Foster kept looking at this status for a while before he finally came to a conclusion.

“I don’t understand any of this.” He pointed out to himself. Obviously, he could read everything, but he had no point of reference. The only thing that he could figure out was that it was most likely the Appraisal skill that let him see the information just before. Both on the Lunacide, as well as on the granola bar.

But other than that, he really couldn’t find anything out, and just quickly pulled out his phone from his backpack. He checked it only briefly before as he was putting it away, but it seemed like there was no reception at all here. Just like he figured. It would be too easy if there was.

“I should turn it off for now... to save the battery...” He muttered quietly, holding the button at the side for three seconds before pressing the shut-down option. And after placing the phone back into his backpack, Foster took out his headphones.

Sure, they didn’t work without anything to connect them to, but he’s had them with him for so long that he felt most comfortable when he wore them. And since you could adjust whether they were open- or closed-back headphones, meaning if they let external sound through them, they were perfect for any situation.

He could use them to tune everything around him out as much as he could, or he could just wear them for general comfort. If Foster turned them on, there was also a function to even make any external sound a bit louder, but he didn’t really want to waste the little bit of juice they had left in them. If he found some sort of power outlet in this damn forest, then maybe he would try to use that function to listen for any of those... things, but for now, he probably had to get going again.

Foster really didn’t want to stay around too long to find out if the Lunacides wanted to keep going where they left off this morning. He swiftly kicked off from the rock and stepped over toward the other one where he let his clothes dry, and then promptly changed back into his long pants instead of the shorts he was wearing now.

As Foster didn’t really know what kind of animals lived in this forest, he didn’t want to risk having his ankles bitten by some snakes. For the same reason, Foster also switched back to his boots because his running shoes weren’t made for traversing this kind of environment. He just felt safer with his boots on.

Just like that, Foster made his way through the forest, the headphones covering his ears and letting sound through to him. Whenever he could, Foster tried to use that ‘Appraisal’ on the plants around him, finding out their names, none of which he really recognized from anywhere.

Koji Berries, Toppa Nuts, Stringworm... The latter sounded like the name of some bug, but it really was just a white, weirdly stringy herb, “Just what is this place?” Foster asked himself but obviously couldn’t find an answer like this.

Maybe he would end up finding something he knew if he tried using appraisal on everything. And once he appraised the next fruit, something surprising happened with a quiet ringing in a different tone to the usual one.

[Hornberry]

[Basic Skill Leveled Up!]

“Leveled... up?” Foster muttered as he read this box and then opened his status again to take another look.

[Foster Locke]

[Class - None][Level – /]

[Health – 80/80]

[Mana – 90/90]

[Stamina – 100/100]

[Vitality – 9][Strength – 8][Endurance – 10]

[Agility – 10][Intelligence – 10][Wisdom – 9]

[General Skills]

-[Appraisal LV. 2]

As the status appeared in front of him, Foster swiftly spotted the skill at the very bottom, “It really increased...” He whispered and then noticed something else.

“Also, the stamina thing there is different. So it’s how much I have left?” Foster figured but didn’t really have many ways to confirm this as true.

Either way, he had to continue along the river for now. He could figure this out once he found a safe place to camp out for the night. And while Foster was walking around, he tried his best to ignore his grumbling stomach.

He didn’t have many granola bars with him, and other types of candy he had, in general, weren’t necessarily the most nutritious. But he didn’t feel that safe just eating random berries he knew nothing about either.

The biggest issue was that there weren’t really that many animals around here, somehow. Foster figured there would be at least birds. Because if he could spot anything like that, he might be able to find out what they ate, and from that guess what would be safe to eat instead of using himself as a guinea pig.

Foster wasn’t really interested in ending up poisoned in some way, after all. When it became roughly noon, Foster chose to take a break, since he had been walking for a couple of hours non-stop now.

“Where the fuck am I?” He asked himself confusedly as he drank some more of the river water, although Foster then noticed a sound that he wouldn’t have expected to find here. It was the sound of wood hitting against wood!

Foster immediately snapped his neck around and tried to find the source of the sound, pulling his backpack back on. The moment he oriented himself correctly, Foster just started running. He didn’t care about how these boots were hard to run in right now!

The fact that he heard those sounds told him something. There was something there. And that could either be an animal or a person because sound like that didn’t just randomly happen in a forest.

Soon, Foster was able to hear voices as well! They sounded a bit weird, but at least he now knew they were people! Finally, Foster found someone else that he could ask about what was going on. He could get something proper to eat and then find his way back home!

With pure excitement, Foster kept running forward through the bushes, not caring for the scratches that they gave his face and arms, instead just pushing through further.

“Hello! Is someone there?” Foster asked loudly as he got close enough, and from just ahead, there seemed to be an answer.

“%&/!§)5...”

“Hm?” Foster muttered instinctively. He seemed to be too far away, he really didn’t understand what that person was saying. Once Foster got a bit closer to the source of the answer, he spotted three figures sitting around a fire, “Finally! Please, could you maybe help me? I’m completely and utterly lost. You don’t coincidentally have the number of the local ranger’s office?”

