My curiosity took the best of me and I decided to eat one of the fruits I had gathered. I choose a fruit the size of a basketball with a green skin and cut it open with a knife.It was a little difficult to cut its skin with a knife, but after trying a while I succeeded.

I took a bite, and it was quite juicy to be honest, but not that good tasting .It left a bad aftertaste in your mouth and tasted like a sour peach.

Next in my mind was to figure out what the hell was happening to me. I seemingly by touching, i absorbed from dead bodies their flesh, organs, and viscera but left behind their skin and fur. What caused it was unknown but I will be damned if I don’t figure it out.

I grabbed another weird fruit from the backpack and held it on my hand trying to replicate the feeling when I absorbed that carcass. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to concentrate on that feeling. One minute passed, then ten minutes, and when the sixteenth minute was approaching the fruit begun to shrivel up .In less than ten seconds the fruit was left with just its skin and its seed remaining.

While the fruit was being absorbed of its nutrients I carefully tried feeling where all that went. The absorbed substances seemingly turned into some kind of red liquid that flowed though my body for a little making me more relaxed and also reliving my physical and mental fatigue, before congregating in one spot and then being absorbed by something in my upper body below the stomach.

I quickly grabbed another fruit from the backpack and absorbed it, but this time more slowly trying to get the feel of it. The fruit shrivelled up again, and that feeling of relaxation and absorption happened.

After a series of tests of trying to absorb other fruits, I came to the conclusion that the absorption happened by me touching something with my hand, and that something had to be firstly organic, but also has to have some nutrients that could be absorbed. That is why the wooden broom handle of my makeshift spear didn't get absorbed when I was exploring outside before.

Next was to find where all those nutrients went. I closed my eyes again and focused on the spot below the stomach trying to feel something. I tried for a while and lo and behold I found it.

As soon as found it, I didn't have time to rejoice because my consciousnesses was being dragged towards whatever that was, not leaving me any time at all to resist.

....

When I came to my senses, I found myself in an unknown but also strangely familiar place. I was floating in an unknown, yellow, viscous liquid and in the centre of that liquid was a blue marble that had inside it a black liquid, just sitting there undisturbed. I approached the marble that was not far away from me and tried extending my band, but I had no hand to extend. My hand was not the only thing that was missing, my entire body was gone.

I didn't know what happened. I seemingly turned into a grey, gaseous substance that had no shape or form.

After a bit of trying, I found I could move that gaseous substance with ease. Make it turn left or right, up or down and anything in between. I tried touching the blue gem again but this time instead of trying to touch it which my hand I just concentrated hard on it and, after concentrating on the gem for a while the gem started to shine and then...

....

*haaa* *haaa* *haaa* * haaa*

He stood up fast and was breathing deeply like he had just finished a marathon. Sweet was dripping heavily from his body and drenching the clothes he had just changed not long ago making him look like a wet chicken. He looked tired but his eyes and the huge grin on his face told otherwise.

"HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAH"

He started laughing uncontrollably like a mad man and didn't stop until his sides started to hurt.

"Finally, everything makes sense."

This world, my disappearance, the blue gem, I now knew everything. I am the unfortunate victim of the battle of two powers I can’t really comprehend, but I know one thing for sure. Nothing is going to be like before and the second and most important thing now had a system like in the web novels I read every day but a little different.

"Fuck yeah, now that I got a system the future doesn't seem so bleak anymore."

He closed his eyes, and in front of him appeared his status.

Name

Nicolas Hunter

Age

20

Physique

4

Dexterity

6

Coordination

3

Sturdiness

3

Spirit

8

Affinity

None