“Ugh... My head... It hurts..”

A low grunt escaped Reizel’s mouth at he attempted to get up from the stone-cold floor. Needless to say, it didn’t really go all that well as he immediately fell back on his butt. Rubbing the new sore spot, he crawled towards the nearby stool and used it to pull himself up in a sitting position.

A series of furious exclamation marks kept blinking in the corner of his vision. Feeling helpless, he used a hand to cover his eyes in an attempt to get over the splitting headache imposed by his actions. No less than fifteen minutes later and the headache eased up enough for him to open up his eyes.

Now that his eyes had fully adjusted to the incomplete darkness, he could see quite a few things around him. Among them were cobwebs, barrels and the one thing that stood out the most amongst them? The furious mass of blinking exclamation marks that turned out to actually be just one...

Even though Reizel could now process information a tad better than before, the basement didn’t seem to stop spinning around him any time soon. Waiting for a few more minutes to pass, he managed to click and read the notifications.

[You gained a new title!]

[Light Drinker]

(There are many things you can drink and taste in this world. Alcohol is not one of them. When consuming alcohol, chances are you will get drunk more easily than others.)

[When in a state of drunkenness, Body, Mind and Soul -3]

[Warning! This is a negative title. Negative titles cannot be swapped unless completely removed.]

Following that was another even more surprising notification.

[You have consumed Spirit Enhancing Wine!]

(This wine was made by an expert winemaker. Water spirits have soaked in it for long periods of time enhancing it with part of their power.)

[Portions consumed 1/10]

(Having experienced the Spirit Enhancing Wine, your focus increases and your spirit gets stronger.)

[Mind +1 Soul +2]

“Spirit enhancing wine..? Wine? Wine... An alcoholic beverage meant for adults only. How come I know what it is and yet I didn’t recognise it until now? What is going on here... Could it be?! Am I not an adult yet?! Is that what it is?! No.. Calm down Reizel, it might just be that I haven’t tried it before?”

Letting out a loud sigh, his nostrils picked up the scent of alcohol and his throat felt dry. Swiping away the floating windows, he slowly stood up from the stool, clinging onto the nearby wall as he muttered the word ‘Status’ in his mind, giving it a quick check before closing it.

[Status Screen]

Name: Reizel

Condition: (Thirsty) (Hangover) (Slightly Hungry)

Level: 1

Skills: 1/1 [+]

[+]

Skill points: 0

[Attribute Screen]

Body – 2

Mind – 4

Soul – 3

Attribute points: 0

A faint timer counting backwards rested below the ‘hangover’ condition. Ticking away, it currently sat on 35 minutes. Another 35 minutes of pain, Reizel thought.

Crawling out of the basement wasn’t an easy task. On the way out, he stumbled and fell quite a few times. Even worse, some of the boxes stacked on top of each other fell down and burst open. The rotten smell of spoiled food filled the basement and even breached through to the cabin.

Not waiting for even a second more, the moment he pulled himself out of the basement, or more precisely speaking, clawed his way out of the basement.

*Snap!*

The trapdoor was snapped close as he hurriedly dragged the bear pelt over it.

The smell coming off the basement was somewhat contained but it still felt stifling inside the cabin. Reizel didn’t wait for the foul odour to go away as he made his way out of the cabin. The sun above his head and a light breeze to ease his pain, he quietly lay spread out on top of a wooden stump pondering over his circumstances.

‘The basement is out of commission for now... The trap components are still there, but I don’t think I can use them yet anyway. Ahh..’

A sudden realisation hit him as he recalled the kitchen knife. He’d taken it with him in the basement just in case, but after drinking like there was no tomorrow, he forgot to pick it up on the way back.

“Damned wine! You can have this round. I am coming back for revenge later!”

Swearing to get revenge on the second round, Reizel slowly stood up. The hangover debuff had just finished and he planned to make a trip to the nearby lake in search for water and if possible, for something to eat.

“F*ck..”

Looking downwards, he couldn’t help cursing at the mess before his eyes. Covered in dust, cobwebs and even dirt, he felt filthy more than anything else. This wasn’t the first time, but a long sigh escaped his mouth as he made his way back into the cabin. Taking the butcher’s knife lying on top of the table and a bucket he found inside the kitchen, Reizel left the hunter’s cabin for good.

