I'm still alive.

That signifies there wasn't any attack during the night, while I slept unaware of my surroundings after a long time. This once again confirms something strange is going on in this place.

Now that I look at it, the part of the floor that I've cleaned is laid with white marble, which looks pristine after last night's cleanup. It's as if it wasn't dirty in the first place. I could also see strange golden-colored markings covering every part of the white marbled floor that I've cleaned.

I couldn't see any of it last night in the dark. I should unlock a skill relating to seeing in the dark, that would be very helpful. Maybe I'll obtain it naturally in a few days.

But what if I don't unlock it in a few days?

Wasting half of a day every day hoping to get a skill for seeing the dark, isn't it a waste of time?

Hmm.

I'll wait until a week passes for the skill to be unlocked. If it doesn't happen, then I can make some torches, it shouldn't be that hard.

As for these golden markings are etched into the ground.

What are they?

It looks like some kind of array made of runes that I read about in the fantasy books. I get a headache just by looking at them for more than a few seconds.

Just what are these strange markings?

I take care of my morning ablutions next.

I use the Frary plant leaves I collected before for cleaning myself up for the time being. These Frary leaves sweet taste and cool lingering sensation remind me of Mint from Earth. I need to find water fast before I get used to scrubbing myself with leaves as a new normal.

I also eat an Eogus fruit to sate my hunger.

What's my plan for today?

The first thing on the agenda is to find a source of water.

Second, check for tracks in the surrounding area. I've already checked the surrounding area yesterday. But I plan to check them once again to confirm the assumption, that no dangerous beasts are living in the area. If that assumption is wrong and some dangerous beasts do live around here, I should memorize their locations so that I would know which places to avoid until I can take care of them later.

Third, try and kill something and see what happens when one gains a level.

That's about it.

I need a general idea of where everything is to decide where to explore for water first. And for that, I need a good vantage point to observe the surrounding area. There aren't any hills or mountains around here that I can use. My best bet would be to climb one of these huge trees to get a good look at the surroundings.

I move back to the first tree I found near the opening of the auditorium, the Yimmon tree, and start climbing. It took a while as I was being very careful about not falling. There aren't any people or hospitals around to help if I fall. I climb the tree as high as I can manage without risking my life and begin to survey the surrounding area.

From this vantage point, I can see what looks like a huge wall that's to the back of the auditorium, a slight distance away. It's surrounding the ruins seemingly to protect it from outside influence. That wall is running parallel to the auditorium both to the left and right as far as I can see in my obstructed vision.

There are four other buildings I can see from here.

A huge palace-like structure to the front.

Another stout one to the right. This stout building is situated parallel to the palace-like structure.

A tall building that looks more like a pointed tower to the left of the auditorium.

A sentry tower-type building that's attached to the huge wall at the back.

Apart from these buildings, there seems to be some sort of pond that is at the front of that huge palace-like structure. There's water inside it. That's a relief.

I look around to see if I can find anything else but due to the dense tree coverage, I can't see anything else that looks promising. Now I have an idea of where everything is with respect to each other in the surrounding area.

First, I should check that pond to solve my water problem, and then I can decide where to explore next. I can reach the pond easily as it's in a straight path from the auditorium's entrance.

I carefully climb down from the tree and look around for anything that can be used as a weapon. There aren't any guns or swords conveniently lying around, so the branch of an Averich tree will have to do. I hold onto the branch that I'm going to use as an improvised staff and start sneaking towards the pond very slowly. As for why Averich tree, the description does say its wood is durable.

Until I figure out how I fare against the denizens of the forest, I need to be careful.

I may have experience in fighting and also know quite a few close-combat martial arts that I've learned during my time in the military. But those are mostly useful against humans and there weren't any weird things such as mana, skills, etc. on Earth so I don't how my martial arts would fare here.

And that's the reason why until I can figure out how I fare against the denizens here, my approach would mostly be careful and stealthy. I filled my pockets to the brim with Atulica, Yaire, Gloil, and Hedge Ivy leaves. In case of emergency.

While moving towards the pond, I carefully survey the surroundings for any wildlife. If I can find any wildlife, then I can kill it to complete my third agenda for the day and see what happens.

I did find some tracks that have the obvious paw prints, juice drops, and few pieces of Eogus fruit here and there to follow. It's in the direction I'm going, so I started slowly sneaking along the tracks which goes into a burrow under another Averich tree.

This must be home to some sort of rabbit, squirrel, or another such critter. Hoping to find my first victim, I move to the side of the tree, hide in the bushes and wait.

After a few minutes, I see a very healthy raccoon that's double the size of normal raccoons from Earth come out of the burrow.

I use my skill Appraisal on it immediately.

Wild Raccoon - Lv. 3

As soon as I was done inspecting it, I activate my Stealth skill, move from the bush I was hiding in towards the Wild Raccoon, raise my improvised branch staff and slam it down with as much force as I can muster.

I guess these skills do work as described, as the Wild Raccoon was unaware of the blow until it was hit. By then it couldn't take the force of the blow and slumped on the ground but didn't die immediately. I had to hit it two more times to kill it.

I immediately check my notifications to see whether I leveled up.

You have defeated a Wild Raccoon

I didn't level.

Does that mean I have to kill more?

Or is there something else I have to do?

As long as I kill a few more of the wildlife, I'll find out eventually which of my assumptions is wrong.

As for this Wild Raccoon's carcass, I don't have anything to carry it along with me. So, I move it out of the way and hide it such that if any other raccoons are living in the burrow, they won't be spooked by a corpse at their home.

