Alex was sat atop a tree branch squatting as he looked down. His full weight supported by the rather large branch. He gazed out towards his target, a rather strange-looking deer. His common sense was daring him to attack, but he knew better.

His target in question was a deer roughly 2m tall, it was rather small compared to the jaguar. Strange phosphorescent-looking lights could be seen splattered on it, albeit randomly. They almost resembled the patterns of a giraffe, yet they were more diamond-shaped in nature. Alex was marveling at the sight, nothing similar could've compared to it on Earth.

But he only admired it for so long, he was on a hunt. Right now he was just trying to see if this deer had any special characteristics like the scorpion tail that was on the jaguar. But so far it seemed like this creature only had speed. Alex had seen this deer bolt away at very fast speeds when a twig snapped, it was almost as fast as the jaguar, almost.

Alex jumped to a branch directly above it, readying to attack. He was confident in his victory. With quick motion Alex leaped, he fell with the formation of a swan dive. His speed now maximized he reached his target fast. With elegance he decapitated the deer. Alex did a roll when he landed, after which he proceeded to congratulate himself "Well done, 9 points on the execution, 10 on the kill.".

Reveling in his performance Alex turned around to eat his meal. A gruesome scene soon followed, it was finished by a loud burp. Alex never really thought of how his mouth expanded to fit whatever he ate. It was strange but he was thankful, although it did make him wonder what the upper limit of skills was. If this one gave him a fundamentally insane ability what else could they do? He also wondered who else had a skill like his. No one he encountered so far had a special skill like his. Or at the very least they didn't have one he could see.

But Alex soon cut off his train of thought, this was not the time. He was in the middle of nowhere and speaking of...

Night hadn't come yet!!! It was already midday when Alex looked earlier but now it seemed even earlier! He immediately realized a whole day had passed! A whole day with him unconscious! he wondered how he lived through the night, he was in a dangerous area. He figured he would've been eaten in his sleep. Thankfully he wasn't though, he just thanked his lucky stars.

Alex still wasn't fully satisfied with his meal but it would have to make due for now. He wanted to reach the capital city as fast as possible.

And so he made his way back towards the dirt road. He had only veered off course a little bit for his snack. This time however he wanted to do something a little different, staring down the road while squatting down he stretched. He planned on running at his full speed while enabling his dash skill. He had somewhat gotten used to his faster speed but wanted to take it up a notch. He also wanted to see what this skill did, so far he hasn't tried to use an active skill.

Finished with his stretches he bolted forward at impossible speeds for a human. He felt like he was going just under 50mph. At this speed the very little clothing he had ripped off him, the shredded clothing couldn't stand this abuse and flew off him. It revealed his shredded body, but Alex himself didn't notice, sadly he also didn't notice his satchel fly off. He was just trying to focus on not crashing and impaling himself on a branch. Which almost happened, in his initial burst he actually lifted off the ground for 3 seconds.

Only paying attention to what was in front of him he didn't notice a blue bar appear in the corner of his vision. It was labeled { MP } and it decreased by one-fifth. Although it was steadily going back up to full.

Alex did wonder how his body could withstand this torture though. Muscles need oxygen to contract, which is carried by his heart pumping blood. But both his Breathing and heart rate were far too low for this kind of strenuous activity. He figured his organs and muscles might've gotten denser to compensate for this but that still didn't explain this drastic difference. Either this world worked differently on a basic level or his ability to allocate attributes was that busted.

His speed did drop a little though as his skill effect ended, not feeling that big a difference from losing mana he activated it again. He was able to activate his skill 5 more times before he got a blistering headache and crashed into a tree due to the loss of focus. He had to shut his eyes from the pain and sensory overload. But that's when he noticed the new bar, it was completely empty. Alex quickly put two and two together and realized that running out of mp was dangerous. If this happened in a fight there was no telling what would happen, but he only had one skill that relied on mana so he didn't worry for now.

Still, he wondered how quickly it regenerated, counting in his head it seemed to be about 1mp per sec. He had no gauge whether this was fast or slow but he felt it was slow. He knew he could upgrade his attributes to increase both his mp and mp regeneration but felt no need to do so currently. He only had one skill that required mana after all.

Clutching his head he waited for the pain to subside. And when it did he opened them to see he was completely naked. Curious as to how he couldn't feel the wind on his body he stood up to realize he lost his satchel as well!

But he was resourceful thankfully. He soon made a makeshift leaf skirt by tying some leaves together. It was sloppy but he didn't care, hell he didn't even mind being naked, but clothes did have several purposes. For one they were socially accepted, not having any would be seen as weird. He knew this because even the peasants wore clothes here so clearly they were commonplace. Secondly, they were nice to have when killing, he wasn't a complete clean freak as he liked the way blood felt when it dried on him but he had to admit clothes made it easier when cleaning up a crime scene. Not that he worried about that here though.

He was soon ready to get back on the road, but this time he managed his mana carefully. With speed his priority he got closer and closer to his destination.

___

18 hours had passed, it seemed to be early morning. On the horizon was a large castle, the area opened up to reveal a large plain, graveled paths, and a nice-looking river that snaked downwards.

