‘If they are going to follow me everywhere can’t they at least keep up a conversation.’
Despite the benevolence of their saviour, they didn’t dare speak, afraid they might provoke his ire.
He was grateful for the cooking. After eating properly he didn’t act like a wild animal, biting down and swallowing raw meat and hide.
‘Guess I’ll have to carry the conversation.’
“Where are you guys from?”
He put on a light smile. It was a sincere question, he was curious. But the dried blood painted a ugly picture. They felt more fear towards him than the monsters out there.
“I- Ah!”
Having spoken up, the ferocious slaughter’s eyes moved to the young girl. These eyes felt boundless. In those irises was the universe.
If she hadn’t looked into his eyes, it would have been fine. But now she was spellbound. This had to do with his eyes and the fear she felt. Her chemical imbalance left her muddle headed.
‘She looks so lifeless.’
Thinking he might accost the girl, the older lady spoke in her stead.
“I’m from Evalon. The Lonsong supercluster.”
The words came out. They felt real, but instead of clearing things up they muddied them.
‘Longsong supercluster? What is that? Isn’t Evalon a perfume?’
Seeing as there was a pause after she spoke, the third person spoke up. He felt pressured to speak.
“I’m from Deratick. I’m not sure where it is located.”
His face brought forth a tinge of red. He felt ignorant. Previously he had been made fun of for not even knowing where his planet was.
‘I’m not sure what to make of all of this. Is this a simulation or have I been teleported to this place?’
What staggering luck. His guess is as close as it could be. These people were moved here. How or why still goes unanswered.
“You said supercluster, right? Do you mean your solar system?”
“It is the cluster my galaxy is in.”
‘It’s a name for a group of galaxies?’
Because of the young man’s disinterest. He didn’t notice that his companions weren’t identical to what he knew to be human.
He had thought they were strange. But that was allocated to them just being weird.
The young girl still remained silent. She was confused. A blank look on her face. But she was no longer afraid.
‘Isn’t it polite to ask where I am from? Why did they just go silent?’
A bit exasperated. He glanced back at them. Two of the three shivered. The third didn’t notice. Still in her own world.
“I’m from Earth. I lived in a highrise in a large city.”
After speaking, he wondered why he said that. Then he asked himself if he should tell them he was a scion of a great family..
He had lived off his great great grandfather’s inheritance just like his father and father before him.
The family didn’t work. They just paid people to work for them. They’re wealth fluctuated but never diminished, only increased.
Many rich families were famous but his wasn’t. Their whole family were like ghosts. Something their great great grandfather had beaten into his sons and grandsons.
Instead they had other rich families serving as their mediator to the rest of the planet.
‘This didn’t work at all.’
You have reached level ten!
After reaching this milestone you are granted one ability.
You have been granted the ability: Improved instincts!
‘Huh!?’
Stunned. Completely out of it. He stands there unsure what to make of the situation.
After rereading the ability information he found he added nothing but an increase to his instinct attribute.
‘I’ll never die at this rate. I’ll be an old man like the ancestor.’
Having reach this trail of thoughts his gloominess rose to new heights.
‘There has to be a way to end my life.’
It wasn’t for the lack of attempting. Everytime he tried ending his existence. Fate interfered.
The three were watching their saviour stand in a daze. But this wasn’t a rare occurrence. Every once in awhile he would do this.
But after a moment. Someone plucked the courage to speak out. Leaving the other two ghastly pale and shocked.
“Are you okay?”
Having been alerted he was in fact not alone in this world. He glanced at three. Shook his head and continued walking.
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‘They haven’t even asked me my name.’
“I’m Din Laq Docte.”
Din. One of the youngest in the new generation of the Laq Docte family. He wasn’t any less exceptional than the rest of his siblings or cousins.
He said the words with warmth and pride. It gave others the feeling that he was doing them a favor. A favor of telling them his name.
‘Can’t you guys at least tell me your names?’
These people really were too impolite. Din couldn’t help but think in this way.
“I’m called Feli.”
“Suit.”
“I am Seri.”
After a rather penetrative stare, the three caught on and spat out their names.
Feli. From Deratick. A rather sad young man. His gaze still avoided direct eye contact.
Suit is a unique name, even on Evalon. She was a child of two celebrities. And internationally famous since infancy.
The last one, the young girl, Seri. She felt an odd sense of safety, with rare bravery she smiled her brightest smile.
‘We need toothbrushes.’
If the girl knew his thought she would at the very least falter three steps back and snap her mouth shut.
But as they were. Filthy and fighting to survive. None of them had the things necessary to maintain themselves.
‘I wish they would at least talk amongst themselves. Feels creepy to walk in silence like this.’
Having reached level ten. Din begun allocating his attributes, it was also his first time seeing his own status.
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 10
Wisdom: 10
Willpower: 10
Constitution: 10
Stamina: 10
Health: 200
Mana: 150
Health recovery: 20
Mana recovery: 15
Instinct: 70
Points to allocate: 7
‘I can’t put anything into health, mana or recovery.’
After a while. He decided it didn’t matter. He put everything into wisdom
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 10
Dexterity: 10
Wisdom: 17
Willpower: 10
Constitution: 10
Stamina: 10
Health: 200
Mana: 150
Health recovery: 20
Mana recovery: 18.5
Instinct: 80.5
The seven points into wisdom gave him mana recovery and proportionally his instincts increased as well.
‘This instinct stat is out of control.’
“What levels are you guys?”
This time around they didn’t hesitate to answer.
“I’m level fifteen, and Seri is level seventeen.”
