Adam stayed as motionless as humanly possible, trying to blend into the forest and praying that whatever creature had scared off the boar, decided to leave instead of coming through where Adam was.

Unfortunately, Adam was not so lucky, as he felt a sense of wrongness and fear before he saw something appear out of thin air and that alone very nearly caused him to lose focus and disrupt his stealth skill. The sight of the creature caused his instincts to blare out warnings and they were screaming at him to run. But his wits held and Adam reigned in his fear. He continued to hold his skill as he beheld the creature that appeared near the pond just a couple of meters away from him.

The creature was something out of a nightmare. It had the bone skull of a stag sporting wicked antlers, with amber colored eyes framed by black sclera and its tongue that was hanging outside its mouth, was constantly moving about as if it was tasting the air. The creature stood over 6 meters tall and looked lean and bony to his eyes, though its frame was completely at odds with its height. The creature’s body was extremely slim, made it look as if it was starved and unlike its head was covered in thick brown fur with patches missing in places, greenish hide visible in those places and pockmarked with yellowish pustules. Its legs were short for its height and ended in talons and its arms were long enough to touch the ground and also ended in 5 wicked looked talons. In its left it dragged the head of an oversized boar. Adam fired off a quick Analyze.

Lesser Wendigo (??): Wendigos are close to abominations. Solitary monsters borne of dark and eldritch affinity. Most monsters with affinities are powerful in comparison to their levels and this is true with Wendigos. Their physical attributes are nearly on par with monster lords, only falling behind with their mental attributes and number of abilities they possess. This does not make Wendigos any less dangerous, they are known among sapients as pseudo monster lords exactly because they are dangerous enough to be treated as lord class.

Lesser Wendigos are Wendigos that are formed in low levels of ether with high concentration of dark and eldritch energies in combination with powerful , and this convergence forms Lesser Wendigos which are much lower level, with weaker and lesser abilities compared to the True Wendigos.

All Wendigos regardless of levels are stronger than other creatures of similar levels. They all possess an eldritch stealth ability bordering on invisibility and utilize their high physical attributes with an innate manipulation of dark mana to boost it even higher. Their talons possess an eldritch poison capable of paralyzing their foes and turning flesh necrotic.

They do not possess a Fear Aura but due to their eldritch and dark affinities, most creatures that possess a modicum of life affinity feel revulsion and a sense of wrongness in the presence of a Wendigo.

The creature’s appearance was enough to frighten anyone and the fact that it had killed and decapitated the massive boar that Adam had seen before, was even more cause for concern but what really frightened Adam was that creature appeared only a few dozen meters away from him and Adam hadn’t even noticed it. Adam had not seen nor did he hear it as it appeared in front of the pond.

Fuck me! That is fucking nightmare shit! How the fuck did that thing just appear out of nowhere?? Adam was afraid. He saw the creature and how tall it was and he just couldn’t understand how it could appear out of thin air without giving any indication at all. That thing is huge! How the fuck is it fair to give invisibility to something that monstrous? Fucking hells!! Is it looking at me? Adam saw that the creature was looking at his hiding place and hi heart nearly stopped before it turned its head to a side and stare in a different direction. It’s tongue which was obscenely long and hanging outside its mouth was squirming around like a worm. Shit! It didn’t see me but it knows I’m here.

Adam stayed very still, fearful to even breathe and so held his breathe as the monster continued to swivel its bony head from left to right. Its body didn’t move a single muscle, and in fact the rest of its body was utterly still, like a statue from a crazy person’s nightmare.

Adam didn’t know how long he stayed with his breathe held but he knew that enough time had passed for him to feel light headed with the lack of oxygen and yet Adam refused to even budge a muscle in fear of catching the creature’s notice. His stealth skill made it so that other creatures ignored him but the caveat was that he had to be careful not to catch any attention in the first place. It worked on the creature’s subconscious mind and did almost nothing to physically help him hide. The Wendigo was obviously higher level than him and so there was a high chance his skill would fail.

And so, Adam chose to stay still for as long as he possibly could and as the edges of his vision started to darken, he still kept his eyes fixed on the Wendigo. Adam blinked and it was gone. The Wendigo had disappeared. At first, he felt panic, thinking that the creature had found him and had gone into stealth in order to ambush him, his lizard brain was continuously screaming at him to run but he ignored it and instead decided to stay put and trust his skill. If it has failed than running won’t help. Not against that thing. Adam admitted to himself.

Seconds passed and Adam was still whole, his head still attached to his body. After the seconds had turned into a minute, his vision had gone almost completely dark at the edges and he started to slip in and out of consciousness and very nearly lost control of his skill before he decided that he needed to risk it and breathe or pass out.

Adam slowly let out the breath he had been holding and once his lungs were emptied, just as slowly beathed back in. His lungs were starved for fresh air, his mind and body craving oxygen and wanting nothing more than to devote their all to breathing in as much of the sweet air as fast as possible. But Adam’s will held firm and forcibly clamped down on the urge and continued to breathe slowly.

