Elijah stalked forward, his feet falling silently against the forest floor as he followed his prey through the forest. Even if it hadn’t made so much noise, there was no mistaking the scent that it emitted. To Elijah’s sense of smell, the odor was a combination of rotten eggs, something similar to cheap cigar smoke, and the sickly sweet scent of decomposing fruit. It was, to put it mildly, extremely off-putting, and he wanted nothing more than to get as far from the smell as he could manage.

But he couldn’t do that.

No longer could he shirk his responsibilities as protector of his Grove. The panther was gone, and so, he needed to step up and fulfill his role. To that end, he followed the Voxxian creature through the forest.

It was small, barely as big as a mid-sized dog, and its sleek body was covered in blue-green scales that shimmered in the scant rays of light that managed to pierce the forest’s canopy. In any other situation, the reptilian monster would have been beautiful, at least in its own odd way. However, with every step it took, the land was further despoiled.

It was a virus. A foreign entity that could only spread rot, disease, and destruction. With something like that, there was no coexistence. It was kill or be destroyed, with no compromise in between.

So, cloaked in Shape of the Predator, Elijah hunted.

It had been two days since he’d gained the spell, and in that time, he’d gained significant mastery over his new form. He knew he was no match for the panther that had died protecting the island from the invaders, but he was rapidly closing that gap. One day, he hoped he could rival its power.

But for now, he stalked the Voxxian monster.

When it leaped between two rocks, Elijah pounced. His claws flashed as he raked them across its scaley back, and to his surprise and satisfaction, they parted beneath his natural weapons. As Elijah’s weight fell upon it, the monster screeched in pain and shock, but it quickly recovered and flexed its elongated neck as it tried to bite him. Elijah pressed down on it with every ounce of Strength he possessed, holding it there for a few long seconds before he brought his teeth to bear.

In only a moment, he’d clamped his jaws around its comparatively smaller skull. He squeezed, and his efforts were rewarded with the sound of cracking bone.

And the most repulsive taste imaginable.

It was like ash and oil mixed with rubber, and the moment it hit his tongue, he was forced to resist the urge to recoil. Instead, he redoubled his efforts, trying to end the fight before it could even begin. The monster struggled, wiggling beneath Elijah’s comparatively larger form, but it was no use.

After a few more moments, the pressure finished its work, and the monster’s skull collapsed entirely, squirting brains, blood, and whatever else the monster had inside its head into Elijah’s mouth.

The second the monster was dead, Elijah bounded backwards, spitting and hissing with every foot he could put between himself and the detestable creature. His efforts were useless, and the horrid taste remained. However, he still felt a deep sense of satisfaction as he watched the monster’s death spasms.

Finally, once it was dead, he let his spell lapse, and over the next few moments, he reverted to his human form. It was still a strange transition, going from a four-legged mist panther to standing upright, and Elijah assumed that the process was helped along by magic. Otherwise, it would have assuredly been far more jarring.

Over the past couple of days, Elijah had learned a few things about his class’s defining spell. First, as he’d discovered on that very first day, his clothing transformed with him. Where it went, he had no idea, but he was grateful for the fact that he didn’t have to walk around naked every time he transformed back into a human. By this point, his clothes didn’t cover much – his shirt had been cannibalized for various projects, and his pants had been ripped to shreds below the knee – but he still appreciated the coverage all the same.

The second thing he had discovered was that his staff transformed with him as well. Other weapons did not, though Elijah had no idea why that would be the case. The only answer that made sense was, as always, that it was all magic he didn’t really understand. Hopefully, he would learn more as he made his way through the transformed world.

Finally, through trial and error, he’d learned that transforming into a mist panther vastly increased his Dexterity and Strength, which was reflected in his status. Numerically, the spell added ten points to both of those attributes while increasing his Constitution by a comparatively smaller three points. Considering that he couldn’t cast any spells while transformed, the additional points in his physical attributes were a welcome – and wholly necessary – part of the ability.

