Novel A little story, of a little fun, of a lot of danger!

A thousand eyes staring at me from above.
A vast land housing me from below.
Challenges ready and set out to kill me. A young girl, no more than 13 years old...

The question isn't what could possibly go wrong, but whether I can survive and evolve, or die for the amusement of another.

"Bring it on!" I yelled out to the skies, which rambled like the thunder in response. Yes, it seemed I was quite the amusement for them and their boring lives. Nothing else to do aside from messing up the lives of hundreds of hundreds and thousands in their spare time. Just perfect!

I didn't know where I was, but it mattered little. It was a vast land, not bare, but you wouldn't call it a forest either. I betted I could find myself some food pretty easily if push came to shove. I shouldn't need to do that much normally, in my normal life, so the skillset of survival shouldn't have been there, but oh joy, a gift from Gods...

But what mattered the most now was the tutorial. After it people would come to meet each other, but yea... my survival was put in question.

Levels, a blue system that assisted us, and a life of adventure... of which now I am sitting on level one.

"First level shouldn't be too hard. They want us to adapt here, don't they?" I murmured a bit louder than I thought, but as no one was here besides me, I quickly returned to my thoughts.

"Though if they wanted us to adapt, giving us the skillet needed to hunt for food, find a place to stay and find water shouldn't have been needed. Do they actually intend to rush us through?"

Thinking too much wouldn't help at this point with minimal information at my disposal.

I walked forward, intending to find the end of this level. Well, with how things looked, it seemed theend found me first.

No more than 20 minutes in, I met my first challenge. I monster resembling our quite well known earthly monkey. Albeit with two more hands, and a bit more buff... yeap I'm ready to struggle that lil shit.

It should be agile, shouldn't it? At least more so than me.
If that's the case, I shouldn't be able to catch it easily. Wait for it to make the first move and act accordingly.

Yes, it was an animal. Despite the many differences between a normal monkey, and this abomination, it didn't spit out any lasers of fire, or blast me with gusts of wind, but savagely jumped at me. Guess the first ones would have been a bit too much for the current me... or the current anyone for that matter.

Watching the monkey jump at me however, I had more thoughts than just daydreaming. I didn't jump out of the way, but jumped at it too. That piece of shit didn't even have a look of surprise. Guess surprise must be above his intelligence level.

Well, it caught me and my weak self, or at least weak compared to it, cause I was pretty fit for my age, and crushed me.

It used two of its hands to immobilise mines, while punching me with his remaining two.

The first punch broke a tooth, and my beautiful image was ruined.
The second broke one more, while the third broke a rib of mines. Next? I passed out. The pain was too much, and the fear of death didn't even keep me up.

But in a surprising manner of fact, I woke up once more, slowly raising my heavy eyelids, I stood up and looked at my mess. Not much to look at. I was still the same self I previously was, and it didn't seem to have continued after I passed out, so everything was fine.

Golden hair, check!
Small chest not fixed yet, check! Unfortunately.
Clothes that reminded me of my last bit of humanity, not check! And that's where things started seeming worse.
Also the much needed freedom I need to pass the first floor isn't checked. Cause fuck that shitty monkey, I have shackles tying me up to this place. Invisible shackles.

Was that a curse? Could it be resolved? Would I escape alive?
Silly questions,the answer to my most important questions remained a no, and the answer to the first question didn't even matter. A nice time to ask myself why in the name of fuck did I not run.

Well, first of all, lemme check my status;

"ID!" I yelled out.

Suddenly, instead of the normal status screen that should be appearing, another blue message appeared that wrote the following; "Property of the monster [Unnamed] is banned from using the system!"

Oh that's just great!
Where did my nice fantasies of a world of magic and adventure go? Where did the goal I had for a free life go? Where did my fucking plans go? All to the trash bin!

And I was imprisoned in what place? A shabby cave that would probably get cold at night and bearable in the mornings...

Further inside were some dead animals and something that tried to resemble a bed, made out of lots of leaves and branches.

Sleeping on the cold hard stone is fine, since that brutish piece of a monkey didn't even bother making a bed for it's property... like darn, who would let a lady sleep like that!

Yea, no one, that's who. So I took it up to myself to go in his bed and make myself comfortable. The monkey aure was annoying, but at least it could make a good bed.

Since I got my life as fucked up as this,i might as well live it to its fullest.
Under that mindset I slept like a piece of rock on his bed, something that it didn't seem to take so kindly.

Picking me up like a small cat, he threw me with a lot of power out of his bed, and I slammed into the wall.

"Argh..." It was quite painful, so I couldn't resist letting out a groan. Seeing he didn't act up, I decided to piss him off for a bit, knowing it was stupid enough to send me back to kindergarten.

"AAHh!" I screamed and yelled, and got louder and more annoying.

Three minutes in I was almost killed, as it decided to 'spar' with me for a bit. Well, at least now on the doorstep of death I know the actual difference between our strengths. Agile, fast and powerful, while in comparison I was weak, slow and unyielding. One good trait and two bad ones, not off to a good start.

Next day I woke up, wincing from the pain of having the shit beaten out of me. When I woke up, I saw that the monkey too was awake and looking at me.

I smirked at that bastard. My eyes telling him, "I haven't quite given up yet."

The monkey stood up, and in a strange moment of fear, I backed up. My brain just now seemed to have thought up of all the horrible things it could do to me. Its thing wasn't hard right now, but maybe I should destroy it for good measure.

I looked for anything I could use as a weapon, but nothing more than rocks were besides me. Well, rocks would do.

Letting it approach me, I stealthily grabbed a piece of stone and hid it behind my back. It had dropped its guard, but I would need it to get closer.

A few steps in, I reacted with all of my speed, my arm armed with a rock reaching that thing's thing in a split second and smashing it with the rock. It bended its back from the pain and quickly rushed towards me. No question, this time if it reached me, I would die!

Holding the rock tighter, I smashed it against his face. It was a nice surprise, as I had prepared myself for failure more so than I thought, but looking at its bleeding thing, I probably caused more damage than I thought.

In the moment I realized my chance, I immediately acted upon it. Hit after hit hit his face, making it from brown, to brownish red. It fell, and I gained the advantage. I didn't let it run, I got in a mounting position and repeatedly smashed his head with that rock.

It tried to hit me and protect its face, but I just smashed his little part once more with the rock, knocking him out unconscious. Rinse and repeat I stopped only when I was sure it was dead... which means after I could no longer move my arms.

A lot of guys would hate me if thecame to learn the tragic truth of this event... I probably wouldn't even get a male friend, let alone a boyfriend. Though I wasn't even considering having a boyfriend, I knew now it was certain. No boyfriends in this life should this get out.

Now for what I wanted the most; my freedom.
I got up from that monkey's corpse and headed towards the exit of the cave.

As I reached close to it, my feet suddenly felt bound by something. Shit, the shackles were still on, weren't they?

I looked at the monkey's corpse and hit it once more, just to confirm its dead, but then again, I had the system.

"ID!" I murmured with a weak, raspy voice, just now realizing I hadn't eaten anything, or drunk for that matter, since yesterday.

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 13/20 Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 7 Dexterity value : 9 Agility value : 7 Vitality value : 4 Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 0 Skills: -None Status alignments: Boundary curse

Well, that looks better than I expected...

 

Honestly, I am at the point where I either die of starvation, stupid considering what I just survived, or eat that monkey's corpse. After that I'm doomed... or so I thought before my smarts gave me a solution.

Throw the corpse out, and hope this wasn't a level with only one monster, or that no really strong monster appears to eat it, or that more than one monster appear, or that the monster that finds the corpse eats it and leaves without coming to my trap. Perfect isn't it?
... Well, that plan is out for the count.

In times like these I like to joke; what if I could use my sexy womanly body to seduce them and make them fall right into my traps? Food for thought, can these monsters even be seduced? Or better yet, how well am I gonna keep with my sanity levels?

Well, a fire would be great, but if raw is how life wants it, then raw I'm gonna get it!
The meat was tough and thick, but at the same time juicy and delicious... blood does give it that metallic taste after all. Wasn't all that disgusting as I thought it would be, but here comes life with her lemons and all.

Status alignments: + Paralitic poison + Dermatological poison + Gastrointestinal poison

I know I'm gonna have a rough day... I just know it.

Thirty minutes in and I was proven right!
Unfortunately, it's one of the cases where I would rather be mistaken... hard to do that considering all those negative status alignments the system warned me about, but a woman can hope, can't she?

At first, I couldn't quite move. It was numbness in my whole body, and I felt like I could barely blink my eyelids... but it got worse. After that, I had an extreme itching, which later evolved into a pure pain in my skin. I could see my hands turning red, but it's nothing compared to when diarrhea hit. That's when shit hit the fan.

Not knowing how I survived, this torture lasted a whole 10 hours, before the effects started subsiding, but it took me the entire day plus a bit, to recover. A new day, a new life... or in my case torture.

I stood naked in this small, dark and cold cave, shivering, unable to get some sleep. Why naked? Well, I needed something to wipe my ass for starters, and besides, they were drenched in my sweat. Still, I managed to find a comfortable position, while at the same time a bit warm and fell asleep.

Next day, I knew I had lost a lot of fluids from sweating, but I couldn't drink that monkey's blood again, could I? Like, he had food back there, so I could try that instead of the monkey's body, but water? Nope. Guess if I'm gonna eat poison, I might as well eat the whole plate too.

Having the memories vividly etched in me, I wasn't quite ready to eat the poison, so to pass time I started training. Push-ups, sit-ups, running left and right, practicing shadow boxing from what I've seen in movies, etc. The day was busy... or at least I tried to make it so.

I would get tired, but rest fixed that. I would get hungry, but fear fixed that. Literally, no problems!
So as natural, I kept going on with that ridiculous training schedule of mines.

Soon it was early afternoon, and I couldn't move my body. I was simply dead tired, exhausted. All of those activities took my mind away from the yesterday's pain, plus I really didn't know how long I would last without food and water. Time to dig in!

A little bit of its blood filled me up.
A small piece of its flesh was enough to restore me to full.
But I was too gluttonous to actually notice at the time, so I kept eating.

