A bright light bashed against my eyelids as consciousness stirred within me. My senses gradually came alive and embraced the sounds of wilderness that traveled the air —the distant chirping of birds, the buzzing of insects and the rustle of leaves and branches.

Drawing air with a deep breath, I felt life return to me and the hazy fog on my mind slowly dissipating. My eyelids fluttered open and I stretched my weary limbs outward, their heaviness weighing on my movement. I squinted as a barrage of light hit my eyes and momentarily blinded me.

The sun embraced me in its warmth, while moist and cold grass send a shiver up my spine. My nose tingled — a curious feeling, I thought. The tingle traveled up my nose, building momentum like a wave rising in anticipation of release. Then, with a sudden and explosive burst, my entire being convulsed.

“Achoo!”

After doing… that, a tingling echo remained in my nose for a short while and I sniffled.

Spreading my body flat again, I let my arms fall to my sides and stared upwards.

A flash of memory passed and I recalled my escape, the betrayal and the fall. There was something else, but the memory was out of my reach. I knew I was forgetting something, but it wouldn’t come to me.

Raising my right hand to shield my eyes from the radiance of the sun, a relieved sigh left my lips. I was alive.

My relief was pushed away by an impending sense of uncertainty and bewilderment.

The injuries I suffered and the abyss I fell into, both were more than fatal.

Lowering my hand, I pushed myself up from the ground with a huff.

I checked the spots where arrows had pierced through my flesh, but the arrows were gone, so was the wounds and blood. Only star-shaped scars remained where once sharp arrows had penetrated my skin.

I looked at my hands. The missing flesh in my palms had regrown and a scar formed in each, proof of my injury. My feet shared similar scars to my palms, since the nature of the injuries had been the same —unnecessarily big iron nails.

Cupping my breast with one arm and leaning over, I appraised my stomach. It was still a ravaged mess of scars, but among the dozens of scars, I spotted a new one. One whose origins I had not yet forgotten.

I inspected my scars a bit longer, but the reason for my mysterious restoration remained just that, a mystery.

I spent some time in wonder, before my gaze fell back down onto my body. My skin was wet and my hair drenched. From my memories, I remembered falling, so there must have been a river at the bottom of that gorge that was kind enough to spare my life.

With a brief look to my side, I confirmed that I lay at the bank of a river. The stream must have carried me and eventually washed me up here. I thanked the river for saving my life before returning my gaze to my body.

Thanks to my unwilling dive in the river, all the dirt and filth that built up over the time had been washed off and my skin once again returned to its golden shimmer. My hair, once matted and unkempt, now appeared silky and lustrous under the gentle sunlight.

When I passed a hand through my hair, they brushed against something I had thought lost. My ears had regrown.

I couldn't help but trace my ears with my fingers, marveling at their presence. It was as if a part of me that had been lost had returned, defying all logic and reason. I could tolerate scars and burn marks on my body, but my ears had not simply been scarred, a large part of them had been cut off, leaving my ears in a shape that almost resembled those of humans. With them back, I felt like I had recovered a part of myself that had been lost.

A short time later, reality finally sunk in and I fully accepted that, through whichever means, I was alive and well. Okay, alive and almost well. While I was not in pain, my body felt incredibly heavy and sluggish and a slight headache made a fuss in my head.

Satisfied after my self-examination, I eventually shifted my focus to my surroundings. Naturally, there was the river through which I had gotten here. The stream was broad and the current danced and swirled vigorously, making a crossing for me impossible. It would be too big of a risk to try, especially since I could not swim. I was already lucky enough that I did not drown on my way here, so I wasn’t going to push my luck any further.

Turning my head, ominous and imposing trees towered over me, their colossal form seemingly touching the heavens and their branches reached out like ancient arms, adorned in drapes of vines. The sinuous tendrils snaked their way down the umber bark and wrapped it in a tight embrace.

Beneath the dark bark coursed intricate veins of crimson, like lifelines pulsating with an otherworldly energy, a stark contrast to the somber hues of the bark. The leaves, a peculiar sight, were a mosaic of green and red.

I gulped as a slight sense of unease crept in, battling with the absurd curiosity I felt towards these trees.

Under the thick canopy, the forest was hulled in darkness, only a few rays of sunlight dappled the forest ground in patches of light. The gap in the canopy above me was by far the biggest in the vicinity.

While the radiance of the sun trickled down on me, I could feel the slight chill that tinged the air, accentuated by the wisps of fog that hulled the forest in a veil of intrigue and mystery.

Struggling to rise to my feet, I exerted myself to stand on shaky legs. As I tried to find my balance, the world around me started to spin, forcing me to clutch my head in a dizzy haze.

Fearing that my balance was on the verge of toppling, I staggered over to one of the strange trees and reaching out with trembling fingers, I leaned against the pulsating bark to steady myself.

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Recovering from my small endeavor, the fog over my mind cleared again and the world stopped moving for good. As I straightened my back, I felt the slight movement behind the trees bark.

This feels incredibly weird. Why is the tree beating like a heart?

In that moment, I remembered Identify, the skill that told me what stuff was. I knew it did not work on inanimate object, but well, for a tree with a heartbeat it was worth a shot, wasn’t it?

Against my expectations, I got a reaction.

[Bloodriver Tree - Lvl. ???]

The moment the question marks registered in my head, I pulled my hand back from the bark, my eyes wide. Throwing Identifies at other trees around, I frowned.

[Bloodriver Tree - Lvl. ???]

[Bloodriver Tree - Lvl. ???]

…

[Bloodriver Tree - Lvl. ???]

Their sinister names were already alarming enough, but all the trees around me had levels, which essentially meant they were alive. I did not know that plants were supposed to be living beings, much less that they had levels. And insanely high ones at that.