While running his hands over his face in relief, Foster asked this but was somewhat surprised when he heard the response.

“§$%&1? !%!§%&!!” One of the figures said, slowly turning around to reveal something rather horrid to the young man.

“Haha... Seems like I won’t have any luck getting food from you, huh?” Foster laughed nervously as he shook his head in disbelief, “I mean, you’re just skin and bones yourself!” He continued, now just laughing hysterically before looking back at the figures, which had now all revealed themselves to Foster completely, and then shook his head.

“Sorry, sorry. Rather, you’re just bones, huh?” Foster asked, and slowly used appraisal on those three.

[Animated Skeleton LV. ???]

[Animated Skeleton LV. ???]

[Animated Skeleton LV. ???]

And as two of the three literal skeletons just looked at each other for a moment, Foster slowly turned around and waved at them, “Welp, sorry to disturb you, I’ll take my leave.” He said and started to step away. He actually wanted to sprint as quickly as he could, but his legs weren’t really letting him. Foster was just scared shitless right now.

Soon, the rest of his body didn’t work all that well either, and that was once one of the skeletons placed its hand onto Foster’s shoulder. Instinctively, Foster reacted by slamming his elbow into the skeleton’s chest to push it back a bit. He put most of his weight onto his left leg as he raised his right one, helping the push out with a swift kick.

The animated skeleton fell onto the ground after tripping on a rather large rock, and the other two immediately jumped up in response. One of them, the slightly shorter one wearing parts of rusty metal armor, grabbed the spiked-club lying next to it and prepared to swing it at Foster immediately. The other one pulled out a knife from the ripped-up sheath around its hip, doing the same as the first one.

“&/!(§$51!§!” The skeleton that Foster pushed over exclaimed, something that was definitely not possible. Well, it wasn’t really possible for it to walk in the first place... At least not logically.

But nevertheless, Foster didn’t understand what it just said. Still, somehow the other two skeletons just stopped moving as the one that Foster assumed to be the leader stood back up. He patted down the cloak he was wearing to get rid of the dirt that got on it and then stepped up in front of Foster.

“!%$§5%$?” It said in a questioning tone, but Foster still didn’t understand a word of what it was trying to say. But then, he noticed the stance that the Skeleton took.

It held one of its hands forward with a stretched arm, and the other next to his chest with its elbow pointed away while standing sideways, looking at Foster.

“Do you want to fight..?” Foster asked with a wry smile, and while he may not have been able to understand the skeleton, the skeleton itself did understand him and nodded its head.

“Will you kill me if I don’t?” He asked next, but to his relief, the skeleton just shook his head and then pointed at Foster and toward the path that he came from, “If I don’t want to fight, I can just leave..?” He guessed before the skeleton simply nodded its head.

Weirdly enough, it seemed like this thing was a pretty good conversationalist. Foster didn’t know anything about this place, so maybe that’s just what people looked like thousands of years in the future. Or after the apocalypse. Or whatever was going on right now.

It seemed like Foster had to somehow oblige if he wanted to stay and maybe somehow find things out from this skeleton. If it could understand him, then that should be somehow possible.

So, Foster placed down his backpack and held his hands in front of his body as well. He should be able to win this. After all, he’s only lost a couple of times in a fight.

At least that’s what he thought, but before Foster knew it, the skeleton swung its fist toward him at a speed that Foster could barely comprehend, but still somehow dodged. The moment that the first attack missed, the next one came, and then the next and then the next, in a storm of fists that was hard to deal with.

Foster was able to dodge most of the initial attacks, but that was only when they were all he was concentrating on. The very moment Foster tried thinking about what to do, he didn’t manage to dodge the next punch and instead had to block it with his arms.

But that seemed like a rather unfortunate choice because he felt immediate, stinging pain that he hadn’t experienced like this in a fight before. The spot where Foster got hit immediately turned numb.

And so did the spot that was hit after the next attack, because afterward and every one of them hit Foster’s arms perfectly.

However, that was when Foster realized something, “Haah... When did I ever think about anything?” He sighed deeply. And as the Skeleton’s next attack came in, Foster moved his arms to the side and slightly moved his body so that the attack would hit his chest just below his right shoulder.

And his arms, which were no longer under attack, could quickly hold on to the skeleton’s arm. Just because it was a skeleton, Foster could do something he never thought he would get the chance to do.

He wedged his fingers between the skeleton’s Ulna and Radius, the two bones making up the forearm, and tightly closed his hand around the radius.

Using the extra grip he gained through that, Foster pulled on the arm as sharply as he could and tried to push his body against the skeleton’s to throw him over his shoulder. But before that could happen, Foster lost his balance and dropped onto the ground.

And then, he swiftly spotted why that was. He was now holding the skeleton’s arm in his hand. And while the skeletal companions were seemingly laughing their bony asses off, the skeleton that Foster just fought stared at the ground silently.