Burning up the place wasn't that hard; heck, it was the easiest thing Nathan had done all night. He simply chucked the black tar into the buildings with a cup-like thing he'd found in the kitchen. Repeating the process until he'd finished dousing the liquid tar, he moved all the remaining buckets of the black tar to the edge of the clearing where he was certain fire wouldn't reach.
Then he went to the spots within the clearing that had dead bodies of imps on them, making sure to dump the black tarry liquid on each body. Next up was fire—he took out a hot firewood and used another from the kitchen to replace it.
The rest was quite easy. While he felt like eyes were falling upon him as he chucked the burning firewood into the shrine and watched it burn up, Nathan simply shrugged it off as paranoia. He did the same to the next building and the next until all the buildings were on fire. He repeated the motion on the bodies, and soon smoke filled the clearing, leaving Nathan no choice but to relocate to the edge where the buckets of tar-looking liquids were.
Nathan watched his handiwork, the flames illuminating his face and making him warm. The smoke stung his eyes as it rose through the sky. The scene was a good representation of how the world as he'd known it had gone—up in flames.
With finally a moment of peace with no pending tasks or monsters coming after his head, Nathan sat on the dirt floor. His eyes roved his surroundings for threats, but he didn't find any. With the scan completed, Nathan felt more at ease to let his mind wander.
While he didn't have a family, he did have a couple of friends—if two friends could pass as a couple. Deucalion and Kora... he wondered what the pair would be up to now. Would they have gone for the tutorial, or were they now...?
Nathan let out a breath; he hoped they were alright. A swift check confirmed that the fire wasn't spreading towards other parts. Not that he cared that much—if burning down this forest was what it took to get the government agencies to find him, then he might just do it.
Ridiculous.
Were there even any government agencies left? They'd all be in the tutorial right about now, and those who didn't go for it would probably have more pressing issues to deal with than finding strays like him. He had to accept that he was on his own for the time being. Maybe when the tutorial ended, the system would send other humans his way.
Nathan shrugged—too many variables swirled around his head, and right about now, he just wanted to relax and let his body rest. Crossing his legs as he assumed the lotus position that Kora had taught him, he closed his eyes to meditate, letting the warm wind caress his skin.
He took a deep breath in, letting his chest rise until it could no longer, and then let it out. The absence of any disturbance aided in the process as Nathan sought to balance the yin and yang in his system. He'd done it so many times with Kora as he'd tried to win her over by participating in things she liked.
Nathan had done it so many times over the last six months in school and the few times in the last few months to know that it was purely for show on his end. It did bring a little bit of calmness anytime he did the exercise, but that was it. He didn't feel as enlightened as Kora claimed the exercise did for her. He was getting ready to end the meditation when he felt something—a weird sensation in his body.
That's weird.
His brows furrowed even as Nathan's eyes were still closed; he'd never felt anything like that before. He continued the meditation, feeling the oddness starting to saturate his body. Nathan could feel something; he was almost at the cusp of something. Just a little longe—
"RARRRRRRGH!"
Nathan's eyes flashed open, sword at the ready as he jumped to his feet. The sound jolted him from the meditation as he scanned the crowd, searching for the source of the noise.
"RARRRRRGH!"
It was coming from behind him. Nathan turned quickly, slashing in hopes of catching whatever foul thing was coming after him. His sword met nothing but air. Nathan stared into the darkness, confused, the flames behind him. What had roared?
"RARRRRRGH!"
Nathan listened intently, the sound seeming to come from somewhere deep in the forest. The realization allowed him to relax a little. He was in the middle of a forest with monsters he didn't even know about, and he was wasting his time meditating while leaving himself exposed with a fucking bonfire.
Fuck!
Well, that was a little dumb. Nathan ran a hand over his face; he needed to acclimatize faster to this new world. He couldn't get so far within these past few hours and die because of a silly mistake like that. Meditation would have to wait for the time being.
He had to keep himself alert at all times, and perhaps it'd be best for him to move further away from the fire in case any monster was drawn by the bonfire he'd lit in the middle of a fucking forest.
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Nathan wouldn't necessarily term setting the imps and their buildings on fire a dumb decision—the place could be a proper base once he got to building. Plus, when he did think about it, there'd never be a good time to burn up the place. The monsters here didn't care about day and night, and he shouldn't either. More than anything, he needed to lose the idea of 'this is how things usually worked' before he ended up losing his life.
The world was changing, and he'd better change with it than be swept up in the currents, as nothing could truly be really stagnant. His first move was to back away from the fire he'd created, far enough that it wasn't reflecting on his skin but close enough that he could still see it from where he hid.
