Adam woke up after a few hours had passed, he continued to lie down on his back as he assessed himself. The headache is gone although my head still feels sort of heavy, I don’t have any injuries…and I’m still hungry. Adam sighed and checked his status. It showed him that while his health and stamina bar were full, his mana was just barely above 15%.

He continued to stay in the same position as he went through what had occurred earlier in the day. There’s so many things I could have done better but hindsight is like that I suppose. What’s inexcusable is the fact that I went back to hunt in a place that’s frequented by high level creatures, I saw that yesterday and never even bothered to think things through. Even more ridiculous is the fact that I didn’t even bother to try and camouflage myself and only trusted a skill for my protection. Adam criticized his Hubris. That Wendigo was only able to catch my scent because I was arrogant enough to think that I didn’t need to. All that could have been just avoided if I hadn’t been so goddamn full of myself.

That was just stupid Adam. You knew better. Adam kept admonishing himself over his thoughtless actions. I could blame my newfound power and tell myself that it was because of the system, but that’s not the truth. I got intoxicated with myself, with what I could do with the system and I couldn’t see past the power I could gain. I nearly got myself killed. Again. I could make excuses all I want but the truth is I was getting drunk on my power, on what I was becoming capable of. I ignored the fact that I was still weak, weaker than any predator in this forest. I blinded myself to the truth. The true monsters here wouldn’t even need break a sweat to kill me.

Adam continued to chide his thoughtless actions; I need to get this under control. I need to get myself under control before I get myself killed. I can’t act like I’m the protagonist of some movie, or as if I’m playing one of my games. There’s no newbie zone, no teachers to impart skills and knowledge, no one to explain to me the fuck is going on, no wiki guide, no epic quest, no magic loot boxes and no retries. You don’t just get to take a sandwich break and listen to music on Spotify. This shit is real Adam. This is your life.

From the way I’ve been acting it seems as if I’m treating this as a game. Like dying doesn’t have consequences. But you know that’s not true Adam. You almost died due to that Wyrm and the system had to scrap your System boon for energy to resurrect you. And even than you lost half your stats, what do you think would happen if you died in the Gauntlet? Just resurrect with out any repercussions? No Adam. Nothing is free. That’s the truth. And this time you don’t have any pending system favors to cash in if you do die, so what do you think would happen? The thought made Adam shudder. Nothing good, nothing I want I to find out.

I was stupid. But I’m going to do better. Starting now. Adam affirmed to himself. He had thankfully caught a hold of himself before slipping too far and getting himself killed. He knew that he had been intoxicated with his new powers and now that he’d seen that and had almost suffered the consequences for his hubris, he was never going to allow himself to think like that again.

So, the pond area is out of bounds at least until I’m strong enough do more than piss myself and pray. I’m going to have to stick to the woods near the cave and hunt the weaker creatures nearby to gain levels. Adam planned. Come to think of it, I haven’t really explored the forest behind the hill, in the south? Or north? fuck wish I had a compass. Let’s just label the forest behind the cave as south and that would make the direction the pond is located north, Adam decided. I’m definitely going to stick near the cave until I gain some skill levels in Obfuscation and pick up a proper stealth skill, but after that I’m going to head to the other side of the hill and check it out. Maybe I’ll find something good. Adam hoped.

Adam’s stomach started to rumble and broke him out of his thoughts. Fuck I’m starving. Have to do something about that. Just one last thing to check before I look for food. Adam brought up his notifications.

Psychic Obfuscation*(E) Lvl 01 -> Lvl 15

Due to continuously pushing user’s limits, user has gained +1 to Mentality, Focus and Endurance. User has gained +2 to Will.

Adam was surprised, I knew I was going to gain levels in Psychic Obfuscation but that’s quite a lot. But makes sense since it continuously running and active till I bottomed out my mana. Adam looked at the attribute gain, The gains to my attributes are always going to be appreciated but why’d I gain a point in endurance? Mentality, Focus and Will makes sense but I don’t think I was physically pushing myself enough to warrant a gain. So that’s odd but appreciated nevertheless.

Adam had no further time to wonder on the why before his stomach rumbled once again and Adam started to feel acute pangs of hunger. Adam decided to leave the question be for the moment and instead prepare himself to hunt. He went outside the cave and scooped up dirt from nearby and went inside to mix it with water to make mud. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. Adam thought as he slathered the mud on his body.

He left his cave a few minutes later, it was still afternoon from what he could tell, the sun was high in the sky and he had plenty of day light left. He made his way into the outskirts of the forest surrounding the hill his cave was situated in. Adam made sure to keep away from the direction the pond was and instead stuck to scouring the outskirts in search of food.

He activated his Psychic Obfuscation and noticed that skill was easier to activate and did not require as much attention to keep active, must be the skill levels, Adam thought. He used the trees and shrubs as cover as he continued to stalk his way into the forest, eyes peeled for signs of animals and listening for sounds. He continued this way for while till he almost couldn’t see his hill from the trees before stopping and changing directions so that he was walking with the cave hill parallel to him. He had found his first kill a few minutes into the forest, it was a Forest Beetle (09) and he swiftly dispatched it with strike to its head using Penetrate. He devoured it and carried on with his search for something edible to eat. The beetles and insects did not really appeal to him but he was ready to eat them if he could not find actual edible meat.

I should have roasted that Horned Hare and ate it instead of devouring it…but if I had done that, I wouldn’t have gotten that Penetrate and Bolster skill. Which have been invaluable. Adam sighed and continued his search as he dispatched his 3rd Forest beetle. Adam was a bit disappointed with the essence he was gaining from his kills. Although the beetles were high level than him, killing 3 of them had barely filled half his essence pool. The only good news was that his mana was halfway full as well due to his usage of Devour and he was full of energy. Even his huger somewhat abated each time he devoured his kills. But it wasn’t long before it came back.

