If I didn't have my past life experience, my first thought would be to flee.

But it was different now killing a weakened beast would be simple. And to be truthful, I really had no choice. Behind me was another tree and by my side was the large tree I fell from.

By my other side was a bush that I could possible run to but right behind this bush was another tree. In conclusion, I was cornered. I could either fight to the death or let this beast kill me.

Suddenly, the red lion pounced on me and I tried to the fullest of my abilities to dodge but I was weak. The lack of food and sleep was not the only reason but it was also because, unlike my previous life body, this one was an average person's body.

I was used to a more experienced and well-defined body. You could say I was previously a super machine and now my body's state was below an average person's. It was a huge change that would take time to get used to.

Still, I was narrowly able to avoid the claw that went past my face. The precision of the beast surprised me. If I was a second slower I would be dead the beast had perfectly aimed for my vital spot.

The lion didn't expect to miss and fell to my side. Its injured state was the main reason behind its fall.

Taking advantage of this chance, I retaliated by using my elbow and aiming for one of its hind legs.

I chose to aim for its joint this is because I had noticed how injured that part of its leg was.

Unfortunately, the beast was slightly faster than me and kicked with its hind legs.

I crossed my arms and blocked. The claws on the lion's legs cut through my skin and pushed me back a few meters before I crashed on the floor.

I could feel the pain as blood flowed from the wounds. The beast did not even give me a chance to rest as it once again leapt towards me with its mouth wide open.

The torn skin of my arms flapped in the air as I moved my arms and jumped out of the way as the beast's jaws almost clenched down on me.

A painfully hot sensation overtook my hands. The claw cuts were pretty deep and the blood gushing out was considerable making me weaker with every passing second.

'Even if I win I'm probably going to die.' The pain alone made my consciousness flatter. I had to stop the blood loss but I wasn't given a chance.

A quick backflip allowed me to increase the distance with the beast and at the same time, it allowed me to dodge a claw strike that hit my previous position. I instantly regretted doing that since it only caused my arm's injuries to worsen.

Luckily, I noticed that the beast had overexerted itself. It couldn't stand straight and limped towards me while growling in anger.

I looked around anxiously and saw a sharp stone as large as my foot on the floor beside me.

Before I could react the beast had already lunged again with its jaw wide open. Thankfully, the beast was slower than before so I was easily able to roll to the side of the stone.

I picked up the stone, held it like a knife and took a fighting stance. The beast looked quite awful now. One of its legs was definitely very injured but it still had that bloodthirsty look in its eyes and I knew it wouldn't give up.

This time I took the initiative to attack and aimed for another spot that was injured. Its stomach.

The beast tried to move or retaliate but I ducked under its front leg. My body rolled sideways under it and I plunged the stone into its gut.

The momentum allowed me to roll away and I quickly stood by the beast's side. It tried to claw me but I easily dodged again.

Tears of pain flowed from my face since I had stimulated the injuries on my arms.

The stone caused the already open wound of the red lion to burst and blood gushed out. I could see its pained expression and how weakened it had become.

It lunged at me again, this time dodging was even easier and I sidestepped. The lion's nose was smashed in by my knee.

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Instead of the lion being knocked away like I expected, it caught my knee in its large jaw.

"Arghh!!" A scream escaped my mouth as I tried to shake the lion off.

I noticed that it would not let go so I used my fingers like claws and dug into the beast's eyes before it could react.

A loud muffled shriek sounded and the lion's clenched teeth loosened. Before the beast could clench down on my leg again, my other leg kicked it on the exact spot where the large stone was still stuck in.

The force from the kick was so much that the bones in my toes immediately broke. The shoe I was wearing was instantly torn to pieces and blood filled the half-intact sock under it.

The lion fell to my side lifelessly but I could tell that it was still alive.

I went approached the beast's body and removed the rock that was sticking out from its stomach. The forceful removal of the object caused even more blood loss.

My vision blurred but I didn't stop. Positioning the stone with both hands, I struck the lion's neck with all my power. I repeated this till bone-cracking sounds echoed around the area we were at.

The last time was after I felt that it had taken its last breath and my body had no more energy.

