A group of twenty wild boars was grazing on some of the underbrush on the forest floor. Nate moved closer to the pigs going unnoticed by the herd. His body partially covered by the leaf litter on the forest floor, Nate lay down on his belly with a spear tucked by his side. His eyes were constantly moving around observing the pigs.

A movement in a tree nearby caught Nate’s sight and he quickly zeroed in on the source. “[Identify],” Nate mentally commanded as he eyeballed the quietly approaching beast. With a slight drain of his stored energy, the system alert sprung into Nate’s sight.

[Bask Lizard – Level 24]

“Finally something good,” Nate thought to himself as his body readied for the upcoming fight. He had been living in the wildness for around 12 months now. Nate had progressed rapidly to Level 18 with his constant struggle to survive in the wilderness, but recently he had hit a plateau of sorts. While he had gained a few skills and multiple stats, he was finding that his energy accumulation was starting to lag. His easy fights with Level 10 to Level 15 beasts were not providing enough benefit to his growth. He needed stronger prey.

Nate watched as the Bask Lizard moved towards the group of pigs from the trees above. Of all the skills he had gained in recent months, the [Identify] skill had been the most beneficial. While it didn’t offer much information, the information that it provided was very helpful in assessing a situation. From his experience so far, he could identify most living organisms and some inanimate objects such as odd stones. While being able to identify a few plants had been beneficial, his ability to judge the level of beasts had a significant impact on his hunting.

A Level 24 beast only posed a moderate threat to Nate at this point. He had actually managed to kill a Level 28 beast once, but he almost died in the process.

With a sudden movement, the Bask Lizard plunged down from the side of the tree and latched onto one of the pigs with its mouth. The pig thrashed wound but the Bask Lizard used its teeth and claws to rip into the smaller beast.

A spear sailed through the air as the two beasts struggled. With a thud, the spear embedded into the head of the Bask Lizard and penetrated halfway through the pig it was latched onto. Both beasts instantly stopped their struggle and collapsed. Lucky hit.

[‘Forceful Throw’ has increased to Level 10]

“Fucking right,” Nate shouted while pumping his fist in the air. He immediately pulled up the skill status to confirm its improvement.

[Forceful Throw (Active)(Level 10)(Exp. 32/1000)]

[Forceful Throw is an active skill that allows the user to throw objects forcefully. Strength stat doubles for three seconds. Skill cost of 18 units of energy per use.]

Nate smiled that his idea was confirmed. For every 10 levels increase, he would see the energy usage go down on active skills. At this rate, he would eventually be able to use the skill with less strain on his energy reserves.

“This change probably works the same for all active skills,” Nate said with a bit of excitement.

He had seen a similar change when his [Identify] skill reached Level 10. His hope had been that the same improvement would occur when his only other active skill advanced.

A smile was plastered to this face as he walked over towards the two downed beasts.

He began his standard practice of cutting the beast up into usable parts. He was mostly interested in the beast core these days, but he would also scavenge meat, claws, and teeth off the corpses. Whatever could be useful in crafting new items for himself.

After only a few minutes, his work was done. He stored his harvest in his backpack and started moving back to his cave home.

**************************

As Nate approached the cave, he checked for signs of disturbance near the entrance as usual. His cave was typically a safe place, but an incident a month ago had caused him to be more attentive to the conditions. He had been sleeping peacefully in the darkness of the cave when a loud thud had woken him from his sleep. A level 15 bear had tried to use the cave as a resting spot. It was poisoned, blind and panicking inside of the cave. Honestly, Nate had felt quite stupid after he killed the beast. He had found numerous beasts corpses inside the cave when he first arrived. So, the fact that a poisoned beast could make it inside was pretty upfront.

Nothing was out of place, so Nate walked through the poison berry bushes and to a barricade he had set up about halfway into the cave. The spiked barrier was crafted from beast rib bones and sharpened sticks as a preventative measure in case another beast had blindly charged into the cave.

Past the barrier, Nate had made his quaint little living space. In his free time, he had put together a table, chair, shelving, and a few other amenities. Settling in, Nate hung up some meat over the small fire inside the cave and put his backpack on a shelf. For a young man that grew up in the small living quarters of the city, it seemed like a luxurious space. That said, Nate had consistently felt uncomfortable sleeping in the open room.

He took the two beast cores out of his backpack and walked over to the nearby cubby that he slept in. The sleeping space was slightly deeper than when he first arrived and had a small opening that could be blocked off. While his living space was the entire cave, his sleeping space was only large enough for his body and could be hidden with the moving of a small rock. It had just enough room that he could move around to be comfortable. Nate nested himself in the cubby and blocked sealed it off.

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Nate popped one of the beast cores in his mouth and relaxed in his bed. Although he had entirely settled down, he finally felt secure enough that he could leave to begin exploring. He didn’t know what he would find, but he felt that he could at least survive if he left his usual territory for a few weeks. Level 20.