Elijah leaned on his staff as he watched the monster’s death throes. It was the fourth such creature he’d killed in the past two days, and the moment it had died, he received a new notification:

Congratulations! You have reached level eleven. Attribute points allocated according to your class.

Elijah was still of two minds about the fact that he had no say-so in his attribute allocation. However, he couldn’t argue with the fact that, instead of two points, he received five with each level. They were spread across his entire status, but given the nature of his new class, the even distribution seemed appropriate. After all, he still had his druid spells, which required Ethera to cast, but he also needed the physical attributes if he was going to be effective in his mist panther form.

He truly was a jack-of-all-trades, which was both comforting and disappointing. Comforting because he liked the idea of being capable of combating any situation that might come up, but disappointing because he knew he’d never be as powerful as a specialist.

Probably.

While that made sense, it functioned off of the assumption that the world – and classes – were balanced. There was no guarantee that that was the case, though. For all he knew, there were extraordinarily powerful classes that gave people god-like power. Or classes that gave people almost nothing. It was all a mystery to him, and aside from Nerthus, who seemed extremely restricted in what he could say, there was no one for Elijah to ask for advice. So, he had to discover most things for himself.

Unfortunately, one of those discoveries happened shortly after he reached level eleven. He’d fully expected to get another spell, much as he had with every other previous level. However, he quickly discovered that that wasn’t the case.

He knew he should be happy with his additional attributes, but he’d been looking forward to getting a new spell. Sighing, he just shook his head and hoped that he would get one when he reached level twelve.

With that, Elijah set off back to the Grove, stopping by at the stream so he could rinse the foul taste of the Voxxian monster from his mouth. When he reached the Grove, he was unsurprised to find that the three trees that would eventually become his home had continued to grow, twining together to create a sizable floor. Suspended about ten feet off the ground, it spread out for around a hundred feet in every direction, meaning that, once it was finished, it would end up being quite a large house.

For now, though, he set himself up beneath what would eventually become the floor and leaned against one of the trunks. There, he focused his mind on the ambient Ethera and began to meditate. The process wasn’t overtly effective, but the swirling Ethera did help him relax, which was sorely needed, given his situation.

After a while, Elijah slipped off into a fitful sleep, only waking when the sun rose the next morning. Starting that morning, his life took on a decided rhythm. Most of his time was spent hunting the Voxx. He had no idea where they were coming from, but he killed at least a couple each day. Most were small, but over the next few weeks, he managed to kill a couple that rivaled the one he’d fought in the minor dimensional rift in size.

When he wasn’t hunting the Voxx, Elijah was either meditating, gathering food, or exploring his island. And slowly but surely, he made progress in each arena. So, by the time spring became summer, he’d managed to progress far more than he ever thought possible. Never was that more apparent than when he looked at the ladder:

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Planetary Power Rankings (Earth)

1. Oscar Ramirez – Level 31

2. Sadie Song – Level 28

3. Lisa Song – Level 28

4. Hu Shui – Level 26

5. Ram Khandu – Level 25

6. Anupriya Pandey – Level 24

7. Kimberly Jackson – Level 24

8. Michael King - Level 23

9. Gunnar Lindstrom – Level 23

10. Niko Song – Level 23

11. …

12. …

13. …

92. Elijah Hart – Level 18

He thrust both of his hands into the air in celebration as he saw that he’d managed to break into the top one-hundred. He was only five levels away from getting into the top twenty-five, too. However, getting to level twenty-three would technically put him on equal footing with a few of the top ten. How the System differentiated between people of the same level, he didn’t know. Regardless, he didn’t really care about rankings. He cared about power, and after his slow start, he’d truly begun to gain on the leaders.

Not that he was competing with the rest of humanity. Not really, at least. Instead, he just wanted enough Strength to do what was necessary. Hopefully, his latest gains would assist in that endeavor. He took a look at his status, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction at what he saw.

