Night fell and it took the entire day to settle down. Despite the excessive amount of plants growing on buildings, there were no insects or animals. It was possible that the barrier pushed them away or the System could have chosen a place that had none of them, as unlikely as it was. It could have simply teleported them away as well.

Blair wanted to thank it for that —sleeping with the insects was a bad idea.

She found herself a comfortable spot in a building no one else was in. As far as she was aware, no one had any problems with where they stayed. Despite all the space, most of them decided to stay in a few buildings, bunched up together.

How they’d rest like that, Blair didn’t know.

The room had a leather sofa caked in several layers of dust, which she wiped off to the best of her ability. It’d be perfect for a bed. She’d been wandering for the last hour to find a room with a leather sofa. Most of the cloth ones weren’t in the best shape.

It looked to be a big shot’s office. There was a desk, an office chair, a sofa, and a small table between the desk and the sofa. The smaller table would make a perfect nightstand if she was going to get settled, which she most likely had to do.

The window was broken but the walls kept out a majority of the wind, not to mention that it felt like a midsummer night. It wasn’t blistering hot during the day, but it was hot nonetheless.

The [Monster Wave] will start in 300 seconds. Please prepare for battle.

Blair’s eyes widened and she hopped to her feet. Like the counter that she saw on the pop-up before she got whisked away to the Tutorial, the number of seconds slowly decreased.

“Monster Wave?” she mumbled underneath her breath and looked out the window. She could see the walls of light in the distance growing dimmer by the second. When it faded altogether, the monsters would flood in but she had no idea how many would come in.

How many of them were there?

A dozen? A hundred? Or could it be a thousand?

No, they had to elect fifty Guards so it was safe to assume that it was below that number. If so many Monsters were going to attack, they wouldn’t put an arbitrary number requirement for Guards in the first place. Meanwhile, she decided to simply stay in the house.

She could see several wolves and more importantly, birds —overgrown eagles. She could hear their screams as they flew around the walls, encircling it. Their speed was bad news. They turned into borderline blurs and they were as large as small cars.

Blair knew what they could do. The larger eagles, even without growing to that size, were known for hunting deers and goats. Fighting against them was bad news, especially when they could fly. They didn’t have guns so even hitting them down would be difficult.

That’s when she remembered about Fire Ball and Wind Blade. Depending on how strong they were, one good shot from a Magic Skill could down those birds. If her Mana Effectiveness scaled off the same metric as her Strength, it meant that a Fire Ball or a Wind Blade from her was effectively twice as strong as all the strength she could muster.

If it was a Wind Blade, it could realistically slash off an eagle’s wing in one fell swoop unless the Monsters had superior Durability to their natural counterparts. That’s when it’d start becoming difficult to fight back.

Either way, it wasn’t her duty to protect the Settlement so she leaned on the wall and sat, intent on hiding until the Monster Wave was over. Only after it ended could she sleep. Even if she doubted that they could get into the room through the window, the wingspan of a bird was deceptively larger than their body.

Just in case, she summoned her spear and held it in both hands.

Fighting robots was one thing but fighting actual animals that bled and were intent on killing her was another. More importantly, these Monsters wouldn’t be pulling any punches and Blair didn’t believe herself capable of fighting them.

The [Monster Wave] has started. Please survive for 600 seconds. Note that Monsters are able to see through all obstructions and will have [Enhanced Senses] to detect your location easier unless you have killed a Monster during that [Monster Wave].

Ten minutes wasn’t so bad. She knew without looking out the window that the walls had gone down. It was evident from the eagle calls coming closer. Being roughly at the center of the area was advantageous —it meant that she could be alone.

An eagle was getting dangerously close.

Too close, in fact.

When it shot through the window, Blair stumbled to her feet and held the spear in front of her. Her arms were shaking and her knees weren’t faring better. It took her a few seconds to snap out of it and that was more than enough time for the eagle to get its bearings and turn its head at her.

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Its beak looked sharp enough to peck a hole through her skull and its claws looked like they could tear through her flesh like it was paper. The claw mark on the wall of the restaurant that she’d seen earlier today could’ve come from that.

The thought of fighting against it made her shudder.

“Stay back!” she shouted in vain, trying to keep it away. Slowly, she moved in a circular manner and stepped closer to the door. Just when she thought that it wasn’t that bad, it raised its wings and screeched at her.

That triggered her fight or flight response. Within a split second, her brain ran through countless scenarios and most of them ended with her as the eagle’s dinner. The only ones that she didn't die in were those in which she ran away and managing to survive for ten minutes, no matter how impractical.

So without a second thought, she dashed out the door. She could pick up the sound of flapping wings behind her and sharply turned to the left just in case it was right behind her, and about to slam into her or dig its claws into her back.