I also stuff some Hedge Ivy leaves into the dead Wild Raccoon's mouth when I move its body. In case any other predator eats this carcass, they may die due to poisoning or at least weaken themselves. And I also wanted to know whether I'll get a kill notification by proxy if an animal dies from eating a corpse that I poisoned.

During the rest of my journey towards the pond, I was on the lookout for any tracks so that I can track and kill them to gain a level.

It took a while and I had to kill a Wild Frog, two more Wild Raccoons, a Wild Rabbit, a poisonous Green Snake, and a Wild Squirrel to gain a single level and that is in the class.

As I was being very cautious and appraising every little thing I can so that the skill can gain a level, it took around four hours to hunt them. Even then, I got bit by a poisonous snake that I had difficulty killing while being poisoned.

Luckily I had Atulica leaves with me to heal myself.

Same as before, as I can't take the carcasses with me, I move them around and stuff them with Hedge Ivy leaves.

You have defeated a Wild Frog

You have defeated a Wild Raccoon x2

You have defeated a Wild Rabbit

You have defeated a Green Snake

You have defeated a Wild Squirrel

Your class has gained a level

I also unlocked three new skills.

Skills Unlocked : Tracking, Two-Handed Weapons Mastery, Staff Mastery

There isn't any urgent need for any of these skills right now so I don't plan on adding them to my skill list.

I did get five attribute points for my first level but I'll save them for now. I don't know how the system works. I'll try to learn as much as I can about it before using them.

But why did I get a level in class but not in the race?

Do I need to do something different for it to gain a level?

Or does it simply needs more experience when compared to class?

More questions.

After gaining a level, I stop looking for tracks and start moving towards the pond. It took another hour to reach it as I was moving very cautiously. If I had to move between the auditorium and the pond again and I don't have to worry about any predators, it would take around fifteen minutes to cover the distance.

After reaching the pond, I hid in some of the thickets and observe the place for a while. It's to see if there are any monsters that are hiding nearby. And also to observe what kind of animals come here to drink water. I was able to observe a few rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, etc. coming to drink some water. And even a deer called Elusive Deer but strangely no predators like lions, tigers, bears, etc.

After observing for a while, I took a risk and moved towards the pond. There isn't any aquatic life in the pond and I could see the white-colored tiles on the ground below the water. It looks like this is an artificial pond and it can't be that deep as I can see the tiles below.

Where is this water coming from?

I don't think it has rained recently as the ground I walk on is dry. And this looks like an artificial pond for it to have a source underground. Maybe there is a source under it but the people who lived here before must've laid tiles on it to make it look beautiful.

Doesn't matter. There's water in it. That's all that matters. For now.

I don't know if there will be any problems if I drink water directly from the pond without purifying it but I don't have a choice so I did just that. And after drinking my fill I cleaned myself.

I don't want to contaminate my only source of water when I clean myself. Also, I don't have anything to carry water back with me.

So, I searched for a while and found a tree named Fromsar whose leaves have some sort of waterproof coating on them. These leaves are big like banana leaves back home but even bigger so they should be useful for carrying water around.

I used some vines and a few Fromsar leaves to make a big cylindrical shape tube with a detachable cap to store water in it. This way I don't have to travel all the way here for water every time I need it. I made two of these cylindrical tubes, I could make more but I won't be able to fight freely by carrying more than two.

I use them to clean myself a little distance away from the source. After that, I fill them and make the trip back to the auditorium.

Of the three agendas for today, two are done.

I have a lot of daylight left, so I quietly move around the auditorium looking for any tracks and clearing any critters I found along the way. I repeated the same process with their corpses as I did with the others. By the time I'm done checking the surrounding area, I didn't find anything dangerous so I went back to the auditorium to rest for the day.

Now that I've also found a water source, there isn't any need to rush and risk my life. I can take it easy and slowly explore this place.

First, I need to clean the whole auditorium if I'm planning on staying here. It may take a few days but it's not like I have anything urgent to do. I can do it at my leisure.

After cleaning the floor, I also need to check the basement.

Deciding on my plans, I start cleaning the floor. Yesterday, I was only able to clear one-fifth of the place. I took the rest of the day to clean more than half of the rest.

Although I'm young again, cleaning this place is a back-breaking process. I'm done for today and as I can't see in the dark and there is no use putting much effort into it now. I'll do it tomorrow.

Although I'm tired, I'm not that sleepy.

What else can I do in the dark?

Hmm.

I could try leveling my skills. From what the description says, as the skill level increases their utility also increases respectively. That decides what I'll do in my downtime.

As I don't have anything to appraise other than the things I've already appraised, I should use Stealth to deplete my stamina and then start using my Meditation to regenerate it and repeat the process. But I should be careful not to decrease it to zero as I did it with my mana as I don't want to find out what happens then.

After that, I repeat that process until I'm truly exhausted and then go to sleep at the foot of the statue.

Name : Janus Arthridge

Race : Human

Level : 0

Bloodline : N / A

Class : N / A

Level : 1

Health : 100 / 100

Stamina : 100 / 100

Mana : 100 / 100

Attributes

Strength : 10

Dexterity : 10

Vitality : 10

Endurance : 10

Resilience : 10

Perception : 10

Intelligence : 10

Wisdom : 10

Willpower : 10

Attribute Points : 5

Skills

Appraisal Lv.1

Stealth Lv.1

Meditation Lv.1

Skill Slots : 7

Perks

Otherworlder

Summoned Being