"It's like a blue ocean."

It was an incredibly exciting feeling. The virgin blue sky and the clouds floating across it seemed so close that they could be touched by hand. Unfortunately, all attempts to reach such a height ended in failure due to the too light body of the tildas. Ray made another flight, enjoying the scenery of the forest and the sky, looking completely different from such a height.

It was difficult to determine the real distance, but it felt like he should have flown at least two hundred kilometers. Although his flights were not long, but the speed in the form of a bird was quite large. Toward evening, the guy decided to finish the air trip for today and went down into the forest. Having turned into curing, he continued to move forward, but already through the trees. Ray didn't want to miss anything that he might not have seen from the air. He hoped to see new types of animals, get new souls, learn something new. The explorer's enthusiasm burned in his chest, constantly moving everything further and further in the process of conquering the new world. The guy was a little worried that he had already missed something, but if he got too carried away, he could be stuck in this forest for several years, the end of which was not visible. Today he was not lucky, and even with the advent of night, he could not find a single animal unknown to him, even animals like the “gray lion” were no longer met, but Ray did not lose heart, he just went to bed, waiting for the next day. The guy was sure that there could not be only a couple of species of animals in the forest, most likely he did not meet others because of the peculiarity of the territory in which he appeared.

No wonder he was right. He was woken up by a loud screech, which seemed like the loudest siren to the light sleep of the beast. Frightened, Rey almost fell off the tree, but the tenacious claws of curing saved him. Looking around, he did not notice anything suspicious, but the guy knew exactly which side the sound was coming from. Without a second's hesitation, he rushed in that direction and a minute later he saw something that pleased him very much. Although the scene was not peaceful, the animals that participated in it were unfamiliar to him. They were actual replicas of wild boars from his world. Two huge fangs, a massive body covered with sparse bristly hair gave them a very warlike appearance. One of the boars was badly wounded in the side, while the other, slightly larger than him, seemed to be the initiator of the fight. But this did not worry Ray much, now he frantically thought about whether he should replace one of his souls with the soul of a boar. The guy was sure that for at least one of the animals the battle would end in death, but he had no room for another soul.

“I don’t want to fight like this. I'll probably wait a bit."

As Rei thought about it, the battle escalated. The more massive boar clearly had an advantage, but in the end lost. The second boar, after waiting for a moment, opened his neck with his fang, forcing him to die either from loss of blood, or the poor fellow simply choked on it. Let the victory go to him, but it was obviously not easy. His entire body was covered in bruises and cuts. There was also a particularly large wound in the abdomen, from which blood flowed continuously. After walking a few meters, he fell to the ground next to a tree, watching the carcass of his opponent. At that moment, the beast noticed a small ferret, which, deftly jumping from a tree, landed next to the corpse, but already in the form of a man. If the beast had been smarter, he would have been obviously surprised, but right now he was too tired to think about anything other than his life. The form of life he saw was unfamiliar to him, and the corpse of the enemy did not interest him, therefore, having gathered his strength, he got up and quickly went home.

At this time, Rei was already enjoying the breath of "freshness" that accompanied the absorption of soul energy. He could not find out the name of the animal, but for him the animal looked exactly like a familiar boar from the real world. He could not look at the mutilated corpse of an animal for a long time, so he turned around and left. For a second, the boy thought:

“Is it still worth taking this world as a game? Even if I really wanted to, I still could not find the difference. Well, except perhaps Status and Inventory, but otherwise everything around me is now quite real.

Before the night came, the guy found another new species of animals that looked like deer, but were obviously predatory. On the tips of the paws of the animals there were sharp claws, and in the mouth there were fangs that were not inferior to them in sharpness.

