A thundering, pelting series of thuds collided with the raised mound of dirt. Soil, saturated with water, moistened, sliding down the now smooth exterior and building up in a sludge at the ground. The slightly sloped surface, leading through the narrow tunnel inside the bump in the ground found itself turned into a slick waterway, rain trickling down in a slow, and smooth, but inevitable flood.

The woman, encased in nothing but air surrounded by the dome of dirt around her, felt her hands squish the sodden ground beneath her. She felt the leaves which constituted her bedding crumple with ease under her weight as she sifted. Flakes of mud and dirt dropped from her head, her hair caked in mud from where she had been sleeping against the ground.

She stirred, hands pushing and sloshing at the soaked ground around her, as her mind slowly came to, eyes opening to a blurry but familiar visage.

She was in the tunnel, inside the small hill she had first come across. Except, this time, it was different; it was damp. Rainwater perforated through the hill, dripping from the ceiling above and sliding down the small tunnel into the expanse like a stream going downhill. She had no idea how long she had slept for, nor how long it must've been raining, but already, water covered the floor in its entirety--about an inch thick. For a room supposedly sheltered from the elements, for water to collect on top of the dirt ground meant that the ground must've been saturated with water--there was more rain than she could even see.

Even with the dirt above her head, covering her from the skies above, the heavy pattering of rainfall swept into the room, both from the only opening as well as from all around her as it reverberated through the structure. A small, niggling thought in her mind suggested that perhaps it could all come down on her head; water did nothing good for structural integrity.

But it wasn't this nascent worry that drove her from her resting place but, rather, a different one; the tunnel was inclined slightly, and water had already seeped in. If this rain continued, more and more water would pour down, making its way to the lowest point which was this here chamber. She couldn't sleep or live here anymore; she had to get moving.

And so, she picked up her knife and essence stone, tousled her hair to get rid of any bits of stray dirt or mud, and crawled out of her small hovel, her knees sinking uncomfortably in the damp mud.

Outside, the sight wasn't much better. It was hard to see normally but with this unprecedented level of rain, the water had collated towards a part of the forest--the whole thing was on a slope. The way the stream ran, that was downhill. Similarly, here, directly in front of the hill, she could see some distant parts of the forest, where there were uneven and substantial divets in the ground, large puddles, or small ponds, had formed. Turning back to assess the strength of the hill, she could already tell that it was much thinner that it was before around the top. It looked stouter, with a thicker base of compacted mud.

Brain still weary from just waking up, shivers ran through her body as the fresh, cold rain pelted against her form. The hill caught heat decently well, with the thick dirt walls providing decent insulation, but the water was cool to the touch and even just standing here felt like she was swimming in glacial waters.

She stretched her arms and legs, limbering up after having been stationary for so long. She wasn't the most rigorous or consistent of athletes but she tried to go for a run most days and she knew it did wonders for warming yourself up; when your mind was focused on your heartbeat, your breathing, following the path, and your body was burning with energy, aches seeping into your muscles, you could just ignore the coldness. Like a bubble of warmth around you.

She looked up, shielding her eyes from the downpour with her hand, as she tried to ascertain the intensity of the weather. Grey, foreboding clouds covered every inch of the sky, and the pseudo-lakes that had already formed gave enough of an indication. She had to get moving, get to higher ground.

Prepared, and knowing what to do now, she began to trudge her way through the sludge, the mud squelching unpleasantly underneath her feet, getting in-between her toes and underneath her feet. Though, after all these days of rough living, she had learnt to just deal with all the unpleasantness and filth that came with her life.

The going was tough, needing her to constantly shift her legs more than usual and power through tough bits of terrain, even as the uneven and slippery ground threatened to topple her over, but she endured.

As she walked, she saw no wild life. She was off the beaten path, her stream no longer in sight, and saw the occasional boar hill, but no boars inhabiting the places. Even the squirrels, which she could see so often--their green coats betraying them in front of the orange and brown hues that made up the forest--were nowhere to be seen. She couldn't fathom why apart from the fact they all must've had the same idea; escape uphill, away from the flood.

The rain continued to splash down in droves over the next two hours that she walked. She kept her mind off of things even as her muscles began to cry out in pain, soreness seeping into them, by focusing on her essence stone and her latest skill, essence congruency.

