I climbed out of the hole I hid in and looked around. Something was off, something was REALLY off. Did I grow smaller? Or did the everything around me grow larger? I stood in awe, the trees all grew bigger and the underbrush became much thicker. Everything became also much greener, a vivid green overflowing with life. The bark was also a deeper earthen brown, bordering on black, with stripes of light brown in places the bark was cracked. The crowns bursting with vitality, of both fauna and flora alike.

The rustling of leaves, singing of birds, fluttering of wings, buzzing of insects and light howls and roars could be heard in the distance. All of these sounds by themselves may have sounded like cacophony, but it just interweaved together so perfectly, to Sins ears it may as well have been the greatest masterpiece, the lifes work of the greatest Maestro to have walked the Earth. For the first time since the start of this nightmare, he had been at peace. He just stood there, observing and listening to the masterpiece, for a good 10 minutes.

But he snapped out of it, he didn't have time for this, he had to get stronger. He would have time to relax when he realized his goals, but that time wasn't now. 'This just made it much harder for me, this basically negated all the advantages I got yesterday. Hmm, I can think about that later, I need to find some food right now.'

I set out deeper into the forest in the other direction from the one I took yesterday. After 10 minutes I came across a small river, it was barely 2 meters across. Its bank was bare, except for a few small patches of grass, because it consisted of rocks and sand.

I got closer and noticed the water was really clear, which seemed really weird as before this happened humanity was struggling to find some clean water sources because the environment was so polluted. I was reminded of the stories my grandfather use to tell me when I was a kid, for me at the time, it was like a fairytale. I remember how bitter and full of hatred for the mankind was as he spoke of it, although he tried to hide it. He always did his best to smile as he was telling me how life was while he was growing up, but even I could see he was bitter about the changes that happened. He would always have a mocking smile on as he spoke out the excuse the lobbyist and country leadership kept spouting "For the advance of mankind".

I was broken out of my reminiscence when I noticed my own reflection. My face looked much more haggard, my hair was also dark now with almost crimson tips, it used to be chestnut brown with auburn highlights. Now that I think about it, my eyes also seemed black now instead of hazel. My face used to be round, I was too depressed to really try to keep in shape in the last few years. Now it was chiseled, I had high cheekbones and the lines of my chin looked sharp. Only the nose seemed not to have changed, I have a high nose, proportional to the size of my face.

I also noticed the river wasn't deep so after looking around I took my clothes off and washed the grime off my body which also seemed a lot leaner than before. Sadly, I didn't have any container capable of holding liquid so I just got my fill and realising I saw some fish swimming around, though they quickly dispersed the second I got in the water. Coming up to a tree I snapped a branch off, it was straight enough to use as a spear so I quickly sharpened one end of the branch with my, now once again clean, knife.

I went back to the bank and started observing the fish in the water. I inspected them and it showed it was just a normal lvl 1 Trout. Their movements were completely random, although not too fast. I prepared to lunge and when one finally got within range I stabbed out but it got away. I kept trying for a dozen more times, the result stayed the same, and contrary to my expectation, I wasn't getting any closer. I thought for a while and realised I was being an idiot. I had a skill that could help me and I didn't even think of it. This time I stood a little further away from the riverside and when I saw one close enough I threw the spear at it and... "Bingo!!!"

I gathered a few branches and some dry grass quickly starting a fire, and leaving the fish to cook while I caught a few more. While I was eating I went through my notifications. My Throw mastery skill went up and I earned a new skill called Spearfishing. I stored 3 fish that I didn't eat to have some food for later.

Spearfishing (Passive), Beginner 2 (75%) Increases your accuracy while fishing with a spear. Also increases the effect of your Throw Mastery skill while using a spear.

On the way back I inspected each plant I came across, I picked them all. I remembered from Biology that a lot of nutrients the plants need and that define them are in the roots, so I did my best to dig round the plants with my knife to get them out with roots intact. I managed to find a few stalks of Aconite, the roots of which contain a poisonous substance with many sideeffects, ending in death after a few hours if not treated. Besides that I found Silverbloom, a plant big silver petals, and Earthroot, a thick root without any other parts to it, both of these can be used to make salves and potions used to heal wounds. These actions unlocked a new skill for me called Herbalism.

