Devon sighed and sat down on a rock by the river, putting his glowing stone down. He considered his options once more. He had just been put into a whole new world, and nobody knew about him.

There probably were a few people who would help a stranger, and he thought he was paranoid enough to avoid trouble if it was a relatively normal civilization. But he found that he didn’t care about getting back to civilization as much as he thought he would. He wanted to explore this new world with no responsibilities or relationships to uphold.

He stretched and stood up. Even if he was probably vastly weaker than the monsters out here, he would find a way to survive. He was already looking for a direction to go in when he caught movement in his peripheral vision.

Devon jumped sideways like a startled deer. He had seen something black move in the river, and he wasn’t taking chances with the native wildlife. Sure enough, something rushed past his back, barely missing him. He turned towards where the thing had gone, only to find that he had made a mistake. Another tentacle was already stabbing towards him, and again he barely evaded.

The monster in the river looked like a black rock and unfolded to reveal three rolled-up tentacles that moved much faster than Devon expected. Two of these tentacles were already quickly rolling up, and the third was coming towards him. A strange calm washed over him as he prepared to battle.

“OW!” The tentacle cut open his arm even while he dove to the ground. If he was even half a second later, it would have stabbed into his chest. Devon quickly stood up, feeling very lightheaded. Was it poison? Was it just blood loss? Whatever it was, it was going to impact his ability to dodge the next tentacle. However, the next tentacle didn’t come.

He focused on the creature, trying to figure out what had happened. It was still in the river, but closer to the shore than expected. Its tentacles weren’t very long, and he easily got out of range before it could hit again.

As an ambush predator this is kind of pathetic, Devon thought. If it couldn’t even hit him, he didn’t know how it survived this long. Actually, more on that thought. Is there any way that it could kill more than one large animal a week?

Devon had no idea how this ecosystem worked though, and after some more suspicious thought he just decided to stay further out of reach while he made a wood pointy stick after washing his arm. He was still slightly fearful of the creature in the water, but he didn’t know when he would get the opportunity to fight something that couldn’t kill him immediately again. Checking up on his arm, he didn’t see any signs of poison or anything. It was just a shallow cut and had already stopped bleeding.

Going further down the river, he carefully watched the river for more creatures, and carefully dabbed at his arm with his previously used bandages soaked in the luckily clear river water. Again, he pushed away thoughts of bacteria getting into his arm. With status screens and levels what he was worrying about probably just didn’t happen in the wider worlds.

He carefully wrapped the bandage around his arm while still watching the creature, more for convenience than anything else. Both wounds had already stopped bleeding, and they honestly weren’t that bad.

His thoughts were interrupted by movement from the creature. It picked up a tentacle, staked it into the river floor, and pulled itself forward. He started, and quickly moved out of the river. It didn’t stop moving when he saw it, however, and kept scraping down the river with one tentacle.

It had up to then been submerged in the shallow river, and Devon finally got a clear look at it when it pulled itself over a rock that stuck out of the water. It was a slimy lump, with three tentacles sticking out of the top that were a few meters long. The tentacles ended with sharp barbed hooks that almost looked metal.

Devon had been planning to run as soon as he saw it moving towards him; but ironically now that he knew how truly dangerous it was he wanted to kill it. Those hooks looked like the perfect weapon for a deadly weapon, and he had taken enough wilderness survival lessons to know how to make a crude spear.

He checked his status quickly, confirming that while his arm stung, he wasn’t losing health. Backing towards a tree, he broke off a thicker branch with some effort and gripped it at the base. Luckily, the tree was healthy enough that the branch ended in a strong point. He focused on the tentacled creature once again, and two system messages appeared in the side of his vision.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Juvenile Stabber Level ??

You have learned Identify (Active)(0)!

Devon wondered where the name had come from. Why was it given such a plain name? Sure, it described it well, but he had never heard of a creature just given an English verb as its name. He was very curious about what governed the etymology, but at the same time knew that killing it was probably more pressing.

He was still out of range, but that meant it was out of range of his spear as well. He stopped for a second, letting it come closer. He dodged one more tentacle which was a risk he didn’t want to take but would have to if he wanted to kill it.

