His consciousness returned to the sensation of something warm seeping into his mouth.

Alan's face was pressed against the ground. He coughed up blood, but it wasn't his own. The crimson liquid bubbled copiously from the monster's muzzle. Due to capillary action, the blood wicked across his falchion and pooled around his head, covering half of his face.

There was a pair of dead eyes staring right back at him from the wolf on the ground, and letting out a huge sigh of relief, he couldn't believe his last-ditch effort worked, especially since his health, stamina, and mana were all nearly tapped out.

He received the usual kill and myst confirmation, but was more than pleased to see a new notification.

Achievement Unlocked! You faced a foe beyond your measure and emerged triumphant. Having exhausted every ounce of your energy you've tapped into the core of your being. Witness a holistic enhancement in all your attributes.

Boon acquired! [Boon of Augmentation] - Broadly amplifies your core stats. Experience growth in every dimension of your abilities.

The thought of gaining a new boon after experiencing the effects of Manafestation was captivating. Alan and his bruised hands grasped the falchion and forced it out of the thunderhowl wolf’s maw and the mess of congealed gore that tangled behind the creature’s unsightly neck.

He uncorked and drank half of his last health potion, and felt relief as his ruptured eardrums began to heal.

The muffled words, “Fuck dude,” came loud and clear after a second. The sunlight reflected serenely off the man’s rectangular, modern-style glasses.

“Um…hey, what’s up?”

Only an inch shorter than Alan, the man spoke with a frantic, but distinct Boston accent. He had short brown hair and hazel eyes that darted around nervously as he shook uncontrollably. “What do you mean 'what's up'? Shit man, that was incredible. Thank you for handling...that thing. I'm Bobby by the way.”

Alan stretched his lower back exaggeratedly. “Not a problem, Bobby. That was a fun fight.”

Bobby slumped on the ground and put a hand on top of Alan’s falchion. Watch it. His arm shrank away when Alan snapped his falchion up and rested it on his shoulder.

“Goddammit man. I’m still shaking—”

“You didn’t say please,” Alan said with a smile.

“Touché. I think we should stay together, we made a pretty good team back there. Have you figured out which way to go?”

Alan bobbed his head around. He noticed they were standing on a small clearing; the clouds were gone and the sun shone bright.

“There,” Alan said, pointing his sword northeast.

“Holy shit, that’s wicked huge.” Bobby’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the massive tree looming in the distance. “That…that’s bigger than Boston.”

The tree rose above the clouds. Even Alan was mesmerized; he couldn’t see the canopy and found it difficult to gauge the width.

“Anyways, we can party up and see how it goes,” Alan started hyping himself up. “But I want to keep grinding. Are you up for that?”

“You want to fight more of those beasts? You are crazy!” Bobby sighed.

“Though, I understand if you want to take a different route—”

Bobby didn’t let him finish, “No, wait… It’s been a few hours. Aren’t you hungry?”

“You know what, I should probably eat something. Now that I think about it, we also need to figure out where we’ll sleep. But you’re right, let’s figure out food. It’ll give my resources time to recover.”

For a few awkward seconds, Bobby simply stood there, seemingly anticipating more from Alan's response. “Sounds good!” He looked around, and his eyes landed on the thunderhowl wolf’s dead body. “I can cook that for us.”

“You can!” Alan exclaimed more in surprise than as a question.

“Everything’s so damn humid…now that I think about it, wolves don’t live in jungles,” Bobby said.

“Yet, here we are fighting tropical wolves.”

Bobby scanned the area again. He still seemed on edge. “Alright, first things first, we need to make a fire. Rain’s made everything wet, but I know a few tricks.”

He made his way to the trees around them, scrutinizing the bark. “Look for a tree that has rough, fissured bark, kinda like the ones over there. They trap pockets of air and keep parts of it relatively dry even in the rain.” Sure enough, when Bobby pried away some of the bark from one tree, he revealed dry, fibrous material underneath. “This here's great tinder.”