The deer, on the other hand, was reminiscent of the deer only by the outlines and the characteristic structure of the body - long legs and the shape of the head. Rey could not absorb the soul of this animal, since he was not going to fight with him, and he was not lucky enough to catch a battle like the previous one. In fact, he was not particularly interested in the soul of a predatory deer. As a body for moving forward, it was worse than a bird's, and although he was interested in a new experience with the bodies of animals, he was not so interested as to sacrifice the inconspicuous body of curing. Over time, he began to meet more and more types of animals, from small snakes to huge five-meter monsters that looked like bears. Ray still hasn't decided whether to change the body to a new one. Right now he was following one of the new species of birds. This bird was much larger than the tildas, nearly three times the size of the latter. This is what attracted the guy, because in such a body he could move much faster. Unfortunately, he did not manage to find the nest of this bird. He spent the whole day trying to catch up with the animal, but despite the fact that he had two wings, he was much faster than Ray, and the guy didn’t want to get too close to him, because perhaps this bird was aggressive and would have attacked him as soon as possible. As a result, once again losing sight of his goal, he resigned himself and continued flying. Now he was convinced that other animals inhabited the forest, but since he had not yet found a more practical body, he decided to simply continue moving west. Ray wanted to find the end of the forest, or at least some river, moving along which he could increase the chances of finding a settlement of sentient beings. He was sure that this world was inhabited by intelligent races. There were supposed to be other people in the starting cities who would help novice players get comfortable in a completely unfamiliar world. *** A sky blue bird was flying in the sky. If you look from the ground, then against the background of the sky it could not be noticed. It's been three days, and Rey kept flying. The desire to find someone to talk to grew stronger in him. The guy did not expect that a lonely journey in the forest would be so difficult for him. He literally forced himself to kill all the small living creatures that he managed to catch, but the size of his prey could be counted on the fingers. Although there was something pleasant, in the morning of this day, when the guy killed another curing, the first specialization appeared in his Status - [Hunter lvl 1]. What bonuses she gave him Rei could not find out due to the fact that only the name was written in the Status, but it was not difficult to assume that the effect should have been related to the simplification of the hunting process. To his regret, Ray did not notice the difference, but attributed it to the fact that during the time he had exterminated the population of small animals in the forest, he himself had adapted a little to the hunting process, so the effect of specialization seemed to him to be the merit of his own efforts. Another problem was that the principle of how specializations work, although it was added by the developers, was not initially described by them. The players were supposed to learn more about them from the teachers in the starting city, but this opportunity was not available to Ray. Continuing to fly forward, Ray noticed something that surprised him very much, but also pleased at the same time. In the middle of a huge clearing stood a house made entirely of wood. Even if the guy wanted to immediately fly to the house, two deaths managed to instill caution in him, which told him about the strangeness of this building. For a while, watching with it from the air, he could clarify something for himself. The building looked brand new, but there were no cut trees around it, and the grass in the huge clearing around the house was not flattened, which indicated that no one might live in the house. Ray was also strained by the lack of water, which would also complicate life in the middle of the forest, but absolutely all the doubts that came to his mind were broken by ignorance of what creatures inhabit this world. “Maybe the one who lives in the house does not need water and food. Or maybe he's the same race as me." Let his own thoughts seem quite logical to the guy, but he did not want to rush. As the day wore on, Ray decided to wait a day to see if there were any signs of life inside the house. The building had no windows, but the general principle of construction corresponded to a primitive log house, with a pyramidal roof. The guy was sitting on a tree and watching the house, now he was in the form of a man. For himself, he cited the reason for being in human form because in it he had the sharpest vision at night, although in fact he just wanted to be more of a “human” ... Ray had been sitting almost without moving for three hours. During this time, he noticed many strange details that told him that the one who lives in the house is clearly an outstanding person. For example, all the logs of which the log house consisted were identical, moreover, without any gaps or irregularities at the joints. The same applied to some other details, such as the shape and symmetry of the structure. Although the guy noticed all this, he did not change his mind to meet with the one who lives inside. Dangerous though it was, he consoled himself that the new world could not be so hostile. Without noticing it, Ray wanted to sleep. At what it is so sharp and strong that he almost instantly lost consciousness, falling from a fairly decent height. *** The first thing Rey felt when he woke up in the pitch darkness was pain. Just not posthumously. Yes, and he was not lying on the grass, as it was before, but on a flat surface. Wooden?