To practise, she tried to keep her mind in a semi-focused state--the visualisation of the pools of essence within both herself and the stone ever-present but simultaneously out of focus. Whenever she generated a point of essence, she stored it in the stone. Every now and then, she'd nick herself on some thorns, or step awkwardly on some rocks she couldn't see. Numerous offensive objects pierced her flesh but whenever that happened, she used leech, grinding that skill up as well. Though her health rarely went down--a minor scratch apparently not even constituting one point of damage--leech still seemed to work, repairing her skin back to a pristine condition.

Additionally, she'd flood her system with cleanse afterwards, chasing away any errant infection that might have managed to worm its way into her body. Unlike with the fog, where she was cognizant of its presence and could conversely picture it in her mind, any disease was hidden to her; she could only hope that visualising disease in her mind that might or might not actually be there would be good enough to get cleanse to work. It ate away at her points anyway, so at least the skill was being activated.

Boredom eventually began to set in and so she thought. She thought about her stats, her skills, her goals in life. But one thing was on her mind presently, and that was levelling up her skills.

She had only levelled up two skills so far, so there wasn't much data she could use, but she believed that to level all skills up one level, no matter the tier, it took an essence expenditure of 100 to do so. With reservoir stone, this meant all she had to do was transfer 100 essence using the skill; something that was quite easy to do. With leech, she had to spend 100 essence on the skill to get it to level up. With cleanse, she could only imagine it was the same as leech--which, at its cost of 1 essence per use, meant she'd have to use it 100 times. A sigh escaped her as she mentally recounted all her uses of the skill to this moment in time; a grand total of thirteen. She'd have to use cleanse eighty-seven more times to level it up. That's 87 essence, which would take a bit under nineteen-thousand seconds. That's between five to six hours.

For her, essence was a precious commodity; all her skills required essence to function and she regenerated it at a glacial pace. Sure, she had a large pool when you considered her stone but that helped a couple hundred at most at any one time and she'd eat through it rapidly if she tried to grind any skill. To put it into perspective, all the essence she'd need to level up cleanse would allow her to use leech for twenty-nine seconds consecutively, resulting in a total of 580 points of damage. That's the option of levelling cleanse or killing a boar.

She sighed in despair; realisation of just how slow levelling up skills was going to be hitting her deeply. So, what am I going to do about it?

Her mind shifted to her skills, the ones that she had yet to buy.

Life

0th Tier

Heal (1/10)

Restore 5 points of health every second to a living entity

1m range

Cost: 1 es/sec

Leech (3/10)

Drain 20 points of health every second from a living entity

3m range

Cost: 3 es/sec

Cleanse (1/10)

Cleanse an entity from any toxin, disease, or contamination

Cost: 1 es

1st Tier

Sapping Curse (1/10)

Prevent a living entity from recovering health for 1 hour

Cost: 5 es

Animate Critter (1/10)

Raise a corpse smaller than yourself into a level 0 zombie

Cost: 1 es/sec

Life Sense (1/10)

Scan for either a general or specific form of life

1m range

Cost: 1 es

Last Words (1/10)

Extract thoughts from an entity that died within the last hour

Cost: 1 es

Hidden Skill

Run out of essence 5 times

Reservoir Stone (10/10)

Store essence in an object.

Transfer rate: 10 es/sec

Cost: Variable

2nd Tier

Reanimate (1/10)

Raise a corpse into a zombified version of itself, beginning at level 0

Cost: 5 es/sec

Requirements: rank 7 in Animate Critter

Inanimate Life (1/10)

Bestow the gift of simple life to an animate object

Cost: 50 es

Requirements: rank 3 in Animate Critter

Remnant Memories (1/10)

Entities are created with a 20% higher level

Cost: 10 es/additional level

Primordial Magic

0th Tier

Well of Essence (1/10)

You have 20% additional Essence

Well of Spirit (1/10)

You have 20% additional Spirit

Essence Congruency (1/10)

Use 2 active skills at the same time

Requirements: rank 1 in 2 active skills

1st Tier

Knowable Essence

Essence and Spirit provide a 2% bonus to each other

Requirements: rank 5 in Well of Essence

Requirements: rank 5 in Well of Spirit

Imprint Impression

Can extend targeted skill to include more than one entity. Additional entities experience 90% of the skills effects.

