Awoken by morning light he found himself starving. A quick look around he realized his things were gone. Even his clothes were different from the night before… something happened. Not yet having thought of it, his mind had been consumed by the joy of a second chance. He needed food though. Without his pack, the one he put damn nearly everything he could fit into, he had nothing to eat and nothing to start a fire. An idea raced through his mind; he found the tallest tree that looked climbable. Pulling himself up Ren began to see further and further until the trunks began to be too thin to bear him much further.

With a scouting eye he looked for any sense of civilization, and smoke, cleared fields, cattle, anything. Within all his eyes could see there was nothing. Two high mountains stood north and south. To the east and west were high hills that stretched too high to see over. Longing for a campfire to sit next to and feast he came down, sliding and scraping all the sway.

Sighing, he pulled out his revolver and imagined two bullets in his quiver that were now strapped to his legs. These pants were no material he recognized, they were uniformly dark brown and fit tightly. His shirt was much the same, some odd material, comfortable yet clingy, it too was dark brown, only his cloak breaking the pattern as a dark green, swaying in the wind.

His mind again went fuzzy like the night before, reaching down his fingers felt two bullets, and he swiftly put them into the gun. His mana was down to one point, at least it wasn’t zero this time.

Though his mind was foggy his body was powerful and ready to strike. Activating his stealth, he became a shadow in the underbrush and flowed from shadow to shadow until the tracks of a large beast met his path. Massive paws the size of his own feet lay before him, canine and terrifying. Terrifying, if you cared about self-preservation that is.

Using the tracking ability, Ren tried to analyze tracks at the same time as using stealth. Causing a small mental strain but not drawing on mana reserves, he briefly saw the mental impression of a huge wolf, dark brown. A name came to the tip of his tongue, but the strain saw too much. Instead, he focused his mental efforts on the tracking ability. A faint white sheen lined the tracks, giving the impression of a direction. Going forth, time became meaningless as the routine of moving stealthily, while maintaining constant vigilance became all-consuming.

In time, Ren came to the mouth of a rocky passage at the foot of one of the mountains. High-sloping walls and loose stone towered above him on all sides. If not consumed by the constant drive to track the wolf the sheer size of the world around him would have left him feeling insignificant.

As midday came, he felt an energy come forth from him, an intense pressure in his mind from hours of tracking. It was not the pressure of pain, but that of his nerves on edge sensing every little detail around him.

The smallest sound tickled his ears, a wet-tearing, and slapping. With every ounce of grace within him, he moved to peer out from behind a great stone along the walls that surrounded him.

Beyond was the great wolf, terrible in its size and strength of body. Underneath it was the body of a mountain goat, small and frail in comparison. Pulling forth his revolver he aimed as a sneak attack activated.

Dire Wolf lvl. 5

Boom. An eruption sounded out as though the gun was firing at a far higher caliber. The sneak attack gave immense power to the bullet as it struck into the chest of the great wolf. Blood splattered forth as the projectile exited the body.

With a great yelp, the wolf turned to the source of the sound. Stunned it stared at Ren for moments before shifting to leap forwards. A second bullet came forth just as it turned to leap. The strike lodged into its chest. With a growl the wolf went mad, it threw itself clumsily forward as its life was draining away.

Leaping back Ren prepared to fire again but the great maw of the beast came for his neck. Throwing himself to the side he rolled. The heavy body of the wolf impacted the stone where he was moments ago.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Pulling out his knife he held both blade and gun before him. As the wolf came to lunge again, he met it. Slamming his knife into its neck he fired his final shot into the side of its skull. Great claws tore at his body as it thrashed in denial of its swiftly approaching death.

The massive skull of the animal seemed to have stopped the bullet before much damage was done. Bleeding terribly from four wounds, the blood-drenched brown mass lifted from the dirt.

“How are you alive?” He barely managed to get out. His pain was terrible. Its scythe-like claws had torn at his strange odd clothing. From shoulder to waist diagonal red gashes spilled blood in an oozing wave.

With his bone blade before him, he crouched ready to stab forward.

Circling him, the wolf barely could keep itself up. Faking to his right it weaved back and struck true to his left, attempting to take off his leg.

Sliding back, he extended his arm in a slash that flickered across one of its eyes. In a moment of weakness, he struck again, stabbing into the base of its neck.

Pulling itself back it collapsed, falling to the earth for the final time. Staring into the dying face of the beast he felt pity, but in truth, it would have happily ambushed him and eaten him half alive given the slightest chance. To live, this must become his reality.

Cutting a portion off the bottom of his cloak he wrapped himself up as best as he could. His health was at sixteen of a maximum of thirty.

Looking beyond the wolf and to the side, his stomach grumbled as he saw the half-eaten goat. Dammit.

Hauling it over his shoulder he began to walk back towards the forest beyond the rocky walls.

After the agony of carrying the goat for some time, what felt like hours subjectively, he arrived back in the woods. Putting the goat over a branch he began gathering wood. When he had enough of a pile to make a proper fire, he remembered. I don’t have a lighter anymore. Shit.

Thinking about how to start a fire, without a lighter, an idea came. When he thought of a bullet, a bullet appeared in his quiver. Could he… attempting to manifest objects from thin air seemed idiotic as he just gave himself a headache, spending none of his now regenerated mana.

Then a new idea came. Going down to his knees he knelt before the wood.

“Burn!” He shouted. Nothing happened, a deep frown overtaking his face.

Squinting down at the wood as if it had stolen his girlfriend, he imagined a tiny heat in his hands. A small trickle of mana left him as his focus became more intent. After several long minutes a heat writhed in his hands, a wiggling squirming shimmer yet no flame. His mana was nearly drained by the act. Slamming down his focus, he condensed the heat into a tiny ball and pushed it into the tinder at the center of the campfire.

Whoosh.

A small flame began to crackle in the fire. With a terrible grin, he began cooking his meal.

The sun had passed from midday into a calm evening. Ren’s stomach was stuffed and there was more than enough left.

With a mental prompt, he looked at his menu.

Congratulations: Rogue Level 2

Name: Ren

Race: Human

Alignment: N/N

Class: Rough level 2 Tier 0

Skill: N/A

Titles: Gate-Walker

HP:26/30 SP:38/40 MP:17/25

Attributes:

Str: 6

Vit: 6

End: 8

Dex: 10

Wil: 5

Int :6

Free Points: 2

Abilities:

Combat: Sneak attack

Skill:

Misc: Stealth, Tracking

-Analyze, Common

-Systemic Itemization, Common

Two free points huh? Well…

He felt an influx of mental energy as a point was allocated to willpower. As well a powerful sense of agility coursed through him as dexterity increased.

Oh…

A small menu depicted his previous loot.

Inventory:

* (5) Murder Rabbit Meat

* (2) Crimson Antlers (Common)

* (1) Dire Wolf Fang (Uncommon)

So, I went hungry for nothing…

With a mental prompt, a medium-sized intact antler appeared in his hand. Inspecting it, nothing appeared from his analysis skill. Allowing the antler to return to his inventory, he tried placing the rest of the goat into the odd storage. Within a moment it had entirely disappeared.

Turning his attention to his surroundings he began generating bullets with his newly acquired mana, alongside what he regenerated while eating. Slowly he created four bullets, waiting for mana regeneration for the last. Loading back up he began back on his adventure.