Devon noticed absently that he was way calmer than he should have been in this situation. The “Stabber” was incredibly dangerous to him, but there was no hesitation in his movements. He wasn’t very bothered by that, however, and didn’t spare any more time as it came within his makeshift spear’s range.

He thrust it forwards just as the stabber tried to gore him. The serrated edge of the much better killing tool went way over his shoulder as Devon leaned forward. The point of his branch struck true, albeit with less force than he expected. However, the creature’s skin broke easily and it quickly retracted its tentacles as Devon stepped back to avoid the next attack.

It seemed that this was unnecessary though. The stabber wobbled around, Devon noting that it didn’t seem to make any noise even in its pain. The tentacles would always suddenly stop before hitting the ground, seemingly unconsciously. That might be to help with ambushes, or maybe it just wasn’t useful to be able to posture or talk to others of its species.

Oh. He was supposed to be doing something. The stabber (stupid name) in front of him only seemed to need one hit to bleed out, and to be honest he hadn’t thought it would have gone down that easily. He pulled up his new notifications from the blinking icon he created on the side of his vision, a side view of a scorpion.

You killed Juvenile Stabber Level 10!

Level up! *3

Title acquired! Progenitor of Combat

Title acquired! Spear Master

As he exited combat, the calm feeling also lifted off of him. Instead of his heart rate going down when he killed the creature, it instead sped up. Devon looked towards the stabber he had just beaten, and slowly backed up, wondering what he had been thinking while fighting this thing.

He looked around for a culprit, maybe someone who had calmed him down or affected his brain while fighting, but all he could see was the quietly rushing river, looking much more menacing now that he knew what could be in there. Devon slowly calmed down (naturally this time hopefully), knowing that the artificial feeling that had blanketed him probably saved his life.

However, he wasn’t going to stop investigating. He had definitely felt more logical, but there were many things he could have done to easily kill the stabber. First of all, literally taking a rock and throwing it at the stabber would have killed it.

He had never needed to get into its range to kill it, and the way he had been thinking had no strategy at all. He wasn’t going to give this up quickly, so he looked at his status, finally finding the thing that had kept him so calm.

Bravery (Active)(N/A): Ripped from your old world, you may feel lost and scared. This skill will activate to help you take the strength of another.

That would explain it. It was clear proof that the system could affect his brain, and Devon wasn’t sure what to do with that information. He didn’t think he even wanted the skill if he couldn’t turn it off.

Sure, it probably did keep him from dying in the fight against the stabber, but after he dodged the first few attacks, he would rather be able to get control back. If it had activated while he was in the cave with the scorpion, it might have been fatal. He could only imagine the specific wording was what had stopped it from activating.

Devon finally decided to look at his other skills’ descriptions, and the title he had acquired during the fight.

Mana Manipulation (Active)(0): Mana is the fabric of reality. Bend it to your will.

Crafting (Passive)(0): For making items.

Spear Master (1): Wield a spear. +5% spear damage.

He did need a weapon if he wanted to be able to defend himself in melee range, so he decided to make a spear out of one of the stabber’s claws. Spear mastery didn’t seem like it would give him knowledge on how to fight, but it did give him the same percentage bonuses he had seen on other titles.

Unfortunately, the other two skills hadn’t leveled. Mana seemed like an interesting resource, though, and after he tried to make a spear out of the stabber’s harpoon he would try to access it. Checking his status again, he assigned the Free Points to Vitality. He also noticed his new title, which he had missed in his panic that somebody was controlling him.

Status

Devon

Human (100%) (+1 Free Points)

Level 4 [World Traveler]

Stats:

FP: 0

End 10 | Cu 10

Str 12 | Dex 13

Vit 12 | Int 16

Resources:

Mana: 89/160

Stamina: 94/180

Health: 53/100

Titles:

Lost, Thief (3), Brawler (1), Progenitor of Combat, Spear Master (1)

General Skills:

Explorer (Passive)(0), Al-----s C-o---, Identify (Active)(0)

Class Skills:

Bravery (Active)(N/A), Crafting (Passive)(0), Mana Manipulation (Active)(0)

Items:

Sneakers (+1 Dexterity)