Zane woke up in darkness accompanied by the feelings of pain and confusion. He tried to lift his head up and was immediately hit with an overwhelming feeling of dizziness. Zane stayed on the ground and took a few deep breaths before checking his status. He was shocked to see that he had less than thirty percent of his health and was losing ten health points every second. Zane immediately reached for his space bag and took out a health potion to drink. His movements were sluggish but he only wasted a few seconds while he tried to retrieve the potion.

The potion tasted sweet and Zane felt a large amount of energy instantly surge through his body. Zane sighed with relief as the pounding in his head began to decrease. Now when he moved his head, he didn’t feel any pain and it was easier to focus his thoughts. Zane also felt an itchy feeling from his head and the rest of his body. The scratches from the panthers and the wound from the sudden attack to his head were quickly closing.

That feels a lot better, Zane thought to himself. He carefully lifted his head up and took a look around. It doesn’t look like anyone came by to collect the mana creatures while I was unconscious. I don’t sense anyone approaching me so I should be safe. Now I just have to figure out what hit me. Zane closed his eyes as he continued to lay on the ground and tried to visualize what happened to him.

The loud noise that I heard should have come from my attacker. I didn’t sense anyone near by so the attack wasn’t from close range. The speed and strength of the attack make it extremely unlikely for it to be an arrow. The only answer left is magic but I would have been able to sense someone using a spell. Even a magic item would release a surge of mana when its used.

Eventually, Zane concluded that his attacker had the ability to hide their mana when they attacked or this was a unique method from another world. It didn’t matter what method the attacker used to catch Zane by surprise. If they wanted to reap the reward for their work, they would have to get close and at that moment Zane would strike.

Zane reached into his space bag, took out his shield and laid it across his body. Although his body was hidden by panthers, he felt like he should increase his defenses. The attacker may have ways to harm him without seeing him. Zane kept his sword sheathed on his left while he fought the panthers and it was ready to be used when his attacker approached. Zane closed his eyes and did his best to feel his surroundings as he waited for the enemy.

Roars, screeches and other noises echoed through the forest. The only time Zane experienced silence was when he entered the bear den. Otherwise, the noise increased or decreased based on how close he was to the group’s shelter. Zane did his best to let those noises fade away as he tried to focus on the sounds closer to him. A few minutes went by as Zane listened to the sound of the trees. Everything felt calm and peaceful until, he heard a faint whisper.

“He hasn’t got up so he should be dead right?” A male whispered.

“I’m not sure but be ready for anything,” another man answered.

Hearing the two voices put Zane on alert. He had no way of knowing if they were the only enemies in the area. He gripped his shield tighter as he rolled onto his right side. Zane made his preparations to spring of the ground in an instant. He tried to judge their positions as they approached.

“These guys really are super humans but its good to see they aren’t bullet proof,”

“We don’t need any of that sword and magic. A gun is sill the best weapon to fight with.”

As Zane listened to their conversation, he thought about the weapon they mentioned. He gave himself a mental reminder to not kill his attackers so he could ask them about their weapons. Of course, not trying to kill them didn’t mean he would hold back. Right before Zane was about to leap up to attack, he paused.

He heard a new set of feet stepping on the ground. The person was moving verry slowly and approaching from the left of him. This was the opposite from the two attackers that were approaching him from the right. Zane did his best to listen to his surroundings as he thought over his approach to the battle

The people talking right now must be a distraction, Zane thought to himself. I can guess what will happen if I attack the left or the right. The problem is that I don know what will happen if I go forward or backward. The attack that knocked me out should have come from the right. Which means there’s a good chance that only one person managed to move around before or after I was attacked. But I still don’t know how many enemies there are.

Carefully listening to the world around didn’t help Zane. He could only hear three people and he had no way to determine if there were more. He took a final glance around himself, a deep breath and stood up to face his enemies. The first thing Zane did after standing up was spin in a circle as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Skill: War Cry

Level: 1, 0%

Tier: 0

Effect: Release a powerful cry capable of stunning your enemies. The amount of time you enemies remain stunned varies based on their willpower and your own. Stuns for 1 second + Will/100

Cost: 10 stamina and 40 mana

Zane looked right, back, left and front as he used War Cry. The moment he finished he placed his shield over his back, activated Warrior Steps, and used Charge as he moved in the direction of the front. Two seconds later he was close to a tree when he heard several loud bangs. Immediately after the ground exploded around him, the wood of the tree in front of him exploded and he felt multiple powerful blows land on his shield. Zane stumbled a bit but he kept moving forward and managed to quickly take cover behind a tree.

Zane stopped moving a few steps after he was no longer visible. Also, he immediately deactivated Warrior Steps the moment he was behind cover. He used a lot of stamina in his battle with the panthers. He was able to recover more than seventy percent of his stamina while he waited for his attackers to approach him and he wanted to make sure he didn’t use more stamina than necessary.