There were a lot of skills here. She had seen these before but hadn't thought about them yet. Whenever she spent a skill point in a tier, the tier above that one would then be unlocked for her to see the skills there. Hence, reservoir stone allowed her to see the second tier life skills while essence congruency now allowed her to see the first tier primordial magic skills.

But, what she really wanted, were any skills that would improve her spirit or essence regeneration. So far, that seemed to just be Well of Spirit and Knowable Essence, though knowable essence wouldn't do much given how low her base essence was.

So, seeing how she had plenty of time to think about this, she set up a prospective guideline for her next few skills; first things first, she had to increase her ability to use skills in the first place. I'll get well of spirit, well of essence, and knowable essence next, in that order. That would require me to be level 7. After that, provided nothing on the higher tiers interests me (and, even if it does, it'll most likely have steep requirements that'd force me to get lower tier skills beforehand, anyway), what interests me the most?

Reanimate and, by extension, animate critter. Perhaps there are other skills in other branches that would interest me but, given how these are a higher tier, they must be stronger than 0th tier skills. I've already invested in the life branch as it is so I might as well continue.

That settled it for her. She had a roadmap for her next five levels in place and just the thought was leaving her excited. In only a few days, she had gained multiple levels so, for just five more levels, it couldn't take that long.

She continued to walk onward as the rain continued to pour, an incredibly downpour of water with no end in sight. The ground was sloping uphill, becoming more and more obvious and, with it, her steps began more and more strenuous. Each stride she took required her to exert more effort, putting more energy into her movements, to even wade through the muck that was everywhere. Mud, decayed leaves, and who knows what else made up the ground which she was walking on.

Even as light began to dim, the treeline eclipsing a lot of sunlight and darkening the whole forest like a room without a lamp, she tarried onwards. Each step took seconds, her body screaming in pain and her stomach rumbling, but she compelled herself to move. Why? Because it was still raining; she had already been caught in the flood--her hill already broken into by the water--and she so desperately didn't want it to be repeated. She could only thank her sleepy mind back then to dismiss the situation so easily; panic and anxiety only settled in hours afterwards once she realised how close that was, and, by then, she was far enough away the emotions were subdued compared to what they could've been.

She wanted to get as high as she possibly could.

And so, she walked. And she walked. And she walked. Her intermittent rests increased, the duration of her journeying shortening, and her steps becoming sluggish under her increasing fatigue.

And then, she saw something. A flicker of movement under the shower, shadows against shadows, darting between trees. Maybe she was just imagining things, the sunlight sparse and dim and her mind tired. But maybe not; she felt compelled to investigate.

Crouched low, she walked with tentative, methodical steps. Each footstep was placed with as little pressure as possible, her feet as flat to the ground as can be to distribute the weight the most she could. Still, the mud squeaked and squelched beneath her.

She walked for many minutes, covering little ground, until she finally came upon what she had spotted; some boars.

It was a small group--a family, even--consisting of two large ones, showing the dichotomous characteristics indicative of their genders, as well as three boarlings, all huddled together for warmth. There was no hill nearby, and the two large boars enveloped the group like a warm blanket, trying to keep out of warmth. The sight was odd--contradicting what I knew of boars in this forest--and the only conclusion I could come to was they must've been migrating as well. It made sense; if my boar hill experienced water damage, many others must have as well.

Perhaps an empathetic soul, one who lived in privilege and didn't have to worry about themselves or danger, might consider the boars situation sad; to be thrust out of your home by the cruelty of nature. But, for her, sure, there was one small part that appreciated the difficulty that their lives must be but she too had been forced to migrate under harsh weather and on an empty stomach. The boars were a family struggling to survive, yes, but they were her enemies. In this forest, they'd kill her without question. She had the empathy to cognitively appreciate the circumstances but the desire to sympathise, to just let them be? That evaded her.

Knife in hand, she crept up on the boars. The ground shifted under feet, the noise loud to her ears but thankfully drowned out by the rain all around her. By the time the largest boar reacted to the sounds her footsteps elicited the from ground, she took her chance and leapt, driving the knife straight into its hide.