His destination? Mistraline Lake, eastwards of the cabin. As for how he knew in which direction east was? He made a rough calculation based on the sun’s position.

A few minutes of walking later, the dark, ominous and foggy forest brought back a sense of unease as the feeling of loneliness emerged once more. He wasn’t really that scared but he couldn’t exactly be called a fan of places like this.

The faint light coming out of the blue fluorescent crystal inside his shirt’s pocket eased his mind a little bit as his gaze fell on it. A small smile formed on his lips, but it disappeared just as quickly.

The hand holding onto the butcher’s knife struck a nearby tree as he marked it with an arrow pointing the way back to the log cabin. Worst case scenario, if he couldn’t find the lake’s location, he would be able to make his way back to safety and search in a different direction.

He didn’t say it out loud, but Reizel felt blessed for having found Erin’s cabin. Blame it on luck, God’s will or whatever, he would probably be inside a bear’s belly or worse had he not found it.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

The journey didn’t last long as the lake turned out to be quite close to the cabin actually.

Barely half an hour of walking later and with the exception of a rabbit hopping from one bush to another, it was a rather uneventful trek.

‘Bloody rabbit scared the living sh*t out of me. Wait till I catch you and turn you into rabbit stew!’

Even though he didn’t have a way to catch the rabbit and it is debatable whether he knows how to turn it into stew, Reizel felt relieved it didn’t turn out to be another bear lurking in the bushes.

After having marked hundreds of trees, he finally saw light at the end of the tunnel as the canopy’s density lessened and light rays seemed to pass through the foliage. A familiar breeze ruffled his hair as he reached the edge of the forest. The breath-taking view before his eyes rendered him speechless.

It’s not like this was his first time seeing such a beautiful and clear lake up close, but it definitely felt like something out of this world as his gaze fell upon it. Some would even call it a sight straight out of a fairy tale.

With the sunlight falling on top of the lake’s surface, the water appeared almost azure green in colour as it reflected off of it.

As for the lake’s shape? It was possible to observe it in its entirety from where he stood. Its body mass was actually quite small for a lake. Having been surrounded by rocky cliffsides, it looked less like a lake and more like a hole that was slowly filled with rainwater over the passage of time. One could only wonder whether or not, a meteorite had fallen here thousands of years ago.

Other than the lake’s shape and colour, the one thing that probably stood out the most was the weird formation of a rocky island in its middle. The lake looked like a crater formation and therefore it felt out of place for there to be an island in the central point, as this was supposedly the lake’s deepest part.

But was Reizel one to care about small details? Obviously not, as he completely ignored this and revelled at the sight before his eyes.

All in all, the lake was formed inside what seemed to be a crater and cliffsides surrounded it in its entirety. There were only two or three parts smooth enough to form something similar to a shoreline, but even those had a rocky terrain.

Luckily for him, one such shoreline was not too far away from his location as he quickly made his way there.

The rough rocky texture felt slightly painful under his feet, but still better compared to the moist dirt of the forest. Closing in on the lake, he couldn’t help gulping a mouthful of dry saliva as a bunch of thoughts crossed his mind.

‘It better be potable or else I am screwed.’

Giving the lake’s water a good stare from afar, he removed the dirty clothes he wore and placed them down on a slightly bigger rock. Needless to say, he also placed the map and the butcher’s knife with them as he took a step closer towards the lake.

‘Wait a minute...’

Thinking back, if there is one thing his adventure through the misty forest taught him, it would be the fact that you could call this place anything but ‘safe’ to traverse. And with that in mind, Reizel decided against leaving the knife behind.

‘Better safe than sorry.’

Back on track again, he closed in on the water and kneeled before the lake’s surface. Scooping out a mouthful of water, he relieved his thirst for the first time since waking up in the forest. Then he lowered himself to scoop for another and another one and yet another one.

“I am alive! Ahaha!”

Feeling elated, he couldn’t hold himself back from shouting. Throwing caution to the wind, and a quick splash later, Reizel found himself enjoying the lake’s chilly water. Even if he were more careful about it, a bath was long since overdue after struggling to get out of the dust-ridden basement.

