[ Points received! - 1,500 Renown! ]

[ Title: First blood - Become the first person in your world to slay a wild beast. +2 to all stats, +5% effectiveness to all attributes. ]

As Dexter discovered a path down the mountain, he stumbled upon a trio of goats. Or were they wolves? The canines ravaging fields of grass and wildflowers would surely confuse anyone. If they obliged, Dexter would have happily ignored the creatures and went on his way. But the damned meat heads decided to charge at him, lowering their enlarged horns towards his heart. Luckily, his shaft was longer.

"Baka."

Yanking the spear out of the goat-wolf? Wolf-goat? Whatever it was called skull, Dexter took two steps back, focusing Iron Shroud through the spear. Slowly but surely the energy left his palm and seeped into the weapon, flowing towards the blade.

It was then Dexter's next attack surprised both himself and the second charging, golf? No. There's no way I can call it that. But the beast couldn't stop in time to avoid the accelerated tip of his spear. Like his armor set, the weapon held an ability, and he had just discovered its function.

This time he had to yank the spear harder, as it had sunk further into the creature's skull. For a second, he thought it was stuck, but he managed to pull the spear out before the last one caught him off guard.

Turning his attention to the horned beast, Dexter began to amplify Iron Shroud. Controlling the attunement was both a mental and physical exertion, like attempting to control a new limb. It drained his energy at a dangerous rate, forcing him to cancel the ability. But as he cut off the attunement, sending the vibrating energy through the weapon, he accidentally triggered a cool down.

The foolish mistake almost caused a delay in his attack, and Dexter barely managed to avoid the charging horns that careened past him. The breeze that followed in the—Dexter shrugged, "golf it is"—wake, warned that a direct hit would pierce his flesh, puncturing an artery. He could only hope his armor would do its job, and wasn't simply for decoration. Its ability was still a mystery after all.

Holding his spear at the ready, Dexter looked the mountain goat over, observing its burgeoning clawed hooves and horns. He knew little about the original animal, but it was obvious that the changes to the new world had already altered it. In his mind's eye, he pictured the Arashic Rifts and their unstable energy, further mutating the local wildlife. How long would it take for the beast to evolve into a behemoth? He didn't know, but he was in a race against time. He needed to get strong before the first rift appeared.

Gripping his spear, Dexter charged alongside the mountain goat. His challenge caused steam to flow out of flared nostrils, and he could see red in the beast's eyes. But by then the goat had already come within six feet, and it was already too late for it to turn back.

Planting the butt-end of the spear into the ground, Dexter lowered the angle, watching as the entire shaft entered through the beast's chest, bursting out of its back. At the last moment, he managed to imbue Iron Shroud, and received a critical hit. Unfortunately, the scene wasn't something he could ignore, and his eyes remained locked on the pulsating heart impaled on his spear.

Grimacing, Dexter pulled at the collar of his leather breastplate, it felt as if someone had turned on a furnace. He was tempted to pull off his armor when the stench of blood hit him. His mind could no longer block it out. He even tasted a bit of iron, realizing that some blood had found its way into his mouth.

"Is this how my characters feel after battle?" There was a thrill that he couldn't deny, but the aftermath was more visceral than he would like.

His first two kills had been brutal as well, but they failed to hold his focus as he was forced to push them aside. Now he stood in the open with no excuse. If he wanted his weapon back, he would have to remove the heart and pull it from the shaking corpse.

An hour later, Dexter walked through the barren grass on the mountain side, washing down a health bar to rid the taste of blood from his mouth. He supposed he should have chosen one of the other flavors that did not match the color of blood, but he had already taken a bite out of one. Though perhaps he would try a blue one after all because each time he encountered a set of mountain goat hybrids, the taste of blood returned to his mouth.

"Speak of the devil," Dexter sighed. He wondered why he kept drawing their aggro, when he realized it must have been the blood of their brethren staining his armor. Since his first kill, he had racked up over a dozen more, and each kill left their mark. He wouldn't mind as much if the little buggers increased his Renown score, but instead they dropped a measly little twenty Essence Tokens.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Raising his spear, Dexter activated its haste ability and struck down the beasts before they could pose a threat. However, before he moved on, he improvised a rag from bits of fur and washed off the remaining blood on his armor. He had to do the procedure three more times before he decided to stop in one of the caves he had passed.

The idea was to allow the creatures to move on, hopefully graze in a different area. But he wanted another shot at leveling through the absorption of ambient energy. He realized it wouldn't be as effective in the wild compared to the purity and potency of the Nullification Zone, but he knew it was possible. And if he could combine both methods to raise his level, they should ease the difficulty of his quest.

