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Level -48 ➜ Level -42
The leviathan of an avian harshly slammed into the ground, sending massive clouds of dust and dirt into the air; and with it, Gino followed as he was unable to stop its transfer of momentum. He flew tens of feet backwards from his initial position into several boulders protruding from the earth, creating numerous cracks that sprawled around its impact zone.
There was silence for a few seconds until it was broken by a bittersweet laughter; it rang out into the misty atmosphere, slightly echoing from the rugged terrain and the curved slopes of the encapsulating mountains. Two hands and then arms reached out from the boulder’s cavity and grabbed its edges. Gino raised himself up while brushing off any debris he could see on his body and completely shredded clothing.
That was… pretty good, hmm. Six levels too. When was the last time something hit me that hard and gave me decent levels? Those Giga Apes, maybe? Huh.
With a somewhat relieved expression, Gino glanced at the rock he practically pummeled with his body alone and shrugged, stepping forwards to look around his surroundings while recalling that brief spike of pain he had just experienced in his love-tap with the bird.
Ever since he was forcefully abducted into this new planet, Gino had quickly found out that he permanently lost many human abilities to feel. He didn’t perceive pain, thirst, or hunger, which resulted in no longer having urges to sleep nor defecate. Surprisingly, he discovered that nothing abnormal seemed to happen with those faculties gone - aside from his skin and body turning more translucent and phantasmic.
But as the first weeks flitted by, Gino came to realize that something was wrong; his human mind was once accustomed to receiving and sending signals to parts of his body to perform a specific action. However, with those signals eviscerated, Gino began to feel phantom pain from a lack of mental stimulus. It took only some beast skewering his body for Gino to register a unique form of pain that offset much of his mild mental discomfort. He still didn’t know what exactly triggered pain, but upon reminding himself of this topic ever since then, he would always enter an internal conflict of whether he was now an adrenaline junkie or an outright masochist. Adrenaline junkie always won, though Gino couldn’t help worry that the latter could succeed some day.
With a slight shudder, Gino eagerly turned around to see if the noise he and his partner made attracted other creatures; he was soon disappointed. He unhurriedly moved over to the corpse of the gigantic bird, having determined its location earlier while he had been stuck in that boulder. Along the way, Gino marveled at the extensive destruction left by the large avian in its wake as it fell gracefully like a heavy stone mid-flight.
Either my hearing is broken, which I wouldn’t be surprised about, or the most likely reason nothing was attracted by the noise the bird made was because that thing I just killed was the apex predator around here. Again, wouldn’t be surprised about that. I actually don’t think I’ve encountered anything as big as this bastard now I’m seeing it this close.
Walking directly up to the corpse, Gino watched as the bird’s pitch-black coating vanished into the air. He waited for the beast’s real appearance - something he usually did out of morbid curiosity right after a creature’s death. Seconds later, most of the coating flayed off, bringing about an unexpected surprise. He whistled in surprise with an eyebrow raised.
Woah, that, that is wayy too colorful. This thing might’ve killed me with just how it looks without that black sludge. Is this purple? Ew - I mean, where- what did it eat to become purple? Eggplants don’t do that shit, but maybe GMOs do.
He touched the bird’s feathers and promptly concluded that the Lesser Roc was probably the top of the food chain in this particular area. He assessed that it wasn’t possible for the bird to be the king of the entire mountain because he had a premonition that more dangerous entities would be up ahead, and that it didn’t make sense to him for the supposed leader of an expansive territory to be located at its fringes.
Plucking out a feather the size of a TV screen, Gino wondered how something that looked so soft instead felt like the hardest of metals. Consequently, he pondered what might have happened if the avian actually knew how to use them accordingly. After a few moments of hesitation, he decided to keep the feather to potentially serve as a shield or, if needed, a weapon. Gino stepped a foot away just as a spark of an idea turned him around back to the fallen beast; enthusiastically, he grabbed as many feathers as he could before jogging back to the unfortunate boulder. Gino dug a shallow hole several feet in diameter, neatly buried the feathers, and repeated the process on nearby patches of solid earth until he was satisfied. He estimated that 80 feathers were concealed, an amount perfect for future endeavors.
What if I somehow turn these feathers into a circular shape? Wouldn’t that mean I could essentially have highly durable shields that I can throw, just like a certain Narvel character? I’m pretty sure this feather-metal will be stronger though, I hope.
A biologically grown feather with the tensile strength of metal, compared to a plain metal that absorbs kinetic energy? Yeah, kinetic energy sounds decent but I have feather-metal and quantity! And also, I am in a real world where superpowers actually exist so… there’s that. Suck it, Narvel.
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Seeing nothing more to be done, he resigned from the battlefield and, carrying a single feather, proceeded to climb the base of the mountain, acknowledging that the bird put up a good fight. It was only that Gino was better, or so as he believed. His power, the Concept of Reflection, though confusing in function and true meaning to him, was an irreparable part of him now - Gino was as much as his abilities were him. He had learned such a simple conclusion in a difficult manner.
Unlike what Gino first anticipated when the existence of the status screen was revealed to him, he never received superpowers or upgradable abilities to throw fireballs and the like. Instead, what he obtained was something similar to a force of nature; through his time here, Gino had experimented extensively and quite exhaustively about what each of his ‘concepts’ could do, resulting in his sheer disbelief. His old memories of RPG games described status screens offering the usage and advancement of skills, viewing of personal stats, and other random miscellaneous information he could only now scoff at. However, reality was vastly different from expectations, and for once, Gino was content with being proved wrong.
