I had been guided by the chirping of birds and howls in the distance. I took birds as the right path and stayed as far as I could from the growls of creatures I certainly didn't want to meet.
It was an understatement to say that I was lost.
White. That was still all that I could see. I kept using my newly found power to navigate the maze of trees and roots, and for the most part it, did work. If you counted the number of wounds on my knees, however, it might have given the opposite impression.
I could simply extend more limbs and cover a wider area of terrain around me, but the one time I tried, I became dangerously close to 0 energy. And, while I wasn't completely sure, 0 energy sounded bad. Deadly, actually.
So, instead, I kept on walking clumsily through the forest. While I didn't have any need to eat, it seemed like I was still human enough to require sleeping. It was not that I needed it. My body didn't feel tired, nor did my mind, and I wasn't falling asleep around every corner or anything like that.
I had been walking for hours, maybe days if I could trust how slowly time passed for me. It took me a while to realize that something was wrong.
First, I had this vague feeling that someone was looking at me. Then, I went through a phase similar to questioning if I had locked my house or if the stoves were off. Something felt wrong; I was forgetting something, and I didn't know what.
I had a panic attack when I finally opened my status. I was expected to see some ailment, debuff, or condition, but what I found was worse.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 22/360
Skills: { … }
}
}
Twenty-two! I breathed in and out, but my lungs were filling, or at least I didn't feel it. My hand started trembling, out of my control, and I dropped to one knee as my thoughts spiraled out of control.
I'm dying! I'm dying!
No matter how much the sun hit me, it was not increasing. I touched my own arms, expecting to find them cold—like touching a corpse—but they were warm.
I couldn't stop staring at the number. I had forgotten where I was and what I was doing. It was me and my energy. And then, without warning or foreshadowing, I saw it tickling yet one more number down.
Twenty-one!
My first action, impulsive and maybe useless, was dropping to the floor. I tried to play dead to convince my body that I needed that energy and couldn't afford to lose it.
Immediately after, I recalled all of it back inside my body. I was laser-focused on my status window. My eyes wouldn't move an inch from the number that, luckily, had decided not to go lower than 21.
Slowly, and afraid something had gone loose inside me, I moved into a slightly more comfortable position. I was still dying, but not like a truck had run over me and my body had just landed there.
Still 21, good.
I kept staring at that number, panicking, and formulating all kinds of questions. Why does it not go up? Am I really that broken? And, at some point, I bumped into the right one.
What's energy even?
The combination of focusing on a single element, my energy, and asking a targeted-enough question made the Status popup change slightly.
[Energy]
Element that combines the vital and magical energy of a living being.
It enhances their ability to remain alive and enables them to cast magic.
Considered unique among bloodshapers. Lack of proper nutrition, food rich in vi� blood�
••• [Error #836] •••
Upating information...
I tapped my fingers and cursed the damned window for erroring out at the worst possible moment. My life depended on that!
Lack of light can impede the generation of new energy. Lack of rest, similarly, inhibits regeneration.
That it had broken in the process wasn't encouraging and made me question its credibility. Although, the system behind this status window being confused about me wasn't that surprising; it was that very same system that decided my class was an error.
I chose to believe the updates message and that I might be simply lacking some rest. I sighed and rolled to my side. Becoming powerful would be tricky, but at least I was discovering my rough edges.
I was awake and feeling fresh and rested. My round eyes and chattering mind suggested that falling asleep would be far from possible. I genuinely thought I would never fall asleep, that it was going to be a staring contest between me and my status window.
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And that's all I remember.
I woke up to the blissful warmth of sunlight bathing my skin. It was… exactly the same as before. As if nothing had happened at all.
I had to open my status to double-check.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 360/360
Skills: { … }
}
}
I let out a deep sigh of relief when I saw the shiny 360/360 there, in an imaginary window that told me how close I had been to dying. Error or not, the system had conveyed the right information.
There was a reason I had been woken up, though. Since the first moment I regained consciousness, a black spot had been annoyingly present in my view. A field of pure white with a stain on it.
Planning to sneak up on me, are you?
I cut short my theorizing and focused back on the imminent threat. I knew the enemy was not in front of me. My [passive] Enemy sight was giving me a 360-degree field of view and transforming it in a way that I could understand. My eyes were not really seeing anymore; everything was produced by a purely magical sense.