Time passed as Dexter struggled to 'become one' with nature. Memories of his time in the Nullification Zone rushed to the forefront of his mind, though he never truly realized what he had done at the time. The comfort of his guitar had lulled him into a state of relaxation, but it wasn't like he could take that out in the middle of the wilderness. Goats were the least of his worries, there was no telling what other sort of predator roamed the area.

Breaking down each of the memories to its base components, Dexter tried to push the ambient energy away from himself. But that failed to do anything besides waste his own energy. Instead of reverberating off the cave walls, the energy evaporated into thin air. After an hour attempting to recreate the previous scenario, Dexter finally accepted that he would need to learn a new method.

The session wasn't an entire failure, however. While practicing with his spear, he managed to complement Iron Shroud with the spear's ability. The method required him to channel his energy into the weapon, without restarting and triggering a cool down.

Satisfied, Dexter left the cave and headed further down the mountain. The flora became more abundant as he walked. Wild flowers attracted an assortment of flies the size of grapes. Fortunately, they were harmless, but as the goats' horns grew larger, and they took on more predator features, he suspected the same would occur with the flies. Would he need to tame a frog in case they got too big?

The implication hit Dexter as he kicked a stone out from his path. He had been wondering why the goats were the only beasts he had encountered so far. Their natural predators were nowhere to be seen, allowing them to evolve. That could only mean there were variants that would grow in level without natural constraints placed on them.

"Elites?" Dexter whispered, growing cautious with each step. It seemed he may encounter the beasts for his quests faster than he expected.

As he continued down the mountain with a steady but alert pace, his spear twirled, searching for a natural resting spot that would pose the fastest option for defense in case of an ambush. Even after all the goats he had slain, the skill's synergy remained at 0%, but he wasn't blind to the connection the skill was slowly forming between himself and the weapon. Synergy was akin to levels for Mastery skills, where proficiency was used for standard skills like his attunement.

Through their usage, Dexter had come to better learn how skills functioned. There were three components where Mastery came in last, shoring up standard skills combat effectiveness by adapting the person's physiology. The first aspect of skill usage dealt with activation, draining vital energy to power the selected skill. Mastery skills were different, however, operating in a low powered state that was always active.

The second aspect dealt with intent, and required the user to fine tune their energy flow. The nature of Iron Shroud had allowed Dexter to discover this knowledge, and with it, he was able to gain greater control over his energy, supplying the parts of his body that Advanced Spear Mastery emphasized, with more fuel.

Dexter weighed the differences between the skill types, wondering which in the long run was more effective, when he located a treasure chest. It was an inferior version of the bronze chest that spawned for him. Unwilling to call out and announce his presence, Dexter went to open the chest, when he discovered that it was completely intact. There was a makeshift armor set, a less than stellar sword, and even a small pouch with fifteen ration bars. Certain items were missing, like the path token and compass, but he suspected they weren't available for non-ranked chests.

"Why would someone leave this?" Dexter questioned, when he noticed a trail of blood in the direction he was heading. Someone else had spawned in the area and was heading towards the same Safe Zone.

"Was," Dexter emphasized as he swiftly looted the chest. Compared to the RPGs he often played, now was the time when he'd typically enter stealth mode and continue forward, but without such a skill, he looked around for another path down the mountain. He even considered circling back from where he had come.

But an insight dawned on him as he stashed away the health bars. There was no such thing as a Safe Zone. Sure, it'd offer reprieve, but it would never keep him safe from the wild. There would come a time when the horrors of the new world swarmed, and any such hesitation would only dull his blade. No longer could he afford to avoid confrontations like he did in his previous life.

Fastening the sword to his waistband, Dexter stored the makeshift armor in his gig bag. There was no point in letting it go to waste. Hell, he even considered taking the chest with him as an inventory, but it was too unwieldy.

Ready for whatever was to come, Dexter followed the blood trail. Scuff marks meandered in a zigzag pattern for over an hour, until he came upon the source of the blood. It clung to the side of the mountain ridge for dear life, trapped by a pack of the wolven goats, impatiently waiting below. The man's only option was to climb to safety, and he had managed to do just that, gaining a good distance. However, at the end of his journey, his weight had betrayed him.

Frantic eyes fell to Dexter as the man's left hand slipped, leaving him dangling by a single arm.

"HELP ME!"

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" Dexter frowned.

Confusion morphed the man's face, switching to indignation as he noticed Dexter's spear. "Use that damned thing already!"

"That's right. You're the asshole who stole my money and left me stranded on the remote part of an island, in a foreign country no less."