Protect thee privates was the name of the game, and Tetsu lost every round. Crazy, how until now he never felt shy or the need to hide his privates. Beasts were just that, beasts, and as far as he can tell, they didn’t cover their private pre-system or post-system. So, he didn’t need to cover his privates, either.

Down the line, if he met any humans, he would first ask for some pants and then make the situation awkward.

The only other time he discerned being naked was when it got cold or like now when some strange ladybugs targeted his privates.

“Leave me and my junk alone,” Tetsu screamed as he ran.

The baby rhino bunkered down with its invisible shields separating it from the ladybug’s puny attacks. They used a skill to manifest their spots into light orbs, which they threw at the weakest part of their target. An obvious and easy skill to avoid if one has some brains.

Rhino finds Tetsu using his hands to protect his weakest point. “Weird human.” She sighs.

Why do they have their weakness hanging out like that? Oh, well... she didn’t want any explanation.

“I know where to attack when a human comes for me.” She notes.

Revealing her invisible shield might get her into trouble. She would never underestimate her opponent ever again. The confusion of not being able to reach her main body was her trump card. Unless her opponent uses a physical attack, they won’t realize the obvious.

Still, she wanted to deactivate the invisibility just to cover her eye. The dumb human was loud, but at least she wouldn’t be able to see him.

Plans varied from the baby rhino tanking the attacks to wearing them down and Tetsu running around protecting his family jewels. Once the bugs ran low on mana, they formed into a formation to escape. The baby rhino didn’t or couldn’t chase its opponent, while Tetsu didn’t even notice until after they were gone.

“Those bugs are after my jewels.” He covers them with his hands. “Mine.” He claims.

From one nest into another, Tetsu ran to protect himself and the rhino tanked every attack.

Fight after fight, the rhino got stronger, faster, and tougher, while Tetsu accumulated more and more damage.

Tetsu watches the baby rhino eat every unlucky opponent that got pinned between her and its shield. He never saw it once attack as it solely focused on defense. When it eats the unfortunate bystander or a fallen bystander, its jelly form grows ever so slightly. The difference was minuscule, but Tetsu only caught on once its lower solid half wasn’t able to contain the jelly any longer.

{Quart: node Level: 03}

“What...” Tetsu opens his mouth.

A quick glance from the fat, overflowing jelly rhino makes him shut up. “Please don’t choke me.” He mumbles.

It seemed to have understood his plea, as it shrugs and wobbles away.

This latest revelation made Tetsu mad.

In four or five days, Tetsu had no concept of time, but the rhino gained two additional levels. Not to mention the only thing it did was defend and eat some really gross creatures. Tetsu should know he ate more than her. Yet it leveled and he was still stuck at level one.

Sure, his stats grew by another single digit, but still no level. All those bugs he defended himself from must’ve given him at least one level. Sure, all of them were at level one and sucked. But accumulated experience and all that.

“Should I fight more for levels?” Tetsu entertains this idea until he remembers he isn’t suited for killing. His second dad, Mr. Razz, made Tetsu hunt, butcher, and eat animals.

Tetsu hunted down a chicken while Kile hunted deer and boars. Kile had a feast while Tetsu himself became a vegan for a month before the sweet lure of chicken made him commit mass chicken genocide.

How many chickens did he and Kile eat that weekend? He didn’t know and, frankly, didn’t care. They were finger-liking good.

Etiquette dictated him to eat the right way, though. You hunt your prey first. Which Tetsu loved as he outsmarted some chicken. Believe it or not, chickens are incredibly hard to catch. But once in the slaughterhouse, they don’t run at all. Are they dumb or do they just give up? A mystery he never got to solve.

The next step is to respect the hunt. Every single body part is to be used with respect. Feathers go to build the fire in the furnace. The parts you can’t eat go to the dog and the parts you can eat, you chew down to the bone.

Yes, no bones left.

This is the proper way to hunt. Some hunters don’t even waste the blood, gulping it down raw or after some light cooking. While we, or at least I, didn’t go that extreme.

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Now, Tetsu thanks his bad for every lesson. He might have died so many times already if it wasn’t for his second family.

“Kile, mom, dad, Mr. and Mrs. Razz.” Faces appear in his vision. Tears fill his eyes, yet the images never lose their form. How could they? He saw them through his heart and it only squeezed the life out of him.

“I will survive.” He assures them. “You better too.”

Rhino stood still, concerned about the human’s sudden shift. Seconds turn to minutes as the human comes back to his stupid ways.

“One, two, three... six... twelve... twelve and half.” Tetsu pushes himself to do one more rep.

Tetsu increased his count three-fold and his stats clearly reflect that, yet something was wrong. Not knowing the exact reason, he skips to the next phase.