"Ahh, full." Delicious meat and a carefree life. Had to enjoy it before hell knocked the door.

 

Seven hours and God knows how many more minutes in, the effects finally started to ease up.
No matter how well I was prepared for it, it still amazed me how hard it hit. I literally must have had lost my brain, memories and the stuff, to attempt eating it again. It was hell, and my stomach hurt more than I would give it credit for, but since I managed to live the first time, how would it kill me the second one?

As the day ended, and I recovered from the poison, I thought I had recovered a bit faster this time than yesterday, but a day couldn't be enough to build up a proper resistance to the poison, right? Well, who knows, they say that what doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger, so how about putting it to the test?

Third day in I managed to fall asleep much easier than last time, since I could actually cover myself up with the clothes that had now dried, but still couldn't be worn due to how messed up they were. It was more practical to use them as a blanket.

As I saw the first sign of light I immediately sprung up. Lately, I found myself with much more energy than I should have, and having more sleep was impossible. I semi-suspected the monkey's meat, but actually being certain of it was impossible.

First of all, however, *Thud* I banged my head against a relatively smooth surface of the wall. "Stupid" I reprimanded myself for yesterday's pain.

Like yesterday I tried to occupy myself with something. Training, in the end, was more practical, so after a few hours of playing with myself, I couldn't bear the itchiness and started training. This time I lasted till later in the afternoon, but I was mostly okay. The acid just didn't seem to build up in my body, so that saved me from some extra pain.

Waiting till I was on my last legs, I bit on the monkey's meat. This time I had completely forgotten about those dead monsters far behind me, and just made sure to fill my self.

I didn't eat as much as the two last times since I was scared of it, but I felt full. It was like taking twenty full coffee mugs and emptying all of them in a row. In comparison, the effects lasted a bit less, but it wasn't all that much of a difference.

After the effects started subsiding, it took less time for me to recover, but there were many factors that could have been involved and it could even have been attributed to a stronger body!

That was a hell of a boost to my psyche, and from the moment I woke up, I started training. I made my program more intense unconsciously but still managed to tire myself out around the same time as the previous one.

Finally, only one thing held the answers, "ID!"

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 20/23 Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 9 (+2) Dexterity value : 10 (+1) Agility value : 9 (+2) Vitality value : 7 (+3) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 1 (+1) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 2 Status alignments: Weakened boundary curse

"Woah, that's a big improvement in my vitality." I couldn't help but exclaim; not to mention poison resistance.

From the looks of it, the curse wasn't gonna stay forever either. I grinned and went to laugh before I realized that my broken tooth had already regrown. Actually, without noticing it, my should be broken and hurting bones were fine from day one... from the day I ate that shit-load amount of monkey's meat.

Trully, what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger to survive.
Some light at the end of the tunnel!

Well, light tends to go out at night, so I best go by the reasoning that hell only now starts, so I won't have to deal with reality later.

 

On the fourth day, I had resolved myself to keep eating that monkey's meat, despite the great pain it caused me. If I didn't know myself better, I would assume I had gone masochistic, but the hate for pain was still there.

The countless benefits outweighed the side-effects.
You don't get used to that kind of pain, but I had hoped that the minor poison resistance would either improve and so would my situation, or at least aliviate the poison's effect.

As normally, I started training like crazy. Twenty push ups, and if it looked like i could push myself more, I would do another ten or so. After I couldn't continue, I would get up, do a few sit-ups in the same manner and run. Running was my resting exercise. After running till my arms had recovered a bit, rinse and repeat. I of course added lots of various of exercises to break the monotony.

Exercises for flexibility, shadow boxing, kicking, doing whatever I remembered. It was messy, but I didn't get tired.

Because I was also bored, once I grew tired I decided to eat some of that monkey's meat to recover and continue, as well as progress on the poison resistance part a bit.

Stupid decision, because after it, I couldn't even move. No, I hadn't forgotten about its side effects, but I wanted to see if I could keep going like that. The answer was an obvious no.

Another unexpected thing that came from that decision was that I couldn't get any sleep. I literally had too much energy to sleep. Mental weariness was one thing, the pain caused quite a bit of it, but the body was another.

Insomnia didn't really do me well, as I was a zombie next day. As it was like that, I decided to thake that day as a rest day. Resting too, was important.

And just like that, I had a lot of time to think. I always had the whole day to think actually, but this is the first time I was without distractions. Well, if sleep couldn't be counted as one.

I thought if I could perhaps break the curse now, but no, even if I had broken it I most likely would remain here. Still, there were a lot of stuff that I had yet to do.

I begrudgingly got up from the bed, naked as always, and approached those other dead monsters. They shouldn't have poison if the monkey was gonna eat them, right?

Status alignments: + Paralitic poison

The moment I bit the monster's meat and swallowed, I was overcome by a great bliss. It was tasty, while still having that distinguishable raw flavor... that literally did many demerits to the meat, but I couldn't help but let a smile escape my face.

After that, my arms and body felt numb, but I could still move. Its poison probably wasn't as strong as the monkey's, so instead of me even falling down, it just got a bit uncomfortable later. Uncomfortable? I could live with it. So much better, yet I couldn't give up on the poison resistance, nor on the crazy energy the monkey's meat had.

I slept for a bit, in order to make the headache fade away, after all, I had indeed missed a day of sleep.

When I woke up it was late afternoon, and it would do me better if I trained a bit, since I most likely wouldn't be able to sleep tonight without using some of that energy.

I was in fact feeling better than always!
Sleep was miraculous in many ways.

I did some light exercises, before I heard a loud sound outside of the cave.
Curious to what could it could be, I went to leave the cave, only to have my leg yanked back like it was chained.

Nope, even if it's weakened, it didn't seem like I would be able to escape any time soon.
Turns out I needn't have tried to identify the source of that sound, as a small, bloodied, injured creature walked towards the cave, limping. It reminded me of a big cat... or a small tiger, what worked the best.

I took the liberty of making things more awkward when it would come inside the cave, by hiding. I shouldn't know if he would leave after seeing me, and hooray for company!

From behind I could hear the sound of heavy footsteps, as could the bloodied monster. It didn't need any words spoken, it rushed to the cave as fast as it could, meeting me eye to eye.

For a moment there, I thought it was gonna try to eat me, and while I had some confidence in myself, I hoped it wouldn't need to be put to the test. Thankfully, it didn't attack me as I pointed towards the lower end of the cave. There were a few dead monsters there which both it, and now most likely me too, could use to hide.

I only hoped it didn't saw the small tiger rushing inside here, else no matter how well it was hidden, only a world of pain awaited us.

From outside the cave now was a weird monster, that I no longer could equate to an animal. It stood on its hind legs, gray and ten feet tall, thicker than a school bus, holding a giant bat. This was well over the territory of impossibility, but it could be described as a tank.

It was seriously a bit scary. Was it an Ogre? Did this place have even worse creatures? Is this still level one?!

Argh, the mental anguish of new stuff was never small. Especially of this category of stuff... scary.

I quickly went to hide on the back of the room, dragging the cute lil kitty with me. Cause if it didn't drag its ass over there to hide, I would try to throw it out if the cave, without questioning how much strength I had.

Thankfully it followed me, and we stayed low, sitting behind a small pile of dead monsters.

Now as a matter of fact I wished I had some sort of eagle vision, or x-rays, because I couldn't see jack shit, and the monster wouldn't leave. Like, did it get hungry from the bloody smell of the cave?
... shit.

Just then, I heard a loud roar, which undoubtedly came from the ogre monster inside the cave. It took up the partly eaten monkey's body, and just devoured it in seconds. As for me, I was both saddened, and exhilarated. Eat poison bitch!

Unfortunately minutes passed, and no sign of a poisonous reaction from the fatass.

As if it was content right now, it sat to the floor and rested. It was too much energy even for it, and it needed a bit of time to digest it.

Was that a chance? I could hear my calling.
Literally, there was a sharp claw in front of me that belonged to some weird monster, it would probably do a fine job at cutting its neck, much better than the job that rock did.

I was lucky once to defeat the monkey, as its main forte wasn't defence, but dexterity and strength. I was also lucky that the monster didn't find us right now, and instead took the time to rest. It should probably have lowered its guard now, right? No. If it was me in such an environment, the time I was the weakest would be my most vigilant time.

To strike the moment it looses focus, or not to do. That is the question.
Before answering those suicidal thoughts, however, I turn to look at the wolf sized cat besides me.

Its breathing was weak. That monster probably had done its fair share of work to its body. No help from this side I see. Do feminine charms work on this guy? Argh, get serious Elisa, it's your life were talking about. You probably won't kill it in one shot, so hide and wait till it leaves.

Yes self, will do as you commanded.
Now what's the best way not to screw up? Sleep, cause I wouldn't be awake to fuck up anything. Fortunately, I was smarter than falling asleep and starting to snore, much less leaving myself defenseless.

Yes, I just lie here and wait.

 

Life wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be, and if all the previous events didn't make me understand this, the current one drilled it into my head.
I keep telling myself that this shit can't get any worse, but no, Gods just love proving me wrong...

A loud roar almost broke my ears, and I knew he finished absorbing that energy... that wasn't the bad part. The bad part was because I was startled, I moved a bit... well, I moved a bit the bodies beside me. A slight shake, nothing more... but why, why did he have to be so perceptive.

I looked at the big kittie, pleading her with my eyes to go and distract it, to become the sacrifice needed to survive. If it got the kittie, I had many more chances of surviving. It would have found its target, as well as assumed it was it who shaken a bit. But seriously, why did it have to have the same look as me right now. These monsters aren't just monsters... they are sentient... intelligent.

Sigh, I probably will remember this as the last scene before my death... inside a dark cave, hidden by monster corpses, almost invisible... in comparison to the totally unhidden kittie. Wait, what? Seems like I won't have to die today.

I prayed on my lucky stars... notice the godarn kittie monster before me!

He came and stood diagonally above us. I was still hidden from its vision, but it would only a single step for him to notice me. But he noticed the kittie first.

The ogre acting lighting fast, the kittie was gone and I was still alive.
The monster had the kittie in his hands, grabbing it by the neck. I pitifully looked at its eyes, as it suddenly stared at mines.
No, it couldn't give me out too, could it?
No... NO! Not after I was so close to surviving... oh well, that's what I would have done if I were on its place too, so can't exactly complain.