Several minutes passed with Adam slowly breathing in and out and yet Adam’s fears did not come to pass. The creature did not suddenly appear in front of him, nor did it sneak up behind and decapitate him, as his imagination had led him to believe. By this point his breathing had returned to normal and he no longer felt as if he was going to pass out. And after several minutes of being unable to find the creature and being able to sense the creature’s presence, the feeling of terror that he had struck since he saw the creature, started to recede and it left behind only a question. Did it leave? Adam thought to himself.

That thing had sensed me, most likely it was able to smell me with its tongue, once more Adam admonished himself and cursed the overconfidence, he had to forego hiding his scent before heading into a forest full of predators to search for food. He had decided not to take basic precautions, what he had been taught over and over again in his military career, he had decided to just ignore all that and trust the System created skill created only just hours ago, to protect himself. When I say it like that…I was stupid. I admit that. This is all new to me and the sense of power and the scope of what I could do. It’s intoxicating. Enough! I can think about how the system’s affected my mental state later. Right now, I need to decide whether I stay put or head back to my cave.

Adam focused on his current situation; his mana pool was halfway drained. Though it had seemed like seconds to Adam, in reality several minutes had passed since the Wendigo had disappeared and due to the continuous use of his skill, his mana was depleting at a rapid pace. If he decided to stay and wait longer than he bottoming out his mana and suffering the effects inside the forest where he was vulnerable.

Shit! Iven got less than half my mana and with Psychic Obfuscation active, I’ve got maybe 20 minutes before I’m completely drained. The possibility of completely draining his mana while still inside the forest, made Adam’s decision for him. He could not afford to lose consciousness or be caught weakened and debilitated inside the forest. Which seems very much likely if I stay any longer.

Decision made, Adam slowly extracted himself from his hiding place, careful to not make any sudden movements or noise during his actions. All the while his imagination was actively showing him images of the Wendigo jumping out from the shadows or from behind his blind spots and eviscerating him and decapitating him. What is up with the deception!? The initial seconds during his extraction from the bushes were terrifying to Adam. And yet Adam pushed on despite his fear, he removed himself from the bushes and kept low to the ground as he moved towards a tree behind the bushes in order to hide himself. He continued to observe the silent forest, listening for sounds and looking for movement as he crawled his way back. He made it to the tree and then he found a found another tree a few meters behind that was wide enough to hide him and he slowly made his way towards that. Vigilant and ready to drop low and stay still the moment felt any danger he continued his zig zagging motion from tree to tree.

The forest was still eerily quiet and had been so ever since the Wendigo showed up. The silence fed Adam’s fears, though logically he knew that the creature was most likely gone. He continued to move, keeping himself low and keeping his motions slow and all this time his Psychic Obfuscation was still fully active and causing his mana to drop lower and lower with each passing minute. Still, Adam kept to his slow and vigilant pace as he half crawled his way back to his cave.

As he made his way to his cave, he started to see insects and bugs coming out of their hiding places and even started to hear the usual forest sounds of insects and birds. The sight of and sounds gave him a sense of relief and filled him with further confidence that the creature was truly gone. Adam felt a pressure in his head and realized that he was dangerously low on mana due to the onset of the headache and he had checked to be sure. He glanced at his mana bar and he saw that he had less than 15% left. Once more he had a choice to make,

Adam was only a bit more than halfway to his cave and even though he saw the forest come alive with creatures he did not want to release his skill though he was almost drained. I can’t afford to turn off the skill just yet. I’m still not safe in the forest and if I turn off the skill, I’d be dead if another Wendigo shows up, or if something even worse shows up. The thought made Adam shudder with fear and the state of his mana pool forced him to compromise his stealth for speed.

He sped up his pace through the forest. He couldn’t afford to let go of his skill while in the forest and so he decided to rush. Instead of crawling and staying low to the ground, Adam got up and trusted his skill to keep him safe once more and started moving from cover to cover as fast as he dared. And all the while he did his utmost to observe and keep vigilant of his surroundings as he made his way back to the cave.

His journey back to the cave really hit home just how exhausted Adam was, He was physically fine but mentally he was completely worn out. The incident with the Wendigo had terrified him and pushed his nerves on edge and left them frayed. His usage of Psychic Obfuscation and his dangerously low mana levels had further worn him down and caused his nerves to fray even more, like a rubber band stretched too long, he was close to snapping.

By the time he saw his cave, his mana pool had dropped well below 10% and only his willpower kept him from dropping to the ground and curling into a ball with his eyes closed shut from the pain he felt in his head. The sunlight which had seemed so inviting and refreshing in the morning, was now painful to his eyes and set his head throbbing like a drum. Every step he took in this state brought him further agony. Every breathe he took sounded like the bellows of a refinery, the sounds made him feel as if his head would explode and still he carried on.

Adam hadn’t even noticed when he made it inside the cave but the moment he realized that he was safe and inside the cave, he relaxed and his will that had been holding him together for the better half of the journey, loosened. As soon as he did, he passed out. He couldn’t even feel it when his head hit the ground. The only thing he remembered was feeling relief and the fact that he still hadn’t managed to find something to eat. Fuck.