“Oh... Yeah, I forgot that they’re called Life Levels. For some reason I imagined it’d just say, ‘You’re Level One’. Well, I guess it being a ‘Life’ level does distinguish it from the levels to my skills, and whatnot.”

Kaltyr didn’t move from where she sat, continuing to hug her knees as she allowed herself to be warmed. For whatever reason, the campfire warmed her entire body comfortably when her gut told her that her face and front side should be burning by now while her back should be cold in comparison. Another mystery to solve maybe never, she decided.

The girl grew bored of watching the flickers of her fire and turned her eyes skyward, observing the strange phenomenon above. Well, Kaltyr couldn’t be sure if what she was seeing was strange, but none of it felt normal to her. Just as the night before, six differently colored moons slowly circled each other in the center of the night sky.

“Yeah, that orange one looks exactly the same as what I saw during the orange phase of the day.”

Between the red and yellow moons sat the orange one, with its four pointed rhombuses forming a crosshair.

“I guess the moons sometimes appear in the sky during their same colored time of day? I don’t often get a good look of the sky, though, so maybe they were always there?”

Kaltyr looked northward—the direction she named that way because the sky’s color receded in that direction when it changed to the next one.

“And I think the orange moon sat still at the north end of the sky with no movement whatsoever. Is this all by coincidence? Maybe I’m noticing it because it’s not.”

A dog’s howl echoed in the distance, and Kaltyr took it as a sign to finish going through all her notifications. The lass returned her attention from the heavens and directed it to the earth—more strange words that felt like they had too many meanings.

“Anyway…let’s see them level-ups.”

Kaltyr’s voice was lined with no small amount of tranquility despite her previous excitement at every notification since the first one telling her of the Magic Sense skill. She knew she should care—and was in fact thrilled to some extent—but her emotions had difficulty leaking through to the outside world. She was tired, and not just from working hard.

The skill Fishing has leveled up!

The skill Fishing has leveled up!

The skill Small Projectile Throwing Arts has leveled up!

You have learned to loot! Looting is not a skill.

“Oh, yeah…these are from around when the dino-goose attacked and I had the pseudo-panic attack. Though, I opened the Magic Sense level-up notification at that time. That one was a bit more important.”

The skill Small Projectile Throwing Arts has leveled up!

The skill Small Blade Arts has leveled up!

“And these skills leveled up after I learned Stealth and patrolled my territory. It’s nice to know that I’m making tangible progress.”

You have obtained the skill: Stealth Strike

The skill Stealth Strike has leveled up!

“Oh, neat. Attacking while in Stealth Mode is its own skill? I guess stealthed attacks are stronger and/or have an extra effect. That will undoubtedly be important later. I bet I’ll be sneaking up on a lot of enemies…”

Having finished reading through her notifications, Kaltyr changed position, letting go of her knees and letting her body fall so that she lied on her side. Though, she landed on her left side, aggravating her wound and prompting her to quickly readjust so that she lied on her right.

Man, I’m gonna need to wash these pants super well in the river tomorrow. They have blood from, like, three different animals and me all over them. Plus…I have to figure out…what changed when I…leveled up…

The girl closed her eyes and allowed her exhaustion to consume her.

……

“Okay!” Kaltyr shouted, jumping to her feet with a sparkle in her eye as she took in the scarlet sky. “Time to get to work!”

The lass had just awakened and remembered all the events of the previous day, causing an excited energy to build within her chest as she remembered the very last thought she had before falling asleep.

“I put it off until today because I didn’t trust my tired mind to make the best choice…”

Kaltyr pulled her Status Profile into view and gave a little squeal at the sense of accomplishment that came with seeing her Life Level increase.

Name: Kaltyr (Kal-tier)

Life Level: 1

Available Stat Points: 5 [Open List to View]

Effects: [Peckish] [Open List to View]

???

Title: [None] [Open List to View]

Class: [None] [Open List to View]

Skills [Open List to View]

“Ooooh… Multiple things changed.”

The girl put a hand to her chin, pouted her lips slightly, and furrowed her eyebrows in what she thought was a contemplative look.

“Hmm, yes. I believe I understand the whole, ‘gaining stat points from levels’ thing, so that won’t be an issue. But then, under Effects it says that I’m peckish. Hunger counts as an abnormal state? I must figure this out!”

Putting aside the all-important stat points, Kaltyr spun in place, surveying her territory.

“This place looks like shit.”

She was unimpressed by her sense for organization and generally disgusted with the look of the clearing. On one side of the circle sat a pile of corpses that thankfully didn’t stink too much, just next to those were scattered a bunch of dead fish which also thankfully didn’t stink much, next to those sat a pile of feathers, next to those lied the snake bones, etc. The place was a mess.