Seconds passed, as I heard a cracking sound. Didn't give me out?
God, what a scumbag was I...

People have insulted me before for my behavior. I have caused a lot of trouble everywhere I went and none had me as the good kind of a kid. More like a problem child. Their voices and thoughts never bothered me anyway, but this is the first time I've actually cried for something bad I've done. In the first place it was me who gave us out, so why was it me that ended up living too!

Aw, fuck it!

I tore the monster's claw and got it as my sharpest weapon I've ever held. No way my actions hadn't given me out, but seemingly preoccupied with something else, it didn't even turn its head at me.

That's when I saw that small monster that was hiding beside me was still alive. The bastard was taking its sweet time. No worries, he's gonna regret it, that I promise.

I lifted a dead monster's mangled body in front of me as a shield and rushed straight at him. He couldn't not give me attention now.
Calmly turning its head, he took a step and punched at me.

I hurriedly got away from the punch, leaving the monster shield as a decoy. The punch wasn't fast, but it thoroughly destroyed that corpse. So he had me in one hit, right? Heh, that didn't matter if he couldn't hit me. His punches were barely within what I could evade, and I closed in on him.

Like, closing in on a boxer is dangerous, isn't it? Well, killing him will be impossible unless I reached his throat, so no choice there.
Making a diagonal swipe at me, I quickly ducked and jumped forward. This is taking years of my life, but I didn't need much more to finish it.

Seriously, if I survive here, I'm throwing a party, no matter what anyone else says!

Idle thoughts however quickly had to be cut off, as the monster surprised me by taking a step forward and going for a tackle. Argh, I don't want my coffin to have paste in it. Not seeing any other choice, I quickly backed up, but that too might not have been the smartest choice, as it rushed towards me with a strong punch and a kick.

Seriously, how do you evade shit like this?
I couldn't find any other choice, so I quickly jumped toward him, finding a nice sweet spot at his neck, where I took the sharp claw and just stabbed it right in. Can't tell if the ogre was surprised or furious, but judging by the look on his face only, this whole shit was worth it. Only pity my luck, he wasn't dead. I backed up, taking the claw with me, leaving him with a huge gaping wound.

Seriously, how do you survive things like this... someone should make a survival guide.
It should be on its last legs, but his expression showed anything but that.

It run towards me, so I run back. It being a being of pure muscles was far faster than me, but I cut at the corners. Couldn't match me in agility that bastard, hehe. After that, it was a game of tag. Three minutes in, my back was drenched in sweat, and I had come close to death more times than my poor heart could take, and that is saying a lot!

The ogre wasn't without his drawbacks however. Now he seemed more on his last legs than before, till he finally collapsed. I touched a part of my shoulder where his fist grazed me and it hurt. That bastard's punch didn't even touch me to cause that wound!

Looking back at my plan, I should return to grade school for A in stupidity. Seriously, why didn't I just hide... oh yea, the kitty.

Passing first from the ogre's body to check if it was still breathing, I was tempted to drill another hole in his neck, but that would be wasteful of his blood, so I punched him hard. Result? It was like I hit a brick wall...

Taking a look at that claw, I really just saw how lucky I was.
That monster too should have been powerful, so his body was next on the list. Right after the ogre of course!

Going to check on the kitty, it was still breathing. I let out a sigh of relief, as my reckless actions weren't for nothing. It was once again unconscious, but this time with far worse injuries, and that crack I heard at the beginning... definitely have to take a closer look at her, before she died.

All in all, it was a great day!

Only thing is I hope that kitty appreciates my efforts.
I beat that monster with luck and agility, and agility wise I am sure this kitty has me beat, so if I don't want to die, I either have to have a lot more luck or be more careful.

Could she become my companion though?
No, really, could she?

Not only talking about the possibility of her... or him, being friendly, but, was it achievable? To team up with a monster.

 

Gradually the monster woke up. It was sleeping in the monkey's bed, sharing it with me. Seriously, I couldn't just leave her sleeping on the floor, but at the same time, it would be stupid to torture myself like that, whent here is room for two.

From that event already two days had passed, and I imagine the kittie felt the pain, oh it did, cause only just now it woke up.

"Oh, you woke up?" I called out to her. She looked so peaceful while sleeping, but look at that nervous face right now... yea, she couldn't just stand up and start running. She was too injured for that, and I had no way to effectively treat her.

Realizing it couldn't escape, she saw I had no actual ill intentions, and had even tried to treat her the best I could. Which wasn't much, but she definitely looked better than before.

In those two days since I saw no way to feed her normally, I took some of that ogre's blood and fed it to her. Of course I had already tested it for poison, and I had to say, A+ positive!

It was so much stronger than that monkey's blood... and meat. His meat was really tough to chew, or cut up, and didn't have the good flavor I expected it to have, so I almost gagged when I first ate it. But then a huge amount of energy rushed to my body.

It was because of this energy that I didn't die from the poison's effects later on. Like seriously, I never thought so many status alignments could be inflicted on a human...

Quality wise the poison was about as strong as the monkey's meat, but it quantity wise, it was far worse. That is the reason I hesitated feeding her his blood, as I feared it might have a negative impact on her health, but I didn't know exactly how dangerous it was, since I had never drunk just the blood, but always accompanied it with some meat.

I tested it of course before doing anything, but the energy the blood gave was a lot milder than the meat's one, with only a weak poison in it. Albeit it had less energy than the meat, and was found in less quantity on the ogre's body, but it was absolutely miraculous.

Unfortunately, I really needed that poison resistance, so no cutting corners there. Also, the meat's energy was entirely beneficial for my body, and I suspect the same had been for the monkey's body. I couldn't have improved my vitality by so much out of thin air, now, could I?

As I was ready to eat, I took the claws and cut some of the ogre's flesh. It was impossible to eat it otherwise, too tough of a meat.

Preparing myself for a day of torture, I quickly glomped it, feeling a burst of energy follow it immediately afterwards. And while I was doing that, the big cat just looked at me amused. It seemed to know just how hard it would be for me to digest that meat, while it had no concerns of its own.

Taking a small bite out of that ogre, I saw why I should have been more careful with her. She could bite that ass of a bitch of a cunt!

I turned to see her in a new light. Just how she ended up in that situation with her agility was beyond me, but I'm glad I don't have to face her. She also seemed to look pretty relaxed right now.

Well, all of those idle thoughts ended when I saw the sky turning black, before realizing I was inside a cave... the effects had started.

Status alignments: + Hallucinogenic poison + Neurotoxic poison + Sensory superstimulation + Greater cell corrosive poison + Respiratory inhibitive poison + Cardiovascular poison + Dermatological poison + Gastrointestinal poison + Bone melting poison

I was in for a long night...

 

"ID!" I called out amongst my screams. I just wanted to see how my stats looked like, before I recovered.

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 22/24 (+1) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 10 (+1) Dexterity value : 10 Agility value : 9 Vitality value : 10 (+3) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 3 (+2) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 2 Status alignments: Weakened boundary curse Hallucinogenic poison Neurotoxic poison Sensory superstimulation Greater cell corrosive poison Respiratory inhibitive poison Cardiovascular poison Dermatological poison Gastrointestinal poison Bone melting poison

Seems like all that tearing and reconstructing worked wonders for my body's constitution. I seriously was starting to lose hope, but this confirmation helped boost my spirit. First things first, manage to go through the day without loosing my mind?

The sensory superstimulation worked wonders to make every little bit exaggerated, while I felt like my whole body was burning. It seriously had gotten so much, that I didn't even feel effects like hallucinations, or the pain from my reddened skin.

About 7 hours later, I noticed the effects started to ease up, while I had to take the whole night sleepless trying to recover.

"ID!" I said. How much had those 13 more hours improved me?

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 17/25 (+1) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 11 (+1) Dexterity value : 10 Agility value : 9 Vitality value : 12 (+2) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 4 (+1) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 3 Status alignments: Weakened boundary curse

Woah, that was some hell of improvement!
In regards to my vitality, it shot though the roof, going 5 points up, while I even reached the third level of poison resistance. If it was getting harder and harder to improve on the levels, I certainly didn't feel it, hah!

It was early morning, and relieved from the pain, I was full of energy, despite not having slept at all. I smiled and started training, much to the questioning looks the big feline gave me. That was how I spent most of my day, while she just rested there, looking at me warily.

This time I didn't train till exhaustion , because then I wouldn't be able to sleep with Kittie. A worthwhile sacrifice, not to mention that pain was scary! I needed some rest in between.

Heading to where she was resting, she still wasn't able to move well, but that didn't change how she almost jumped, before having the pain make her sit down. I ignored the gesture this time, and got ready to sleep beside her. Being naked didn't really help me sleep as I remembered, but I had almost grown used to it.

Guess she really didn't expect me to fall asleep beside her. After all, all it would take for her to kill me was one move. Didn't matter how injured she was, or how much it hurt to move, I was right beside her.

Still, as time passed,one hour, two hours, she hadn't moved at all. I wouldn't stay awake all night, so I seriously fell asleep at some point. I was somewhat betting my life here, but I felt like I owned her some trust. Besides, she looked really kind.

Next morning when I woke up still alive, I was pleasantly surprised to see her sleeping beside me too. She was so cute, I had to use all of my willpower not to hug her, in fear of hurting her. She was still injured, and I hadn't forgotten that.

When I moved to get up, it seemed like she woke up too. I knew that that ogre's flesh and blood were excellent for recovering from such injuries, so I brought her some pieces, while the blood was on a monster's skull. Had to make do with what I could find after all. Besides, I survived the bone corroding poison, as well as many other potentially deadly poisons, before they lost their power. It was good for health.

I still hadn't eaten since yesterday, so going by the time it would take me to recover, I would still have enough time to train a little and sleep with her.

Which reminded me; I couldn't keep calling her Kittie this, Kittie that the entire time... she needed a name!

I turned to her, and asked, "What would you like me to call you? I mean, a name..." Darn, all this absence of company made me forget even proper communication.

