It was pretty dark in this area of the woods. Not as dark as nighttime but, still a close second with darkness. If it was night right now it would be extremely dark here to the point even I would not be able to see here. There was a lot of noise here in the darker part of the forest. Laughter echoed around while tree branches broke and snapped throughout the area. This was a lot louder than being in the normal area of the forest.

I might be able to find some good prey to hunt here while trying to train and gain more skills. I may be able to gain more physical skills like the fighting one I got. That helped me out a lot when fighting. Maybe I can gain something like bite or stab like skills. I don't know what type of limit the system has, but this may work. Hopefully it does work I need more combat skills that are not magic based, so I don't run out of options when in a battle if magic doesn't work on my enemies I may face in the future. I must become even more brutal and calculating to destroy anything that attacks me.

I scanned the sounding area and smelled the air to see if I could pick out any faint smells that would lead me to something but alas nothing. My eyes and hearing was great, smelling was harder to do for me. I'm not used to using my nose to smell things. Sighing I walked deeper into the darkened area.

Walking was harder to do here as well due to the roots, rocks and how close the trees are together. Agi training well be amazing here since that covers speed, reflexes, and dexterity. I may be able to find a place in here to make a base to operate from if I'm not able to get back to the pond.

10 minutes into my trek I ran into something trying to stealth above me but saw it before getting close. It is not what was following me before because my danger senses skill made a small part of the top of my head chill very bad. Might be a killing blow better to avoid that at all cost.

When I got into its attack range, I waited just for a second to make it think it got the drop on me. Then when It was going for the kill I leaned out of the way using Basic Void Slash to rip its head off its body. A deep cut went straight through the left side of my arm getting to the bone but in the process I removed the head of it.

You have slain a Rusthorn Void Spawn Lv 9 Tier 1 exp is being awarded to you.

Basic Dark Sight Lv1/8 was gained through your ability to see in the dark granting you Basic instead of inferior.

Things are a little brighter and easier to see now. Does gaining a new skill consume part of the exp grained through killing? Do I need to fight to learn new skills? This doesn't seem right. A lot would have died if this was the case. Fighting increases the speed of leveling and gaining new skills. Because when I was training at the pond it was able to level it up enough for it to rank up but took longer than when fighting.

+1 to Int.

What the fuck? Why did I get a point into Int for? Was it because I guess the right answer to my own problem. Nice new skill though this will be helpful to me when trying to find a place for a base here.

The monster laying before my feet was long like a snake but with a horn on its head that looked like it was used to kill. One of the biggest tier 1 I have ever saw, making up 4ft (1.22 m) long but only 7 inches (0.18 m) wide. The head and horn were white to blend into the tree bark. Leaving the rest of its body black to stay in the treetops without notice. I checked for poison, but it had none. So I couldn't get a resistance to poison or any toxins. But it did taste pretty good of all the things I have eaten this is the best. Will have to hunt some more later for more of it.

I ate some of it but still had a lot of it left over, so my tail held the rest of it dragging it along with me. It weighed around 60 pounds (27.22 kg) not too heavy for me this was kinda light to be honest. Seeing as I had food I ran through the rest of the darker forest taking small breaks every once in a while to rest and recover from running out of stamina. The snake got caught in a root sometimes when I was going too fast, but that was pretty much all the problem I had.

There were quite a lot of the things waiting in the treetops for prey to come near and die to its horn. There were other monsters, but they were too fast and good at hiding for me to spot them in time or either notice their presence.

There was something very dark ahead of me that even I could not see through with my new skill. And the monsters I could see avoided the place. I wonder what doing all of this.

Quest unlocked Dark Box.

Find out what is causing the unnatural darkness in the forest.

Rewards ???

Exp none.

Fail and you will die.

You have no choice quest accepted.

So the Mother gave me this quest then, seeing at hoe the blue is the system color and this must mean that this is her. Hey might as well check out the total pitch black darkness looming in front of me. It might be fun to see wants going on in there.

I placed my hand onto the darkness, and it felt like a thin bubble that didn't block me from entering. Pushing through I entered the darkness.

Subspace has been reached can not leave until quest is completed. Reach the treasure located at the center of the subspace.

Not that bad I have some food with me, so I am fine for now. Though I will need to leave a trail, so I can tell if I am going in circles. Walking deeper into the darkness was not that hard, nothing really was here except for a few old bones of others trying to get to the center before.