That night confirmed to Nathan what he'd been suspecting for a while now. The imps weren't the only alien entities in the area; he saw animals that looked vaguely familiar yet so different, like what looked suspiciously like hyenas but the entire pack of them had red glowing claws. They sniffed around the area, entering into the burning camp, which Nathan thought was stupid.
They did whatever they wanted to. It might've been Nathan's imagination or poor perception stat, but he almost swore that they came out looking fresh and unharmed as though they were fireproof. One look at those claws made him feel like he was on to something.
The system wasn't just changing the land; somehow it had begun mutating the native animals and flora. Nathan thought it was a little weird, but maybe the system didn't think that only humans held the right to evolution or mutation.
He himself was proof that the system was actively mutating things—his newfound strength, perception, and other stats. His unexplainable physique after just a day and some hours was another indicating factor. Heck, the biggest tip-off had to be the new skills the system had given him: Blood Rebellion and Life Steal.
Surely that was enough evidence that the system was actively seeking to make them stronger, but for what? Not for the first time since waking up in the middle of nowhere, the million-dollar question played around in his mind:
What does it want from us?
Dollars wasn't even the currency here; those stupid ra-something coins were. It was difficult to realize that all the money he'd been saving up in his shoebox at home had suddenly turned useless overnight. A little part of him wished that the system could do a currency exchange; he'd happily turn in his dollars for some ra coins right about now.
A weird thought crossed his mind, and Nathan almost blanched at it. Was he even on Earth right now, or had he been transported into a different plane of existence entirely? If the answer was yes, then it'd explain a lot of things like the purple sky at night and the crimson one during the day. The weird animals and the weird everything.
Was this even Earth?
Nathan quickly dispelled the notion of being on another world; the system had clearly stated that it had terraformed Earth. From the little geography classes he'd actually bothered to attend, he knew it probably meant something about changing the land. Plus, it'd said something about populating the Earth, which explained the aliens.
The hyenas—or those things that looked like hyenas—weren't the only things that looked through the camp. Nathan was too far away for his analyze skill to work, at least that was what he assumed as he had to squint to see the monsters rifling through the burning camp from this far out.
Some monsters came alone. He managed to see a black-furred animal or monster that just sat on its hind legs watching the fire before going on all fours and padding away. It looked like it belonged to the cat family; the swagger and the gait made him certain. Cats always seemed unbothered about everything, always.
The animal or monster was as big as a black bear, if not bigger. The funny thing was that Nathan didn't actually know how tall or big a black bear was; he just assumed that if there was one next to the big cat, the bear would be smaller. He rifled through his memory, trying to figure out which animal that could be, eventually ending up labeling it a panther.
For one, panthers were solitary creatures, preferring to stay on their own and hunt alone, they had black fur, so it pretty much made sense for Nathan. Black fur, alone, and a cat equaled panther unless the system proved him wrong.
Land creatures weren't the only ones who paid a visit to the burning site that night; he saw a couple of weird-looking birds scan the area from the air before moving on. A few actually got to the ground before leaving and going their own way.
All in all, Nathan was pretty glad he'd decided to get up and go far away from the flames; there was no telling how many fights he'd have had if he'd stayed put at his first spot. The panther alone looked like it'd be able to take him on with no problem, probably injuring him in ways he'd rather not have right about now.
He just imagined struggling against the panther and then having those hyena-looking creatures jump in, and then maybe he'd have to fight multiple creatures at once, all seeking to take a bite out of his tasty flesh. He was a little miffed though. Were they hunting him because they thought he'd taste good, or maybe because they wanted to use him to level up?
Did the system work the same way for him as it did the monsters, or did they have a different one from his? Nathan didn't see how that would work out really; they all probably had the same system. However, when it came to them hunting him, it could be because of any of the other two.
When he'd fought the pelican-looking bird, it hadn't shown a level, meaning it probably didn't have a system of its own. However, Nathan had already classified it as food before he'd even landed his first attack. That meant that they could be hunting for food or level up just the same as Nathan. Heck, if Nathan didn't have those fruits from the crib, he'd have had to hunt tomorrow for food, plus he still had his bird.
The bird.
Nathan winced—it was still in the camp. It had probably burned to a crisp right now, more likely it would've turned to ash. He pinched the bridge of his nose, not even bothering to berate himself; the bird was gone. He closed his eyes at the thought and ultimately fell asleep to it.
__________
When Nathan awoke, he saw that the fire had died down overnight; it was morning now. He could tell because the sky had turned crimson. The air smelled of ash, and the grounds around the clearing were charred.
He got to his feet and stretched, having fallen asleep in a weird position the previous night. A couple of pops here and there, and Nathan felt good. He started to make his way to the camp when a notification popped into his field of vision, the words giving him pause.
Outpost successfully destroyed.
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