He couldn’t remember how long he had been drifting in the water, he had been drifting face up staring at the sky partially submerged in the water, feeling at peace. He couldn’t hear anything except for the gentle movement of the waves. No sounds of civilization. No drills churning up the earth. No machines whirring and growling like an orchestra from hell. Even a man with a broken heart would be bound to feel at peace in such an environment.

He was glad he decided to go on the trip even after everything that had happened. With the sun shining down on him and a sky so blue that it belonged in a painting, with clouds of different whites that it hurt his eyes to find the where one shade began and where one shade ended. He thought that if there was a heaven on earth than this was it. This is amazing. The sensation of water against his skin, feeling the ebb and flow of the tide pulling and pushing against his skin, the sensation of water between his finger, between his toes.

He felt at peace and then he remembered everything. Adam screamed! And the dream shattered as the horror of reality set in. Adam continued screaming for a long time. He could feel it ripping him apart. He could still feel himself bleeding out and his body getting cold , his thoughts blurring and fading away, he could still remember what it felt like to take his last breathe. He had died.

And now he was alive. He forced himself to stop screaming, to stop remembering.

You need to see where you are and whether it’s safe before something else comes and eats you. You can go through PTSD later! For now look around and get your bearings straight. He was floating in a shallow pool of water, His feet were touching the bottom. My legs! I still have legs but how? That creature ate them. That has to wait. Need to see whether it’s safe!!

He had stopped floating in the water and got his legs firmly under him and bent forward so that only his head was above the waterline. The water was crystal clear and he had taken a sip and it tasted just like normal water except for the fact that it had an ambient glow. He was still in a cave of some sort but with water and an uneven ceiling of dark rock above him and walls of the same uneven black rock forming a dome around him.

He got up and the water only came up to his pelvis and he nearly did a dance with joy as he confirmed that his legs were attached and still worked. The cave had enough ambient light to see and he as he stood up he saw that the pool of water ended just a few meters ahead of him and gave way to solid ground. A few meters further ahead he saw the entrance to the cave and he could see that it was bright outside. There wasn’t anything in the cave besides him. He sagged with relief as he realized that he was safe for now.

After confirming that he was safe, Adam’s thoughts unbidden, went back to try and understand what had happened. Something had got inside the burrow he was trapped in and had bit him in half, he had bled out. He had died. And just before he did, he activated the and then he woke in a new cave with his missing legs regrown. It felt surreal to him and he was hard pressed to not just chalk up everything to a dream but the pain and the fear and all his senses all told him that everything was real.

He started to feel better, the grip of fear that had gripped his heart as he lay dying was fading away. He was alive. He had survived. He had gotten another chance.

Adam let out a breath as he slowly walked out of the pool and headed towards the dry bank. He was still feeling a bit weak and mentally exhausted so he sat down close to the pool and took a few deep breathes and closed his eyes forced himself to confront the memories of what happened. He couldn’t explain why but he needed to go through his memories of what happened to him. Maybe it was masochistic but he didn’t want to let those memories haunt him for the rest of his life. He needed to relieve those moments so that next time he wouldn’t feel so helpless, so that he could learn what he could have done better and what he could have done to survive, he needed to remember so that next time he wouldn’t end up as prey.

Adam opened his eyes after having gone through his memories several times and the only thing he could think was that he had been in a no win situation. The creature was impossibly fast and powerful. He hadn’t stood a chance. He had forgotten to analyze the thing but he was sure the monster was at a much higher level than him. Right now a damn mosquito would be higher level than me. Adam chuckled at the thought. He was still level 0 after all and he was right.

Now that he was ready, Adam willed his notifications to appear and he had a lot of notifications, and he hoped some of them would provide him some answers.

I still feel weak but otherwise ok. Well, as ok as anyone could be given the current situation. I survived somehow and I’m going to keep on surviving till I get home. That’s the spirit Adam. Keep your chin up and stay positive. Let’s see what the interface has got to say about all of this. Adam mentally clicked on the notifications and a blue screen popped up in front of him.

User has been subjected to Fear Aura released by Juvenile Forest Wyrm (25). User inflicted with paralysis, terror and slow. Juvenile Forest Wyrm has attacked user. User has suffered lethal damage. User has been stunned for 5 seconds due to single damage exceeding 70% of user’s health. Both of user’s legs have been Dismembered. Unable to move until legs are regenerated or reattached. User inflicted with hemorrhage. Due to difference in levels, user is losing health at 10% per second. User will continue to lose health till hemorrhage condition is removed. User’s health has depleted. User has died.

has been activated. Beginning transfer to trial zone. Error. User has deceased between transfer.

Enacting protocol 3A0-09. Establishing connection with &^&^% core. Requesting solution……

………….. ……………..

……………………………………….

Per directives from &^&^% core; initiating recovery procedure.

Accessing user’s .

Modifying latest entry.

Boon repurposed and deconstructed to ether......

……………. insufficient energy for necessary modifications.

Partial recovery possible…. proceed…

…………..user has been recovered. Initiating transfer to . Transfer complete.

Ending connection to &^&^% core.

I see…That lizard had somehow managed to crawl inside and killed me. It was 15 levels higher than me, I never had a chance. I had died but than the system took the boon it gave in exchange for saving me. I’m glad I had decided to save that boon for later. If I had used it…well I should just be happy that the system brought me back. That bit about partial recovery though, I’m scared to find out but I don’t have a choice do I? I need to know how bad it is before I can try and find ways to fix it. Adam mentally clicked on the next notification

User has been resurrected inside the safe zone. Monster’s cannot enter this zone. All forms of recovery boosted by 500% while inside the safe zone. User cannot die while inside the safe zone.

Due to the nature of user’s death and the fact that user had died before the transfer to the safe zone could be completed , intervention had been requested and as per directives user has been resurrected inside the safe zone, the boon user possessed has been used to provide sufficient energy to facilitate the process.

Due to insufficient energy, full data recovery was deemed unfeasible and only partial recovery was possible. facilitated stabilized partial recovery of user’s data but due to this user’s attributes have been significantly lowered and this loss in attributes is permanent.

User has earned the title

So that’s why I’m feeling so weak…damn…Adam felt tired. The last couple of hours had been intense both mentally and physically. He couldn’t bring himself to stay positive after realizing what this meant for him and his chances of survival. Adam was scared to even look but still he brought up his interface.

The system had saved him but the cost, the cost had been extreme.

Fuck…Adam had lost 4 stat points in each of his attributes except the SOUL ones. It was a devastating blow to him, 10 was the average according to the system and now he was way below that baseline.

This is going to make things even harder maybe even downright impossible. Shit.

No point crying over spilled milk, just accept the fact that this is real and focus on the now.

So, I’m weaker than I was before but in exchange I’m alive and got a new title for the whole shebang. I hope it doesn’t suck. I need a win. Adam said a small prayer to god, system, whatever was listening and then he checked the new title.