It squealed, and then howled, as it jumped to its feet, its massive body shoving her aside as she ripped out her knife. Still, she couldn't let it orientate itself, to gain the initiative. She didn't know how well their eyesight might be in the dark--she had to end this quickly.

Mind honed and focused, tapped into the reservoir stone already but not withdrawing anything, she pounced on the boar again as it shifted its form, tusks pointing towards her. She tried to twist out of the way, her feet slipping on the leaves, as the boar ran towards her, its tusks stabbing her in the abdomen.

It was a wound she was okay with. As soon as the pain pierced her--an electrifying current arcing through her system--she activated leech and felt the health flood her.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, so close to the boar, she grabbed onto a fistful of its fur and stabbed down into its eye as hard as she could, the blade facing little resistance as it bored into the socket.

The boar fell over as she took out her knife.

Her hand fell to her abdomen, the blood dotted against her skin and cut still open to the air. A gasp of pain escaped her as her fingers brushed it, the sting travelling through her. Her health was full, however.

By now, the other boar had shuffled its children away a good few metres.

Adrenaline coursed through her system at the quick and efficient elimination of one threat. The strength of the weapon, combined with the apparent weak spot that was the eyes, alighted her with determination.

She ran forwards, seemingly nary a care for her own health or safety. Her feet slipped and slid on the ground, her gait uneven, but she charged like a ferocious animal.

The boar ran to meet her, tusks aimed straight towards the open wound. Though it was just a dull animal, she thought she could see a well of hatred in the eyes; an anger burning deep within those black balls which were its eyes.

She ran fast but without control; her feet pushed off the ground but failed to hold her steady as she stumbled forwards. Her speed, her momentum, the huge body of her opponent, all of this combined to skewer her on the tusks as they ripped right through her. Unnaturally sharp, and able to cut anything with even the slightest touch, the knives of bone dug through her flesh, ate at the muscles, and pierced the thin skin out of the other side.

A scream of pain jumped from her mouth as her eyes opened wide. Her health plummeted like never before as she struggled to fight against the shock to her system, trying to imagine even the weakest trickle of particles towards her.

She couldn't spare a moment to consider whether it worked; as the beast shifted its head, each small movement digging deeper into her, inducing an incredible but terrifying feeling within her, she stabbed down with her blade again.

Aiming for the eyes, she missed. The blade sunk into the thick skull but the beast remained standing. Even as she pulled the blade out, the fur around the entry hole now matted with blood, it was like the boar was revitalised; with renewed vigor, it pushed towards her, angling its tusks further and physically shoving her backwards. Leech was constantly on the go in the background, her best bet to survival.

She stabbed down with her knife again, and again, and again. Her eyes were blurry, moisture clouding her vision. Is it rain? She slashed with her knife, trying to kill the damn thing in front of her.

Her focus was wavering as she got pushed back.

And then, with finality, with one last desperate thrust of the knife, it sunk into the eye, and the boar stopped dead.

She collapsed with it, hitting the ground with a hard thud.

Leech cut off, its viable target now devoid of the necessary life to sustain her. Her health was low, dangerously low; the sliver of red meant even with all the healing, the boar was hurting her faster than she could heal it off. She needed more life.

Her gaze bounced around the plants nearby in a matter of seconds before settling on a target--one of the boarlings. As she established another connection, the vitality flooding her system, she focused on carefully extricating herself from the tusks and the tangled boars body.

Every movement elicited another pang of pain and as she clutched the tusks, she could feel them dig into her fingers, coating her hands with blood and making her already wet grip looser and slicked. Still, she finally managed to remove herself and got to her feet.

The boarling was dead. With a methodical ease, she swapped leech to a new target as she trudged towards her third and final quarry.

The boarling was small, its legs stout and body weak. As it tried to scramble away, it struggled to find grip on the ground. The knife was inevitable.

The second boar faced a similar fate to the first; it failed to escape the three metres it needed to within seconds before succumbing to the leech.

Level up!

You have been awarded 5 stat points and 1 skill point

I guess that answers it; boarlings give just as much experience as the adults do.