“Shit,” a woman said. “Where the hell did that come from? He didn’t use that skill on the panthers.”

“He probably didn’t use it because it was on cool down,” a man said.

“Skills don’t have cool downs,” she replied. “I already told you to forget about whatever game knowledge you learned before.”

“Yeah, well some of my game knowledge actually helped save your life.”

“Enough,” another man spoke. “The two of you can fight later. We need to be ready to attack the moment he shows himself.”

“Should we just leave?” Another female asked. “This guy seems a lot more skilled than the other people we faced.”

“Even if we don’t want to fight, he may not feel the same way. He might want revenge and try to hunt us down. The only choice we have is to stay and fight.”

“Hey what’s that?”

While his attacker’s talked Zane was preparing an orb of light. He tried to make sure it was as dim as possible when it appeared but it was easy to notice in the dark forest. Hearing the woman notice his actions Zane immediately took a few steps forward and mentally threw the orb from behind the tree.

“It’s a magic attack dodge it,” a man said.

“Wait,” another man responded. “This one looks a bit different and its not moving as fast.”

“Aaaaa! My eyes”

“I can’t see.”

“Hold your fire, you might shoot one of us.”

Zane covered his eyes as he let the light shine as bright as possible. He listened to chaos caused by the orb and took away the mana allowing it to exist after a few seconds. Zane rushed out from behind the tree and quickly closed the distance between his attackers and himself. The first person he encountered was a dark-haired muscular man. As Zane approach he saw the man lift up an object in his hands. Deciding to ere on the side of caution Zane used Slash and cut the man’s head off.

The woman next to him shouted in surprise and raised an object with one arm. Zane easily brought his sword down and cut it off. She screamed but Zane didn’t stop and cut off one of her legs. The other man and woman were shouting and trying to figure out what’s wrong. Their companion didn’t answer them but Zane did. He quickly crippled the remaining two enemies and looked around to see if anyone else was nearby.

Satisfied with the lack of movement from his surroundings Zane’s next step was to interrogate his attackers. The first thing Zane did was create another light orb. With the light orb he could make sure he took all their belongings and weapons. He didn’t cut of all of their limbs and they might have hidden weapons or tools that could harm him. Zane realized that he may not be able to recognize all their weapons. He hoped that them being in the light while he was in the dark would make them hesitant to use them.

When Zane began searching for weapons, the first thing he noticed on each attacker was their knife. The second thing he took was their space bag and the object that hey were holding in their hand. The object looked like a wand except the handle was curved and it didn’t radiate any mana. After Zane picked it up, he placed it in his own space bag and he took the attackers space bags tied to his belt.

After collecting the obvious items Zane continued to search. He found a health potion and a few strange items that he placed in his space bag. While he searched each of them tried to fight back but Zane only had to give them a few punches to the head before they stopped resisting. He took one of the health potions and used it to treat their wounds He poured it over their stumps and some in their mouths.

Zane was careful with his usage of the health potion. It was a waste to use his health potions on the enemy but Zane could tell theses were humans from a different world. He couldn’t tell what level their health was at and he didn’t know if they would survive if he left them alone. Although Zane collected several health potions from his attackers, he considered the potions his, because he defeated them. Therefore, he was wasting one of his own potions to save their lives.

Once Zane finished administering a very poor form of healing he stepped back and waited. Zane didn’t have any experience as a healer and he didn’t have a skill that let him verify the status of others. What he did have was sharp senses and he used them to determine the vitality of his attackers. There was an increase after he gave each of them some of the health potion but it started to decline again shortly after. Zane knew this was because of their open wounds. He also knew that the health potion should help close the wound even if it didn’t regrow their limb. Eventually, his attackers stopped releasing sounds of pain and Zane decided to speak to them.

“I have some questions I would like to ask you about the weapons you used.”

“Fuck you,” the man said. “We’re not telling you shit.”

“All of you lost. That means you do what I say and hope I let you live.”

“Big talk from someone hiding in the dark,” one of the women said. “Even if we tell you how our weapons work there’s no guarantee you’ll let us go.”

“So, you won’t talk?”

“Nope,” the man said. “And good fucking luck trying to use those weapons without us. I hope you kill yourself trying.”

Zane frowned when he heard their determination. He knew that there were people capable of getting the truth out of people through physical or magical means. Zane didn’t have any knowledge or skill that would help him do that. Therefore, his only options were to continue talking and hope they answered him, let them go or kill them.

Maybe I should kill one of them first Zane thought to himself. Maybe the fear of death will cause the others to be willing to talk. I’ll kill the women that spoke first. If that doesn’t help then I’ll kill the rest of them and try to figure out their weapons when I’m in the village. Zane began walking in the darkness as he circled around the area of light. He planned to approach the woman from behind and kill her. When he was finally behind the woman and prepared to attack suddenly Zane heard a loud bang. His body froze and his eyes widened in alarm.