The two days I spent recovering from that disastrous fight were by far the least productive days yet. I received no experience, did almost no exercises, and made no improvements to my camp. I just lay there, waiting out the Cracked Ribs debuff. It would have been longer, or I could have done more, but after my mana pool had recovered a bit, I discovered that 'Arcane Body' has a hidden bonus that all of my testing had failed to discover. While channeling mana to it, the countdown on my 'Cracked Ribs' debuff moves at an increases rate.

If I put mana in at the same rate I regenerate it at, the speed is doubled, reducing the forty hour recovery to just twenty hours. But channeling mana takes focus, though for this task only a little, so I mostly just lay there, in my grass lined sleeping spot, trying not to move too much as the time fell away. I stopped the channeling only to butcher the deer, and to eat a meal of its venison. Even after the injury healed and I could move without pain, there wasn't much left to do in the cave without venturing out for more resources.

I dare not do that, as another encounter with a deer would surely kill me. If I had not been full on both health and mana, or if I had been unable to absorb some of the damage with my mana pool, the deer's charge would have killed me outright. Every time I recall that fight, the mental image of the charging deer makes me shudder. I don't think Ill ever forget the visceral crunch as I impacted the tree. My mind know that the noise must have come from the tree behind me, but in my nightmares it is the sound of my ribs breaking. From full health and mana to two points in a single strike. Any other First Tier would have been dead.

I was idly musing on that fact - while watching the mana in my pool come in and go out, sending my health ticking slowly upward - when I noticed a change to my status page that I had failed to notice earlier. Immediately after slaying the deer, my stored experience had jumped by two points; from five out of the twenty one points in level ten, to seven of twenty one. While the System Log does not list why I gained those two points, nor even exactly when I gained them, I am sure that I got them for slaying the deer. A welcome but unexpected prize.

I reflect that with just seven more deer I could reach Tier Two, setting a village record or two in the process. And just like that it dawns on me that I now know the secret, the truth about the depths that my elders always cautioned me against seeking. The levels that come from the deep lie do not in using your skills, gradually stretching their limits and learning about the underlying magic that makes them possible, the way everyone does. The levels in the deep come directly from its monsters, stored in the lives of those twisted beasts imprisoned in these falsely sunned caves.

I could see how a less than cautious adventurer could bite off more than they can chew, and die to a monster stronger than they can slay. After all, despite the fact that I remain alive, that is exactly what I have done. There is no way I should have made it even this far.

In spite of that sobering realization, I can still feel the call, the pull of easy progress making my heart race as I picture the bounty of levels just waiting to be harvested. Just five breaths ago I had not the courage to face even one more of the aggressive deer, and now I was contemplating their wholesale slaughter like I had some means of carrying it out. With a deep breath I get my imagination under tight control. Over reaching in here will get me more killed than I am already.

In the meantime I focus on processing the materials I have harvested from the deer. The hide gets started on a crude tanning process; a series of treatments, stretching, and cleaning meant to turn it into something useable, despite lacking all of the tools normally used in the tanning process. The quality will be lousy, closer to raw hide than finished leather, but I should be able to use it for something. The meat gets converted too jerky over the fire, and the bones cleaned and stored for later use in crafting tools and weapons. Every part of this animal is yielding top grade Tier One materials, an uncommon sight on the surface. While Tier One deer are common on the surface, they usually only have a few parts of their bodies sufficiently mana dense to remain at that Tier after death. A full load of Tier One materials is a really good harvest for a single deer, even of the danger in killing him was much too steep.

By the time my health and mana have fully recovered, I am itching to hunt once again. I have several ideas on how to make killing these beasts safer, but much testing will be required.

My first test is relatively simple. Once more I am sitting in a tree, waiting for a deer to show itself. I have chosen a spot on a bend in the creek, using it's relatively treeless bank to extend my sight lines as far as possible. With a loop of vine around a sapling down below, I hope to use motion to attract the strangely predatory deer. And they are true predators, with only sharp teeth for tearing flesh instead of the normal flat, plant grinding ones. If the motion of the branch fails to draw them in, I will have to start experimenting with bait to see what attracts them - besides me.

I don't have to wait long for a deer to make an appearance. This one is colored very similar to the first, but is smaller and lacking the large rack of antlers the first one had. Instead, two horns top its head, short and mostly straight, with sharp points. As the deer approaches the water, I give the vine in my hand a small tug, causing the springy sapling below to jiggle. Not a ton of motion, but out of place enough to get any forest creatures attention.

A normal deer might have gone running at the noise and motion, suspecting some predator in the bush. But the twisted inhabitants of this cave are not normal deer, and this specimen bares its fangs and steps towards the sound, sniffing the air as it picks its way closer. I give the sapling another jiggle, smaller than the first, just to keep its attention on the motion. It picks up the pace, not charging exactly, but walking with confidence through the bushes until it reaches the offending sapling. Like a hound on the hunt, it sniffs the small tree, then the ground around it, and finally, starts to follow my scent up the trunk of the larger tree I am in.

"Good enough for me." I said aloud, as I jumped from my perch. My chosen spot is fairly high up in the tree, about eighteen stride up, I think. The fall lasts barely more than a breath, just long enough for my prey to hear my voice and start to move, it's head swiveling to lock its eyes onto me even as it's body starts to move out of the way. But time and speed are on my side, and my booted feet slam into is hindquarters at the same time as my spear into its back. The spearpoint misses the spine, unfortunately, slicing deep about midway between the front and back legs. I can feel a rib catch the blade, then give way under the force as the spear continues through. Both of us flop to the ground, the deer screaming in pain and lashing out at me with its hooves as I roll quickly away. I catch one strike to the back that my robs me of air as it launches me out of range.

I feel, more than see the system message informing me,

'- 2 Health. 6 points of mana consumed instead.'

But I have no time to read it as I roll to my feet, pulling my hatchet from its place on my belt and whirling to confront the wailing hind.

To my surprise, the deer is not pursuing me. It is struggling to rise, the spear having gone all the way through it into the ground. With enough leverage it can probably pull free, but with the angle it is at there is no way to get its rear hooves underneath it. So I circle it for a moment, and when I reach the furthest point it can swivel in it current position I lunge in, grabbing a horn as a handle to hold it steady while I chop at its neck. I push mana into 'Arcane Body' steadying my grip as the deer bucks wildly, straining its horns back to gore me. One, two, three chops into the beast before it screaming is replaced with burbling as it start to rapidly bleed out. I jump back out of striking range as the deer's struggle weakens. This time I catch the moment when two points of experience are added to my total, bringing me to nine.

As I remove my spear from the corpse. I notice that a deathly silence has fallen over the woods, and an ominous, dreadful foreboding washes over me. Taking my weapons in hand I listen to the feeling in my gut and run. First along the creek bank until I reach an area of large stones, just below the water, then hopping from one stone to the next, breaking any scent trail. Then back out onto the opposite bank. After a minute of running, the birdsong resumes and I stop cautiously to take a break, rinsing the blood from my weapons and hands. Then, still deeply unsettled, I return to my cave, keeping a keen eye out for anything unusual in the trees.