Alan watched with bewilderment as Bobby expertly gathered resources from the jungle. Having lived his whole life in the city, Alan didn't have the first clue about starting a fire in the wilderness. But he suddenly felt a swell of excitement watching Bobby work.

Next, Bobby looked around for dry twigs and branches. He focused on branches that were off the ground, shielded by larger branches overhead. “The higher up and shielded, the less wet they'll be.”

After gathering an armful of kindling, Bobby cleared a small patch of ground, brushing away any stray leaves or twigs. He arranged several stones in a circle, building a foundation for their fire.

“For the fire structure, we'll use the teepee method. It's quick and efficient,” Bobby explained as he arranged the tinder and twigs.

Alan offered his falchion. “Need a spark?”

Bobby chuckled, “Got a better idea.” From his pocket, he produced a flint and steel, another tool of his scouting days. With a few strikes, sparks flew, and the tinder caught fire. “I found these earlier near a river.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

With the fire now crackling steadily, Bobby shifted his focus to the felled wolf.

“May I?” Bobby gestured towards Alan’s sword.

Grasping the falchion, he methodically butchered the creature, carving away hunks of meat from its haunches and ribs. “We'll roast it. Simpler, and it'll retain the meat's natural flavors.”

Using long, straight branches, Bobby skewered the meat and set it above the fire. The aroma soon wafted around them, a mixture of smoke and roasting meat.

“I can tell that you’re from Massachuestts.” Alan sat down beside the fire, relaxing for the first time in hours. “So you were a chef on Earth?”

Bobby grinned, “Just a Boy Scout who paid attention. Food's always tasted better when you earn it.”

“Why the Cosmic Vanguard Program?” Alan’s speech had slowed down, as if he had finally allowed himself to rest.

Bobby shook his head, “I wasn’t aiming for this. I’m a computer programmer. My friends said this program was all a joke. Guess I’ve played too many computer games and just chose this fucking option. It all looked so game-like.” He turned the meat over, inspected it, then handed a skewer to Alan.

“And your friends?”

“It was cool for about ten minutes, then those wolves jumped us and they got all crazy. I had to split from them. I’m sure…” Bobby trailed off. “This place is going to make a lot of people crazy. We got fucked up by the universe. How about you? What did you do back home?”

“This is it for me. I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you. But, I can’t go back. I’m seeing this through to the end.”

“Is that so?” Bobby raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

Alan sighed clearly wanting to move on to another subject. “So, what pursuit did you choose?”

“I’m pretty sure it was the magic one.”

“I see. Either way, it’ll be fun to have a ‘Boy Scout who paid attention’ around. You can cook and throw rocks periodically, and I’ll do all the fighting,” Alan said before sinking his teeth into the fibrous piece of wolf meat.

“Shit, that’s a damn good deal. You’ve got yourself a Boy Scout!”

“Oh, did you figure out the mana resonance trick?” Alan asked, suddenly excited.

“I wish I did…I’ve learned nothing about this place.”

“I guess I can try to teach you, but it’s more of a feeling that you have to grasp on your own.” Alan’s eyes moved to Bobby’s bag, noticing that it was larger than his. A lot. “Did you get any good gear? Or Weapons?”

Bobby placed his hand on his own satchel. “These are all health potions,” he chortled. “I panicked after I agreed to continue. There were so many items on the list, and then the creepy bug dude started getting mad because I was taking too long.” Bobby’s pitch subtly rose as he recounted his experience. He paused for a quick inhale, then added. “Now I see that I should’ve chosen a sword like yours or something.”

“It’ll be fine, we’ll find something for you.” Alan rose, having finished his meal.

He decided to study his new boon while Bobby saved as much of the wolf meat as possible and took care of the fire.

This one sounds fantastic!

Alan was sure he wanted a magic-based build, and he had no doubt about it. Still, the prospect of superhuman strength and agility lingered in his mind. And this boon…

Doubles my strength, endurance, vitality, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom. Originally, my strength stat was a mere three. Doubling that brings it to six. While it still falls short of peak human potential, it's a significant improvement. This is…thrilling!

