulder, he scanned the forest for any more rabid beasts. His survey was cut off by the distant sounds of gunshots coming from the direction of Sanctuary. They came in bursts of two or three. Octavius surmised that each burst of shots was one of the groups dispatching a creature.

He remained on the boulder for five minutes without any more beasts appearing. The sounds of gunshots behind him was a constant reminder that even if he could not see any beasts at the moment, they were out there.

The frequency of the gunshots decreased dramatically soon enough. After a few minutes, the shots changed from a burst of shots every ten seconds to a single shot or two every couple of minutes. That was good. He didn’t know how much ammunition the Sanctuary had exactly, but he knew that they couldn’t keep up a pace of twenty or so bullets per minute for the whole time that the Emergence went on.

After a dozen minutes without any beasts entering his line of sight from the boulder, he slid off. Landing in a crouch, he readied his spear and waited a moment for any sudden changes. The forest around him was deathly silent, save for the sporadic gunshots. Even the bird’s chirping had cut out.

That gave him another thought. Birds. If they were also as aggressive as the rabbit had been, they could pose a serious threat to the low-level people within the borders of Sanctuary. His spear wouldn’t be nearly as effective towards birds, but the guns of the Sanctuary would likely make short work of them if they were spotted.

Walking forward, he saw movement in the undergrowth to the left of the boulder. He readied his spear. His body was perfectly still but prepared to explode forth at incredible speed. The small section of the bush shook again, and a brown shape hopped out.

The squirrel, for that was what the brown-furred creature was, confused Octavius when it failed to attack. Instead, it looked at him and appeared to blink a few times before its little legs carried it scampering off into the undergrowth on the other side of the boulder.

What? Why is this one not being aggressive? He asked himself, The message said the so-called Lord of Beast boosted its brethren. Does that mean that the Lord of Beasts is a rabbit of some sort? That would make this whole event much easier.

Alas, his theory was proved wrong when a loud howl echoed through the woods. It was soon followed by a dozen gunshots and was cut short. Guess not, he shrugged.

For the moment, at least, it seemed that the Sanctuary was doing fine. If there were a mass panic back at the Sanctuary, he would likely be able to hear it with his high perception, despite the distance. With both himself and the Sanctuary not in any immediate danger, that left him with his final goal: kill as many beasts as he physically could.

The course of action he settled on after a moment's consideration was risky. He decided to run through the forest while purposely making as much noise as he could. This would hopefully attract a large amount of the feral beasts.

The reason he felt that it was safe for him to do so was his location. The area around the Sanctuary had been largely cleared out of high-level beasts by the various hunting parties. That meant that with only low leveled beasts in the area, this was his only chance to pull such a maneuver before the beasts in the area began to grow stronger or new beasts arrived.

His legs pounded into packed dirt and grass as he took off at a jog. He shouted every few seconds, not loud enough to reach the ears of the Sanctuary member, but loud enough for the finely tuned hearing of the beasts in the area. As he jogged, he slammed the metal of his spear’s haft into the ground like a walking stick.

It only took fifty steps for the first rabid beast to appear. This one was a brown-furred squirrel. Judging by its size and speed, it was at a low level just like the others he had seen. It let out a strange, strangled rasping sound that had no business coming from a squirrel as it charged.

Octavius only saw a brown blur rush from behind a tree he was passing and directly at his leg. While it was not a large amount of time, it was plenty to sweep his leg out to the side and knock the creature over. Stumbling, the beast took only a split second to regain its feet, but that was too long. The moment it regained its feet, it was pinned to the ground by the blade of Octavius’s spear.

Even stabbed by a blade larger than it, it manages a few swipes with its small claws at his closer leg before finally succumbing. At the message telling him that he had gained another forty-seven experience points, he removed his spear from the now-dead squirrel and continued on.

He continued on with his plan for an hour. Even though he had yet to encounter a beast above level 6, he had gained well over two thousand experience. The normally peaceful low leveled beasts throwing themselves at him was apparently a great source of experience points.