She glanced behind her back and saw its claws almost reach her. In her best bet, she swung up her left hand and shouted out for Ice Shield. The sharp pain of claws digging into her flesh and its strong grip made her scream out, but once cast, the ice would form regardless. There, a circle of ice appeared and uncomfortably pressed against the eagle’s talons, forcing it to let go and move back.

The disk of ice bought her a few seconds but it didn’t help when she was too taken aback by shock to do anything about it. She knelt down to the ground and let go of the spear. With her now-free right hand, she held her left forearm —there was a deep gash on the back of her forearm. It was bleeding now and the pain made her grit her teeth to not scream out.

“Fuck you!” she screamed and saw the eagle trying to fly over the shield to get to her, but yet another Ice Shield formed above Blair’s head to protect her. The eagle landed on the ice with impressive force and sent cracks sprawling across its entire length.

It was about to break.

In a desperate bid for survival, Blair picked up her spear and held it upright with one hand, letting the ground support it rather than holding it up herself. The eagle pecked on the shield and broke through, its claws aimed at her neck but the spear dug into the bird’s torso thanks to its downward momentum and the sharp tip of the spear.

It let out a single cry and made an attempt to reach her with its outstretched claws, but the spear kept it at bay and it couldn’t reach Blair’s kneeling form. Its eyes widened and it was perpetually stuck that way. Blood dripped down the spear and fell on her face, bringing her to the realization that she’d just killed an animal.

While she would have never gone vegan because of cattle slaughter, killing an animal with her own two hands wasn’t something she’d expected to do. After a few seconds of sliding down the spear’s shaft and nearing her with every passing second, it was covered with light.

Instead of shattering like the cards did when they were being stored, the Monster’s glowing silhouette was compressed into a small sphere. It looked oddly satisfying, like expensive CGI in a movie. After it had finished condensing, there floated a Red Card.

You could get Cards by killing Monsters.

Exhausted, she grabbed the card and closed her eyes. The exhaustion and the pain didn’t let her resist the drowsiness for much longer.

Congratulations! You’ve used a [Red Card]. Choose one of the following Skills you are able to attain from a [Dire Eagle].

…

Drowsily, Blair opened her eyes and could only see two pop-up screens. She turned her head and looked to her left, where her hand was. She could see a pool of blood underneath that but there was no pain anymore.

The [Life Support] function of [Vigor of Ancients] has drained 8 Stamina to close your wounds to the best of its capabilities.

Lazily, she pulled her arm in front of her face and could see that she wasn’t bleeding any more. It was caked in dried blood but the gash itself was closed. There was a scar running across the back of her forearm, which was where it happened.

There was a dull pain when she moved her hand, which she could attribute to there still being internal damage or a broken bone. It wasn't the familiar sensation of the slight fractures she was used to —it felt different.

If she’d gotten Mind of Steel, it would’ve been a lot less painful but Vigor of Ancients was useful as well. She could’ve bled to death back there, or if the drowsiness was induced by the Skill in the first place, she could’ve perhaps bandaged it to save herself. That was when she realized that most medicine and medical equipment was either expired or dysfunctional by now, making Vigor of Ancients necessary.

Maybe she could trade for Mind of Steel with someone else?

She did get a Red Card, after all.

Eagle Vision (C): Allows you to temporarily increase your Perception for the purpose of Sight.

Claw Retraction (C): Allows you to temporarily turn your nails into claws.

Avian Grip (C): Allows you to temporarily increase your Strength when gripping an object.

The moment she saw Eagle Vision, Blair made up her mind. It increased her Perception, which was what she assumed her poor vision could be attributed to. It wasn’t even a choice. Compared to getting a claw and smashing an apple with her grip, getting a Skill that let her see fine even if she lost her glasses was a necessity.

“Eagle Vision,” she said and the card formed its contents. On the front side, it had the shape of an eagle’s eye and on its back, underneath the description, the cost and bonuses it provided were visible.

Name: Eagle Vision

Level: 1

Rarity: Common

Description: Allows you to temporarily increase your Perception for the purpose of Sight.

Bonus: +10 Perception (Sight-only)

Cost: 1 Stamina per Minute

As it stood now, she could only use it for 8 minutes before losing consciousness. While it was useful for an emergency, it was certainly not something that she could keep using constantly. She didn’t even know how fast her Mana, Stamina, and Capacity recovered so it was difficult to tell.

She had to measure it sometime soon. For all its details, the System forgot the simplest things.

To test it out, Blair pulled down her glasses and activated her Eagle Vision as she did with her Ice Shield. By saying out its name, “Eagle Vision, activate.”

Her eyes sharpened and she could see as she would with her glasses on. Her vision was at 20/400 so the fact that her eyesight became serviceable was a miracle.

“Eagle Vision, deactivate,” she said and her vision returned to normal. After she did so, Blair noticed that she was noticeably exhausted —definitely not something she should use for convenience unless her eyeglasses broke.

If they did, she doubted there’d be anyone that could make new ones for her. Maybe she could find the lenses and make a makeshift one for herself if necessary.