The tendrils of darkness disappeared as soon as they appeared, leaving nothing but hollowed husks and blood in their wake. It painted a horrifying picture, worthy of the most macabre stories ever written.

Jamila was staring at her, her hands covering her mouth, eyes widened in fright.

“Are you− Are you going to kill me?” she whispered with a shaky voice.

Ayah turned to face her and Jamila scrambled back, a choked cry escaping her lips. Ayah sighed. She held up her hand in−what she hoped would look like− a harmless manner.

“No. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Jamila shook her head, not believing her. “You’re an accursed, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m a player− well, according to someone anyway.”

She heard the warning ding of the system. Ayah paid it no mind.

“Why did you come to Temsia? Were you sent by king Aayan?”

King Aayan? The protagonist? Ayah hoped she had stumbled into him instead of Mr. Evil Incarnate but… oh well, at least she had managed to help Shoaib that night. She didn’t want to think what could have happened otherwise.

“No. I wasn’t sent by anyone. Our meeting was pure coincidence,” she said

Well, more like a product of carelessness and a foolish desire to remain the top editor in the company… Not that any of that matters anymore.

“Who are you?” Jamila asked.

Ayah shrugged. “Does it matter? If I said I wasn’t an accursed, would you believe me?”

Jamila pursed her lips, refusing to answer… which was an answer in itself.

“There you have it,” Ayah drawled. She turned back to the system’s screen that was blinking for a while to get her attention.

[Special Skill : Soul Devourer lv.1 ]

[Type : Special ]

[Required level : 1 ]

[Skill Lv. 1 ]

[Cooldown : 28 seconds.]

[Effect : Each enemy defeated is converted into points for the player. The success of the skill depends on both the level of the player and the enemy target.]

[Adverse-effect : each time the skill is used, the player’s Darkening increases.]

[Warning : If Darkening reaches 100% the player will fail at her assigned task.]

[Penalty for failure is death.]

[Current Darkening : 10% ]

Ayah squinted at the screen. What was this nonsense? This was the first time she ever heard of this!

Adverse-effect? Darkening? And to top it all off, her Darkening was already at 10%.

Was the system bent on killing her?

The system had labeled the special skill as ‘activated’ and not acquired. Was there any difference between the two? Were there other skills that she could activate when she met their required conditions?

All of this was new and confusing. For a second time, Ayah wished Kamal was here to clear up some of these game notions.

Another window announced her ability to use the Crafting skill. Ayah decided to ignore her new dilemma and concentrate on her new acquired skill. Finally, she huffed. She opened the inventory and clicked on the sword shard but, to her dismay, the crafting option was still dimmed, talking about two other items missing to repair the sword.

Ayah’s shoulders slumped in defeat. Why was it that once she solved a problem countless others popped up?

She glanced at the Wolfsbane flowers and found them ready to craft into a monster warding off Shield coupled with the dark wolf’s refined blood she had collected earlier.

[Items Monster ward off Shield crafted successfully.]

[Item : Monster ward off Shield]

[Type: Shield.]

[Difficulty: Common. ]

[Usage: used to ward off monsters of medium and lower levels. ]

[Duration : 6 hours.]

Well, better than nothing. With her sprained ankle and no chance of getting Jamila to heal her, the shield was her better option to stay alive.

Until we come to a compromise of sorts, that is.

She paused, frowning. Couldn’t she just buy some powerful weapon from the system’s shop? Wouldn’t that be more convenient?

“Don’t you have a shop interface, or something? All games have one.”

[Player should be aware that this is not a game, and that the land of Morr’s prosperity depends on the player's success.]

“Yeah, yeah. I know. No need to repeat yourself.” Ayah rolled her eyes. “Do you have a shop function or not?”

[The only items the player would be getting are the ones she either gains from her enemies or the ones she acquires by other means like smithing.]

“So that’s a no, then,” Ayah sighed.

So much for being helpful.

With nothing else to do, she opened her stats window to check on her progress.

[Player stats]

[Player level : 8]

[Health : 120 +5]

[Attack : 45 +5]

[Defense : 45 +5]

[Magic Attack : 45 +5]

[Magic Defense : 45 +5]

[Strength : 40 +5]

[Mana : 40 +5]

[Stamina : 50 +5]

[Intelligence : 45 +5]

[Speed : 40 +5]

[Passive Skill : Immunity Lv. Max.]

[Skill : Slash Lv. 1. ]

[Skill : Crescent Blade lv.1 Cooldown : 3 seconds.]

[Special skill: Holy Scribe Lv.Max Locked. Requirement not met.]

[Special skill: Heaven's wrath Lv.1 Skill Cooldown: 3 days after usage.]

[Special Skill : Soul Devourer lv.1 Cooldown : 28 seconds.]

[Current Darkening : 10% ]

[Stat points Available : 40 ]

Ayah squinted her eyes at the number displayed. 40? What stat should she increase?

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After a long deliberation, she decided to add 10 to Health, Stamina, and Speed, and 5 to both Attack and Defense.