“Though, it’s not like I had a choice. This crap is all I own, and I can’t leave gross stuff outside the clearing without having to worry about whether it gets stolen or just eaten on the spot! I’ll figure something out, eventually.”

Kaltyr made her way over to the campfire, which had long since died, and picked up one of the sticks she’d left a cooked fish on. With a tentative bite, she discovered that it tasted no different than it did the day before. Albeit, a little dry.

“Good, good. Fish and other corpses will last me at least a night, whether they’re cooked or fresh. Two days, however…”

She glanced at the spot she left behind the second fish she ever cooked on her first night, cringing at the brown hue it took.

“I’ll figure that out in a little bit, I just need to…”

For a few minutes, Kaltyr took single bites out of the fish-on-a-stick and checked her Status Profile for changes. Only once the entire fish of approximately fifteen centimeters disappeared, leaving only a bunch of bones and its head, did the Peckish Effect disappear.

“Now, what happens if I eat more?”

Due to hunger being considered an Effect worthy enough to be plastered on her Status Profile, the lass hypothesized that something would happen if she continued stuffing her face. Whether an Effect relating to over-eating would appear, she had an idea and wanted to find out. However, she’d just eaten the last cooked fish and didn’t feel like starting a fire just to experiment when she knew her day would be very busy. Thus, Kaltyr sought out the berries, seeds, nuts, and roots that she laid around her clearing, figuring she’d be addressing more than one issue at a time like that.

“No change in the berries—that sucks. I’d rather they be edible than a potential weapon, but you get what you get and you…” A moment of pause transpired before she remembered the last of the funny phrase. “Don’t throw a fit. Yeah, I won’t throw a fit. Maybe arrows tipped in the juice of these little berries will bring down a formidable foe, eh?”

When she moved on to check on the seeds and roots it quickly became apparent that they were enjoyed by the native creatures, as none survived the second night—which left the peanut-looking things.

“Ooooof course. Well, I’ll add them to my list of potential weapons.”

With a sigh, the girl entered Stealth Mode and exited the clearing, pulling up her memories regarding where she found the edible plants. She could easily get multiple things done while on the search for some.

……

“Aaaaand, done!”

Kaltyr beamed with pride as she dropped a few more roots into one of her pockets, nearly filling it.

With this many edible plants, I should be good to go!

After leaving her territory in search of food, the girl quickly discovered many of the seeds and roots she’d deemed to be safe, picking all that she saw and stuffing her pockets full. From there she began traveling to the river so that she could wash the roots she’d pulled out of the ground and hopefully clean her pants. They seemed too heavily stained by blood and grass to ever again be clean, but she refused to give up hope on the matter.

Plus, if these pants get me killed because a predator smelled me through my stealth…

Just the notion of dying in such an embarrassing manner was enough motivation to trek the long journey from where she began foraging all the way to the river. However, on the way, Kaltyr spotted too many potential food sources, stopping at every flower with seeds, pulling up various plant stalks for their roots, and searching every bush for berries. She convinced herself that it would be a waste not to do all that since she was constantly stealthed and didn’t risk being attacked. Plus, the idea of eating nothing but meat caused her stomach to churn.

Speaking of attacks by predators, she thought, these wounds are healing nicely.

Kaltyr flexed her left leg, looked over her arm’s scratches, then brought a hand behind her right ear, feeling her scabs.

They’re almost completely gone. By tomorrow, I’ll be good as new!

A vicious smile formed on the girl’s face as she thought about how much more quickly she could increase her Life Level if she behaved more recklessly on account of how quickly she naturally healed.

Maybe I’ll even regrew lost limbs…?

She mimed laughing.

Nah, I won’t take it that far.

After a while, Kaltyr recognized the distinct arrow-shaped markings she’d carved into the trees that led to the river, and followed the way. If she remembered the path correctly, she was mere minutes from seeing the slope that provided a view of the section of the river that was shallow enough for her to retrieve the fish she killed with rocks.

Well, if I’ll be…

Kaltyr stopped in her tracks as she noticed something relatively large move in the left corner of her vision. Her instincts compelled her to dive behind a tree, but just in time, she remembered that she was in Stealth Mode.

Ohohohoho! What do we have here? No antlers, so, a doe?

The girl mentally chortled as she changed direction, creeping toward a tree that grew in the center of a clearing smaller than her own. Next to that tree stood a tan deer, apparently eating something growing on the tree’s trunk.

Oh? Isn’t that the same type of flower I saw before?

Earlier, while on the search for edible plants to add to her selection of food, Kaltyr came across a lone flower growing on the bark of a tree, but not attached to any sort of vine. She followed her intuition and exited Stealth Mode, which allowed her to use the Magic Sense skill. Sure enough, the flower, which was shaped like a star with long, red petals that extended out and curled downwards, contained a rather large amount of magical essence—several times as much as the surrounding foliage. The star-shaped flower sparked curiosity in Kaltyr of the existence of such plants that contained much more magical essence than what seemed to be normal, because she’d run across a few, by that point. They were clearly special, but were they useful? If she ate them, would they harm or benefit her? Were they ingredients for concocting potions?