Long think about your position Rey could not, gradually coming to his senses, he realized that the pain was also intensifying and after a few seconds he began to scream heart-rendingly.

That's just the sound he made was muffled by the gag tightly shut in his mouth. The very first attempt to move gave way to pain in all joints, as if they had been pierced. Not daring to move anymore, Rei continued to scream muffledly, because the pain spreading throughout his body was unimaginable. Only his head could move freely, but because of the surrounding darkness, the guy could not tell where he was.

For only a dozen seconds, he was able to hold out, overpowering the agony that caused his entire body to tremble, further intensifying the torment. And then Ray just passed out.

He woke up already from a bright light that made its way even through the eyelids. Trying to open his eyes, Rei immediately closed them back, afraid of going blind. But in the back streets of consciousness, he nevertheless noted - there was no more pain. “Is it really such a realistic dream!?” Now the praen wished with all his heart that he was right and the torments experienced were a dream, but ... When the light began to weaken, Rei opened his eyes and realized that, as before, he could only move his head. The gradually clearing view gave him the opportunity to better assess his situation and in a moment he missed far more than one blow ... "No ..!" In the short time that he examined his body, he realized that he was actually driven with metal stakes into a wooden platform. In every foot, knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist... Ray could only see the ends of the stakes, but he was sure they went through the bones. "What is it!?" The momentary joy from the fact that for some unknown reason he did not feel pain was replaced by an all-consuming fear and despair.

Breaking the surrounding silence, the breathing became intermittent and hoarse. The guy could not take his frightened gaze from the limbs deprived of any ability to move. The clouded consciousness tried in vain to find a way to escape, but the transformation was the only thing that came to his mind. The problem was that even if he changed his appearance, he would not be able to escape, because the wounds of the joints would not disappear anywhere.

The guy tried to think as quickly as possible, but constant fear distracted him. He had already found a solution - once again commit suicide and be reborn. Even though he would have to endure the death agony for the third time, Rei did not doubt for a second that the current situation was much worse than potential death.

He was about to turn into a tildas, whose body was the most fragile, when he noticed a movement to his left. The creature's humanoid but completely bandaged body frightened Ray even more. And when the guy noticed a wooden tray with tools, the purpose of which was crystal clear to him, he realized that he began to cry. Attempts to speak with the mouth closed were like only incoherent lowing, to which the creature did not react in any way. Ray even thought for a second that it was not capable of hearing, because there was not a single place on his entire body that was not covered with a dense layer of thick white bandages. But if it had sight, then most likely hearing.

Rei watched as the bandaged creature picked up with exaggeratedly long fingers, shiny, full metal knife...

The boy couldn't stop screaming as he stared at the torture instrument that slowly landed on his chest. The creature made a cut a couple of millimeters deep, during which the guy screamed even louder, because this he fully felt the pain. Watching as his body shredded the creature unknown to him, it seemed to Ray that he was slowly losing his mind. It seemed to the tormentor that one cut was not enough and he made two more, which touched the previous one, but if the first one went across the chest, then these went down to the stomach.

Rei couldn't stop screaming, his face completely wet with tears, but the creature standing next to him clearly didn't care about that. Taking a pair of the same all-metal tongs from a nearby tray, it, grabbing the tips of the freshly incised skin with them, began to slowly pull it down, exposing a layer of muscles. Forced to watch everything that was happening, Rey just yelled at the top of his lungs, slowly losing touch with reality. "What do you want from me..." - the thought that visited the guy's head was the last one before he passed out.

From the embrace of darkness, Ray was pulled out again by light. So bright it hurt.

The clouded consciousness of the guy did not immediately perceive what was happening, but after a second the cry again escaped from his closed mouth. "Nooo!" When the light pougas and rey opened his eyes, the creature in bandages was already standing next to him. He had a strange instrument in his hands, but the guy was not very interested in its origin. Now he only tried to move his arms and legs, but all attempts were in vain, he could only move his head, and the rest of the body was so firmly nailed to the wooden platform that the guy could only watch with bitterness how the muscles on his limbs contracted, unable to pull out bone-piercing stakes.

