Nathan was alert, staring straight up at the incoming missile that was the bird. He kept waiting for a blue screen to pop up and identify the animal, but nothing happened.

Well, that's weird. Is it because it's on a higher level than me?

He didn't have much time to think about it as the bird was seconds away from impact, its beak leading the way. Nathan prepared to swing, hoping he could time it right to catch the thing with his sword mid-dive.

A second before the bird got within range, Nathan slashed in an upward arc, hoping to meet it mid-swing. The absence of a sun to affect his eyes made it easier for him to achieve accuracy—the bird would fall to him.

Somebody should've told that to the bird, because the damned thing spread its wings and banked at the last second, its talons coming out as it sought to rake through Nathan's face. Purely by instinct, Nathan ducked. Even as he executed the motion, he felt in his heart that he wouldn't be fast enough.

Now I'll have a scar on my face. Shit!

Nathan closed his eyes to protect them as best he could, bracing for the pain as his body continued to drop into a crouch.

The kicker? The pain never came. Nathan opened his eyes a fraction of a second after he felt a gust of wind hit his face. He caught sight of the bird going back up—somehow and someway, Nathan had been fast enough to escape the bird's talons.

Barely.

He wouldn't have envisioned himself ducking that last week. Unless... his dexterity stat.

Unbelievable.

He'd survived thanks to the one point he'd spent on the stat. Talk about whiskers. Nathan glanced up and saw the bird going higher in the sky, no doubt finding a way to repeat the maneuver.

Call him crazy, but he thought that was a pelican. He wasn't sure how big those birds were supposed to be, but this one looked the size of an oversized chicken, almost twice the size of his torso. In other words: juicy.

Nathan got back on his feet and reoriented himself. He could use a ranged attack right about now—oh well. That ship had sailed.

Nathan let his perception and the wind work for him. Sticking a hand out, he felt the wind brush against it gently, going around his hand rather than trying to drill a way through.

There.

Nathan had an inkling of which way the damned bird would bank if—no, when—it failed to get him with its talons. All he had to do was be ready with a strike.

He readied himself as the bird began its second dive. The darned thing had tucked its wings in and was diving towards him like a bullet. A bullet with a life of its own.

Unfortunately for the bird, Nathan had no intentions of staying still, and he'd always prided himself as someone who was adaptable. Time to put it to the test.

And... action.

The bird went for the same predictable tactic as before, and Nathan dropped to a crouch to protect himself.

Roll the dice.

Still crouched, Nathan slashed upward in the direction he had the feeling the bird would bank to. A smile bloomed on his face as he felt his sword tear through flesh, muscle, and bone like it was wet cardboard.

He barely felt any resistance compared to when he'd been fighting against the imps. The sword didn't get stuck coming out the other side of the bird.

Splat.

Thud.

Droplets of blood fell on Nathan as he looked to his side to see the bird that had been on the receiving end of that strike. Its neck to half of its left wing had been severed. The cut looked a little blunt and less clean than he would've preferred, but he'd probably attribute that to the grade of his sword. It simply wasn't sharp enough.

The blade itself was coated in blood—red blood. Which probably meant that the bird wasn't a monster or maybe a demon. Who knows, maybe only demons had black blood. To be honest, it didn't really matter. It had attacked him and he'd defended himself, though something still nagged him: if it wasn't a monster, then why had it even attacked?

Shrugging the question away, he stood from his crouch. The adrenaline wearing off and his most important need coming back to the fore of his mind.

Water and food.

The latter was right beside him and the former was right in front of him. Nathan rushed to the shore, letting the blade clatter to the floor as he used both hands to cup some water. Then, he drank greedily, repeating the action until he didn't need to.

Only after he was done drinking water did he regain himself. Nathan could still smell the blood on his face and the ones that had gotten into his hair, matting it. He might as well have a swim. He probably stank as it was. Stripping to his boxers, he waded into the endless body of water. He'd made sure to pick up his sword before doing that, though.

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No telling what could be in the water—Nathan stayed in the shallow part. Common sense dictated that he stay far away from the deeper parts of the water body. More like a sea really. It looked endless and stretched on all sides of his vision.

He'd take a walk around the land later to find out if this was more of a beach thing than an island thing. He hoped it was the former, though. With a sigh, he started washing himself as best as he could, then cleaning his sword, careful not to stay too long in the water.

He was still dripping when he came out of the water, so he sat at the shore. The weather was hot enough without a visible sun that he'd become reasonably dry enough to put on his clothes within half an hour at most.

That was more than enough time for Nathan to get thinking.

"Happy fucking birthday," Nathan whispered to himself.

It wasn't the worst one, yet. It'd definitely be a memorable one though. Waking up in the middle of nowhere with everything trying to kill him.

Yeah, definitely up there in the top ten most memorable things. So far he seemed to have gotten the good part of the draw. His cards seemed almost lucky or blessed if you'd have it.

