Dante slowly awoke to the pleasant sound of trickling water. ‘Am I still alive?’ His eyelids were feeling the weight of the night before, his body was aching, starved and dehydrated. He slowly tried to open his eyes, not sure what horrors would greet him.

Flakes of crusted blood broke away from his eyelashes, he blinked out the filth and dried blood, all the dirt from the night before began to fall away from his face. Opening his eyes to see radiant beams of sunlight piercing through gaps in the trees. Dante could see azure blue sky and white clouds, the forest sounded alive with all sorts of wildlife. There was a trickling sound nearby.

‘Is that water I can hear? How did I get here? I’m so damn thirsty...’ Dante let out a dry raspy breath as he brought himself to a seated position. Looking around he saw a small stream of water nearby, the stream ran off into the distance where he thought he could hear the rushing sound of a river.

Dante tried to climb to his feet but his joints and muscles were too stiff, he felt like he could barely move. “Urghhh” a groan left his mouth as he rolled over to his hands and knees. He slowly crawled towards the stream, each thump of his hands, knees and elbows that hit the ground was greeted with a slight buzzing sensation. His limbs felt like they were waking up from a long-dormant state as if they had their blood circulation cut off while he slept.

Continuing his painful crawl towards the stream, Dante let out small gasps and coughs. He was in a pathetic state, that didn't matter. What was important was that he was alive, he was glad and relieved that he was able to feel this pain, it was confirmation of his ongoing existence.

Upon reaching the stream, he collapsed in a heap, his head splashing into the water. Dante took large mouthfuls of water, each time gulping and audibly swallowing. Occasionally he would raise his head above the water to catch his breath, before dipping it back into the refreshingly cool water.

Feelings started returning to his tired and overworked muscles, he felt his strength start to return. His body was caked in dirt and filth from the previous days, so he decided to pull himself into the water, which had an almost instant reviving effect. Dante was starting to feel more human again.

“Ahhhh, it’s good to be alive” After spending several minutes drinking and washing away the filth of the past 2 days, removing all the blood, sweat and grime.

He thought about how he had to fight for every moment of his survival since the wall of light. For the first time in 2 days, 2 days that might as well have been an eternity. He began to feel relaxed and vulnerable, no longer capable of maintaining his stoic façade, he started to sob. Pitiful sounds came out from him as he released all of his pent up emotions from constantly living on the edge.

****

Two pairs of eyes were looking on from a distance, hidden in the woods. They looked at each other “What is he doing Maikoh? Why is he making those sounds?” Waya asked her brother, her head tilted to the side in confusion.

“I think he’s crying Waya.” Maikoh replied, also a little stumped. After watching this Hideless wipe out half of the Grey pack, witnessing the way he slaughtered them with little regard for his well being. His destructive combat abilities, taking limbs and heads as the price of having the audacity to attack him. Seeing this Hideless before them, now totally contrasting the fiend they saw in action, he looked so vulnerable that they weren’t sure if this was the same person they had seen last night.

“Let’s keep our distance from him for a bit, he doesn't seem very stable. We're not sure how he will react when he sees us.”

Waya nodded, agreeing with her brother, they both slowly crept backwards, not wanting to test the possibility that they would awaken the wrathful personality that they saw last night.

****

After purging the excess emotions that had built up over the past few days. Dante started taking account of the night before and the built-up notifications in his mind. He was too distracted in the heat of combat to pay any attention to them for quite some time, the notifications seem to have consolidated themselves.

[ Grey Wolf’s levels 2-3 Killed (16 of 34)]

[ Gain 1632 Combat experience]

[ 500 experience converted to 5 Ascension points]

[ 5 ascension points automatically spent for the preservation of life - only used outside of combat]

[Hand to hand combat increased to 10%]

When he saw how many wolves he had killed, he blew out a low whistle. Shaking his head ‘16 wolves, I killed that many? I felt bad killing one hound the day before... is it getting easier? I just wanted to live’.

He let himself smile when he saw he had gained 16 additional Ascension points and had a total of 11 left to spend, thinking about how he could upgrade his attributes. He just had to figure out the knack of interacting with the system and getting the upgrade notification first. He still had to figure out the correct mindset for his others Attributes. He was confident that he could change his Strength and Perception again.

‘5 points spent to recover?! I suppose I was quite badly injured. Besides, how does it determine how many points to spend to recover? I guess I should be glad that I didn’t disable it, I'm not sure if I would have woken up after last night’

Dante then looked to the last set of notifications.

[Trial Passed: Survive the night]

[Grade B+]

[Reward 1: Wolf fur cloak (Uncommon)- Redeem (Yes / No)]

[Reward 2: Title: Tree Dweller]

Dante saw his grade, he felt a bit indignant. ‘This bloody system, I was naked and armed with a stick, what does this system expect of me? I suppose all things considered B+ isn’t that bad.’ He saw the reward for the ‘Wolf fur cloak’ and smiled, ‘yes, redeem.’