Without knowing whether she heard me or not, I continued, "Mia?" She gradually got what I wanted to do, and shook her head. Personally I was surprised she was so approachable.

I kept looking at her expression and suggested names, "Lucy, Lily, Allie...?" No to all. Well, I had one last name, "Luna?" This time at least she didn't shake her head. I got it as a yes.

"Ahh... this is life!" I said jokingly, biting down on the ogre's flesh and washing it down with some of its blood. I would make for a great horror movie.

In a strangely fast manner, this day came to an end too, with no weird surprises. I slept with Luna this night, and she was so warm, I couldn't help but stick close to her.

Next day we woke up all cuddly and stuff, and I remembered to check on my status.

"ID!" I called out lightly, not wanting to suddenly wake Luna up.

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 17/26 (+1) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 12 (+1) Dexterity value : 11 (+1) Agility value : 10 (+1) Vitality value : 13 (+1) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 5 (+1) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 3 Status alignments: Weakened boundary curse

I noticed my stats were getting harder and harder to raise, but at the same time, I could last longer in my hellish training, need less sleep and in general feel more vigor. All things considered nothing strange.

Next up I should try some of that other dead monster's meat that just never seems to go bad... still, those are plans for a later date, I told to myself. For now more training, more planning and less mumbling!

I had a future in front of me. A dark one, but a future nonetheless. Couldn't just waste it.

 

Days passed monotonously like that, but now I had a nice friend to keep me company, Luna.

Life was as hard as it could get, but on the seventh day here, the boundary curse was gone. I immediately thought about leaving, especially so because Luna had mostly recovered, but the ogre's body was still here, as well as a lot of precious energy.

Finally, about a month had passed since I found myself in this cave. There was no more food left to eat, and we even had to be sparse on the blood. It was about time to leave this shithole.

"ID!"

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 30/30 (+4) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 21 (+9) Dexterity value : 17 (+6) Agility value : 18 (+8) Vitality value : 20 (+7) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 9 (+4) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 5 Status alignments: -None

Now this is some heck of improvement, even if it slowed to a crawl near the end. Of course, however, for me the greatest gain was the level 5 poison resistance. My body now was as strong as an adult's, but I could handle poison that would kill a normal human ten out of ten times, with the beat part being, I now could handle the monster's meat a bit more easily and with another two levels, monster's meat wouldn't even faze me.

As for agility and strength, those that improved the most, strength was pretty self explanatory after all of the work out I did, but for agility, I needed it in order to play with Luna. Dexterity easily followed, and I could handle my strength a lot better than in the past.

If only my stats kept improving at the old pace... one slice of meat, and boom! +2 in all of my stats... now they didn't even do anything. Not unless I devoured it on a large scale, which is also why the food ended much faster than it should have.

"Let's get going, shall we?" I called out to Luna , whom soon followed me. No attachments to this shit of a cave... maybe aside from that sweet ol' nice bed. I would have loved to take it, but too much unnecessary baggage was bad.

I wore my old clothes, with the sleeves of the shirt missing, as I had used it to wipe my self that night... and a few more parts missing for the same reason, but it was all in the past. Frankly, I could have opted to walk around naked, as I was so used to, but my fear of bugs whom I had never met here, and because I wanted to save some of that awkwardness when meeting other humans, led me to keep my uncomfortable rugs.

Sigh; I looked up in the sky, appreciating the value of freedom much more than I had before. The sky was beautiful, no matter how many times I've gone out to watch it, in the night or otherwise.

Luna stayed close behind me, and I could feel how much I had changed over the course of my stay here. I had become perhaps more... mature? Nah, screw that, the things I did the past month were crazy enough to disregard thoughts of maturity.

Who else other than me play chase with a monster? Who else would lariat a Kittie monster? Heck! Who would even try to become friends with such a cutie!
... maybe a few mentally disturbed guys, but I was a female, so it didn't count.

And what would a nice adventure be without monsters!
Not even 3 hours outside and we met our first victim.

A hell-hound as I would like to call it. A wolf resembling a zombie, clouded in flames. I would guess it has weak defense, but high attack damage.

I signaled with my eyes Luna to back off. This was my prey!

I run towards it, hoping to catch it out of guard, but it similarly did the same, readying its fangs to get me. I wouldn't want to get bitten by that thing, so I dodged diagonally. Since I was really close to it, I could feel the heat from the flames, marking another part I had to pay attention to.

The wolf was agile, so unless I was prepared for suicide, facing it unarmed was stupid. I had my left hand grabbing that sharp claw, which I retrofitted in order to use it better as a weapon, hidden from its eyesight. I was only waiting for a chance.

The hell-hound making the first move run towards me, while I braced my self for the stupidity I was going to commit.

Not dodging away, I stood calm, ready and steady. At the last moment, I switched to an attacking stance from the defensive I had unknowingly put, and revealed my claws. Yes, I had made them into something wearable instead of a stupid dagger like thing.

I would guess it didn't expect that, since it twitched a bit, but it was too late for regrets.

My arms had a longer reach, so piercing the wolf, it died, before ramming into me with its flames. Painful would be an understatement, but I had endured worse. The only causality were my clothes, which despite not falling apart, were in an even worse shape than before.

I grabbed the wolf and yanked it out of me, before putting out these flames. In the end, my first real fight ended in only getting a few injuries, which thanks to my vitality wouldn't even be there by the next day.

I guess we had some food for tonight. Living outside wasn't so hard after all. God knows why he had to give me that survival knowledge if I could just hunt for my own food; though I guess not everyone is like me.

Luna looked at me with a worried look. Ah, I really wanted to prove myself with this fight instead of worrying her.

After the wolf died, the flames on its body went out, but I would guess he was well cooked. It seemed like the best food I would ever have to eat in this hell hole. Well, a fitting name for this tutorial as there was even a hell hound.

Now only one question left... do they travel in packs?
Cause I saw a few dozen flames in the distance, and I bet my life it's not something good.

In the end we only took a few bites out of it, before running away. Neither Luna, nor me could fight that many monsters at once. Maybe a team of five would be our limit, but twenty? Thirty? Hah, nope!

"Sigh, just what do we have to do in order to move to the next level!" I said angrily. I had already spent ages in here... next time no dozing out when the gods are explaining.

I had the most important bits well gotten. In some levels we would all meet, while on the next one we could be separated again. Get stronger, find your way, survive, team up, cultivate your skills... what else was there, hmm...

Wait a sec. Team up? Even when we would be separated?! Like, is me being solo on this something rare? I swear if I don't drive my fist on that bastard's face, my name ain't Elisa!

Just then, the skies rambled and a light descended from the skies

Oath completed! Success: Admiration from many Gods Boost in stats Title gain Failure: Provided you fail to accomplish your quest, you have to change your name.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me!
We can't even joke seriously for once? Like, what do they take me for...

Just then, a small message showed up in front of me

No.

I seriously had to hold myself back from swearing to kill them all.

 

We run till the red lights couldn't be seen any more, and that's when I had that question... weren't they easily giving away their position with those flames? Also what happened when it rained?

It didn't take long to see those flames once again, a lot, lot closer than what was good for my health. Which translates to about 50 metres.

Seriously, why did we have to leave on the afternoon only to end up running at night?!

At this point it was either a fight to death, or... Luna letting me ride on her back. Yea, to the death we fight!

They quickly surrounded us, and now even retreating wasn't an option. "Thanks for the quick thinking Luna" I said, looking at her getting into a proper stance.

"Ready for pouncing, ain't you?" I laughed and wore my claws. So a fight is gonna be!

Before anything, I reprimanded myself for allowing to get caught on their encirclement. "Luna, we break through." I said to her. If we wanted to survive this, we had to fight in an environment we could take advantage of.

About a hundred metres away was a cliff. A place where a small mishap will kill us, but also a place where they lose some of that numerical advantage. I would have preferred that cliff was a wall, but either thing works.

The hell-hounds had yet to close in on us, and were about 20 metres away, so we had a chance to make it. I pointed towards the direction of the cliff to Luna, we would break through from there.

At this moment, it seemed we had wasted too much time thinking rather than acting, as the hounds started running towards us. It was now or never, so we too quickly dashed towards that place.

The small hell-hound barring our path didn't even last a second in front of Luna, whom with an astonishing agility got behind the hound and with her ever sharp teeth bit it and killed it. Not even a fight, I thought as I kept running.

Luna was really fast, so I was falling behind pretty quickly. Her seeing this, grabbed me by the clothes and yanked me on top of her. Her speed decreased only a little bit, and I have to say it was pretty uncomfortable for my first time, but I was equally happy. She was just so cute.

Normally an animal wouldn't want to purposefully corner itself, but Luna appeared to know exactly what I as thinking about and didn't hesitate.

Only seconds later, our backs against death and our front against little shits. At least the cliff couldn't bite us from the back...

The fight was full of one hit kills, but it was tiring. A swipe of my claws and I severely injured a hound, only for two more to take its place. On that front Luna was faring better than me, chasing with her amazing speed her prays and not letting herself be encircled. Running back when she had to, and attacking viciously when needed. I was so glad she wasn't my enemy.

When light hit the first parts of this shadowy realm, dozens of monster corpses appeared. Among them, two standing figures, both with many burns of various degrees.

Luna had the most burns around the area of her mouth and legs, while I had burns all over my body. Yeap, no clothes left. Not to mention, that fire wasn't their only weapon, or defence, but they had some pretty strong jaws and claws. Not repeating that, ever, but ever again!

We laid exhausted on the floor, licking our wounds... mostly Luna for that last one, but regardless... it was a good fight.

I tore a leg from a nearby dead hell-hound and ate it within seconds. Soon there was a body less among the corpses. Luna followed suit, and we struggled to recover our injuries within the day.

I expect to have gained a pretty good boost in vitality with how much I strained my body, "ID!"

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 12/31 (+1) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 22 (+1) Dexterity value : 18 (+1) Agility value : 19 (+1) Vitality value : 22 (+2) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 10 (+1) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 5 Status alignments: -None

Oh, that was a pretty good boost if I say so myself. Much better than when simply eating monster's meat.

All in all, we didn't do half bad for the first day outside of that cave in a long while. Luna seemed to disagree with me, but opinions... they weren't the same.