Looking again at his tormentor, Rei noticed a blue flame above his palm, where the tip of a strange device was placed. A second later the fire went out, and the pommel of the instrument turned bright red. Without waiting a second, the creature slowly brought it to the guy's chest, stopping it a centimeter from the skin. Rey, frightened to the point of losing his pulse, did not even notice that there was no trace of past torture left on him. The creature manipulated the instrument in some way, and one of the layers of its pommel shot forward.

Ray yelled and banged his head against the platform he was lying on, not even noticing that the surface under his head was unexpectedly soft. All the muscles on the guy's body swelled up, breathing became so heavy that it ceased to resemble a human, rather already some kind of animal wheeze.

At the same moment, the second layer of the torture instrument fell on his chest, thus covering an even larger area. The guy's mind could not stand the new outbreak of pain and he again lost consciousness.

Rei didn't know how long he had been out, but his next awakening was again accompanied by a bright light. "Why is this happening? Did this creature live in that house?” The moment after waking up was the only time in his not yet fully awakened consciousness there was a place for something other than fear and pain, giving the guy the opportunity to more or less soberly think. The creature, as before, was already in the room, holding the same tray in his hand. Ray glanced at him and immediately turned away, also noting that there were no burn marks on his body. "It also heals me... So I won't die from my wounds..." The wait didn't last long, and Ray noticed another instrument of torture in the hands of his tormentor. A seemingly innocuous little metal tong landed on the first knuckle of his ring finger, which was cut off a second later. The flash of pain from the severed bone was so all-pervading that the guy was simply distraught. “What the hell is this game!? Get me out of here!" A strange creature, raising the tip of his finger in front of Ray's eyes, with a slight movement of his hand threw him somewhere into the far side of the room. The tongs moved up silently cut off another part of the finger, amplifying the screams one more order. Five minutes have passed.

Only a thumb remained on Ray's right hand, but to his own regret, the guy did not lose consciousness. After every three clicks of the forceps - and therefore the loss of a finger, the creature did something with his hand, stopping the blood and dulling the pain.

A minute later, it was over with the right hand - there were no more fingers left.

Instead of a scream from the guy’s completely torn throat, some hoarse sounds escaped, which also brought him pain. Rey prayed with all his heart that the creature would not pass to his other hand, as the pain of losing his fingers slowly began to subside as the creature stopped the bleeding from the wounds.

The boy's pleas were heard, and the bandaged creature placed the bloody tongs back on the tray. The hope that had settled in a beating heart like a mad one was shattered into pieces when a strange creature pulled out a huge knife.

The fear in Ray's eyes was so clear that it could have materialized. Grabbing his weapon more comfortably, his tormentor with one precise stroke deprived guy's hand below the wrist, into which a metal rod was driven. The last thing Rey saw was blood splattering from the knife that the creature had literally ripped from the table. Along with the stump of his arm...

Another flash of light was like a call from hell for the guy. "Just let me die." “Why did this crap grab me!? It doesn't even try to communicate with me!" The guy's thoughts were interrupted by the sight of his tormentor, who held something like a drill in his long fingers, which he brought closer to Ray's fear-filled eye ...

*** ** *

"How long have I been here? Month? Maybe two? No. Longer…” Clear thoughts were rare for the current Ray. Sometimes, after waking up, he didn't even open his eyes, just enduring the agony before falling into yet another oblivion. But time passed and the guy ran into a problem - he stopped losing consciousness.

No, not that Rey was completely used to pain, but now he could endure even many hours of torture. In the beginning, he even began to count how many ways his tormentor could come up with to injure the body and mind.

