Nate wasn't quite sure if he wanted to roam through the woods with wild man Rod. But the information he found out about his core had really shaken him. Maybe traveling for a few days with Rod will give him a chance to get some more information out of the old man. His decision was quickly made.

"I'll go," Nate said, "But don't do anything like what you did in the woods earlier. I don't like fighting for my life."

"Oh, I was just helpin you out, kid. Thought fighting one of them guys off would keep you from being so scared and running all the time. Poisoning people with berries won't always work," Rod said, "I didn't think you'd get beat up that bad. You looked pretty strong."

[‘Duality’ has increased to Level 13]

Listening to all of Rod's chatter was obviously pushing Nate to the limit mentally. The fact that Rod was well aware that he had been fleeing and poisoned the man surprised Nate. He must have been around well before he showed himself.

"Damn, shoe," Rod cursed again shaking his slushy shoe then looking at Nate, "You ready to go."

"Yep," Nate said tightening the straps on his backpack. He just hoped he could keep up with Rod. The old man was pretty fast.

*****************

Nate was running at full force to keep up with Rod. It was like the old man was running just hard enough to cause Nate to be slightly overexerted.

[Stamina Stat has increased by 1]

That's the second time in the last four hours. He was starting to get pretty tired.

Suddenly, Rod came to a stop and started looking up into the treetops. Nate pauses behind him catching his breath.

"Stay right here a sec," Rod whispered then took off up a tree.

Flashbacks of recent events coming into his mind, Nate readied his spear. Hope he doesn't bring a beast this way.

A few seconds later Rod came plummeting down from up in the tree. He landed on the ground sinking up to his shins in the soft forest floor. He had a giant yellowish ruffled thing in his hands. It was about three feet across.

[Shelf Mushroom - Level 40]

"Don't stab me, " Rod chuckled, "I was just getting dinner. Why don't you start a fire?"

************

A half-hour later, Nate was watching Rod cook large slivers of the mushroom directly over the fire. He had pulled out a few other plants from his pockets and smeared them on the mushroom. Nate didn't know what the hell he was doing but that was typical with Rod, so he didn't think too much of it.

"How did you know that a mushroom was up in the tree?" Nate asked trying his best to get some knowledge out of this trip.

"Oh," Rod laughed, "I got a skill that helps me find things. Got it with my second class."

"Second class?" Nate said with a bit of excitement, "I can't wait to get mine."

"What level you at, kid?" Rod asked, "People usually get their second somewhere between Level 20 and Level 30. Out here usually closer to Level 25."

"Great, I'm almost to Level 20 now," Nate said getting even more excited about a potential second class.

Seeing his excitement, Rod was quick to interject, "Don't rush it. Knew a guy that ended up with a class that actually made the world seem to move slower cause he was always rushing stuff."

"Here," Rod said handing Nate the roasted mushroom on a stick, "Classes and evos can get weird, so be careful."

"Evos?" Nate questioned taking a bite of the mushroom, "This is really good."

"Evolutions, " Rod said gnawing on the food, " Most say they related to skills and experience, but sometimes it gets stupid."

"Knew a cook once. Cooked with plants so much that the Cooking class evo’ed to something that helps him find special plants," Rod said taking a bite of the mushroom he had found.

Nate just stared at the man. Is he talking about himself?

Nate put the thought aside like he did many of the other things that came out of Rod's mouth. The two continued chatting for a while before they decided to sleep for the night. Nate learned a few things, but nothing life-changing. Nothing like the information related to beast cores.

After the meal was done, Rod just said goodnight and plopped down next to the fire. He fell asleep in seconds while cuddling up with his backpack.

Nate probably could have done the same, but he didn't feel comfortable sleeping out in the open. Too many beasts out in the wilderness. He found a nook in a tree about 40 feet off the ground to sit in to get some sleep.

However, his attempt at sleep seemed futile. He had been through so much in such a short amount of time that he needed time to mentally digest all the information. Of all the things roaming around in his head, the number one was his core. What Rod earlier had said made sense. Nate had tried absorbing the beast's core energy into his body while holding them in his hands with no luck. From his past knowledge and talks with Rod, that seemed to be the way normal people got energy from cores. But, the only way he could absorb a beast's core was by eating it. Just like a beast. He didn't know what to think about it all, but he did understand that he shouldn't tell anyone. Being different wasn't always good for your safety. Nate had seen many examples of that in the Grey Sector.

After he hit a dead end on that subject, the rest of his thoughts focused on a possible second class. Considering everything that had happened over the last couple of days, he pulled up his user interface to see how things had changed.

__________________________

Name: Nathaniel Redsun

Level: 19 (Exp. 1889/1900)

Health: 111/130

Energy: 115/120

Primary Class: Calm Survivor (Level 21)

Class Skills:

Survivor’s Need (Passive) (Level 19)

Survivor’s Awareness (Passive) (Level 20)

Survivor’s Resistance (Passive) (Level 21)

Secondary Class: None

Stats:

Speed: 33 Agility: 32

Stamina: 39 Strength: 36

Intelligence: 25 Perception: 27

Wisdom: 23 Will: 26

Stat Points Available: 0

General Skills:

Silent Presence (Passive) (Level 18)

Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 20)

Pain Resistance (Passive)(Level 29)

Bleeding Resistance (Passive)(Level 26)

Infection Resistance (Passive)(Level 24)

Poison Immunity (Passive)(Level 3)

Burn Resistance (Passive)(Level 8)

Fear Resistance (Passive)(Level 17)

Archer’s Sight (Passive)(Level 25)

Duality (Passive)(Level 13)

Identify (Active)(Level 14)

Forceful Throw (Active)(Level 11)

Sleep Resistance (Passive)(Level 2)

Concussion Resistance (Passive)(Level 6)

__________________________

Nate was excited about the increases in his stats and skills. He was even happier that he would hit level 20 soon.