“Ya, let’s wait until Level 20,” Nate said to himself as he finished absorbing the energy from the first beast core.

He swallowed the second beast core and pulled up his status window to check his progress.

—————————————————

Name: Nathaniel Redsun

Level: 18 (Exp. 1689/1800)

Health: 130/130

Energy: 99/120

Primary Class: Calm Survivor (Level 18)

Class Skills:

Survivor’s Need (Passive) (Level 19)

Survivor’s Awareness (Passive) (Level 18)

Survivor’s Resistance (Passive) (Level 16)

Secondary Class: None

Stats:

Speed: 31 Agility: 32

Stamina: 34 Strength: 31

Intelligence: 24 Perception: 27

Wisdom: 22 Will: 25

Stat Points Available: 0

General Skills:

Silent Presence (Passive) (Level 17)

Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 20)

Pain Resistance (Passive)(Level 16)

Physical Damage Resistance (Passive)(Level 8)

Infection Resistance (Passive)(Level 11)

Poison Immunity (Passive)(Level 3)

Burn Resistance (Passive)(Level 8)

Fear Resistance (Passive)(Level 16)

Archer’s Sight (Passive)(Level 25)

Duality (Passive)(Level 8)

Identify (Active)(Level 13)

Forceful Throw (Active)(Level 10)

————————————————

Nate had been hard to work during the months since his core had formed. He was now at Level 18 and, by his guess, he had just turned seventeen. Compared to the Grey Sector of Newcomb City, he was doing exceptional.

He also felt like he had gained enough knowledge of the basics of the system. His health would increase by 10 for every 10 increases in the strength and stamina stats. His energy storage would increase by 10 for every 10 increase in the intelligence and wisdom stats. It was quite simple.

The only item that conflicted with his knowledge was his increase in available stat points. He had gotten another 10 available stat points at Level 10, but from Level 11 onward he had only received 5. His only guess was for every 10 levels he would get a bonus of sorts. It didn’t seem like much, but he would take whatever he could get.

******************************

The next morning, Nate awoke with a plan. He had decided to map out his upcoming adventures. Similarly to how he had previously traveled, Nate would find temporary shelter in the trees as he moved along to find new areas. With that in mind, Nate decided that he would do his best to plot out his journey’s path.

The big issue with this idea of mapping his course was that he needed some sort of vantage point to see off in the distance. He could vaguely remember mountains and other features when he was riding in on the transport, but the large trees of the forest didn’t allow him to see which directions the features were located.

Today, Nate was going to climb a tree to the top to see what he can see. While it might seem simple, he was worried about the possibility of flying beasts and other unknown dangers.

With his backpack on and weapons on his back, Nate found one of the widest trees he had crossed in his hunting. The theory was simple. The widest trees would be the tallest. Looking up the tree, Nate sighed. He usually hunted from a height of around 50 feet up. The tops of the trees appeared to be 10 times higher than that at least.

Realizing there was no better time, he started climbing.

*******************************

After spending over two hours climbing, Nate finally reached a point where he could see clouds and sunlight through the tree canopy. He was excited and a little hesitant. His climb had been uneventful for the most part. He had only encountered one beast on the way and the [Walking Stick – Level 17] was slow-moving and easy to kill while hanging on to the tree. Climb.

He knew his luck could only last for so long. The quicker he got to the top and looked out over the terrain, then the quicker he could get back safely on the ground. He started climbing quicker.

Soon, Nate was out on a tree limb looking out over the treetops of other trees. In the distance, he could see a few speaks of black moving about against the sky. He couldn’t make out what exactly what these dots were. Hurry.

With the thought in mind, Nate brought out a piece of beast skin and some charcoal. He began sketching a layout of what he could see. In the direction of the sun, he could see a mountain range off in the distance. In the opposite direction, he could see what appeared to be a body of water. The view from the treetop wasn’t the best, but those two markers gave him an idea of the surroundings. Nate looked around some more but couldn’t find out much more. He could also see an area of treetops that were a different color than the rest. Smoke.

Nate’s attention was brought away from the discolored treetops to an area more in the direction of the black specks flying in the sky. A slight hint of smoke was drifting out from the forest halfway between Nate and the black specks. People or beasts.

Nate knew that the smoke most probably originated from people. While he didn’t doubt that beasts could create fire, this black smoke seemed familiar to him. Finding people had been one of his goals. Nate stared at the smoke and tried his best to mark it on his makeshift map. His loneliness caused him to grasp the idea of other people being out in the wilderness.

Down now. The thought brought Nate out of his fantasizing about finding other people. He rolled up the beastskin and put it in his pack. Then, he immediately started climbing down with the tree. He was going to wait until he reached Level 20 to explore. But his curiosity and loneliness were getting the better of him. All he could think of on his way down the tree was that he was ready to go right now.