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Herbalism (Profession Skill), Beginner 2 (13%) Grants you instinctive knowledge of herbs, their uses and how they are properly gathered.

After getting back I used a thick piece of bark and a stone to ground the Silverbloom petals into paste to spread over my chest wound but it seemed as if I would need some water to do so. On the way to the river I tried to move through the treetops, jumping form branch to branch, sometimes swinging, other times climbing and by the time I got to the river, after quite a few falls I finally managed to get a skill for it.

Parkour (Passive), Beginner 1 (4%) This skill helps when making complicated movements at high speeds, especially so at jumps and climbing. Increases perception and reaction time when running. This skill also grants you the stat Balance. Balance is a hidden stat unlockable trough certain special actions or when unlocking skills for which it is essential. It increases your ability to control your center of gravity. You can not add stat points to this stat.

I managed to make the paste and spread it over my wounds and slowly made my way back, doing my best not to fall. I started pondering and experimenting with mana, and my Darkness affinity and that was how my day passed. Training, experimenting, hunting and practising my Herbalism and Alchemy had been my routine for 3 months. I had done a few excursions towards the Orc Encampment and got myself a few more weapons. During this time I had tested out a few battle styles, but finally settled on the knife in my right hand because the edge was only on side so it could be held in a reverse grip, to be used to parry and block when my ambushes didn't work. In my hand I held a short sword I had looted when I killed an orc who had wandered a little too close to my nest while hunting for game.

My stats and skills looked like this after these 3 months had passed:

Name Synyster Race Human Age 27 Level 10 (64%) Stamina: 20 Intellect: 27 Agility: 33 Willpower: 14 Constitution: 30 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 23 Luck: 10 HP: 250 (HP regen: 5%/min) MP: 370 (MP regen: 6.5%/min) Strength: 20 Balance: 5

Skill List Identification, Novice 2 | Sneak, Novice 5 | Throw Mastery, Novice 2 | Disable, Novice 3 | Mana Manipulation, Beginner 8 | Pain Tolerance, Beginner 9 | Silent Steps, Novice 3 Mask Smell, Beginner 10 | Ambush, Beginner 9 | Spearfishing, Beginner 7 | Herbalism, Beginner 10 | Parkour, Novice 5 | Alchemy, Beginner 6

Shadowstep (Active), Beginner 3 (45%) Combining your understanding of the Darkness element, the importance of not being seen and your Ambush ability has created this ability. Your body dissolves into shadows and teleports in the shadows within your vision. Short Blade Mastery (Passive), Beginner 8 (76%) Increases your chance to critically hit while using short bladed weapons. Also increases your parry chance by 0.5 per skill level. Parry (Passive), Beginner 4 (69%) Enables system assistance proc when parrying blows. Helps correct your posture and blade angle. The chance for system assistance proccing is 0.5% per skill level. If you manage to parry a blow, the next strike with the same blade withing 1 second deals 50% extra damage.

I had 10 unallocated stat points left, but decided to keep those for now. I am quite pleased with my build, as it seems pretty wellrounded. My only fear is that it will one day come to bite me in the ass because I didn't specialize. And my paths look like this right now:

Available Paths:

Path of the Reforged (0/50), Follower of Loki (0/50), Erebus's Initiate (0/100), Alchemic Principles (0/5)

Finished Paths:

Beginners Path, Path of the Stalker, Initiate of Darkness, Path of the Mana Adept, The M Path

Available Path Points: 24

Finishing the Path of the Stalker had given me an extra 5 points to Agility and Dexterity each; Initiate of Darkness gave me an extra 3% of Darkness affinity bringing it to 16% plus another 5 to Intellect and Wisdom; Path of the Mana Adept gave me a 2%/min increase to MP regeneration and also 5 to Intellect and Wisdom; and last but not least The M Path gave me a 3% increase to ALL resistances (including magical and physical) and 5 points to Constitution.