However, Kaltyr eventually followed her gut instinct and left the flower alone. Something inside her told her that the flower wasn’t yet ready for harvesting, so she let it be.

But maybe this flower, which the deer is eating, was ready?

The girl tested her luck by approaching further, getting within a few meters of the deer to investigate its meal.

It is a darker shade of red, so maybe that’s a sign of the flower being mature?

Suddenly, the deer looked up from its meal, startling Kaltyr. Its ears swiveled a few times, and it turned to survey the area twice, but ultimately went back to munching.

Jeez. Animals are so perceptive. Anyway, I’ve seen enough…and I could use a deerskin rug!

Kaltyr slowly slid her knife out of her pocket and opened the blade as she positioned herself directly next to the deer, within a meter. She had a feeling that getting so close wasn’t possible, but she was doing it, so…her gut feeling must have been wrong.

Kaltyr hopped onto the beast’s back as her arms flashed like lightning, one tightly wrapping itself around the doe’s neck in a hold and the other stabbing down onto its head. A tense moment passed as the beast struggled, violently jerking its legs and head in an attempt to break free, but Kaltyr’s arm remained stiff, holding the helpless creature in place until it collapsed onto the grass below with a thump.

Since she sneak attacked—which was also probably a Stealth Strike—Kaltyr’s stealth faded and her magical sense returned to her, confirming her speculation about the flower the doe had been eating. A simple glance was all it took to verify that the dark-red, star-like flower had at least twice as much magical essence as the first flower of the same type Kaltyr found.

It’s too bad that this beast got to it before I did.

Kaltyr disentangled herself from the beast’s corpse and stepped closer to the mess of a flower growing on the tree’s trunk, inspecting it with her vision rather than Magic Sense.

“Huh. There aren’t any seeds. Either this stupid deer ate them or it didn’t grow—”

Without warning, a force pushed Kaltyr into the tree, slamming her face against the bark. The impact left the girl in pain and dizzy, but not too stunned to notice the deer stumbling past her with a shambling gait, leaving behind a trail of blood on the grass.

“It survived?”

Kaltyr held a hand to her nose as she readied her knife in the other. When she caught up to the rather slow deer and took aim for a second strike, it stumbled, hitting the ground hard.

“Guess it’s on death’s doorst—”

Again, the girl was interrupted when the doe released a long, deep bellow into the sky. Panicked, Kaltyr quickly finished the job with another stab, but was too late. A similar-sounding cry echoed through the forest, followed by another, and another, and...

“Bloody hell! I forgot that these aren’t solitary creatures!”

Fear building within her, Kaltyr knew that she had few options if she wanted to survive the next beast encounter.

“I can’t outrun deer—even more so if they’re beasts—and they’re super close!”

The girl spun in place, quickly inspecting every tree in sight, searching for one with branches low enough to the ground to grab onto. However, her luck had seemingly run out, because most of the trees she’d seen so far were ridiculously tall with branches that started at least five meters above the…

Kaltyr stopped spinning as she looked at the tree in the center of the small clearing, noting the one branch close to her that might be able to support her weight.

“Fuck. This better work!”

The lass took a running start before leaping at the tree, then kicked off its trunk for extra height.

Ha ha!

Triumph coursed through Kaltyr’s veins as her fingers caught the small branch and didn’t break it when she lifted herself up. Her body shook from the physical exertion, and she wheezed slightly for a few moments, but she made it just in time as a few figures from several directions appeared from the forest at speeds she knew she couldn’t match. Besides one which stopped to check on its comrade that Kaltyr felled, the seven deer—three of them male with huge racks of antlers—sped at her with no signs of slowing down, and Kaltyr knew she had to keep climbing.

Fortunately for her, the next highest branch did not require any jumping and was thicker than the one she currently stood on. The girl latched onto it and placed her feet against the tree’s trunk, imagining a rock climber as she struggled to lift herself once more.

Then, the deer entered the clearing, and the biggest one jumped.

Kaltyr was halfway to bringing herself onto the second branch when the leading buck jumped, sending its majestic figure soaring through the air and easily bringing its head to the level of the first branch. Just like that, an antler stabbed into the girl’s leg and scraped her flesh on the deer’s way down.

A scream escaped the girl’s lips, but she held strong, clinging to the second branch precisely because her life depended on it. Before another buck could take a shot at stabbing her with their antlers, Kaltyr finally finished lifting herself up onto the branch.

The girl lacked the strength to stand on the branch, so she lied belly-down on it instead, looking down at the murderous family of deer that circled the tree she took refuge on.

“Now…what do…I do?”