Name

Elijah Hart

Level

18

Archetype

Druid

Class

Animist

Specialization

N/A

Alignment

N/A

Strength

19

Dexterity

18

Constitution

19

Ethera

27

Regeneration

21

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation

Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Wood

Unformed

Opal

Neophyte

His attributes were so much higher than they’d been even a few weeks before. However, he’d confirmed that each attribute point seemed to mean less and less as he grew in power. As far as he could tell, each point gave him the same benefit, but relative to his overall power, it just meant less. For instance, if each point of Strength let him lift an extra twenty pounds, that additional Strength would be a lot more noticeable when he could only lift forty total pounds than when his total capacity was in the hundreds of pounds.

In any case, Elijah was satisfied with his progress, especially considering that he’d had to do it all alone. Judging by the surnames of some of the other top one-hundred, that wasn’t the case with most people. For example, three people with the Song surname were in the top ten, suggesting that they were all leveling together. It didn’t take a genius to reason that they all had complimentary classes and abilities, and even if they didn’t, there was value in cooperation. Human beings were social animals, after all.

In addition to the extra attribute points that came with each level, Elijah had also gotten a few new spells. Instead of getting one every level, as he had for the first ten, he now got access to a new spell every other level. That meant that, since gaining his class, he’d gained four new spells.

He pulled up the individual spell descriptions:

Spell:

Essence of the Wolf

Channel the alacrity of the wolf, increasing movement speed by twenty percent. Combat cancels effect.

The first spell, called Essence of the Wolf, was similar to the others in the essence line in that it enhanced his physical abilities. However, unlike Essence of the Monkey or Boar, it didn’t provide straight attribute bonuses. Instead, it simply made him run faster – a boon that he had used to great effect while exploring the island. Thankfully, it didn’t take up one of his augmentation slots, so he didn’t have to make a choice between using it or enhancing his Dexterity. The only issue was that the benefits fell away when he entered combat.

Spell:

Ward of the Seasons

Harness the power of the seasons, increasing resistance to elemental damage (Water, Earth, Fire, Air).

The next new spell, which he’d gotten at level fourteen, was called Ward of the Seasons. It did take up one of his augmentation slots, so it was often forgotten. Certainly, he could see the benefits of the spell, which promised to decrease the damage he took from elemental spells. However, because he’d been fighting nothing but animals and Voxx, none of which had access to spells, he hadn’t seen much use for it. Perhaps that would change in the future, though. For now, he mostly ignored it.

Ability:

Guise of the Unseen

Fade into your surroundings. Not usable in combat.

Requires: Shape of the Predator

At level sixteen, he’d gotten an ability that was only usable when he took on the form of a mist panther. However, even with that limitation, it was incredibly useful. As a hunting cat, he was already incredibly stealthy, but using Guise of the Unseen made him all but completely undetectable. He’d tested it out against various animals, and unless he actively tried to be seen, he was almost entirely invisible. Of all his abilities, it was probably the one that had affected his everyday hunting the most.

Spell:

Healing Rain

Conjure a nourishing storm that heals allies.

Once again, Elijah could see how his level eighteen spell could be useful. He’d used it a few times, just to get a feel for it, and he’d discovered that it had a couple of points in its favor. First, it took almost no Ethera to cast, meaning that it was incredibly efficient. The downside to that was that it wasn’t nearly as fast-acting as Touch of Nature. A wound that Touch of Nature could heal in minutes took hours for Healing Rain to treat.

The second positive aspect of the spell was that the storm it conjured lasted for hours while covering an area that extended around twenty feet in each direction. So, if he ever encountered allies, he could heal multiple people at once with the spell. For now, though, Elijah used it to heal minor injuries and to stave off fatigue while Touch of Nature was more geared toward healing more urgent wounds.

Both had their places and were potent parts of his toolkit.

All in all, Elijah was satisfied with his progress. However, he couldn’t help but feel that he wasn’t going fast enough. The settlement across the strait had continued to grow, and despite his efforts the infestation of the Voxx had only grown worse since the death of the panther. Unless something changed, and soon, he would be overwhelmed.

For now, though, he could only keep going the way he was and hope that it would be enough.