Virgil took deep breaths as he sat, feeling the strain on his muscles and the pain from his wounds. He looked down from where he sat, and saw that he was quite a ways up from where he started, at least two or three stories up from the ground.

After catching his breath, he began lowering himself down to the lower branches. His exhaustion began catching up to him as he descended, nearly slipping and losing his grip a couple times, but he made it work, finally finding himself back on the branch he started from.

He sat back on the thick branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes as he tried to catch his breath. His arms were sore, and all the pain he had been ignoring began to come back with a vengeance, but he simply kept breathing.

A memory from many years ago began coming back to him as he sat breathing. Back when he was still living with Adelaide, a year after he first began living with her.

“So…I know I may look like a simple woman living a simple life,” Adelaide said with a tough, slightly raspy voice. She sat at the wooden dining table in the kitchen, across from Virgil. A cup of black coffee was held in both of her hands, and she stared down into the cup with a serious, reminiscent face.

“But I came here to this backwater county to find some peace and quiet.” She looked up from her cup of coffee and stared at Virgil with a pair of blue eyes. The compassionate look that Virgil was used to disappeared, and the cold, heavy look of someone who had seen hell and survived was evident on her face.

Virgil didn’t reply, only swallowed hard as he met her stare. She sighed and sat back, her eyes relaxing some. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid that my past may catch up to me soon, and since you live here now, you should know that things may get dangerous around here. You’re more than welcome to stay, but I’d understand if you’d rather avoid any of my trouble.”

Virgil looked down at the table, thinking before he spoke. After a minute, he sighed and shrugged. “I got nowhere else to go, so if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stick around for a bit longer.” He gave her a small smirk. “Besides, I’m no stranger to trouble. We’ll just deal with it as it comes.”

Adelaide stared at Virgil for a minute before breaking out into laughter. The tense atmosphere lifted immediately as she did, and Virgil’s smirk turned up into a small smile.

“Ha! You talk like you’ve lived a full life already, but you’re barely eighteen!” She laughed, wiping at her eyes a bit. “Anyways, if you’ll be staying, then I can teach you a few things about survival that I picked up over the years, though I know you probably know a good amount already.”

Virgil’s eyes snapped open, not even realizing he fell asleep. The orange glow of the setting sun let him know that he had slept for a couple hours, and soon it would be night. His stomach roared with hunger, and he knew that his best chance at surviving this mess was the large fruit in his bag.

He was cautious about eating a foreign fruit, but after consideration, he told himself that if he didn’t at least try to feed himself, he’d die of hunger. He pulled his bag onto his lap, and dug through it, searching for something. After he found what he was looking for, he pulled it out. In his hand, he held a black switchblade.

He had gotten it many years ago, when he was living the nomadic life, before he met Adelaide. It had come in handy many times, and he was thankful he kept it in his bag. He pulled out the large fruit from his bag, and laid it on his lap, pulling his bag back on. Pressing a button on the side of the handle, a four inch stainless steel blade popped out of the top.

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After a moment’s hesitation, he began carving the fruit into slices. Despite the faint scales of the fruit, it was easy enough to cut through. Juice spilled onto his lap as he cut, and a sweet smell began to fill the air, making Virgil lick his lips in anticipation.

He cut half the fruit into smaller slices, and pulled out his last rag to wrap the remaining fruit up to store in his bag. After putting the rest away, Virgil was left with two slices. The inside of the fruit was not what Virgil expected. He actually didn’t know what to expect.

The inside of the fruit was mostly an off-white, like a normal apple, but what threw him off was the orange coloration on the outer edges that faded into the off-white color as it neared the edge of the slice.

Virgil examined the fruit for a bit longer before his growling stomach brought him out of his daze. He took a breath, and with only a slight hesitation, he took a decently sized bite out of one slice. As the fruit hit his tongue, his taste buds felt like they were supercharged with flavor.

The perfect taste of the sweet fruit caused him to scarf down the rest of the slice, and before he even realized, he had eaten both slices he laid out.

“That was…amazing…but..” Before he could say any more, a warm feeling spread through his body.

The hair on his arms stood at attention and his eyes went wide as he was filled with energy.

The warmth grew and grew in intensity, and in the next moment, Virgil could feel his head begin to swim. His vision began to blur as his body felt like it was being microwaved.

Feeling like he was about to pass out, he fumbled with the belt that kept his pants up, pulling it out of the loops on his pants, and wrapping it around his thighs, as well as the branch he sat on. If he were to pass out here, falling onto the ground would be a death sentence.

As he tightened his belt, he felt secure enough to finally let whatever was going to happen happen. He sat back and closed his eyes, feeling himself start to slip away.

“Haha, who would’ve thought this would be how I die..” he mumbled to himself, before he passed out.

An unknown amount of time later, bright light strained Virgil’s eyes as he awoke. The sounds of lively insects and the rustling of wind through the trees filled the air around him. As his eyes adjusted, he immediately noticed some differences. But before he could ponder on them, a screen floated in front of him, exactly like the one he had seen before.

YOU HAVE CONSUMED A WORLD FRUIT.

YOUR BODY HAS BEEN ENHANCED

+10 TO ALL STATS

Before he could process what he had read, the window disappeared, and was replaced by another with more text.

CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE REACHED A NEW RANK

TWO STAR HUMAN

+5 TO ALL STATS

YOU NOW HAVE ACCESS TO SYSTEM STATISTICS.

Virgil finished reading the window, and was left with even more questions. Stats? Ranks? And what the hell was the system? He re-read the window, trying to process the meaning, and when he decided he was done, the window dismissed itself, disappearing from view.

He sat there, staring into space, lost in thought and processing everything he had just seen. After a minute lost in thought, he just shrugged, and rose to his feet. Immediately, he noticed that his body felt much lighter and his head felt clearer than ever. His body felt stronger and more limber than usual.

The pain that plagued him earlier completely disappeared, and as he unraveled the bloody rags from around the wounds, he saw that the bite marks completely vanished. He ran his fingers over the spots where the wounds had been, but nothing but smooth, unblemished skin could be felt.

“Amazing… “ he mumbled, in wonder at the sudden changes in his body. “There’s no way that fruit was just some common thing.”

He pulled his backpack on more tightly. After limbering up a bit, he jumped back up to reach the branch he sat on before. But to his surprise, instead of leaping up to grab the branch, his body flew upwards, as if unaffected by gravity.

He landed on top of the branch, nearly losing his balance at the unexpected movement. He managed to catch himself before toppling forward, and straightened up.

A wide grin broke out on Virgil’s face. “This is unreal!” He walked toward the trunk of the tree and picked up his spear he left leaned against it. He backed up a few steps and looked up. Locking in on his destination, he bent his knees, and sprang up, flying up through the air between the branches.

He grabbed the next branch with one hand, and used his momentum to swing himself forward to the next branch.

He kept on this way for a while, flying through the forest with the speed and skill of a trained acrobat. He lost track of time as he leapt from branch to branch, and as he finally started to feel his stamina running low, he made his last few jumps to the top branches of a tree.

He was at least 70 feet off of the ground at this point, and as his feet touched down on the final branch, his heart was racing a mile a minute. He took some time to catch his breath, standing and enjoying the cool breeze that flowed through the trees.

“I think I might really like this new world.” he said, smiling ear to ear.