Dante was ecstatic at the thought of his first piece of clothing since arriving in the ascended universe.

Upon accepting the reward redemption, the notification disappeared from his mind's eye. He felt a gentle warmth as threads of white light exited his chest. He stared in awe as the threads of light weaved and wound around each other, it was quite similar to the construction of his claws the first time.

The process continued, with the light threads getting even more dense and brighter, the silk-like threads continued to pour out from him. After a short period passed, they began to slow down. The light dimmed, revealing before him an extravagant wolf fur cloak that was floating in the air, once the light completely disappeared the cloak collapsed to the floor.

Dante bent down to pick it up. When his fingers made contact, they sank into the fur, he couldn't help but notice how incredibly soft it felt. He brought the cloak towards himself, taking measure of it against his body, it looked to be the right size for him.

Throwing the cape around his shoulders it appeared to be made by a craftsman who knew their job. The cloak’s length fell to his knees, It had a soft inner lining, large deep pockets and leather straps around the neck. The straps tied together comfortably, holding the cloak firmly in place.

The cloak completely wrapped around him, hiding his previously exposed body. It had the same Grey colour as the wolves he had fought. He felt the relief of warmth and soft fur press up against his body. He felt as though he was no longer vulnerable to the elements or anything else out in the woods that might chase him. He heard a notification pop into his head.

[Grey Wolf fur cloak (Uncommon): Enables a stealthy approach by reducing the sounds made while moving and leaves no trail of scent.]

‘Oh wow, it can do that? This is amazing, I love this cloak!’ Dante wrapped his arms around himself, stroking the fur that now covered him. ‘It also seems to have a rarity tag, does that mean there are higher and lower rarity items? Come to think of it, I seem to recall the crude spear having a very common tag.’

He then looked at the last notification ‘Another title?’ Focusing on the title to try and understand its benefits.

[ Title: Tree Dweller- Using your environment to survive against predators, being holed up in a tree allowed you to survive the night. Grants 1 additional attribute point for Perception, Vitality, Constitution]

‘Fuck this system, it’s making fun of me I swear. I guess I should be grateful though, more attributes are great!’

[ You have reached system level 1]

‘I levelled! So what does a level do?!’

Thinking about his attributes, he figured it was about time to check his status again.

[ Name: Dante]

[Species: Human]

[ System Level: 1]

[Title’s: Reject of Earth, First Kill, Natural Born Killer, Tree Dweller]

[Mana: 5 / 5 (max)]

[Mana Mastery: 1]

[Strength: 2 ]

[Agility: 1]

[Intelligence: 2]

[Perception: 3]

[Vitality: 3]

[Constitution: 3]

[Combat experience: 1174]

[Ascension points: 0]

[Total System attributes: 15]

[Abilities: Mana claws]

[Skills: Hand to hand combat - T1 - 10%]

[Production Skills: Crafting - T1 - 0%]

“MANA!” he shouted out, ‘it’s real? Mana is a real thing?’ he felt the excitement rising inside himself. Mana would account for all the magical things that had been happening recently. ‘Is that what the silver light threads are? But what’s the difference between mana and experience points?’ He tried to think about mana, which eventually brought up a new notification.

[Mana: A natural phenomenon in the ascended universe, an infinite energy source. Mana density is variable in the universe, beware of Mana sickness in high-density areas. Some sentient creatures can tap into this energy source and store it in their bodies. Mana is stored in bodies and attuned to the being. With sufficient skill, mana can be manipulated for numerous purposes.

Mana recovery rate by default is usually the species Max capacity over 24 hours, recovery rates variable across species.]

This was a lot of information to take in, it raised many exciting possibilities but the system refused to elaborate further upon the subject. Even when trying to think more about things like mana manipulation, mana sickness, density and attunement. Nothing happened. He would have to find civilization and see if they could explain it to him or provide reading materials. He thought the mana recovery rate seemed a bit slow, but he didn’t even know if his capacity was considered high, he suspected it wasn’t.

He also saw another newly unlocked attribute ‘Mana mastery’, he recalled receiving the notification of unlocking this attribute when he created the ‘Mana Claws’ Skill. He focused on ‘Mana mastery’ to understand what it was and how it worked.

[Mana mastery: The ability to wield and manipulate mana]

‘Is that all the information the system is willing to provide?’ Dante scratched his lightly stubbled head in puzzlement. He was conscious that the system wasn’t always forthcoming with information, but all the other attributes had reasonable explanations as to the determination of what the attribute did.

