I woke to the familiar chirping of birds. Living in my treefort had afforded me the opportunity to be awoken by birds over the last few weeks instead of the harsh horns of the army camp. I briefly thought I was still in my treefort until I attempted to move and a sharp pain lanced through my back. The events of yesterday came flooding back in to my memory and I panicked as I remembered the massive cave bear.

I took a few deep breaths and tried to move again, I was still in the creek bed. I could feel my arms and legs, my right foot was in a world of pain, I must have hurt it in the explosion and subsequent flight to the creek. My back was still on fire from the bear clawing me open. I glanced down at my health bar and it was flashing red. Out of morbid curiosity I checked the number and it was at 7. I had healed much faster than this in the past so it must be related to the nature of my injuries. I couldn’t do much until I healed enough to move so I checked my notifications.

Congratulations! You have reached level 12!

Congratulations! You are the first person to reach a cumulative stat total of 100!

Congratulations! You have earned a new title! x2

New Title - Well Rounded - First person to reach 100 cumulative stats! Grants +1 to all primary stats, Gold item box.

New Title - Survivor - Survive an encounter that leaves you with less than 5 health. Grants +1 to stamina. Bronze Item Box x5.

Enhanced Explosion has reached level 5!

Identify has reached level 6!

Unorthodox has reached level 4!

I had so many new boxes, I finally found them by mentally bringing up my inventory. Although my pack was lost back at the cave, it didn’t seem to matter as far as these framework granted boxes were concerned. I decided to open the bronze item boxes first as anything that could help me heal quickly would be valuable. I knew of some potions from the camp alchemist, they were expensive and difficult to make.

Bronze Item Box - Minor healing potion x4, minor regeneration potion.

Minor Healing Potion - Heals 5 health points over 1 minute. Cooldown 1 minute.

Minor Regeneration Potion - Regenerates 5 health points over 1 hour. Cooldown 1 hour.

It felt a little too specific to be random but I was not in the position to question it. As I mentally opened the box, the potions appeared on the ground beside me. It seemed as if the boxes were created out of thin air, I had no idea how that was possible, once opened the items became real. I quickly took one of the minor healing potions and my health immediately began to tick up. I decided to take the minor regeneration potion as well. It was a small amount of health but I could almost sense that it would heal the wounds in a different way than the health potion would.

I knew from experimenting over the last two weeks that 15 health points was about the lowest I could reasonably function at. I needed to get out of this creekbed and find out what happened in the clearing. I took another health potion after the first one, I tried to do it back to back but I got an error message stating that there was a cooldown period, the potion was wasted and the liquid dissipated before my eyes.

I decided not to open the other boxes, if the items were heavy I would be at a disadvantage carrying them with me. I brought up the combat log while waiting out the cooldown period of the health potion. There was so much information, I mentally thought to only view the explosion.

Combat log - Enhanced Explosion - Explosive base damage(50)*8*Luck(3).

I remembered thinking I needed the strongest explosion possible, it wasn’t a 10 but an 8 still packed a massive punch. By my math that would result in 1200 damage at the center of the explosion, enough to kill me 24 times over. I didn’t know how much health the cave bear had but I certainly hoped it was less than 1200. When I leveled up identify more I hoped it would start showing how much health beasts had, I hadn’t had the chance to use it on a beast lower level than me since getting it leveled to 5, now 6.

The cooldown was up for the health potion so I downed another one. My health was back to 20 by now and I felt like I was ready to get up and move around. My body felt like I had fell off a cliff and tumbled all the way down. I was stiff and sore in places I had never felt before. I needed a long rest to allow myself to heal but first I needed to find out if my treefort was still secure. I slowly ambled back towards the clearing, taking my time and straining my ears. I saw the corpse of the massive bear by the base of a tree, it looked like it had been flung into the tree and had broken its spine. I triggered identify.

Intelligent Beast - Cave bear - Level 22 - Dead

As if waiting for me to confirm the bears death a notification popped across my vision.

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Congratulations! You have defeated a regional beast lord!

Congratulations! You have earned a new title!

New Title - Punching above your weight class II! - Killed two beasts 2x your level! - Grants +1 to all primary stats, gold item box!

Congratulations! You have earned a new title!

New Title - Slayer of Regional Beast Lord! - First person to slay a regional beast lord! - Increases all primary stats by 5 - Ruby item box!

Another slew of titles and notifications to go over in more detail later. My heart sank when I saw the remnants of my treefort, it was completely destroyed. The fire had burned most of the trees in the area at least partially and my former home was a casualty. The only place I had left to think of was the cave that formerly belonged to the massive dead bear filling the clearing. It would take me the rest of the day to make it in my condition but I needed to find a safe place to heal and decompress. I fought the urge to just lay down and rest, I had to get moving, my health was still regenerating, my improved stamina had increased my health pool to 96. If I focused on that number it displayed that I currently regenerated 1 health point every 5 minutes.

Heading out of the clearing towards the direction of the cave I heard a sharp chirping sound. It sounded like a wounded bird, it took me a few minutes to find where the sound was coming from. I found a small gray bird trapped under a branch, it must have been struck during the explosion.

It was impressive that it had lasted as long as it had in this forest full of predators. It reminded me of the falcons the beastmasters of the army trained for messengers. I moved the branch and the bird gave a pitiful chirp and attempted to flutter away. It was clearly too injured to move. The events of the past few weeks caught up to me in a whirl of emotion and I began to cry, I felt just like the bird, overwhelmed and trapped by circumstances out of my control. I sat down heavily on my injured foot and cradled the small bird in my hands, it fought initially and then calmed down and visibly relaxed.

I had an idea, I had one more health potion, I should probably save it for myself but I had already lost so much of myself to the savagery of this new world, this at least i could do. I unstopped the cork of the bottle and poured it out in my hand, the bird hesitantly dipped its small beak in the viscous liquid, drinking greedily once it realized what it was. The change in the bird was immediate, it must have had a small health pool, I triggered identify.

Dusk Falcon - Intelligent Beast - Level 2 - Health 3/5 - Not native to Eter, this beast was relocated by the framework. Excellent hunter, strong eyesight, stealthy and quick, this beast has a low health pool. Most active during dusk, this falcon sits high in the sky waiting to spot its prey before diving down with stunning speed.

Not native to Eter? Now the framework was bringing in other species of beasts? I just shook my head in resignation, no point in thinking about it, this framework apparently could do whatever it wanted. Once the falcons health was back up to 5, it spun around and gave my hand a sharp peck which seemed to be out of affection more so than anger. It spread its wings and took flight, circling high above the clearing before moving out of sight. I took a moment to pull up my character interface.

Sylar Till

Age

17

Race

Human

Class

Wildcard

Level

12

Strength

18

Stamina

32

Agility

24

Intelligence

22

Wisdom

36

Charisma

0

Luck

3

Armor

12

Health

22/96

My armor had dropped by a few points, I made a quick mental connection to my shredded back piece. I pulled up the armor tab to see what had changed.

Equipment - Armor - Condition

Head

None

Chest

Stryker uniform

3

Back - shredded

Arms

Stryker uniform

2

Hands

None

Legs

Stryker uniform

5

Boots

Stryker uniform

2

Weapon

None

I sighed and started the long walk back to the cave. My mind was heavy as I thought of the events of the day.