To him, ‘concepts’ were no different from his arms and legs, just another extension to interact with the world in varying ways. When he had used Reflection against the Lesser Roc, in that split second right before collision, he felt as if he had become the beast itself until the Roc punctured his head with its beak. Gino couldn’t describe such a sensation, but he knew that he could never tire of such a phenomenon. He also learned something incredible about his abilities and how they related to their ‘rank.’ Similar to how a hand could be trained to learn new skills over time, Gino believed so would his control and understanding of his Concepts as their ranks progressed. This was only the beginning, and he knew there was much more to come.
Reaching a certain part of the mountain, Gino decided to take a short respite for no other reason than to admire the scenery. He looked down from his current location all the way below to the distant ground, guessing that he was at least higher than fifty feet. As Gino continued to enjoy perusing intricate-looking trees and tallgrasses of vivid saphires and emeralds, his hands tried molding the ash-colored feather into a circle.
He discovered that although it was flexible, the feather could only bend to a certain extent in specific directions. After tinkering for a bit, Gino then elected for more action rather than lying around staving off boredom. Hefting his asymmetrical oval shield, he charged up the mountain with abandon, gaining ground and elevation. He hoped by doing so, the clamor that he was making would piss off as many creatures as possible. A few years ago, Gino would have never committed himself to such a reckless action, but the mental necessity of wanting to feel gradually eroded at his cautious behavior, simultaneously transforming his personality to that of a daredevil.
He loudly trampled on the ground with amusement and made progress on making his own trail behind him. Wondering if he could mimic the path of destruction caused by the Lesser Roc crashing into the earth, Gino tried maneuvering in diagonal patterns and increasing stomping speed to widen his breadth of impact; he only halted his actions when he started to shudder.
Where you at, big fellas? I’m fun. I promise. You’ll have so much fun that it’ll be something to die for.
So where- huh...? What- Where is…? Yeah, that’s not normal. Usually, there would have been a clump of them right behind me by now, but I… I don’t see a single one. Ah shit, here we go again.
Gino frowned as he slowed down, finally surveying his surroundings for the first time. There were pillars of rocks stretched up high into the sky, forming an unnatural forest of silent stone and indistinct broken shadows. He had mistaken them as unassuming trees upon initial glance; however, it was only until now did Gino recall something important that had been nagging him earlier on in the journey.
Didn’t I see grass and trees just before…?
He broke out in metaphorical cold sweat, eyes widening in realization. Gino had been living on this planet for years but still had yet to see any form of plant life. Warning bells clambered to be heard in his head, his body instincively preparing defensive measures.
Gino knew he wasn’t invincible. He had many strengths, and few known weaknesses. However, any of his shortcomings was enough to kill him eventually. Metaphysical attacks were one, and traps were another; of which, Gino gathered he had just wandered into the latter like an idiot.
With eyes narrowed and steps now sputtering to an abrupt stop, Gino ceased motion and tensely observed the terrain before him. Besides the peculiar foliage of terra and stalks of stone staked into the scorched earth, nothing in particular stood out. A faint tickle stoked at the recesses of his mind, warning him of only two outcomes - fight or flight. Any less than two, and he would bail.
The last time something ominous like this happened was when I discovered that quicksand plateau. Damn Molten Antlions.
Taking short glimpses at the branches of the rock trees now swaying above him, Gino grimaced in anticipation. His heart pounded in his chest despite there being no blood in his body. He relegated all his attention on everything within 20 feet of him. The instant he sees a crimson carapace, however unlikely, Gino would escape immediately - the memories of being pelted by glowing globs of superheated spit for months on end by those Antlions flashed before his eyes.
What felt like minutes and then hours passed, yet his vigilance failed to diminish. Gradually growing angrier and impatient by each passing minute, Gino was about to lose it when there was a sudden change in scenery. The rock trees slowly quivered before disappearing into mist, shattering its delicate mirage and allowing him to truly understand the precariousness of his situation. Gino quickly discovered in stupefaction that the uphill path he was on, which covered an insignificant percentage of the entire mountain range, was an enormous lie. Instead of climbing what he had thought was a smaller mountain within the range, he had actually been ascending a massive cliff that led to a gaping chasm.
Standing roughly ten feet away from the precipice’s edge, Gino stared blankly at his surroundings and was utterly speechless. A short while later, he realized he needed to do something - anything. Furiously assessing the wisest and safest action, he decided to stand put until he had ascertained that there were no more illusions around him via process of slow movements and by throwing pebbles ahead of him. However, a barely audible noise behind Gino interrupted him, forcing him to instantly turn around in urgency.
Just two feet away stood a small, charcoal-colored, backpack-sized creature. It had a spiteful intensity conveyed through its amber eyes that made Gino nervous, who was already occupied with trying to tame the tornado of unsettled emotions that threatened to tear out of him. Unexpectedly, however, Gino didn’t make the first move; instead, he silently observed the undersized creature slowly collapsing to the floor, its legs sprawling out and eyes flickering shut.
He stared in bewilderment.
What the fuck?
Is it playing dead?