The knife was still held tightly in his grip though. For safety purposes, he decided not to go too far from the shoreline. Where he stood, the water’s level didn’t reach further than his waistline. Half his body was submerged, while the upper half starting from his torso and upwards was left out of the water.

He stood still for a moment, trying to catch his reflection on top of the water’s surface. Light blue eyes, short black hair and a youthful face without a shred of a beard were reflected before him.

Throwing back the little hair covering up his forehead Reizel couldn’t help thinking as he glanced at the bright blue sky.

‘Quite handsome if I do say so myself~~~’

Not much different to what a narcissist would say he looked back down at his reflection once again. Bright red eyes, no such thing as hair and a snout big enough to gulp him down in two bites were reflected before him.

‘Ahh..?’

He didn’t have time to break out in cold sweat as the giant frog before him swiftly extended its tongue out of the water and around his waist.

The force of its tongue was strong enough to immediately turn him sideways and pull him towards its open mouth like a fly. The only thing that made its way out of his mouth was a quick ‘yelp’ as he was dragged underwater.

Thankfully for him, his size was at least two times that of the frog’s mouth and it couldn’t eat him all at once. The force of its maw was quite something though, as he felt his body getting crashed.

After its attempt to crash him failed, the frog’s maw slightly opened as he tried to bite him for a second time. To Reizel’s surprise, he didn’t panic, probably due to his title as he hacked the frog with his butcher’s knife when the crashing force eased.

The water’s force obstructed him from swinging with all his might, but it didn’t matter a lot since his knife somehow managed to make its way into the frog’s eye.

The frog flailed about at the pain coming from his left eyeball, freeing Reizel from its maw on the way. He didn’t waste this opportunity. Orienting himself, he pushed with all the strength he could master in his legs, off of the lake’s floor and surfaced like a fish jumping out of it.

The water surface was once more on his waistline, as he steadied himself the frog also ceased to flail about. The two held a staring contest as Reizel took one step backwards.

“C'mon I dare you to try that again.”

He could feel the grudge the frog held from its remaining eye, as he prepared for round two. The frog seemed to only have one method of attacking, and that was grabbing stuff with its tongue as it launched a second attack.

Ready for it this time, he extended his right hand for it to grab onto. The giant frog didn’t miss this chance as it wrapped its tongue around it and pulled him closer for a second bite. He almost shed tears from the pain, he felt his arm being crashed as a loud scream escaped his mouth.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

Even though the excruciating pain was almost unbearable, he didn’t lose sight of what he had to do.

Using the pulling force as assistance for his strike, he slashed the frog with all his remaining might. The butcher's knife was buried deep on top of its head as the force of its tongue lessened.

‘You are not going anywhere motherf*cker!’

It tried to pull it out with its flailing motions, but who was Reizel to let it get away? Wrapping himself around it, he pushed the knife further inside in an attempt to reach its small brain.

‘Die already! You frog bastard!’

The struggle went on for a little more than a minute before the frog’s corpse along with Reizel emerged over the lake’s surface.

“Puhaaa..”

Taking in a deep breath, he struggled quite a lot dragging the frog’s corpse over to the shoreline. Once there, he lay flat on top of the rocks trying to stabilize his breathing. The frog was sitting quietly right next to him as he gave it a quick glance.

“Serves you right.. Ouch..”

As the adrenaline rush reached its end, he winced at the pain coming from his abdomen and right hand. His torso was covered in bruises but luckily for him, nothing seemed to be broken. His right arm on the other hand, lay limp as it was quickly turning into a purple shade.

‘Crap... This is definitely broken...’

Reizel couldn’t help grimacing at the state of his body. The pain coursing through his body was enough to make him falter, but he knew, if he fainted here, he would probably end up dead anyway.

Pulling himself together, he painfully kneeled next to the frog. The butcher’s knife was firmly stuck on top of its head, but with enough force and a bit of flailing it around, he managed to pull it out.

“Who’s gonna eat who b*tch?”

With a murderous grin on his face, Reizel raised the knife high up in the air and started hacking away.