She never played any games back at home and solely focused on getting her degree and landing her dream job, so she didn’t know what she was doing. Even so, she didn’t want to black out because of her depleted stamina while surrounded by monsters. And the Health stat was self explanatory.

It wasn’t long before other monsters appeared. Ayah glanced warily at the new quest window, but thankfully, it only asked her to survive the monsters’ attack and not to defeat them.

Thank God for small mercies.

Who knew, maybe the system was trying to help.

She took the shield, a small transparent glass globe with a green liquid inside, and read the instructions on how to use it. The transparent glass didn’t hurt as she thought it would when she broke it in her hand. The liquid floated up over her head before it spread like rain in a circular shield.

“You might want to get closer,” she told Jamila. “That is if you want to survive.”

Jamila shot her a doubtful look, but the sight of the monsters was even more fearful than sitting next to her. She scooted closer, her eyes looking anywhere but at Ayah.

A monster closed in on them. But once its claw made contact with the greenish shield, it shrieked and backed away. Its brethren did the same, they stood a few feet away, their beady red eyes observing the shield for any weakness.

Six hours. That was all the time the shield could buy them. And then, they would be on their own.

“It was quite foolish of you to follow me here.” Ayah said.

“Like you did any better…” Jamila mumbled, glaring at her.

True. Ayah shrugged. But unlike Jamila, Ayah had a system that quite encouraged her bad tendencies.

“I was ordered by the general to keep an eye on you,” Jamila confessed.

Of course.

“What did you expect to find? Did you think I’ll just run away when you guys were dealing with monsters?”

Jamila paused for a moment, her teeth gnawing at her lower lip. “I thought you were going to summon more monsters,” she said in a small voice, her eyes glancing to her feet.

Ayah sighed. Of course. It was all because they thought she was the accursed. No matter what that actually meant.

“I can’t summon anything. I can barely defend myself.”

Jamila leveled her with a dubious look. “I saw what you did earlier.”

Ayah didn’t deign to acknowledge her words. They all saw that horrifying skill. There was no use for Ayah to try and deny it.

“What do you want then?” Jamila asked, her hands a balled fists by her side.

Silence reigned over the two. A minute, two, then three went by, then Ayah sighed. “I want to go home,” she whispered. She didn’t know whether Jamila heard her or not. And honestly, at this point, she no longer cared.

After five hours had passed in relatable silence− much to Ayah’s amazement. She had thought the healer would talk her ear off about how Ayah was their enemy and the scourge upon the earth− Ayah turned to Jamila with a querying look. “Are you sure they’re looking for you? It’s been hours and none of them have shown up. It wasn’t like we had ventured that deep into the forest.”

Jamila shook her head. “You don’t get it. This isn’t a normal forest. This is the forest of lost souls. Once it has a grip on you, it does whatever it can to keep you locked inside. If one is not careful, he could be wandering the forest for eternity. A lost soul.” She shivered, her eyes darting at the darkness beyond the shield. The faint strands of light that escaped from the dense canopy created more shadows than there probably were.

Ah, so that was why none of the warriors had followed the fleeing monsters into the forest.

Ayah exhaled loudly. Why did no one bother to tell her? Well… it was true that she never asked, but as a guest, they could have given her a memo. And that emotionally stunted asshole could have warned her instead of just yelling at her.

She perked up. Wasn’t the forest an unclaimed territory between Temsia and Nur? That meant her ordeal would soon be over. Now she only had to get out of the forest alive, preferably in one piece.

Right…

She glanced at the timer at the bottom of the screen. Less than an hour left. She looked up at the monsters lounging at the edge of the circle, biding their time,waiting.

They had to find another way out. If what Jamila said was right, it might be years till any of the warriors stumbled on them.

“Can you heal my wounds?” she asked.

Jamila scrunched her nose in contempt. “Why would I?” she spat.

“Then can you fight off those monsters?” Ayah motioned to the beasts.

Jamila hesitated. She glanced at the monsters then back at Ayah.

“It’s either that or we both die. Choose.”

“Fine,” Jamile gritted under her teeth.

Ayah extended her leg to her, and with a gentle touch to the swollen ankle, the inflammation reduced and the skin turned back to its natural honey color. Healers were truly a marvel. Ayah wondered whether Jamila could treat terminal diseases.

Ayah stood on her feet, a smile pulled at her lips when no pain radiated from her newly healed ankle. She took out her sword that she had stored back in the inventory and swung it around to get her tired hands acquitted with its weight again.

“The shield could hold for a few minutes more. But after that, we’ll have to get out of here with our own strength,” Ayah said. She turned to Jamila. “Stay next to me. Things could get bad if we get separated.”

Jamila swallowed thickly and nodded.

As soon as the shield collapsed, the system’s notification sounded in her ears.

[New enemies appeared. Defeat Dark Wolf x 30 and survive.]

Ayah had only half a second to gawk at the number of monsters before she swung her sword, felling her first target.