They also broke down the benefits associated with increasing each respective attribute. However this told him nothing other than he could ‘wield and manipulate mana’, it was still fascinating to think about and it opened up a world of possibilities.

His creation of the claws was almost a complete fluke, he wasn’t sure he could replicate the steps necessary to create a new skill at the moment. He could try to spend time trying to figure out how to utilise mana, based on his limited experience he was sure it could be used in a myriad of ways. The limited information didn’t help him understand the range of what being able to manipulate mana meant though.

His hand gently stroked his shadowed chin, scrunching his eyes, his brow furrowed, thinking about mana made his head hurt. ‘I'll come back to this when I’m not worried about being eaten or starving…’

Looking at his Attributes, Dante was feeling more pleased. He noticed how his vitality and agility had increased in his natural physical attributes from less than 1 to 1. He wondered how it had happened, but reasoned that having improved his physique and losing all his unhealthy weight had probably improved his natural abilities. ‘Don't look a gift horse in the mouth’ Dante mused.

Finally getting to his first ability, how could he forget the strange and wonderful moment when he managed to manifest crystalline claws on the tips of his fingers. They were no longer present on his hands, no indication that they were ever there.

He concentrated on the ability ‘Mana claws’

[Mana Claws - Tier 1: Uses internal attuned mana reserves to create hardened mana that extends from the tips of users fingers into fine sharp points.

Mana Cost: variable.

Duration: 1 hour.]

‘The information doesn’t explain all that much, why variable and a fixed duration? I’ll need to do some tests, they're so damn cool though!’

Dante tried to recall the feeling of when he managed to create the skills and focused on his fingertips. He felt towards the newly unlocked sense that he had previously accessed when he first created the claws. The sensation was unusual; it was like quickly drawing upon his reserves of energy.

He continued to focus on his fingertips, he didn’t feel physically tired from the sensation, it was something else that could be best described as drawing from his internal energy reserves. However, he was starting to feel mentally exhausted. Instead of seeing threads this time, he saw what looked like frost slowly grow on his fingertips. The mana then extended towards points, its icy appearance was tinged with a deep red. Then it started to change colour, the longer he concentrated the more his claws started acquiring a lighter red colour that gradually started turning a dark orange.

[Gained 0.05 Mana mastery attribute points]

Dante then stopped running the skill, his head was throbbing in pain. ‘Mana mastery went up! So using mana does seem to improve the mastery over it. I’ll have to regularly use it figure it out’

He then inspected his fingers. As he brought his hands close to his face, he saw the crystal structure of the claws. They started with a conical shape that then tapered into sharp scalpels, these scalpels drew to a fixed point an inch long.

They radiated danger, like when holding a sharp knife or object, you would carefully handle it knowing the danger is presented.

The crystal structure came down as far as the first joint on the tips of each of his fingers. He moved his hands away from his face, afraid to accidentally look like a teenager shaving for the first time in their life.

Dante walked towards a tree and swung his clawed hands towards it. His hands swept across the tree, his eyebrow raised because he felt no resistance like he had just swiped at the air. Before him though were 5 large claw marks, the 5 streaks were dragged across the tree an inch deep and they were evidence of the claws effectiveness.

‘Awesome’ he thought gleefully, he now no longer felt as much stress from the prospect of being attacked. He was truly happy with his new claws.

He took a look at his fingers again, noticing something off about the claws. Further inspecting the hand he had used to swipe at the tree he began to notice small flaws. The crystalline claws now had fine cracks running through them, these cracks were barely visible, but it showed that if he kept attacking they would eventually break.

‘Ok, I have to bear that in mind. How much mana did I spend to create these claws then?’ He thought about mana as a resource, then a prompt came up

[Mana: 0/5 (max)]

‘These claws cost all my mana? What about the variable cost?’ Dante spent some more time thinking about the possibilities. He had a major migraine coming on which he thought would relate to the mana he had spent. Thinking about how the claws colour change from a dark red to orange, he had an inkling as to what might have happened. When he had focussed on the mana claws ability, it must have fed more mana into them that caused the colour change.

Dante was happy with his rewards, he was very happy with his new ability. It was a hard-fought battle and he probably would have preferred not to have gone through that trial even though he was now better off because of it.

Although he was still confused about levels, after going through all his notifications and receiving his first level, nothing else seems to have changed. Was it just an acknowledgement of his achievement? He figured maybe something will change when he hits a higher level, he hoped.

‘I think I can look after myself now, with my cloak, my increased attributes and new ability, it’s time to find someone to speak to, maybe even some food’ he thought hopefully, trying to ignore the noises his stomach was making.

Dante set off following the stream towards the river, failing to even think about how he had found himself near the stream in the first place and the lack of bodies from the slain wolves.