Now then, find a path was it?
Let's move on, the second level of this godarn awful tutorial was waiting for us!

 

We stayed for three days here, trying to get the most from what we got from the fight, but at some point we decided it wasn't worth staying here for some low level meat.

Low level at least in comparison to what we had before. Their meat was by no way comparable to that ogre's.

Trying to get back in track, we didn't even know where to start looking for 'the path'. All things considered, I decided to try and search around the place I first appeared. I didn't know how far it actually was, but I had the general direction down, so we headed for there.

Luna wouldn't let me climb her back again, so it as a slow, grueling journey. Around these areas we met more hell-hounds, but no group as large as the one we faced that day. I can conclude we were terribly unlucky just from that.

With only the general direction in mind, I didn't actually have an idea of where to stop, or how long it would take to reach there. I didn't imagine it would take more than two, max three days to find that place. After all that monkey couldn't have carried me for much more than that.

Based on my reasoning, we should be meeting of course, more four-armed monkeys, but instead, we started meeting more and worse hell-hounds.

"Shit, these hounds are at least twice as strong as the normal ones." I said, looking at the small pack in front of us. Better looking and more ripped; they definitely were scarier.

Just were had I gone wrong... "I think we should have gone the opposite way. Like, it was an honest mistake, we all make those, don't we?" I turned and said to Luna. I might as well prepare myself for some beating after this fight. Argh, but it's not my fault. I wasn't awake when that darn ape dragged me to its lair!

This fight definitely proved a bigger hassle, as their higher agility made it much harder for me to get them with my claws. All in all, it was Luna who did all the work.

I tried to claw one of these bastards, but it quickly dodged away, escaping with only three scratches. At the same time, I also had to run because two wolves came from behind me.

Luna had already gotten four of them, while I took care of one. From the nine of them, five remained. After they sent three to try to kill me, Luna got one so the pressure was mostly gone. The hound facing her definitely couldn't take her alone, so it turned to team up with the other three. They run with their backs towards me, such a brave spirit! I used my claws and skinned the stupidest of the lot, darning to fall behind... what did they think of me, was I fucking harmless?

After seeing another one biting the dust, they couldn't help but turn tail... no, they could help it, but for some reason they were pussies compared to the group of twenty we faced that day.

Luna went name hunted one more, before falling to retreat. We already had achieved a lot. If the hounds we faced at the beginning were tier one, these were tier two, and both the ogre and Luna sat at tier three. I would lamp the four-armed monkey with the others from tier two, but I had yet to defeat one successfully, without schemes and luck involved. Ahh, I wanted to redeem myself so badly...

Losing my track of thoughts wasn't something good, and having none other to speak with aside from Luna, I was losing it for sure. How unlucky was I to stuck alone in this cold, hard, shitty place?

I would have to get used to it if we two were gonna stay alone for so long. I can't imagine many of the boys I knew accomplishing what I had done, or enduring the same stuff; that was a true woman's power!

We took some of their meat with us, while leaving most of it behind. This time on the opposite direction we shall march!

We had travelled on this direction for about two days, so running back, we should be able to make it in one. I had quite a bit of energy from those hounds, so I got ready for a marathon, while Luna didn't even need to prepare.

Any monsters we saw, we mostly avoided, as we had the hound's meat to fill ourselves and they would only eat up our time. It wasn't only hounds we met in our journey, I suppose not, but all those different monsters sitting at the second tier were mostly solo, so we made short work of them.

"Ai, I'm dead tired." I complained to Luna who seemed to want more. I might or might not have foolishly tired myself out by challenging myself to a race with Luna. It was fun though, so no more complaints.

Looking around us, we weren't completely lost, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't how you were supposed to backtrack. Since it was pretty late right now, and both of us were tired from all that fighting and running, we decided to rest here. I would say it was an empty clearing, but it was too empty for that. Some times I myself thought we were in a desert and even more so in the hell-hounds' grounds.

We slept in turns, and while I don't think I need to say, I pretty much trusted Luna with my life, as did she. Sleeping was very easy once you had someone trusted with you to keep watch.

Next day we were at square one, back at the cave. We only rested a bit there, and continued, this time on the right direction.

After a few hours of moving, we met a pretty strange sight, or at least from my perspective. A four-armed monkey was fighting a grey coloured beast. The beast didn't resemble anything I've ever known in particular. It had a slim torso, with long, spear like front feet to keep the image up. It was like a preying mantis and a wolf. Just one of the second tier monsters that we've only ever found solo.

Now, the strange thing wasn't the beast, but that they were fighting each other. It was the first time I saw another monster fighting with another, aside from Luna. I was thoroughly engrossed on their fight.

How the monkey always seemed to barely avoid the wolf-o-mantis's attacks, and even more so the weird attacks that monster used. It attacked with its front legs, while also aiming to bite that monkey's ass. It was good. In my previous life, people would pay to watch that shit.

After a while, the wolf-o-mantis managed to stab the monkey's throat, having surprised it by jumping in front of it from a small distance. I wanted to clap at the marvelous performance, but I held myself back. No more time to waste on stupid entertainment programs the Gods sent us, and the monster seemed pretty happy to be left alone, so we didn't cross paths.

Not even half the day was over, and we found the starting point. The place where all begun... for me, cause everything else was still in motion. It's not like the universe was created the moment I stepped in.

Do we look for any particular signs, or just blindly search, I wondered myself.
God's wouldn't want us to waste our time searching, so the clues should be pretty obvious, while I was dumb enough to miss them.

All the starting point had was a weird sigil, inscribed with incomprehensible stuff. Nothing to find there.

I walked towards the sigil, even stepping on it, but nope, nothing. We should be searching for a similar one, right?

Well, this one had already outlived its purpose, so I took the liberty of testing how durable it really was.

With claws in one hand, and determination on the other, I dug!
Digging was really easy with this multi-purpose claws. During the day I dig, during the night I kill.

At that time, I destroyed a small part of the sigil by an accident. It was an honest to God mistake. They didn't think so, however.

The earth trembled, and the skies rambled,

First time I see someone this disrespectful. Fine, no need to follow the stars, as long as you survive the day, you can move to the next level. For your fairness, I will even throw something extra if you indeed survive. Lazy, stupid bitch.

Now this was an antsy God. What, did he bet on me passing the first level under some kind of time limit? That was stupid, I didn't trust myself to pass a cooking test and he did that? Or whatever, I was only guessing till the skies trembled. Right on spot, right?

It was a nice sight, I wouldn't have even thought it was possible for the skies to freaking tremble, before this. Don't worry pal, I'm pretty sure the other gods will forgive you for your stupidity.

Quest Announcement: Difficulty increased twice

Antagonizing a God. Number one thing on the list of fucking cool, and on do not ever do again.

 

"Shouldn't the quest-"

Quest: Survive till the end of the day For the duration of the day, all monsters will be attracted towards your position as a natural instinct and will try to kill you, no exceptions. Completion: Receive forgiveness from God Advance to second level

"Preceed the announcement..."

The cat got my tongue. How could I speak after this.
With no warning whatsoever Luna jumped at me with reddened eyes. I could see her desperation and sadness... she couldn't hold back.

Despite being tired from all of my workout, I was still in a good shape to escape. I backed off as fast as I could, not wanting to end up in a serious fight between me and Luna, as I didn't know who would get out alive.

However, escaping was only a dream with Luna's speed and agility. I felt tears in my eyes escaping. I didn't want to do this, but it is probably what she wanted me to do, to help me. I saw a big flaw in her movements, a mistake she doesn't usually make. She went a step further, and ended up within my attack range.

I swiped with the claw at her feet, seriously injuring her, but rendering her immobile in the process. Argh, I know I will hate myself after this, but now wasn't the time.

I run without looking back. I quite possibly lost my best friend, the only one I had ever truly made, because of some thoughless words.

If I simply run, all the other monsters would quickly catch up to me and wear me out till I die. Monsters like that ogre weren't going to be a problem, but monsters like that wolf-o-mantis, or the hounds, or heck, a second Luna, would be my end.

I had to get somewhere with an advantage. Somewhere I could beat even Luna. Unfortunately, the only place I knew that fitted these requirements was in the hell-hounds territory.

Change of plans, I head back to the cave, and prepare the best I can. Close spaces should limit the power of numbers, or their mobility. Based on how frequently me and Luna met monsters, they should be quite spread out, but within three hours I won't have an escape left.

I don't know how long it will take me to reach that cave, but it will be a close call nonetheless. Unless I find a similar cave close by, I have to risk it.

Without leaving time to waste, I run towards the cave. It was at this moment I thanked all Gods for my enhanced stats, because if I was like the first day I came here, there wouldn't even be the question of surviving.

So, a whole day is it?

I run, bearing a thousand different thoughts, I run. Without stopping, almost forgetting to breath, I run.

A few minutes later, I met a four-armed monkey standing in my way. I could outrun it perhaps, and perhaps I should, but my emotions were boiling right now. I wasn't gonna let it go that easily.

I didn't stop and neither did the monster move out of my way. Running towards it at full speed, I rammed claws first towards it, skewering it with them.

I lost some time, and my breathing got messed up, but I certainly felt better. Nothing better than venting while running for your life.

Towards my way there, I met about a dozen of monsters, and the rate was raising by the minute.

Maybe I should hunt them and decrease their numbers while they have yet to become an army. It would be pointless running towards different places, but now that I was here, I certainly could do that.

I bit a leg I had tore off from some monster to regain energy. My chances were slim at best.

"Mom, just what have I done wrong... I'm lost. The only thing I did was follow your words and give what treatment I received, to those that treated me the way they received." I held back a tear and many thoughts about killing that bastard. It was going to be a problem if I suddenly received a quest about killing him and certainly more trouble than it was worth.

I didn't have any time to recollect my thoughts, however, as the first big batch came to greet me.

Nineteen monsters in total. A few four-armed monkeys that excelled in close combat and were going to be a pain in the ass in an enclosed space, some wolf-o-mantises, but due to their small numbers I doubted they were going to be a problem, some new monsters, some old, and finally, some hell-hounds.