[You have defeated Dark Wolf x 1 ]

It was a hectic mess. Ayah kept alternating between her two skills. The system, deciding to be helpful for once, chimed each time the cooldown of Crescent Blade was over. The notifications for defeated monsters kept piling up, along with a few about her level. But as her level increased, so did the number of monsters she had to kill before leveling up.

She huffed. Good things never last.

A blearing red alarm took over her sight.

[Warning! Monster Boss Wolf King has appeared!]

[Defeat the Boss and survive!]

Ayah looked at the new hulking monster that had joined their party. It was bigger and uglier than its brethren. Its black tongue coiled around its yellowed teeth like a viper. She caught only a glimpse of milky purple reptilian eyes before she had to duck away, tugging Jamila along, from the sizzling liquid the boss hurled at them.

The ground frizzled, a charred black with ominous bubbles foaming on the surface.

Unlike the other monsters, the boss was a mix between a wolf and a snake. It slithered on the ground at a speed that nearly put a stop to Ayah’s wildly beating heart. The scarce trees that were unfortunate enough to stand in its way were uprooted and crushed, even some of the other weaker monsters couldn’t escape its path of destruction.

“We need to get up the ravine,” Ayah said.

“How?”

Ayah hesitated for a split second, before she suggested, “I can throw you…”

Jamila gawked at her. “Are you mad?”

“I can’t see any other way out of here. You’re too heavy for me to carry up the incline.” She sent a sheepish smile at the glare Jamila shot her.

Jamila sighed. “Fine. But be mindful with your strength.”

“Just… use your healing powers if something goes wrong.”

Jamila huffed. “If I don’t break my neck first.”

“It’s either that, or serve as this thing’s evening snack.”

With a final glance at the approaching monster, Ayah took hold of Jamila’s arms, swirled around to gain momentum and launched her upward. Jamila’s scream could still be heard even after she had disappeared from view.

Using her newly increased speed, she took a deep breath and propelled herself up the shallower channels of the ravine. Her feet slipped a couple times accompanied with the loud dings and the warnings from the system, but ayah paid them no mind. She had one thing in mind, to get to the other side.

Once upward, the unstable ground gave under her feet. She threw herself forward, and in her haste, she nearly collided with a gnarled and protruding trunk.

“Oh my God, I’m dying!” Ayah lamented, her eyes closed tight to stop her vision from spinning.

“Not for lack of trying.” Jamila huffed next to her. She felt the warm rush of Jamila’s healing powers over her face, and the dizziness abated. No warnings about foreign entities flashed before her.

Ayah spared her a glance. She seemed fine, not even a scratch.

“That time at the tent, what were you trying to do?”

Jamila flinched, as if dealt a hit. She looked at Ayah then away, avoiding her gaze. “It was a probing spell.”

“A probing spell?”

Jamila seemed uncomfortable the more insisting Ayah was. “If it had succeeded… you wouldn’t have been able to lie to any of my inquiries.”

Ayah blinked. Was it some sort of truth serum? Things like this existed in this world?

“But it failed,” Jamila said as if it pained her.

Thanks to her passive skill. Ayah hummed. Good thing she had an anti-truth serum up her sleeve. What else was she immune to now?

Their short lived relief soon turned to dread as the monster’s angry groan sounded from down below and the ground started shaking under their feet.

The boss was trekking its way up to them.

The fight soon turned into a game of hide and seek. No matter how hard Ayah tried to sneak up to it, the monster would find her. She could barely get one hit before its tail coiled and towered over her, ready to swat her away as if she was a mere mosquito. Ayah wondered how long she could last like this. She glanced at her stats bar and frowned. Both her health and stamina were getting depleted. Still, no sign of leveling up. She cursed under her breath. She would have to face him off before Stasis Mode was activated.

There was only one skill she was avoiding to use like the plague.

The soul devourer.

Better up my darkening percentage than die.

Jamila tensed next to her as the first tendrils of darkness appeared under Ayah’s feet, but she didn’t back away. Keep away from her, Ayah thought at the inky Darkness. To her relief, it evaded the healer and spread around them, the area under Jamila’s feet the only visible patch of ground. Then it reached the Boss. It let out a loud shriek of pain.

But it wasn’t the only one who screamed.

Ayah felt searing pain in her chest. Her mouth opened in an ear splitting scream. She felt like sharp claws were digging into her ribcage, trying to rip her heart out.

It was like no pain she ever felt.

The system’s warning kept blinking red. But Ayah couldn’t focus enough to make sense of the red words floating over her eyes. She coughed, rich metallic taste invading her mouth. She didn’t know what was happening. Was it the special skill she had used? But it didn't hurt last time when she did.

She heard Jamila speak somewhere over her. Jamila looked down at her, hazel eyes frowning in concern. For a second, Ayah was confused. Why was Jamila’s face floating over hers? Why was the whole forest upside down?

Ah, she must have blacked out at some point.

The last thing she heard before blissful darkness was the system congratulating her on leveling up.

About damn time.