Alex was oddly peppy as this was the first major sign of civilization he'd seen. Living in the modern era certainly had its luxuries and he was missing some of them. But from what it seemed like this world was in the medieval era. Not that he really wanted all modern luxuries though, for example, if it was a medieval world it would be easier to get away with crime. Speaking of, he was getting a little itchy, he felt an urge to kill. It wasn't enough to send him on a rampage the first human he met but it was annoying, like an itch at the back of your throat you couldn't scratch.

To add to his urges he was hungry again, not that he ever wasn't, but he wanted to eat something. He had run all throughout the night and he was feeling the repercussions of that now. Oddly enough his feet only started to get blisters after 4 nonstop hours of running, of course by now they were absolutely shredded. But they were healing fast, not that Alex had realized of course, most of his smaller scratches had already healed.

Alex's stats had also gone up a little bit as well after running for so long.

.....

Before

Alex Naverm | lvl-15 | 93-AP |

> Strength 33 [+]

> Dexterity 30 [+]

> Intelligence 20 [+]

> Perception 25[+]

> Talent 50 [NA]

After

Alex Naverm | lvl-15 | 93-AP |

> Strength 35 [+]

> Dexterity 33 [+]

> Intelligence 20 [+]

> Perception 25 [+]

> Talent 50 [NA]

.....

Now you might be asking why Alex would put himself in harm's way just to reach civilization. The answer is, he wanted answers, but more importantly, he wanted a feeding ground. And truly he didn't have anything else to do. What was he supposed to do? Twiddle his thumbs and just kick dirt? No, he wanted to learn, he needed to adapt, improvise, and perhaps overcome this new environment. ( sorry, the quote just felt good here )

As Alex stepped towards the fort he readied a story to garner sympathy. But he was soon stopped, a crossbow bolt had fired near his feet, that stopped him in his tracks. A shout resounded.

"STOP!"

"WHAT BUSINESS DO YOU HAVE HERE!"

Alex replied, "I'm seeking safe passage towards Galdraxia."

"DID YOU COME FROM THE CITY OF PARACER?"

"Why yes, born and raised." responded Alex

"IS ANYONE FOLLOWING YOU?"

"No, just me" said Alex with a hint of sadness in his voice

Suddenly a ripple was felt and the illusion broke. What Alex thought was an open plain actually had many large rocks scattered around. Behind one such rock sat a small army of soldiers, around 100 in total. They seemed to be armed to the teeth, they also seemed to have been here a while. There were tents set up along the rock, and what looked like large pits hollowed out for fires. Alex also spotted a rather strange-looking pillar with a blue-glowing crystal floating above it.

Alex was amazed, it seemed there was more to this world than he thought. This introduction of what seemed to be 'magic' made him reinforce his beliefs that he should learn more about this world before he slaughtered. But he dare not dawdle on that, it could blow the cover he was trying to create.

One of the few soldiers nearest him spoke up "Sir he's telling the truth, no one is behind him."

A rather gruff-looking soldier nodded his head, he was clearly the captain because his insignia looked more complex than the others. This soldier walked up to Alex, he stopped when he was right in front of him.

"Come with me you'll need to answer some questions." spoke the gruff-man

Feeling his breath on his face Alex licked his lips, "Of course"

"I'll need to restrain you, precautions of course"

"No worries, go ahead" Alex held out his hands, he resisted the urge to rip out this man's eyes.

He was professionally shackled, leaving little room for hand movement.

"Follow me" the soldier beckoned, Alex followed

As Alex was walking past the large group of soldiers he heard some murmurs.

"Why the hell is that guy covered in blood?"

"Where the fuck are the Ventraxians!"

"IM SO FUCKING BORED, GOD FUCK ME"

Missing the company of fellow humans Alex smiled.

---

Alex was escorted inside the fort, he was put in a damp room with very little light coming through a crack in the wall. For a second he felt at home, he had a similar room in his house back on Earth, he loved to shackle people up for months at a time.

A knock resounded on the flimsy-looking door "Someone very special is here to ask you questions, you better answer respectfully or else.", "Put these clothes on first, then meet me out here". A hatch opened up in the door, some raggedy-looking clothes were handled through. Alex could see the guard scrunching his nose from the smell emanating off Alex. "While you're at it wash up too" the guard opened the door and tossed in a bucket of water and a sponge. "Come ere' for a sec" the guard said, Alex approached the door and had his shackles removed. "Get to it then" said the guard while closing the door.

---

Alex was soon escorted to another area, now cleaner than he was previously. He honestly wondered why the guards didn't question him on why he was covered in blood but it seemed he wouldn't get an answer.

The guard escorting him stopped near a grand-looking door, two more guards were situated outside the door.

"Open it up, he's ready to make his appearance"

The guard spoke up once more, this time turning to Alex, "Whatever you do, be respectful"

"That's only natural" said Alex with a grin on his face

The guard seemed to have one more thing to say but held back. The two guards opened the large door and gestured for them both to go in.

What greeted Alex was a dangerous-looking man on a throne made of silver. He was slouched down on his throne with a hand on his chin, he looked down to greet the two visitors.

The guard by his side did a courtesy and spoke to Alex "King Jack, the benevolent, the kind, the generous.". Alex wanted to mock the king, all of those titles were clearly exaggerated, no one can be both generous and benevolent, after all, they were basically the same.

The king spoke up "Now tell me, what happened to your village?"

The doors made a loud *Thud* as they closed behind them, leaving them trapped with the highest power in the land.

---