Nate tried to judge just how far the crevice continued down. Since he was sitting on the only ledge visible, he assumed that the other man had fallen deeper into the darkness.

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 23]

Nate knew he needed to go down, but thinking and doing are two different things. His arm was broken and his leg was pretty messed up from the spear wound. But those injuries were only the worst of it all. He had a nasty shoulder wound and more than several bumps, bruises, gashes and scrapes from the tumble down the rock wall. He was also having a hard time taking deep breaths. All in all he was pretty fucked up.

[‘Pain Resistance’ has increased to Level 34]

[Health: 57/130]

My health is really low too. He had taken a few berries but they had only given him a slight boost in health. Guess I am getting used to them or something.

Nate used his good hand to grab a few other things out of his pack. Sky wants children. Nate grinned at the supplies he had tucked inside his pack. Of all the words of parting shared between the two, she had provided constant reminders that he needed to stay alive to give her children. The fire starters she had packed already proved their worth. And thankfully, she had packed several packets of medical salves and bandages in Nate's pack. Nate had thought it a bit much but she had countered that a man with so many scars should know better. Got some more scars to talk with her about.

Putting his thoughts of Sky aside, Nate began to treat his wounds. An alert rang out showing his [Calm Survivor] class bonus had ceased. I guess they aren’t coming after me for now. The men had been right behind him but they hadn’t shown up in the five minutes he had been sitting on the ledge. Maybe I’m safe for now.

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

Nate popped a few more berries into his mouth.

[Health: 77/130]

That’s the last of them. Nate had officially used all of his medical supplies on his first day away from the Greyfor Tribe. After his self-treatment, his ailments had lessened to some extent. The spear wounds on his back and leg still caused him some discomfort, but they weren’t life-threatening at this point. His broken arm was the most aggravating of all the injuries. I need a broken bone resistance.

"I can barely see now," Nate thought as he looked over the edge of the small rocky protrusion that he was resting on. It had been close to dark when he first entered the Crags, but now it appeared that the sun was rapidly going down. As he had bandaged himself, Nate had also gained quite a few levels in [Dark Vision] from the ever-increasing darkness in the crevice.

The next couple of minutes were spent trying to reason a way to get down to the bottom of the rock crevice. By his best guess, he had fallen at least sixty feet to slam into this ledge. Even with his somewhat recovered health, he knew he couldn't withstand another fall of significant height.

"Shit," Nate cursed and picked up a loose rock and threw it down. A second later he heard an impact and his eyes brightened. The rock had only fallen for a second or so before it hit something. Nate repeated the process and the sound of something hitting the bottom repeated. Maybe I'm not too far from the bottom. A second's fall would only put him at around 30 feet up based on his experience jumping around in trees. If he was in top shape he could just jump down with no problem. But he wasn't in top shape.

His bleeding had finally stopped and the bleeding status was removed. If he busted any of the wounds back open, then he no longer had the supplies to treat himself.

Nate considered the few things that were left in his bag. He had a few lengths of rope from the tribe, but he didn't really want to waste it.

Idiot. He mentally fussed at his own stupidity. It isn't a waste of it keeps me alive. The problem was that he didn't have anything to tie off the rope. His mind went to work again. Various memories of factory ropes and lifts sprung to the forefront of his thoughts. He could almost see the mechanisms in his mind.

[‘Recall’ has increased to Level 4]

Nate had completely forgotten he had received a new skill in all the commotion, so he pulled up the information. While he already had an idea of what the skill did, he wanted to get the specifics.

[‘Recall’ is a passive skill that allows the user to focus on past memories. Understanding and information on past sights are increased.]

Cool. It was a brief description but the skill essentially gave him a fuzzy snapshot of something he had seen before. Maybe it will get clearer as I level up.

After playing with his new skill for a minute or so, Nate got back on task.

If he wedged something into one of the cracks in a rock wall maybe it would hold the rope as he lowered himself down.

******

A few minutes later, a curse could be heard echoing in the darkness.

"At least I got my rope back," Nate thought as he cut up his spare shirt to bandage up his leg. His plan had worked fine until his rope's anchor had slipped causing him and the rope to fall to the floor of the rocky crevice. He felt lucky that he was only about ten feet from the bottom when he fell. But he still busted his leg wound open. Trying to climb down with a broken arm was stupid.

After tightening the makeshift bandage, the renewed bleeding status disappeared. Nate pulled himself up using the rocky wall. The narrow crevice bottom was only about fifteen feet wide. Nate's [Dark Vision] worked to the extreme as he tried to look ahead in the darkness.

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 25]

The skill increases helped, but they didn't make things clear as day. Right now, Nate could see fairly clear within 20 feet. Anything past that distance was slightly obscured by the darkness. Of course, he could only see things in shades of black and grey, but he could still see. He glanced up but all he saw was darkness. The sun must have completely set outside.