After seven hundred, the guy stopped doing it, either because of the almost completely extinguished voice of reason, or because of the futility of this activity. It is worth noting that the creature never repeated itself, but this does not mean that some of its tortures were easier than others. In those moments when Rey could still think clearly; he thought of nothing but his escape. Before the guy even thought about the reasons, blamed the developers, other players, the whole damn world. But over time, he did not care and the goal was only one - to escape from here. Save yourself and then take revenge. The wounded mind of the young guy became so fragile that it could break in one moment. Ray sincerely didn't understand why he hadn't lost his mind yet, he never considered himself a morally strong person. In the past world, he was an excellent musician, just like his father and grandfather. But the guy was left alone early, and the news of the illness was the last blow for him, although even then he continued to hold on. Thinking about it now, Rei realized that maybe he really was quite spiritually tough. But comparing his past and current situation, he only wanted to smile bitterly, but he could not do this for a long time. Right now, his torturer stood over him with a familiar metal knife. “This one is needed for deep cuts…” Rey resigned himself to the fact that it would not be easy to escape and tried in any way to save his gradually fading mind. For a long time, he tried everything that had time to come to his mind. One day, the guy even almost succeeded: when the creature tore out his ribs, he with a sharp breath put his lung under the cut, hoping that he would die from this and be reborn in an old place in the forest. But even an injury of this level did not become a problem for the healing abilities of a strange creature. With one movement, it removed the wound and continued its filigree work. The guy's memories were interrupted by pain in his upper abdomen. How Rei thought the incision had reached almost to the internal organs, but still did not touch them. Trying to hold on with all his might, he clenched his teeth and did not scream. One day, the idea came to his mind that the creature liked to watch him suffer, and since then he tried to give out a minimum of emotions. It was hard to say that Ray was right. or not, because the creature continued to cripple him in the same way as before. But each torture endured without unnecessary groans was for the guy a sign of his own victory. Not wanting to watch what was happening, Rei closed his eyes and lowered his head. He had tried everything, absolutely everything. The transformation was impossible, since it was the only ability of his that the creature did not know about. This was exactly the guy's last hope for salvation, which kept his mind in a relatively working condition. He simply did not have the opportunity to change form and try to commit suicide, since there was no such moment in time when the creature was not next to him. Several times Rei even tried to pretend to pass out, but the torture continued.

He also could not die in the human body. The only option was to smash its head on the table or act like it would with a wounded lung, but the creature's movements were absurdly precise, and the area under its head was covered in soft material. Then Ray came up with a plan that can only be used once. He wasn't sure if he could do it at all, as there were too many factors playing against him, but he didn't have any other ideas. And not too much was capable of a crippled or, rather, hardened mind. “If I don’t succeed the first time, then I will remain a toy in the hands of this creature until I completely “break.” This thought visited Ray for quite a long time and all this time he was just waiting for the right moment. And the time dragged on for a long time, so long that the guy even thought that the creature could read his thoughts, and therefore did not use the torture he needed. But… Just now, Rey felt the creature's arm sink into his torso. In addition to the hellish agony and the strongest burning sensation, which nevertheless made him let out a long moan, the guy felt a semblance of joy for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. It was in one feature of the process of changing faces. He noticed her during his short trip, which now barely glimmered in his memory. It was this fact from the fragments of the remaining memories that helped him come up with a suicide plan. When Rei turned into a smaller body form, the center of his new body coincided with the center of the previous one. If he now turned into a curinga or a tildas, then a new body would appear, approximately, in the area of ​​the lower part of his chest, just where the hand of such a hated creature was located. There were a number of problems here. The first were the stakes that kept him from moving. If the transformation failed because of them, then Rey would definitely no longer be able to hold on under torture. The second was that the bandaged hand could appear outside the new body, which also completely broke the plan. Now Rei had almost forgotten that the creature was "digging" into his insides. He patiently waited for the hand to penetrate deep enough to be completely sure that the already small chance of success would increase even slightly. Nearly three minutes later, Rey was about to pass out, veins popping out of his face, which was distorted beyond recognition, because the guy's stomach was no longer inside his body.

As the creature once again plunged its hand into his stomach, the split second that the hand was as close to his chest as possible didn't escape Rey. Even though he hadn't changed shape for so long, he was sure he hadn't forgotten how to do it. A moment later, in place of the human body, only a small lump of brown-green wool remained, which was “dressed” on the palm of the creature, but after another moment it disappeared too.