Whatever they had done to me, they had taken away my eyes but given me a different way of seeing. I wanted, and I needed, to explore how far I could push this passive. I would be set for success if I could make it see more than just enemies.
The quadruped beast was slowly approaching, the stop on my vision becoming more defined. One foot at a time, it walked in a perfect line, mimicking the movements of cats back in my home. A big cat. One that reassembled some of the panthers and jaguars I had seen in documentaries. Just bigger. And scarier.
Did it matter at all, though? No. Enemy sight was making a point of showing it, and it didn't take a genius to add two and two together. It was an enemy.
And what do I do with enemies?
For lack of a better answer, I just let loose one of my trusty new whips of energy. It sprung from the still-open wound on my chest and beelined towards the beast.
I'm not sure it knew what happened. Judging by the lack of movement, it didn't even realize it was about to die. One moment it was there, sneaking up on me, and the next it was pierced in half by my attack; I could no longer see any trace of it.
My magic still came out of the hole in my chest. Even though I could feel pain—and I did every time I bumped into something—it didn’t hurt or bleed, but it wasn’t closing either. I knew it must have been related to my class and the experiments they ran on me, so it would probably not be healing any time soon.
As time passed, it became increasingly clear that I was in a real world. A world made of pure magic, with no tutorial that would guide me or any grand quest that would bring me to glory. Enemies didn’t just disappear when beaten. There weren’t objects spawning out of thin air to reward my achievements.
Escaping the lab had been crucial for my survival. The experiment was destined to fail, and I might have already been in the process of being discarded when I fought back. First, I had to stay alive. My next priority was finding a settlement, somewhere I could settle and think about my next steps. Steps that would eventually make me the strongest in this world.
And so I did; I began searching for any traces of society. For what felt like ages, I walked in my best attempt at a straight line, trying not to undo and redo my steps. My efforts were being rewarded, and as the days passed, the once-thick forest was thinning.
It was in the small details. Sunlight hit me more often, and usually in greater quantities. Birds chirping melodically and without purpose. The ground cleared of the many roots and leaves it once had. And, in due time, the sound of distant carriages and loud voices.
I was getting somewhere, and I was faced with an important decision. Did other people in these lands have powers? I assumed so, but what if not? Even if they did, what would they think of someone using them in the wild? Were my powers something I should keep secret? And what about the fact that I was, according to the system, an error? I had a hole in my chest, and I had killed a bunch of people. Were they after me?
The answer and logical moves were obvious. Hide it all and act like the lost soul in the wilderness that I was. As for the hole in my chest and how bad it probably looked… I didn't know. I could only wish and pray that no one would take too much issue with it.
By my own definition, I decided to be stupid. I recalled all my enermy, or pureness as the passive seemed to call it, and waited for the sun to recharge me to 360/360.
There we g-
It took me approximately 2 seconds to face-plant to the ground. I had examined the ground around me just a minute ago and trusted me to remember it. And I failed. I sighed, determined not to let this stop me.
I jumped back to my feet and resumed my attempt to meet civilization. I trusted my ears to get me closer to the noises, and unsteady step by unsteady step, I crawled my way to them.
Bit by bit, I started hearing words. Words spoken in perfect English, if at times with an accent, that I understood. Realistically, they couldn’t be speaking English, and my thought was redeemed when, a few minutes later, after understanding a whole sentence, a new popup showed up.
[You have learned the general skill <[passive] Lingua franca>]
I concentrated on the skill and it immediately provided more explanation.
[passive] Lingua franca
Local languages will be automatically translated to your mother tongue.
Likewise, the system will translate your language for those you intend to communicate with.
That last bit seemed interesting and worth exploring when I didn't have to focus on not tripping. It seemed I could easily choose to leave someone out of the conversation. I assumed with almost certainty that they didn't speak English.
“Boy, are you lost?”
I no longer heard disconnected words but complete phrases with meaning behind them. What language were they speaking?
“Kid, are you even listening to me?”
Ha! I'm not the only one wandering alone on this woo-
A hand, firm and cold, landed on top of my shoulder. Pressing with mighty power, it forced me to focus on the person.
“Boy, are you listening?”