“So which way do I go?” Nate asked himself as he looked in both directions to plan his path forward. The large crack he had fallen into wasn't straight at all. Nate could only see about ten feet ahead in one direction because the rock wall made an abrupt turn. He was sure that it had many more twists and turns regardless of the direction. I think the other way would be going away from where I last saw the Purpleheart bastards

Nate looked in the other direction. He could see an empty crevice up to the twenty feet limit of his [Dark Vision] skill. Guess this way seems better.

Nate hobbled slowly along leaning against the wall to support himself. He had made a sling of sorts with his pack to support his broken arm and he had his knife ready in his other hand.

The warnings for this area had mentioned deep crevasses and powerful beasts. He had already found one danger, so he could only hope that he didn't find another.

After moving about 30 feet, Nate heard a noise further ahead in the darkness. His heartbeat sped up from the adrenaline as he readied his knife to fend off an attack. Not already. He could feel the heartbeats in both his injured arm and leg as he steadied himself in preparation.

As Nate listened intently, he heard another gurgling noise up ahead. The noise sounded again a minute later but its position didn't change.

And the noise sounded familiar. It sounds like an animal about to die. Nate slowly crept forward with his knife ready. It didn’t take him long to see what was up ahead.

The Purpleheart tribesman that had fallen with him was still alive, but he wasn't in good condition. It appeared that his neck was broken as his head was resting at an odd angle. There was no movement from the rest of his body, but Nate could see the whites of his eyes moving around rapidly.

Not feeling a threat, Nate still cautiously walked up to the man. The man was certainly still alive but he appeared to be unable to move. Nate looked at the man for a moment before he sheathed his knife and reached down to take the man's spear off the ground next to him. When Nate touched the spear, the gurgling sound grew more intense. As if responding to the man's gurgles, his leg injury started to throb. Nate had no sympathy for the suffering man.

After a few seconds of deliberation, Nate decided that he wasn't even going to finish the man off. An injured ally might cause the other men to slow their pursuit. Any delay would benefit Nate's escape. The man's current state was worse than death anyway.

Serves you right. Nate just continued walking off into the darkness using his newly acquired spear as a crutch. The man's gurgling faded as the distance between the two increased. Nate was able to move much quicker when he had something to support himself.

As he continued moving forward over the next hour, the narrow paths in the rocks had split and diverged several times. Some spots had shallow water holes and some were so narrow that Nate could barely pass through. Nate couldn’t tell if the top was still open to the outside or if he had ventured into a cave. But Nate continued to move forward.

About thirty minutes into his slow escape, Nate had come across several beast remains and one human skeleton. By his guess, they had fallen in during a fight over a year ago.

The three beast corpses still had cores inside their skulls. The human remains were surrounded by broken bits of a bow and arrows. The only useful thing on the body was an old dagger made of bone.

Nate put the three beast cores in his pocket and tucked the dagger in his belt.

I guess I got pretty lucky. Seeing that death was common in the area, Nate understood why the Crags carried warnings. I need to get out of here.

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

A few hours later Nate was still walking through the large crack in the earth. He had been moving for a lot longer than he expected but then again he wasn't really moving that fast. With full health and daylight, Nate could probably move this far in single hour’s time. I need to keep moving. He wanted to put as much distance between him and the other men as possible. That or find a good hiding spot. A one hour head start was not enough. Not with the injuries he had.

Turning a corner, Nate could suddenly see something on the ground up ahead. The dark mass that took up half of the crevice looked like it had fur. It's a beast. Pausing in his tracks, Nate used his [Identify] skill to investigate.

"What the hell?," Nate thought as his skill failed to even work.

Maybe it's not working because the beast is dead. Nate tried to recall if he ever used his [Identify] skill on a dead beast. I don't think that I have.

Watching the animal, Nate saw no movement. No breathing. Nate didn't know if it was sleeping or dead, but he knew he had to keep moving away from the Purpleheart men. It's probably dead.

With only one good arm, there was no way he could just throw the heavy spear. Nate leaned his spear against the wall and slid his knife out of its sheath. His leg throbbed in pain as he tried his best to keep from falling over.

Nate slowly and silently stepped closer to the beast. It looks dead to me. The beast wasn't breathing at all.

[‘Silent Presence’ has increased to Level 22]

The skill alert sounding as panic flooded Nate's mind. He shouldn't gain experience if the beast isn't alive. Before he could even retreat a single step, an impact sent him into the wall of the crevice.

[‘Calm Survivor’ class effects are active. All Stats are doubled. All experience earned is doubled.]

The sound of his knife clattering against stone echoed off the rock walls as the alert stabbed through Nate's mind.

Laying face down on the ground, Nate's hand tried to reach for the bone dagger on his belt but he suddenly felt a forceful grip on his neck. He could feel teeth digging into his flesh. Then everything went dark.