Having regained her confidence, Suit spoke for herself and the girl. She didn’t know it, but she felt protective of her. Despite being two levels lower than her.
What had shocked Din, was that their levels were so high. But before he could ask, Feli spoke up.
“Nineteen.”
‘Something is off. How can they be so high level?’
“How long have you guys been out here?”
It was only up to now that he found out they had been here for two months longer than him. They had entered a survival camp.
From there they had gone out to hunt once in awhile in large groups. The experience wasn't high but they hunted great quantities, food had to be acquired for every meal.
There was also bonus experience for accomplishing some unique things. Most of the time, it would be to hunt a specific species enough to gain information on them.
But their experience had never grown as fast as now. The group shared experience with Din. Who miraculously slaughtered everything.
The beast here aren’t too strong. Any average fighter has little issue fighting them.
“After that we got separated and ended up lost in the jungle.”
Finally he had a better idea of what was going on. It still felt wrong, something was missing but at least he wasn’t as ignorant.
It turned out that their camp had been raided by a rival survivor camp. Once people taste the increase in strength and new unique powers they became dangerous. More dangerous.
The strong begin coercing the weaker. Once in awhile a small dictatorship sprouts. And over time they compete for territory.
In its essence, a survivor camp is just a gathering of people. But these camps were different. They gave benefits to those in control of them.
It provides empowerments, sometimes quests and most importantly, they stacked and even multiplied. When in the hands of the same person.
The small scale wars never ended. This wasn’t many wars over a short period. Instead it happened over periods of weeks and months.
To them them wars was maybe the wrong term. But it was devastating. People die and have to endure hard injustices.
‘This is kinda fucked up. They just kill each other like this?’
After the thought crossed his mind he mocked himself. As a scion of a wealthy family, he knew the allure of power.
‘Maybe I can help the Laq Docte rise in this place. Grandfather used tell us to create our own opportunities.’
Thinking up to this point, he felt he was right. If he can’t die. He can do what he was taught to do. Conquer, dominate and flourish.
It wasn’t enough to just win over your opponent. You had to crush them, gain complete domination.
Step three is to stabilize your roots. To make sure you won’t drag the family down.
Even if the Laq Docte weren’t famous. That just meant the common folk didn’t know them.
Being the titans they were, they had fought battles that shook not only countries but all continents at large.
This was a pride of the Laq Docte. Despite his bizarre circumstance, Din still held onto it. He did more than hold onto it. He worshipped it.
‘I need to find one of these survival camps.’
Even if the three knew that there were benefits from controlling survival camps, they had no idea how you would control one.
The ones in control were mostly brutal or at least charismatic. Some were smart tacticians but most relied on brute force in all things.
‘At least they’re a bit more chatty now.’
There is a sense of relief in Din’s tone now. He knew this was a strange place and his bizarre ability kept reminding him. But there were at least other people.
‘Those two don’t have a lot of character, but this Suit woman has a way about her.’
It was now easy to see that Suit was someone of great character. This didn’t mean much out here sadly.
‘I think sister would have liked her.’
The gloomy atmosphere that had dissipated slightly returned as he thought of his family. He felt rage when he thought of his failure.
If it was just that it would have been fine but because of his emotions, the projection of his instincts became clearer.
While the three couldn’t see a figure, they felt physically unwell if they looked at Din’s back. This was instinctual fear.
These days blended into one. It wasn’t impossible to tell if it was day in the jungle but sometimes it felt that way.
All they drank was the blood of beasts. Not a source of water could be seen. At most drops of water could be found in miniscule quantity in the form of condensation.
But all that would end now. Today they found the smallest of creaks.
“Water!”
Shocked out of their own thoughts they look up to see Din rush off. He could hear the running water.
‘It really is water!’
The creek was narrow, one hand could block it up temporarily. If you followed it to its source or end, all you would find was disappointment.
But Din didn’t know this, and neither did his companions. So they walked back and forth to no avail.
‘What is this creek? How can water come from the ground like that?’
Despite reluctance to leave the creek, two days later they continued their journey until they found a remnant of some sorts.
‘What is this? Metal?’
The four man team were surveying the area. It was only a few tens meters. There were obvious signs of a building's foundation.
“What do you think it is, Din?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
After flicking his finger on the moss covered pole it rang out like it was hollow.
‘A sign?’
Time passed and they ended up concluding the building was made of type of cement and metals. Such a building couldn’t have decayed to this extent naturally.
“It was probably demolished. Probably with explosives.”
Even as he said it, Feli himself felt it was strange. Why would there be a demolished building out here in the jungle. Who would need to destroy this place?
Even if they wanted answers, the ruins wouldn’t provide them.
‘I’m taking this rod.’
The metal rod was covered in green moss. It looked more like a plant’s stem than a metal rod.
‘Feels too light to be iron.’
Having taken a good look around they gave up the area, Din decided it was time to continue traveling.
Conversation was still spars but on occasion something would come up. Strange looking flower. A new type of beast or someone leveled up.
Din managed to reach level thirteen. He felt allocated points to wisdom was a mistake before so he put them into intelligence.
However as soon as he did he felt it was a mistake as well. He hadn’t felt any tangible increase in his intelligence, only an increase in his mana.
He felt this whole system was outrageous. In the end he opted allocate the rest into stamina. At least he didn't regret that decision.
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 17
Dexterity: 10
Wisdom: 17
Willpower: 10
Constitution: 10
Stamina: 24
Health: 200
Mana: 185
Health recovery: 20
Mana recovery: 18.5
Instinct: 125.5
He cursed the instinct stat for being so ambitious. He felt exasperated, a type of mental exhaustion.