It seemed no more infighting would occur, but I didn't place my hopes on it in the first place, so no big surprises. It was a bit disheartening to try and fight all these bastards alone, but I didn't have any other options, Luna was no longer by my side.

I held the sharpest claws in the world with me. Albeit a bit uncomfortable after all the wearing; I wasn't a craftsman, but I had done a great job with what they've been through with me and held.

The monsters rushed, and I waited; the first idiot would be taught a lesson the hard way. They all were disorganized and messed up each other's movements, but they had no need for coordination in the first place. Comparing them, to the well thought out fights I had with the hell-hounds, even though at first sight it seemed hopeless, the cave would cut off a lot of that rush. I stood a chance.

Some monsters rammed into the walls of the cave, but most were just forced in the middle. The monsters that rammed head first to the walls were out for the count. However, seeing their mad rush, I knew it would be impossible to stop a stumpede like that, so I run back.

The cave got thinner, and thinner the further you went, but the monsters themselves also lost a lot of their initial force. It was my time to act.

I clawed at the face of a four-armed monkey in front of me, slicing its face into four pieces.

With no time to rest, I quickly run out of the way of wolf-o-mantis, then used the claws to insta kill it. That's what not paying attention in the battlefield does kids, so avoid as an example that mantis-o-wolf.

As far as kills went, those two were the easiest ones. I couldn't reach well those that spread out, but their frenzy made it easier for me. If it was a well coordinated attack like that of the hounds, I would be dead in minutes now.

I killed with ease those that got close to me, getting some injuries in the process that just continued to accumulate. I had to finish all of them fast enough to get some rest in between. This was going to be hard.

I interchanged between full frontal attacks and running all over the place, thinning their numbers as fast as I could, while getting the least amount of injuries as possible.

Due to the heightened state of my senses I didn't know how much time had passed when I finished, but I felt more like a beast than not right now and it was all going to get worse.

I panted heavily and stood to rest in the wall. I had to recover as fast as I could and normal resting wasn't nearly gonna cut it.

I grabbed and filled my mouth with as much meat as I could, all in hope to hasten my recovery. I gotta say it worked to a point, but the different kinds of poison mixed up and I didn't feel all that well.

Some of the monster's meat energy went towards recovering me and some towards fighting the poisons in my body.

I could barely move because of the pain, but seeing monsters still rushing in, I couldn't afford to be a sitting duck.

It was only two monsters now, but I had to get rid of them before the two became twenty. I got up using all of my willpower, without knowing if I had enough remaining to get up a second time.

I skewered the head of the monster rushing in, only now realizing it was a four-armed monkey. My eyesight was hazy, and I still needed more time to recover.

Not wasting any time, the other monster who's weapons seemed to be tentacles rushed towards me. This monster gave me some weirdly silly thoughts, but I had no time to enjoy them.

I could foresee he had a better defense than most monsters, but my attacks weren't blunt force, but sharp, piercing one. Truthfully, I was the worst match for it, cutting any tentacle that came close, only to kill it seconds later.

If only more enemies were like it.

I heaved deeply, trying to focus all of my energy towards recovering for the next round, and the next and the one after it.

 

I barely managed to recover when monsters kept on coming, only to face another huge group of them immediately. No resting for the wicked I see. I barely even knew how I kept my sanity through the pain and fight. Fear, anger, sadness... at one point my mind became numb.

The monsters kept on coming and I kept on resisting. No other explanation, everything else grew blurry, and soon I had no other thoughts aside from killing all who came. My eyes lost focus, as an ogre hit my shoulder really hard, but refocused immediately the next second; definitely broken. I run past some monsters, immediately reaching that ogre's neck, and slashed at it. Of course, from previous experience, I didn't stop just at that but took his eyes as well.

I would like to see how that big shit would go around this. Of course, it didn't; it collapsed a minute later, crashing two monsters underneath his big body. Sigh, that's what happens when you're unlucky. Of course, I really needed that energy boost, as my injuries got worse and worse. My broken shoulder was only a small part of them, that contributed to many more injuries.

I didn't know for how long I was fighting, only that the ground was literally covered with monsters. I guess meeting my end like this, I can't say I didn't try. I closed my eyes as if waiting for the end to come.

Nah, screw this, I never understood those that didn't go out with a bang anyways.
Running towards three hounds, I decapitated one, and pierced the one next to it in a split second, giving no time for them to react, before being rammed away by the third bastard. It was a sacrificial move, as I skewered my claws through his head the next moment. No monster would expect to leave this place alive.

suddenly, they stopped their attacks.
It was as if they were held back by some sort of invisible power.

Quest Completed: Awarded a pass for this level

What the heck was this?!
The quest seriously said a day, right? Or was it survive the day?
So I just needed to survive for a few hours, not a whole day... thank God, I myself didn't know if I would last another second. After being relieved, as if a strange force passed through me, my legs gave away and I fell to the ground.

Tears filled my eyes as I laughed the pain away. My body couldn't possibly hold out any longer, and for the last few minutes blood run like water through my orifices. Clearly, my body was on the verge of collapsing, if it already hadn't.

Now wasn't the time to sleep, however. If I slept at a moment like this, I might just kill myself.

"Hey! Almighty and oh so great God!" I yelled to the skies.
"Where is Luna?" I asked as kindly as I could, trying not to let any of my spite towards him, out.

All of a sudden, a light appeared beside me and Luna was there the next moment. Her injuries were as bad as ever... I really didn't hold back then, did I?

Still, she was conscious, just like me. It was going to get pretty awkward with all of these bastards of some monsters interupting our reunion. Since they weren't moving, I calmly walked towards them and one by one, I killed them. Those bastards came to kill me. Naturally, I wasn't going to let them off.

Even after seeing their fellow monsters getting killed by me, they still didn't move. Simply more work than it was worth.

After I was done, I hugged Luna. Tears finally escaped my eyes, as I couldn't hold them back anymore. Without knowing when, or how, the kind embrace of sleep took me over.

 

Well, that was a nice sleep. Knowing you have to get up even if you don't actually have to is the bad part about living in this place.

I nudge Luna who seemed to have grown fond of cuddling me while sleeping and get up. Time to see what did I gain from all this fiasco and what that said extra he would throw in, is.

"ID!" I said in an excited voice.

Level: 1 Status: Health value : 18/35(+4) Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 30 (+8) Dexterity value : 23 (+5) Agility value : 23 (+4) Vitality value : 32 (+10) Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 15 (+5) Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 8 (+3) Status alignments: Tissue damage

What should be impossible to do even in two months, happened in one day... just because I overworked myself a little. I should be doing this more often, hehe..

I took this strange time to laugh a little, but looking at the still sleepy face of Luna, I quickly reprimanded myself for those thoughts.

Besides, if even my status says tissue damage, it must mean I fucked up my body really well. Like, the stat gains say it too; who in their sane minds can rise their vitality by ten whole points in one day?

The cells got destroyed and reconstructed over a couple thousand times during those hours, and for that, I have to thank the immense amounts of energy I had to intake in order to survive. Needed to continue destroying myself, or else there wouldn't be a self to destroy.

"Come on sleepy head, wake up!" I called out to Luna who seemed to still feel a bit weak. She should eat more; always eat your veggies Luna, always. Look at how strong I am, and I never skipped my veggies. Though then again, we first need to have veggies.

Actually, my body should be suffering from all sort of diseases, and problems, as I haven't had other nutrients than meat for months!

Guess since I haven't had a problem for now, neither will I in the future. Rae meat is getting a bit monotonous though... a slight change of pace were the hell-hounds which were albeit a bit ugly, but on the other side, they had that cooked feel.

I should capture one hell-hound to cook my meat! How the heck hadn't I thought about it before. Also, my survival skills can find me some edible stuff to go with it. I have so many things I did not take advantage of, it makes me feel stupid.

With renewed vigor, I turned to grab Luna and find some hounds. Seeing her in the middle of eating, as well as knowing she had to rest, I realized I couldn't bring her with me. I didn't want to disrupt her, so I gave her a slight smile and headed towards the mouth of the cave, "Imma improve our food here, you just rest a bit."

It was kinda far, so I took it up on me to run the whole way there, find a good one that we can also keep in check easily and run back with it in tow.

Masterpiece!

Pushing myself above the normal limits seemed to be the only way to get some significant power up now, so I did not only sprint, but also made sure to run fast enough to get dead tired within the one tenth of the distance.

I didn't rest, nor took any energizing meat, but kept going. If I was so lax on myself, I would never improve. I should tell Luna to do the same.

Running close to the outer edges of the hell-hound's territory, it seemed I wouldn't even have to search. Much better, because I was on my last legs right now and searching would have killed me.

Maybe I should have taken some meat to restore my energy only to push myself further... yea, that would have worked better. After all, this was only a few levels above the exercises I was doing back then. It seems like I need to go the extra mile in more than one way.

Resting for a bit, I refocused my attention to the poor specimen i had my eyes on. It was a small hell-hound, a lot smaller and weaker than most hell-hounds actually, fighting two normal four-armed monkeys who seemed to be bullying him. If we took into account that it was most likely them playing with their prey, I was more than likely to appear as its hero!

Having rested enough, with a piece of raw meat in my mouth, I stood up and rushed for that small houndy. It seemed like they were wrapping it up too,so I sped up.

In a split second I crossed the hundred meter distance between us, and surprised the houndy just as much as the two monkeys. The surprise didn't last for all that long however for the two monkeys, that accidentally lost their heads with a single swipe from my hand. I wasn't even wearing my claws... too powerful?

Well, it didn't seem like my plan was going accordingly, as the wolf regarded me as a threat the same way he did to those monkeys. Too much of a shock factor, too little heroism. Well, it wasn't all that wrong in actuality, but I didn't want to have such a bad start, especially so if I was gonna make him, or force him, to make mines and Luna's food.

I put on a kind, loving smile, ruffling his hair, despite the flames. I didn't even feel them actually.

... Maybe I'm more of a monster than they're. But honestly who cares when you do have an actual monster for a bestie? Luna would tell me if I was more monsterish than her, right?

I overthought the weirdest stuff ever. Anyways, I had come to like this ugly lil piece of a hound; looking at it closer resembled a zombie puppy. I lift him up from the neck, and move towards the cave. The whole duration of the journey, houndy fought tirelessly, but to no avail. He would've been really cute, weren't the fact he resembled an apocalypse.