Walking around was pretty boring after what seemed like hours of being trapped in here. Something deep inside of me started to churn and swirl in my gut. Anger once again trying to boil over and take control of me. I had to hold on my emotions to keep in control of myself.

6 more hours passed, and I heard something I heard once before. The voice of a young tired man “I will not be betrayed and trapped again for all eternity. You foolish part of me what are you doing. This is magical darkness. What beats darkness back? ” the voice rasped out with buzzing with hatred.

“Are you the part of me from before I died, and why can't I remember anything at all except for pieces of random things that seem to pop up when I see stuff? Was that damage to my soul so bad that I forgot almost everything? ” I asked the voice. But nothing responded to my question I had for it.

I used my Basic Light Bolt 20 times shooting in all directions. I watched all of them fly off in different Only 3 of them headed in the right place leading me deeper into the center. When the light disappeared I shot more off into the distance to keep me going the right way.

By the time I got to the middle of the darkness I had around only 10 mp left. I walked up onto the platform and stood there until I recovered enough mp to feel good about advancing again making me wait 3 hours while eating the rest of the snake I killed.

As long as I held a spell back and didn't use it straight away it lasted for 3 minutes a pop. This was weird because it felt like it lasted longer every time, but it was hard to tell. Mana manipulation skill may help it last longer the better I am at using it and the higher the skill level it is.

Ah, no more getting sidetracked I need to finish this quest and leave this place before I start to get hungry again and die of starving here.

Looking around I searched for anything that stand out around me. Two things were sitting on the floor in cages with a key in front of me. The first was a necklace that was made of bone and was glowing a dark red. The other was a small black box that didn't look like much to me at all. I picked up the key and moved towards the necklace to examine it. It looked like it would fit perfect around my neck like it just wanted to be put on. Then I moved over to the cube box and looked normal to me? The necklace called to me while the box sat there with nothing for me at all.

I thought about the necklace more and more with every passing second that went by as it seemed better for me than a box. Why a box in the first place that doesn't seem that good at all, Why not something like a helmet or belt, I don't know anything else besides a box?

Just as one of the light bolts faded away I called another out to replace it and watched as the necklace disappeared for just a second. I moved over to the box and did the same thing over after releasing my hold over the mana in the bolt. And it did not fade and come back like the necklace It just stood there being a box like a box should. I thought about what the quest said and remembered that the quest was called Dark Box and not necklace. The Mother must have given me a hint about what to choose.

Now that I think about it why did I think I only had to pick one? But I should follow the hint and pick the box first and then maybe get the necklace next. Putting the key into the lock of the cage I turned it. The key and both cages vanished leaving only the box. I picked the little box up and a notification came up.

Quest completed.

Rewards Dark Box of Holding soul bound item.

Nice job of finishing the quest and getting rid of that box from my sister's idiot follower created. When he died he sent it here giving a place to for her to send monster here or capture mine to experiment on. Since the other owner is dead it is free for anyone to have and use it. Take it as a gift my son, and it shall help you in the future. I will be sending more quests soon. And before I go here is another quest.

Quest gained Kill the Hive Mind and its servants.

Reward new skill and exp. Possible better evolution for future.

Fail and you die.

Bye my son hope you survive and kill the Hive god's follower. It isn't an invader but was born here, so the other monsters try to avoid it at all cost. Destroy it and make me happy my child.

Well I was going to do that anyway but being rewarded makes it more motivating to do it.

Do you wish to soul bind this item to you nobody can remove the bond not even the gods.

Yes/no?

It was hard to think of accepting the prompt from the system, but I knew deep down that this would be a bond that I could never mistrust as it would be safe from others and only mine alone. “Yes I accept.” I said. The box in my hand melted into a liquid that was adsorbed through the skin on my hand. And a tattoo of a dragon eating itself appeared on my right wrist.

Soul Bound item Stomach of the Dragon???. Item has a enchantment to hold things forever frozen in time. Space limit increases the higher your tier is. Total space available 500 pounds (226.8 kg). More options require higher tier. To use thinks of the dragon opening its mouth.

That's cool I'm sorry I thought you were useless to me.

The magic darkness around me vanished returning me back to the area I was before I had gone inside the subspace. I want some time to think that place fucked with me a little. I also need something to block mind skills that try to dominate me.