Levels followed the simple philosophy of “higher numbers are better numbers”. Even I, someone who could be very well called ignorant regarding the ways of the system, knew that fact.

Although I had to admit, my lack of interaction with the system might have led to a severe underestimation of what that meant. Yeah, sure, their level was probably high, even higher than Seth’s level, who was over level 80, but that just did not mean much to me.

While I had seen Seth fight and had seen his strength, those trees were just… well, trees. Even with a level too high for me to identify, they just were not intimidating.

Still, higher meant better, so I was still going to keep a cautious eye on them and preferably avoid pissing them off. Whatever that entailed.

How did a tree even get a hundred levels. After all, as far as I was aware of, leveling happened from gaining experience, which was attainable by murder. Seeing as the trees reached level hundred, maybe there were other ways to increase ones level. A shame I couldn’t ask the trees.

For clarification, I did not try to speak to the tree after my new-gained wisdom. Trees couldn’t talk, everyone knew that. Obviously.

Anyways, thinking about leveling enticed me to take a look at my own status.

Name: None

Sex: Female

Species: Unregistered (Level: 5)

Class: Unavailable

Pools:

Stamina: 5/5

Mana: 219/1,000

General Skills:

[Identify (Common)], [Iron Will (Epic)], [Pain Tolerance (Epic)]

Species Skills:

[Regeneration (Rare)], [Mana Affinity (Unique)]

Class Skills:

None

Stats:

Vitality: 10

Strength: 2

Agility: 4

Dexterity: 5

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 15

Perception: 20

Faith: 0

I skimmed over the base information of myself, or more like, the lack of information, but I noted my new level. It was my reward for ridding the world of scum.

Continuing through my status, my eyes came to a halt. I closed and reopened my status a few times, but they were still there. Two new Species skills.

When did I- What?

Out of nowhere and without a warning, a deluge of memories flooded my mind. Memories of a conversation. Memories of the acquisition of skills. Memories of information.

However, the memories were broken and unclear, parts of it were missing. For example, I forgotten how they looked or the sound of their voice, even their appearance was lost on me. I tried to recall, but it was to no avail.

Instead of racking my brain over something I was unlikely to remember, I focused on the information that had come back. Although I did continue to wonder about the why I forgot about this meeting to begin with.

Thanks to my returned knowledge, the mystery behind my recovery was not much of a mystery anymore. It was the result of using my new Rare skill, Regeneration. Judging by the fact that my mana reserves had shrunk to the fifth of my maximum capacity, the skill had used up quite a lot of my mana.

Mana was still a new concept to me, but thanks to my Unique skill, I understood it at least a little bit better. Feeling the mana within me, I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten about it. Even without looking at my status, I could tell that my pool was running low on mana.

Mana Affinity allowed me to sense mana in my body, but also to perceive my body as a vessel. Suddenly, the amount of mana grew. Wide-eyed, I looked at my status and my mana had gone up to 220.

I waited for a few more minutes and it happened again. Just like that, I had learned about natural mana regeneration.

I had not forgotten that my body was supposedly really dependent on mana and that I couldn’t afford permanent low numbers, much less an empty pool. Okay, I technically did forget, but this one didn’t count. Like always, for my mana pool higher numbers were better numbers.

It was likely that the sluggishness I was currently feeling was a result from my mana deficiency.

While Regeneration was a powerful skill, I could not afford to be careless with it. I had to remember that. Mismanaging my mana could as much lead to my death as a wild beast biting my neck.

Now that I was already at it, I decided to put the other abilities of my Unique skill to the test.

Through the new skill, I had gained a new sense, that while still feeling somewhat new, did not feel unnatural. Even when I did not focus on it, I could still vaguely sense the mana in me, but this was not limited to my own mana. The skill apparently also worked on others with the condition of physical contact.

Well, I was by myself with no one around and there were only one kind of beings nearby that were suitable to test the skill on.

I eyed the tree next to me and sighed.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, worrying more about the trees reaction than the actual success of my skill.

With slight hesitation, I put my hand on the bark and felt its pulse beneath. I prepared to run just in case, but nothing happened. The tree remained calm.

Okay, so how do I do this?

To my surprise, there was not much I needed to do before I started to sense something within the tree. Fine streams of mana branched through the tree like rivers. While the individual amounts per stream weren’t much, in its entirety, the tree possessed three or more times my full capacity. So somewhere around three thousand. Of course, I couldn’t say with certainty, but that was how I perceived it.

While still “observing” the streams of mana, I looked up at the tree.

The streams of mana matched the pulsating veins. Against my assumption, it was not blood that flowed through those veins, but mana. Kinda made the whole Bloodriver name less impressive.

It was quite interesting and refreshing to feel out the mana of another being, observing its flows and even analyzing the mana itself. The mana of the tree felt different from mine, yet like the same, however, there was something unique about it. It was like I could instinctively tell it was not mine.

As if guided by the will of my mana, I moved a small portion of it into the hand that was touching the tree. It was the first time I manipulated mana and yet it felt so natural. As if mana always had been a part of my body.

The mana from my hand slowly trickled into the tree and its pulse throbbed faster and stronger, trembling in elation. The moment my mana passed over into the tree, its trace grew faint. An innate fear of losing what was mine made me grasp for the mana and try to pull it back, but the tree had already gotten a hold on it. I had no plans to give in, so I contested the tree over my mana, until a root smacked my hand away. Wincing in pain, I held my hand as the connection to my mana broke and.

Feeling robbed and deceived, I looked up at the leafy giant, the root returned to the ground and I swear the tree was snorting at me in triumph.