A sigh of relief left my mouth as the pain around my body soured. I realised that I had underestimated the beasts of this place as I looked down at my bloodied body.

I could feel my consciousness fluctuating. The sounds of multiple loud footsteps approaching caught my attention. It was impossible for me to fight anymore after this.

My heart raced. My sense of smell was overwhelmed by the corpse and blood smell all around me.

'What a crazy morning.' My thoughts were incoherent and I was sure that I was dying right now. I felt no fear, the only thing that pained me was that I die alone in both lives.

'What a short and useless life. Maybe I'll reincarnate again, who knows?'

Suddenly, the blood and sound of everything around me disappeared as my 5 senses could only sense one thing. I felt like I had fallen into a trance-like state.

Inside the corpse of the lion's body. The exact part I had broken open — its neck. There was a glowing small red ball inside the neck open bone.

The thing that caught my attention was the glow of the ball and its enticing smell.

'I don't think I've ever smelt anything as nice as this in my life. Maybe God brought me good food before my death.'

If I was in the right state of mind then I'm sure I wouldn't have eaten a glowing orb from a corpse but well there are no ifs in life.

All I can say is that it tasted great.

A bright light that seemed familiar flashed and a set of golden words on a beautiful screen appeared in front of me.

[Congratulations! You have survived 72 hours and killed a minimum of one beast.

You have passed the first level of the universal dungeon quest and gained:

+2 common coins.]

[The second level has now begun: PREY BECOMES PREDATOR!

Kill all the beasts in the universal dungeon (The area of your town)

Time limit: 7 days

Failure penalty: death ]

'Bastard!'

After that my consciousness immediately dissipated.

***

I'm dead.

That was my first thought when looking at the dark space? Room? I was in.

There was no light at all. All I could see around me was nothing.

Overflowing anger came over me as I thought of the illusionary screen and words I had seen before dying.

The first time I remember seeing that message was before I knew about my past life.

The message had suddenly appeared in front of everyone just before the meteor shower of beasts had occurred. We were shocked to see a game like a screen with the words:

[Global Quest: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!

Survive in the region or dungeon you are placed in for 7 days or kill at least 1 beast and survive 3 days.

Failure penalty: death]

After that, well chaos ensued and I transmigrated.

'What a horrible start. I would rather be a bullied fallen genius in a weakening sect. Maybe a crippled young master wouldn't be bad either?'

Sigh.

Wille I was ranting a sudden red glow lit up in the distance and caught my attention. Slowly and cautiously I walked towards it.

When I was near it I was startled too. My mind had cleared up now and I was sure that I had seen the same glowing red ball from the lion's corpse.

I vigilantly touched the orb and before I could react a flood of memories entered my head. A bit of it was weird — small fractions of broken memories.

I could see multiple lions around me discussing in a language I couldn't understand.

The next scene was of me fighting with multiple human figures and slaughtering them. I wasn't even able to feel pity as the following scene was already shown to me.

Multiple humanoid figures with grey skin were chasing after me. I almost died just from trying to escape.

After this everything went blank. Another set of complete memories invaded my mind involuntarily.

These memories were about the red glowing ball. According to the knowledge, these red balls were called 'essence'. Absorbing essence could make me stronger.

And not only that, essence could allow me to get memories and sometimes even abilities of any beast that I killed. The reason I got this was because I had somehow awakened a powerful ability called essence absorption.

A cheat ability!!

That was the first thought I had in my head. I had finally gotten my own unique cheat ability. Every decent protagonist needed one.

I especially wanted one. After transmigrating into such a horrible world I really needed one.

My previous life was horrible. I don't pity myself but being a weapon used for other people, people with money and power, was an unpleasant thing, to say the least. There was no hope of escape.

What I sought most was power. Power meant freedom no matter what world you were in. No one else could give you true freedom except yourself. That's something I could carve into my bones, those were my beliefs after my experiences.

All that didn't matter because now... now I had hope!

The dark space, which I had come to know as my mind space was filled with my maniacal laughter. Tears fell down my face as my heart raced.

I could finally gain freedom.