[‘Sleep Resistance’ has increased to Level 3]

"Damn it, why is this a resistance skill, " Nate said as he leaned back against the tree and tried to fall asleep. Rod's words about unexpected consequences of class and skill evolutions running through his head constantly.

********************

Early the next morning, Nate was still awake. He hadn't slept a wink but had managed to gain two more levels in Sleep Resistance. He didn't know what would happen with that skill but from his tired body, he could guess that the outcome wouldn't be good.

"Hey kid, you want some breakfast?" Rod asked before disappearing off into the woods.

Twenty minutes later, Nate was introduced to the culinary delicacy of toasted pine nuts and the pair were on their way again.

***************

The next couple of days we're mostly spent running through the woods. Nate had really enjoyed the travels so far. Rod had hunted a few beasts with Nate and showed him many things that he didn't know about the wilderness. Nate absorbed the information like a sponge and continued asking questions despite Rod's reluctance or inability to clearly answer all of them.

*****************

As they were with a half day’s travel from the Greyfor Tribe, Rod suddenly stopped his run. Nate expected the man to disappear and reappear with some tasty morsel again, but the old man just turned and looked at Nate.

"Big beast up there, " Rod said pointing in the direction they were traveling, "Whole herd of little ones with it. Let's hunt."

The old man readied his bow which signaled to Nate that the hunt was on. Ron pointed at Nate then pointed up into a nearby tree. Interpreting this as instruction, Nate silently moved over to the tree and climbed up until he could see the beasts up ahead. It is so much easier to hunt with two people.

Nate looked down upon the scene as Ron crept forward toward a pack of over twenty wild boar. What surprised Nate was that one boar was at least 4 times larger than the others in the herd. His guess was that it was probably the height of three men.

[Redback Boar - Level 45]

This was the highest level beast Nate had seen since he got his identify skill. The few beasts he had killed on the trip had been relatively lower level. He looked at Rod to see that the man had put away his bow and had taken out his long knife. Rod stopped, looked up at Nate then gave a series of hand signals that didn't make any sense at all. Even with the experience of hunting together a few times, the only part that Nate could understand was that Rod wanted him to shoot the little boars.

After a few minutes of useless hand signals, Rod held up his hand and started to perform a countdown on his fingers. Nate was definitely familiar with this gesture.

Nate counted along as Rod's fingers dropped, "3, 2, 1"

Nate let an arrow fly to penetrate the eye of one of the smaller beasts. The Redback Boar roared in anger and looked up directly at Nate.

"Shit," Nate said as the beast charged at his tree immediately.

Confident that the beast couldn't reach him, Nate readied another arrow and sent it flying at the eye of the boar. The beast actually blinked causing the arrow to glance off to the side.

While Nate was panicking that his shot had failed, Rod used the split-second opportunity of the beast closing its eyes to move. At least that was what Nate thought had happened. Rod has been squatting down under cover the whole time so far. Then, he just suddenly appeared straddling the back of the giant boar driving his knife into the beast's neck repeatedly. Blood and red fur were flying all over the place as Rod hacked and stabbed the bucking beast. Nate picked up his spear and threw it at the large beast using his Forceful Throw Skill. The spear penetrated the beast's chest only about a quarter length of the spear. The beast flopped breaking the shaft of Nate's spear into pieces. Damn.

"Shoot the little ones," Rod yelled riding the back of the rampaging beast, "the big one is mine."

Seeing the old man stabbing the beast repeatedly, Nate just went along with the show. Rod’s odd behavior had almost become predictable over the past couple of days. If it seemed crazy to Nate, that’s probably what Rod would do.

By the time Rod killed the big beast, Nate had managed to snipe eight of the smaller boars before the rest fled off into the woods. Although they weren't big trophies, the smaller beasts we're still between Level 15 and Level 20. It was a good harvest. Quickly moving down the tree, Nate couldn't wait to get his hands on all those beast cores.

Rod looked like an absolute maniac as Nate approached the scene of the battle. He was covered in blood, chunks of flesh, and beast fur. After traveling for six days with an old man that carried a head in his backpack, the sight didn't bother him at all.

Moving over to the first beast he killed, Nate started the process of removing the beast core.

"Hey kid, I am going to run ahead. I’ll get some people from the Greyfor Tribe to help with the meat and bring you over to the tribe. They would sure like a feast. Greyfor Tribe is pretty friendly so you ain’t got no worries. You good here on your own for a few hours?" Rod asked as he hacked into the big beast and removed its core. I need to get that spear tip back.

Nate considered the situation for a moment. He didn’t have an issue waiting. It would give him a chance to be alone and pop a few beast cores in his mouth to replenish his energy. With his concerns over his own core, he had avoided doing so in Rod’s presence for the entire trip.

"Fine, but if something big comes along because of all of the blood, I'm just going to run away, " Nate said, "What direction you headed in?"

"Over that way,” Rod said pointing in the apparent direction of the village, "I'll see you there."

Rod disappeared from Nate's sight. Nate looked around. He was by himself with the corpses of nine beasts scattered around. Great idea. Let's just hope nothing comes looking for a snack.