He'd skipped the tutorial and had survived this long; he wondered how many of the sixty-one other people were still alive. Had they received special classes too? Were they alone in a forest, hunted by creatures from fantasy books and movies?

He'd had no family to speak of, growing up alone in the streets and having to fend for himself. Sponsoring himself through high school by participating in a couple of shady—or illegal activities if you wanted to get technical.

He'd burned down that part of him as soon as he could though, taking a real job at the Snorting Dragon as soon as Mr. Wong offered it. The reason for leaving that life behind was quite simple really: he'd seen what that kind of living could do to people.

The older folks he'd interacted with while doing those kinds of things always seemed fidgety, constantly looking over their shoulders. They all tried to hide it, most pretending to be hard as rocks, but something always gave them away.

Sometimes it was the way they had to play with their fingers, always tapping on something—their pants or the table, just something. For some others, it was their eyes. Shifty. He was observant like that, always catching signs of fear in those folks.

Nathan didn't want to live like that for the rest of his life, always looking over his shoulder for threats, so he'd left—but it seemed like that life had found him again.

No worries though, I'll just be the strongest and then nobody will disturb me.

The logic was simple: climb to the top of the food chain so that he wouldn't have to fear anything. Unlike others who'd want power to oppress others—he'd gotten to see that in certain circles when he was younger—he just wanted enough power to be left alone.

He didn't want to fight anything or anyone, but if trouble came knocking, he wouldn't let it in without a fight.

Bold words, but can I prove them?

That was the question that remained. Nathan knew it was easy to talk the talk, but could he walk the walk when the time came?

Only time will tell.

"Time?" Nathan breathed, a question coming to mind.

Time till tutorial ends

Planet Grade: F

Populating World... Time till completion - 6 [13:43:27]

Spawning Dungeons and Monsters... Time till completion - 6 [13:43:27]

Tutorial Ongoing... Time till completion - 6 [13:43:27]

Strongholds: 0

Huh?

The last time Nathan had seen that screen, it had been days instead of those numbers. It wouldn't be too hard to decode anyway. It'd probably be days, hours, minutes, seconds.

Yep, that had to be it. So he had six days left before the tutorial finished and the system got through with doing the spawning and populating thing.

However, if there were only sixty-one other people who'd skipped the tutorial left, that meant billions of the people on Earth still hadn't touched down yet. Looking at it from another angle, it meant that he'd basically gotten a headstart on the whole thing.

Nice.

Quests.

Nathan watched as the information on the screen changed to display what he'd requested:

Active Quests:

1. Slay 35 imps (12/35)

2. Slay 5 Master Imps (0/5)

3. Conquer a dungeon (0/1)

Special Quests: N/A

Locked till level 50.

Not bad.

He was still a ways from completing any of those tasks. The imp task was the closest, but he still needed to find another twenty-three to be done with the quest. Twenty-three of those sneaky buggers—not only were they annoying, but he found them repulsive as well. At least he was going to be rewarded for clearing them out.

Master Imps were probably the leaders of the Imps, which meant they'd probably be levels higher than the ones he'd fought. He did find it a little weird how there wasn't a leader with the group he'd dealt with.

Oh well.

The dungeon task—quest—seemed interesting. In online games, dungeons usually gave out useful loot after clearing them, and Nathan couldn't help but imagine the rewards he could come out with. Coins were the most obvious ones, then there was the fact that dungeons were expected to have bosses—big and badass bosses. Something that would really challenge him. Nathan almost licked his lips at the thought of battle before shaking his head. He wasn't a battle maniac; it had to be the Berserker Archetype doing this to him. However, he had to admit that the potential benefits were enticing. He just needed to find one first.

Turns out the knowledge of a reward somewhere was all Nathan needed as motivation to get off his ass and get dressed. His body was still a little damp, but it was better than before.

Nathan's hoodie—if you could call it that—was covered with so many slashes he might as well have been walking around with strips of ribbon. It didn't matter though; it was better than nothing.

He picked up the dead bird and began trekking around the shore, occasionally scanning his environment for threats. The further he walked, the fewer trees he saw; there were just rocks and sand—fine sand. Nathan's sneakers squeaked as he walked, the poor things had gone through a lot in the last few hours if that timer was anything to go by. Like the rest of his clothing, he had doubts that they'd survive the week.

He kept walking regardless. The sea seemed to always be at his right-hand side no matter how far he walked, making him feel like there wasn't an end to it.

Nathan hoped he was wrong though. He couldn't be stuck on an island—oh, the horrors of being away from other people. He hoped he was just at the edge of a city rather than completely isolated from the rest of the world.

"What is that?" Nathan muttered, a familiar smell assaulting his nostrils.

Smoke.

Sure enough, as soon as he faced the direction of the smell, which was somewhere to his left, he could see smoke rising from somewhere within the forest. And where there is smoke, there is fire.

Where there is fire, there are humans.