Adam had spent nearly half an hour walking through forest and had killed 3 beetles. He hadn’t spotted any large predators thankfully but he also hadn’t spotted anything with meat that he could. Just Beetles. Fuck.

Adam was thinking about how he could make beetle flesh taste edible as he moved through the forest when he suddenly spotted motion from the bushes to his right. It was more than 100 meters away from him but due to his enhanced perception he was able to pick up the rustling of the bush and quickly moved behind a tree before stealthily making his way towards the bush. His Psychic Obfuscation was still active so he was confident that creature wouldn’t sense his presence as long it didn’t hear him or see his approach.

He made it halfway to the bush before he stopped in his tracks. Adam saw that the bush had stopped rustling and saw a snout peeking out before the creature crashed through the bush and into the open. It was a boar. Adam used Analyze.

Juvenile Forest Boar (13): A common sight in forests across Terra. Forest boars have widely varying levels depending on food, mana levels and presence of natural predators. They can survive in almost any environment and can eat almost anything. These creatures have extremely low mental capabilities and no ranged offensive abilities but they make up for this with their high levels of strength, stamina and stamina. Their hide acts like natural armor and they are resistant to blunt damage. They are only capable of charging in straight lines and most of the damage they do is due to the impact. Their tusks are mainly used to dig up grub but they are omnivores and will eat anything. Including carrion and poisonous animals. They have high resistance to poisons bordering on immunity but poor perception. Will charge if it feels threatened or surprised.

Once the boars reach Adulthood, males will search for females and form a drove consisting of tens of females. The number of females in the drove is a sign of the Boar’s level. The more females they have, the stronger the males get due to a passive skill they have that empowers their base attributes based on number of females they have in their drove.

Juvenile males are kicked out once they are old enough to fend for themselves. Juveniles if they live long enough to grow into adulthood, then they too will form a drove with as many females as they find.

Adam saw his lunch step into the open. The animal was 2 meters long and had small tusks jutting out from its jaws. It had a nice brown coat and the animal looked healthy and robust. Adam could not help but drool at the sight of the creature as he closed in on the animal, since the animal was still a juvenile, it couldn’t make use of its boosting skill and it didn’t have back up to help it once Adam struck. The boar was tough and strong but it had poor perception and agility. Adam was reasonably sure that he could get away without harm if his attack failed.

And that was the reassurance Adam needed to take the risk and try to kill the creature. He was reasonably sure of success and in case of failure, he was sure of getting away. And also, he was hungry and wanted to eat roast boar.

Making sure to keep inside its blindspot as he made his approach. He stopped himself from getting distracted and focused on the boar as he closed in to within a few meters of the creature. The boar was just standing out in the open and sniffing the ground as if it was searching for something.

Adam activated Bolster and Penetrate as he closed in on the creature from behind. He got within touching distance of the creature and it still hadn’t noticed him. Adam flared Bolster at maximum output and leaped over the creature from behind, his leap carried him well past the 5 meters and almost completely cleared the animal but he had timed his jump just right, so that he ended up above the creature’s head.

Adam struck out with his hand coated in Penetrate and boosted by Bolster. Adam wanted to cripple the creature if he couldn’t manage to kill it with his surprise attack and so he had decided to go for the back of the neck. His hand shaped into a knife hand thrust forward at a speed he couldn’t quite catch and it cut through the creature’s hide before it found some slight resistance due to the density of the creature’s bone before that too gave way and his hand went through, severing the creature’s spine. His hand went through even further and cut through the animal’s throat, preventing it from being able to cry out or even breathe.

Adam landed on the creatures back in as his fingers stopped just outside of the creature’s throat. The boar hadn’t even sensed him when he had struck and only managed to tense its body in shock as he had struck. It hadn’t managed to move or even put up a fight before Adam’s hand went through its neck, it stood on its legs for a few seconds with Adam still on its back, before it wobbled and slowly fell on to its side. It lay there not moving, not making a sound and quickly bleeding out from the gaping hole in its throat. Its eyes had been full of surprise and fear as it was struck and now as it lay bleeding on the ground helpless, its eyes were still full of fear but now they were turning dull with its impending death.

Adam had removed his hand from the wound and jumped way as the creature fell and now stood back and observed, waiting to see if the creature would get up and move. Once he was satisfied that creature was crippled and was close to dying, he closed the distance once more and cut through the boar’s throat in order to speed up its death and lessen its suffering.

Adam stayed vigil and observed his surroundings, looking for signs of predators attracted to the scent of blood. After a few long seconds of waiting, Adam got the notification stating that the boar had finally died. That is some damn vitality. Took more than a minute to bleed out and die. Adam thought as he made to cut the boars hind legs using his hands coated in Penetrate. Amused, Adam thought, this is going to a really useful skill in the kitchen especially if I can’t get a good knife.

He cut off both legs and quickly used Devour to absorb the rest of the body. Still can’t get over how useful this skill is. Adam thought in appreciation, Now just have to wrap the legs in some leaves to prevent the blood from leaking out and attracting attention on my way back. Adam wanted to properly drain the legs of blood but he couldn’t afford to do it inside the forest so he settled for thickly wrapping the legs in leaves to prevent the legs from leaving a blood trail as he made his way back to the cave. He grabbed a hold of several long leaves from nearby plants and wrapped the legs before setting off with a happy smile on his face.