After trying constantly to burn me, near the end it seemed to have tired himself out, falling either unconscious, or to sleep. Seems like cooked meals would have to wait a bit longer.

I went inside the cave, finding Luna rolling around the floor, bored out of her mind. Too much energy.

I wondered how she would react to houndy, but no weird reactions from her. Well, that too was fine, I guess. I introduced her to my plans, and finally she grew a bit excited. Maybe one more family member? Depends on how things develop.

I once again went out to search for edible good other than meat, and maybe, just maybe we would have our first real meal tonight.

I still had to decide what to do with the level pass, and oh so many more things that would come to follow, but for now imma just enjoy life.

Life had so much more than it showed to the eye, it was borderline criminal not to enjoy it with how I liked to live.

 

Another day, another day...
I still can't believe my plan actually worked and we had a normal meal after all these ages.

One thing I noticed, many of the meat's properties and energy are lost when cooked. Well, that's just balance; you can't count your chickens before they hatch I guess.

As for the hound, we let him free to do what he wanted as his services were no longer needed. We expected him to be gone by morning, not to wake up from a surprise attack from him...

This little bastard just doesn't give up. Is this because I saved him? Nah, he tried to kill me for real this morning. He should already be clear about the vast difference between our powers, so why didn't he run?

Taking a look at this little fella, his flames flared up the moment our eyes met; his eyes filled not so much with anger, as with challenge.

I see, he wanted strength!

Me and Luna didn't do anything to him and just let him follow us. Of course, that is after a heavy beating for attacking us first thing in the morning.

I am planning on using that pass to get out of this level soon, but because more and more interesting stuff keeps popping out, I keep increasing the time I planned to stay here.

I don't know if the pass will take all of us, or just me, but that God didn't seem so stupid, so I could trust him not to screw up on that part. I don't even have a proof that this pass exists other than the memory, but from what I'm guessing, if I yell it out, think of using it, or try to use it with the system with a command like the ID, one of these should work.

As more and more time passed without us meeting any monsters, our stroll became a bit boring. Thankfully we had the perfect playmate!

Houndy!

I should really find him a proper name if he's gonna stay with us, but since he wants strength, sparring is the best solution after monster meat, right?

It was like playing with a normal puppy, only that he used fire as well. And it seemed his skin was much better than before. Something that looking back, only the stronger hounds had as a trait.

They can't handle their flames or what?

"From now on your name is Hash and I forbid you to use your flames while traveling with us!" I suddenly said to him. I don't know how much of it he understood, but he seems smarter than most animals, so I will trust him on that.

All in all, these were the most peaceful days we've ever had for... like ever?
Food was right inside our home and without traveling for dozens of kilometres you had no way to find any other monster in the area.

I hated that... we would grow complacent if any more of this lifestyle continued. A break was fine, but I guess it's time to move.

"Use pass!" I called out loudly.

I expected nothing to happen, but suddenly, me, Luna and Hash saw the world fading to white, as if we were moving countless times faster than we've ever had.

"Dear apprentices, welcome to the second level of the tutorial." A voice suddenly came from behind us.

Just now I realised we were no longer in that empty white space, but inside an enormous mansion.

"Is this the second level?" I asked the man that spoke to me previously... no, to us.

What did 'apprentices' mean, and what was that huge city outside... and just how many thousands of humans were there?!

"Yes it is." He said with a kind, amiable smile, "If you would look at your status, you will see that you've now advanced to the second level. I believe you already expected something like that, but that's not even the good part." He quickly hinted at us, prompting to check right now.

"Yes, aside from the level gain, you will see ten Unaffiliated Status Points of which you can use to increase any of your stats." He said.

Right now curiosity was burning me, but I held back. "What do you mean by apprentices?" I asked. This was my second question and it seemed to pleasantly surprised the man, who answered soon after I finished speaking.

"Glad you asked. By apprentices it means being able to use the system, like view your status screen, but also being viable for the leveling rewards. The actual meaning of the word apprentices is not known, but it is how the Gods refer to people such as you." He said, and I thought that was it, but he continued, and his next sentence was what surprised me the most.

"What's actually weird is that your friends here are too categorized under apprentices. Normally you don't bring a monster with you, unless you forcefully tame it using the system at the loss of three out of the ten USP you receive, since having such a threat next to your throat isn't preferred, but even monsters that you make accompany you without taming them, none are eligible to use the system." He curiously got closer to Luna, before she growled at him, making him jump back in surprise.

"Well, no one will tolerate any kind of damage your monster friends cause, so be careful with them." He said and left, clearly a bit annoyed about that last event.

It was here I saw some problems with Hash, but honestly, who even cares about those rules. Well, using these points now would be a waste, but more importantly how do these two guys access the system? I can see that's the small gift that God meant, but we don't even have an instructions manual!

Lamenting on the lack of foresight of those Gods, I casually walked out of the big mansion.

Suddenly all eyes were on me.
... Shit!

I was still naked, wasn't I?

 

Trying to evade the huge embarrassment, I quickly run back into the mansion, but it seemed locked.

Just great! Those bastards even locked me out... I will have a good talk with them later if I can.

"Nothing to see here." I called out, but no one turned their attention away from me. Simple annoyance really... I stopped bothering with them and quickly walked into what seemed like a clothing's store.

No money or anything valuable was on me, aside maybe from the claw weapon I had fashioned for myself... which too was almost shit by now.

Grabbing the first clothes I found in front of me, I turned to the cashier, "Want these monster claws for the clothes?" I said.

He too wasn't able to avoid looking into some of my more private parts, but I was wearing nothing, so it's not like I don't excuse him. Being red from embarrassment, he nodded and I quickly threw the claws to him.

Now at least I could walk around... it seemed I had grabbed a few men's attention, but this could prove more useful than bad.

Walking around for a little, I confirmed 3 men that followed me 'discreetly'. With how honed my senses were from the daily battles I had, and how they too didn't seem to care about hiding themselves too much, it was no wonder I managed to detect them in a split second.

Of course, the tricky part was to detect them, without making them realise it.

As I already had my targets, I walked into a less populated road, then to one that was mostly empty of people.

Finally, they seemed to have grown some balls and attacked me. Two out of the three... well, maybe the third one was a bit smarter. Alas, I could no longer hope to bait him as well. At least I will be able to see what these two had for me.

Seeing their obvious as heck movements, I laughed inwardly, "What do these two fine sirs want with this poor lady?" I asked with a smile.

"Nothing much. Just a good night, one full of pleasure and love." They said, not even bothering to hode their intentions. Ai, what has the world done to the mindset of these retards... the constant stress and fear of death must have reduced them to retardation.

Not bothering any longer, I punched the guy in front of me with all of my strength, throwing him off the ground, onto a few metres forward. It sort of felt like punching concrete walls, but regardless, the guy was unconscious, lying motionless where he had fallen.

His friend's expression wasn't the best one, but at least he didn't try to run and hide. Instead, before I could even punch him, he had fallen into a dogeza position asking for forgiveness...

I shouldn't kill someone on my first day here, right?
That's just bad luck... I will just relieve him of his items and be done with it.

True to my words, I didn't chase them after they were completely naked.
Serves them right for looking at my naked body and having such thoughts!

Of course, the third guy was nowhere do be seen, and soon I too wasn't.

I got something that could be described as this city's currency, but because I had no information, I didn't know how much I had gotten from them.

Other than that, they had a map of the place, and some miscellaneous items that I couldn't be bothered to keep.

Finding the nearest inn, I took out what should have been an overpayment, and seemingly rented the best room the inn had to offer.

It was good, so no matter how much I spent, it was worth it.
There was even a freaking shower inside!

I found my heaven on hell.

I was most likely gonna stay on this inn for a while, and maybe find out some common information about this place.

All this could of course could wait until after the shower, and even more importantly, the king sized bed! No way I was leaving this place without trying them out.

 

Well, it seemed I was leaving before I tried the bed...
The whole place was rented, and unfortunately the weaker ones, meaning the whole lot of us, had to be booted out.

As unfortunate as it may have been, we were reimbursed the amount we paid in full amount, plus something more.

It's not like the guys that suddenly rented the whole place gave a lot of money for this, but that no one could stand up to them.

Personally it was beneficial to me, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth.

I had the choice of going against some guys that had enough power to force anyone in the city listen to their commands, or just support the poor guys after they left.

I'm not stupid, so the second choice is what I will have!

If I remember well, they must have lost two or three months of income from that incident... I will just give them back what they lost. Anything more is too bothersome.

And just like that I searched for a new inn, after having found some basic information this time...

It was a cheap small book that explained everything we new girls... and guys, needed in order to survive in this city.

No one knew if the current currency would be used elsewhere, but it was never bad to have too much.

People started working and doing less dangerous jobs, especially after someone somehow confirmed the matter of the validity of the currency.

The facilities were already there, so it was pretty easy for everyone to get accustomed if we go by the fact there was already some "police" inside the city to guarantee peace and quiet.

Sigh... if only that police was more active in the desolate parts of the city too... nah, then I wouldn't have been able to counter steal those guys.

If I wanted to get some money I would need some sort of job, or to hunt monsters...

Like, the choice is obvious, right?
I still need to find a way to progress to the next level, so sitting around the city is gonna help no one.

The inn I found was not as good as the other one, but their best rooms were still pretty good. The price didn't matter all that much to me, so with the same amount of money I managed to settle somewhere pretty good. Even more so, the place had that same king sized bed.

The moment I saw the bed I was like, take my money!
Which reminded me I had quite a bit of cashy cashy... time to find more ways to spend it after I help those guys. I just know I will be rolling with the bucks soon, so no need to be conservative.

Auctions and special items? Check!
Betting and shit? Check!
Fight in the arena for money? Check!
Watch classified information for money? Check!

I think I already love this shitty... I mean, city.

This time I was able to sleep without any interruptions, and my mood had obviously improved after that. Of course, it was when I woke up that I saw the problem...

Somehow Luna and Hash had managed to tear the bed apart... without me waking up!