The largest development over the past hour was in his skills. Although he had yet to use his instant thrust, he’d found a new use for his whirlwind skill. It had come about when three small beasts attacked him at once.

His boot crunched over the remnants of a rotten log, and he closed his mouth from another shout when three separate squirrels leaped from various tree branches at him. Against small opponents, such as the squirrels, he had discovered that using his spear as a staff rather than futilely attempting to use the small section that made up the blade was a much more effective tactic.

Thus, when three squirrels leaped from the trees, his first response was to bat them away. The problem with that strategy was that there were too many opponents for him to block with a single strike. With the hours of training he had put into his skills, it was almost second nature to try to block projectiles with his whirlwind skill.

When he had practiced, he had imagined blocking stones or even arrows, not blocking the bodies of rabid beasts. Nonetheless, it worked like a charm. His spear swept up horizontally as his hands moved one over the other in a movement he could likely never have done without the system to assist him.

In an instant, three low thumps echoed in the unnatural silence that still permeated the forest. Two of the squirrels, each thrown in a different direction, managed to survive the skill, only to be dispatched soon after. The third squirrel was killed either by the impact with his spear or with the ground afterward. What surprised him was the message he received after killing the second surviving squirrel. After the normal messages informing him of his EXP gain, he saw a new message.

You have gained a level in the skill Whirlwind.

Your Whirlwind is now Lvl 2

Since then, he hadn’t been in a situation to use the skill in such a unique way again, but he kept it in mind.

At the end of the hour, he stopped and leaned against a tree. While the physical activity was strenuous, it wasn’t even close to debilitating. He had yet to obtain any significant injury, only receiving a few small scratches and bites that were stopped by his clothes and armor. What caused him to take a break was his voice.

His throat was raw from shouting for the previous hour, and he decided to stop. The gunshots had slowed even more, with a pair of shots ringing out maybe every half dozen minutes or more. The only breaks in the routine were the times when a longer series of gunshots would echo through the understory, presumably from a group of gunmen taking down a larger beast.

The water skin that he kept on his belt was empty at this point, and he decided to go refill it. The tree that he secured his gear and supplies in was much closer to the defensive perimeter that was established by the Sanctuary, but as long as he wasn’t going to go shouting again, they would never know he was there.

During the jog back toward his supplies, he was attacked by a few more small creatures, and even a level 8 fox that was actually easier to defeat due to it being large enough for Octavius to turn his spear point towards it without too much risk of him missing.

Once he reached the correct tree, he scurried up it in a series of quick, deft movements. Upon reaching the correct spot, he delicately moved to the branch of the other tree and soon was reunited with his supplies. He secured his spear to his rucksack and drew his dagger so that he always had a weapon handy; squirrels could easily climb to his position, and he didn’t want to be caught off guard.

After refilling his waterskin, he drank in small sips and ate some smoked meat. He only ate enough to top off his energy reserves, but he knew that it was enough to make a difference in any number of situations.

He rested on the tree branch for ten minutes. Just as he finished resecuring all of his supplies, a new sound caught him off guard. Closeby, the sounds of barking spread through the forest. The barks were loud and aggressive and were quickly followed by a long series of staccato cracks from firearms.

Octavius could identify three individual shooters based on the sound as bullet after bullet was fired. When the first gun stopped firing for a moment, presumably to reload, and the barking had hardly diminished, Octavius frowned.

He knew that guns weren’t very effective against larger beasts, and that would be even more so considering the way that the rabid animals were acting. Their seeming immunity to pain was an annoyance to Octavius but would likely allow larger creatures to shrug off an inordinate amount of bullets.

Grabbing his spear, he scrambled down the trees to the forest floor. The moment that his boots made contact with the verdant green grass, he took off towards the sound. The people from the Sanctuary likely needed help, and a whole bunch of wolves sounded a lot like a whole bunch of experience points to Octavius’s ears.