“All done.”

He looked back and saw Bobby all packed up and ready to go.

“I’ve got us enough food for at least a day. And only because I can’t fit any more in this bag. Can you carry these?” Poor Bobby seemed to struggle with not dropping any meat.

“More than happy,” Alan chortled. “So, from your hiking experience, do you think it will take us twenty-five days to reach the tree?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Bobby said without hesitation, then he exhaled wearily. “And I’m almost certain these wolves are just the beginning.”

Alan’s eyes glowed. “Yeah I can’t wait to see what else we’ll find here.”

“Jeez, you don’t have to sound so happy about it.”

Alan and Bobby walked for another hour, cutting through the dense jungle. As they went, packs of wolves, including one thunderhowl type, continued to attack. Alan's falchion sliced through them with ease, but he noticed he wasn't accumulating as much myst as before. It was as if the more his ‘tc’ raised, the less experience he gained from defeating these low-level creatures. After many kills, he was only able to upgrade his Boon of Augmentation once.

The boon now tripled his base stats, and though Alan rejoiced as the newfound power coursed through him, the amplification remained within human limits. His mana reserves also grew higher than ever, yet it drained at the same rapid rate. It turned out tripling his attributes consumed mana exponentially. The extra mana from his heightened stats was just enough to maintain them.

Alan also tried guiding Bobby to unlock Resonance Reveal, to no avail. Somehow though, Bobby increased his Identify aptitude two levels. Baffled, they shrugged it off, assuming their progression was dictated by their understanding of the magic system or something like that.

“Night's coming, and we'll need shelter. I’d prefer to be elevated, away from ground predators.”

Alan nodded. “My plan was gonna be to climb a tree, but I was worried about falling and dying in my sleep. You think we can make a makeshift treehouse or something?”

Bobby rubbed his chin, surveying the tall trees surrounding them. “We might not have time for a treehouse tonight, but we can make a simple platform between a couple of trees. Elevated sleep is safer in these jungles.”

Using vines and large leaves they found around, the two of them managed to construct a rudimentary platform between two strong trees, about ten feet off the ground. The thick, large leaves served as a bedding, and the vines, when woven together, created a sort of netting to prevent them from rolling off.

“Next, we'll need like an alarm system,” Bobby said.

“Alarm system?”

“Yeah, tripwires,” Bobby elaborated. “Using these vines, we can create a perimeter around our camp. If something – or someone – tries to approach, we'll know.”

Alan watched, impressed, as Bobby set up a basic perimeter, attaching small sticks to the vines which would snap and create noise if tripped over.

Once their shelter was set, Bobby turned his attention to fire. “We'll keep the fire small and under the platform. The smoke will rise and serve as a mosquito repellent, and the light won't be too visible from afar.”

“You’re too much. Teaming up with you was the best decision. Now I can definitely focus on fighting,” Alan laughed uncontrollably. “I would prefer that one of us kept watch,” he suggested. “Never know what might be lurking. I'll take first shift. I’ve slept a lot recently anyway. You get some rest.”

Bobby looked uneasy for a moment. “You sure about splitting the watch? We've just met.”

Alan chuckled softly. “Trust is earned, not given. And right now, we seem to be on the same frequency. I'll wake you in a few hours, and then you can take over.”

“Sounds good to me.”

As Bobby settled onto the platform, the sounds of the jungle intensified around them. Silver-tinted leaves. Birds chirped, and occasionally the distant calls of unknown creatures echoed through the dense foliage. Actually, not unknown; they were most definitely the calls of thunderhowl wolves.

The platform above swayed lightly in the breeze. The flickering fire cast a warm, gentle glow on Alan’s face, its crackling blended with the sounds of the jungle at night. It was…peaceful. This was one of those perfect moments that made the struggle worthwhile. His mind finally slowed down. Tomorrow will be the best day ever.