Ermm... this is gonna be annoying.
Should I just run?

 

Running at the end didn't work out, but I wouldn't want to be kicked out from an inn a scond time in a row anyways.

After paying for a new bed, I searched for the best places to spend my money. Of course information on how to progress to the next level was vital, but it seemed impossible to find.

Naturally I went for the second best choice and tried to find information on how to improve my strength the best.

For a few purple coins, the highest valued ones, I managed to obtain a map with the best places to hunt marked and some good information on how others increased their strength compared to me.

Aside from that, I also managed to clear up some other questions that burned my head for a while, like how did the coin thingy start? Were there actually any natives on this world, or were we all alone from the beginning? Stuff like that.

Well, it seemed that aside from the men I saw on my first day here in the city Lord's mansion, there were a few natives on some shops, on the garrison protecting the city walls, the 'police' and finally, the head of the Adventurer's guild.

It also seemed like that guy was the primary cause of the coins spreading so much around us, apprentices, by informing us of the true value those coins held, as well as of ways we could obtain more.

In my head that guy of course is a legend, because he managed to make a new economy from nothing... well, more like introduce us to it than make it on his own, but it wasn't that much different with us, apprentices, outnumbering the natives on such a scale.

All of the starting money must have come from him, or at least the vast majority of it, because no one from us had anything at the beginning...

Hehe, sometimes I'm too smart for this world. Others wouldn't even realise the actual power of the achievement he accomplished, but I did, and I'm sure as hell going to get on his good books!

Which makes me wonder... how did he gain such a bad reputation amongst us, apprentices? Well, I will find out in due time, but first I should check on people who buy monster parts, and on people who craft weapons from them.

Ah, too much thinking for my own good... scratch my previous plans, I'm going out for some hunting. Staying in this city for even those two days was stuffy enough. I'm pretty sure Luna and Hush will agree.

Coming with the materials ready leaves a better impression anyways, doesn't it?

 

Good story

 

From where I was to the city walls to the outside, it really only took less than an hour, but then again I was expecting some trouble popping up and to my surprise, it didn't.

Can't get used to this... might need to step up my profile then.
Might also wanna look out in case I kill myself with my stupidities...

As for the outside, it wasn't as unnatural as I expected it to be... I mean, so far this world has only been surprises after surprises after shit, so watching a peaceful forest scenery really blew my mind.

I was truly considering making a picnic here, just to enjoy the view a bit more closely.
Not outside the city walls of course; those were only a massive hindrance as far as I was concerned, aesthetically.

Stopping only for a minute to enjoy the view, I continued with Luna and Hash following, paying attention to any possible ambushes from nearby monsters. I wasn't going to underestimate this world after all I had seen, no matter what the scenery was.

Of course, for things to go from moderately good, to amazingly bad in just five minutes might be because I was appreciating the nature a tad bit too much... like, I'm sure you too wouldn't notice a tree filled with poisonous snakes, and that the surprise would have been just as bad seeing them jump on you from seemingly nowhere.

At the moment shit hit the fan, I had two options and my mind was divided in two...
One part of me wanted to test their poison against me, and probably try to upgrade my poison resistance, while the other wanted me to stop underestimating the new enemies and get the heck out of there.

Should have listened to the latter voice, but it wasn't like I agreed on the first one either. Just that because I was slow in deciding, things got messy pretty fast.

I mean, heck! The city walls were still visible, and I hadn't been outside for more than ten minutes, but I'm already locked in a mortal combat...

Looking at one of the fuckers that jumped on me, I punched as a reflex, making that small snake nothing more than dust in the wind.
I think the information said they were supposedly weak monsters, high lethality but low defense... still, when dealing with over a hundred of them, you start feeling that they might be a bit more dangerous than what described on the book.

Not off to a great start, but I could deal with that.
Might want to cut down on the damage and go up in speed... I will need some monster corpses to show after all if I want to get some money, and I honestly doubt they will give me anything for monster meat paste.

As if that snake dying was a signal, the rest of the fuckers jumped on me from all sides, making evasion pretty much impossible. Luckily for them, I am stupid. But unluckily for them, their poison isn't instantaneous... or at least it isn't for me, because while more than 30 of these little bastards managed to bite me, I managed in return to wipe them all out.

Could have gone better, especially so if they had focused on Luna and Hash, but then again that in turn allowed them to focus on killing the little snakes faster... it was all about trade-offs; you win some, you lose some, and that's life.

Now I would have appreciated some armor, or at least not plain old clothes, but the damage wasn't all too bad,

"ID!"

Level: 2 Status: Health value : 27/35 Mana value : 0/50 Strength value : 30 Dexterity value : 23 Agility value : 23 Vitality value : 32 Intelligence value : 14 Wisdom value : 9 Defence value : 15 Unaffiliated Status Points: 10 Skills: Minor poison resistance level: 9 (+1) Status alignments: Minor paralysis Organ failure Cell deterioration

Could have been worse... right?
I mean, those stats haven't improved since... ever! Yet, the moment I'm bitten by these little bastards, my poison resistance goes up by one.

Could try eating one of these little snakes as a snack, might restore some vitality lost in the fight, or from the poison.
Then again, there is probably poison in those corpses as well, so not the smartest idea while I'm still so heavily poisoned.

While thinking of that, I started gathering them in my not so impressive backpack, just in time for a stupid monkey to show up and steal it...

Just perfect!
Fucking perfect... couldn't have wanted a day without the good old monkeys. I really started to miss them after sort off annihilating them on the previous level.

This marked the beginning of a great day, trust me, I know one when I see it.

 

"This is survival of the fittest," I muttered above the monkey's corpse.

The mesmerizing landscape and scenery got less and less as I chased that monkey, reaching the same greenery as the previous level at one point. Looking at the map again, it seemed like nothing nice could last more than a few kilometers, but on the other side, the monsters here might suit my needs.

Here monsters were more common, yet it was even harder to find a prey...
None of these cunning fools were easy to catch as evident from that monkey, if not slippery and cunning, then dangerous to follow... people who used to be solitary wolfs had to make teams in order to hunt.

I mean, having a monster set up a trap for you definitely was a first for me...
That bastard and the snakes were definitely teaming up!

Well, that said and done, I doubt I will need help, although the spike in difficulty is notable.
"Oh poor monsters, your Gods invited an apprentice of Hell to you... if you must curse at someone, curse at them, for what is to follow might break you." I said with an eerie laugh at the end of my words.

I might have been a bit too much, as even Luna and Hash backed away a few steps... well, I was bored for quite a while just my excitement leaked a bit.

I casually picked one strong looking wolf and threw a stone at it. Well, judging by his growls, I imagine it got pretty angry at me, but that was the plan in the first place. I made a signal to Hash and Luna to not help; this was my target.

All in all, I had no weapons and was a bit poisoned, so this would make for a good warm up.

The wolf run towards me, and I only stood there with my arms open as if waiting to hug him. Well, I didn't have to wait for long, as the wolf was pretty darn fast. Maybe only Luna could match him in speed, but seeing his power, the only way Luna would be able to win is by taking advantage of her agility.

Well, I was a bit different. I waited till the last moment to make any preperations, unexpectandly catching the silly wolf off guard... my hand hit its head hard and it fell unconsious, or dead.

Well, that was anticlimatic, but with the speed he was moving, it was an obvious result after he threw his face to my punch.

Sigh... now to pick between the others for a... better test.
So many good choices... so this time imma go with the wolf's companion, seeing as it's barely holding itself back.

Making a provocative signal didn't work, and I imagine throwing rocks at it would be the same... maybe something could be done if I hid Luna and Hash... or at least Luna, cause Hash didn't seem all that threatening.

"Well, no choice," I said under my breath, "seeing you ain't comming to me, let me come to you then!" I dashed and run with my maximum speed, that while it should be a bit slow for them, it did the trick.

The other wolf turning around to fight me didn't show any more signs of hesitation. Wouldn't want to let it down, now would I?
I basically rammed onto him, fist first, again targetting the head.

This one, however, managed to at least evade the hit and in turn bit my hand hard enough to almost tear it apart. Didn't let it happen of course, as a powerfull kick to its sides did the job of making it let me go.

As a bonus to the poison, I now was bleeding profusely and my right arm was immobile. Well, could have gone better if the poison didn't restrict my movements, but I'm really stupid letting myself so open after an attack...

Looking at the wolf with clear eyes, I charged at it again, this time not so recklessly as before.
Looking at its sharp claws, I was glad my current agility allowed me to at least evade those. Now it was just some slugfest, with the wolf giving none. Well, it managed to get a claw in and ruin my clothes, but no big injury...

Lesson learned, it's hard to fight with only your non-dominant hand, and I really don't have the stamina for this, as evident from me collapsing as soon as the fight was over.

Luna and Hash at least had my backs, so no animal tried to get close to me while I was so vulrnable. Perfect contrast to my earlier words!

Looking at the two dead wolves, I wondered if Hash would eat with us, but it seems he had no problems. The energy from those two was astounding, and even my previous wounds recovered to a great extent, besides my energy.

Luna didn't eat with us, opting to hunt for her own meals. "More for me anyways." I said in a low voice. At the end, I was a mess with my manners at the table, not to mention all the blood, but my injuries had healed, and I even felt a bit stronger. Poison didn't seem to leave as easily, but I couldn't feel it any longer, so no bother.

At the end of it, I wondered when had I changed from loving wolves and doggies, to this...
Well, in a fight of survival no one would care about the race of the opponent, but looking things back, I might have been a bit too bloodthirsty for my own good.

It ended well of course, so no more lessons to be learnt from this.

Luna came back with a feathery mess, seemingly proud for having hunted an airborn target.
Well, good for her, but it was getting late, and we had to find a safe place to rest for the night, as well as decide on who's gonna stay for the lookout. Hash was out of course, he tried to kill us a few times before, and my trust isn't that much on him right now.

That left Luna and me...
Looking at her tired eyes, it probably only left me... oh well, I was full of energy regardless.

"A productive day," I said, looking at Luna eating her prey enjoyably.
"Ahh, this is life!" I wanted to yell, but kept my words in at the last second, knowing how much unwanted attention it would gather if I just yelled out of nowhere.