He decides to fight in defense or to protect something he cares about. This determination contradicted his freedom plan.

Freedom comes at a high cost. A cost only the powerful can pay. How does one level up without fighting? One has to learn to run without any dignity and build up levels by an alternate means.

Can’t punch a living creature, punch a punching bag instead. Maximize your health pool and mana pool while always keeping a leg out of the door, ready to run. A simple and only plan Tetsu can come up with on such short notice.

“If someone gave me a heads-up about the system arriving, I would’ve planned better, but for now, this has to work. Let’s plan the rest as… or if we progress.” Tetsu eyes his status.

Level two! He will have the stats soon.

Moving onto his next idea, he summons the “Echo vault,” and inspects it further. His inner sage scoffs, certain he wasn’t at the level to experiment on such a high-level artifact. A hidden knowledge associated with the skill also made him aware of the cool-down time. Any experiment had to wait as the vault repaired itself for the next use.

Tetsu simply stopped thinking about the vault and it disappeared from existence.

“Neat trick.” Smiles Tetsu.

His amusement quickly turns into many more questions, while his smile turns upside down. “Can’t you let me enjoy the moment first?” He scolds himself.

Tetsu checks the description once more and makes a plan. “Maybe I can use this concept somehow?”

The first idea to spark in his mind was to run and then level up. So naturally, his plan was to make smoke bombs.

Time to go ninja. Not the yellow flashing kind, but the run-away, I am not here kind.

Tetsu makes a hand sign and runs around with his hands pointing back.

‘Huh!’ was the expression on the baby rhino.

When she considered having grasped the ways of the stupid human, he went and did that.

With the night camp close by, Tetsu left without saying a word. After collecting some burnt wood, he dashes back to the fat baby rhino.

She raises a tiny eyebrow before deciding the human is too far gone for any help and sees him biting his own hand.

“Why do I even bother?” She bubbles within.

Tetsu bites his own nails to make them sharper. Several tries later, he manages to sharpen one fingernail.

One is all he needed.

He focuses one eye on the rhino as they head deeper into the forest. Or so he assumed as he didn’t recognize any tree. With his other eye, he focused on the experiment at hand.

After burning down several branches, he finally made one smoke bomb.

“Tada.” Tetsu held out a small piece of burnt wood between his fingers. “Smoke bomb.” He says and flicks the tiny wood piece deeper into the forest.

Three tiny runes lit up around the charcoal. One read ‘Store,’ the other ‘Impact,’ and the last ‘Release.’

Now, did Tetsu figure this out within the hour and relatively easily?

Yes.

Did he check the direction in which he threw?

No.

The charcoal flew straight toward a huge ass bee hive. On impact, it exploded and released a vast cloud of smoke, which enveloped and triggered the entire hive.

Tetsu saw one huge claw poke out and he killed his curiosity and ran.

“Tag along.” Tetsu activates his skill.

Before the monstrous bee emerged, Tetsu disappeared deeper into the forest. He didn’t really know where he was headed. By looking at the fat rhino's heading, he formulates a vague direction in his head, picks her up, and runs like the wind,

His curiosity and the system messages tempted him to stop. But he wasn’t a fool. Oh, no, sir.

Tetsu only stopped once his fatigue tripped and pinned him to the floor.

“A giant ass bee.” He shouts at his curiosity. “And what did you want?” He opens to check his notifications.

[Skill ‘Smoke Orb’ is available: Smoke contained within the orb can be released on impact. One shot at a time, release this highly concentrated smoke to distract or flee. Beware of this orb requires time before recovering its lost resources. Orbs available: 01/01. Cool down time: 00:00sec. Level: Initiate. Rarity: common]

[Ding! Your affinity with, “Rune Force,” current class, “Tracer,” and the title of “GlyphSage,” has affected the skill ‘Liner.’]

[Ding! Skill: Liner has been upgraded to Rune Curve of Resonance: One rune beside the other doesn’t change many properties. A rune is set in its way and does what it's intended to do. While a conflict arises, they simply refuse to function until said conflict is removed or bypassed. With the help of “RCR,” bypass every conflict between any rune and tap into the true power of rune force. May your Ru’nic formations never stray far from your goal. Level: Warrior. Rarity: Common.]

“Wait! What?”

Tetsu subconsciously, being a detail-oriented freak, drew some lines between the runes for him to understand the process. While his inner sage wanted some lines to be drawn at a different angle or to add a cross over one line. He thought little of it and modified the lines.

“Peace between runes!”

The skill came with the knowledge, but Tetsu still didn’t understand. “How did the Target rune work?” He questions.

To his delight, the newly unlocked knowledge from the skill and his useless teacher of a sage pointed out the obvious.

In his target rune, each rune had one job, and they did their job without ever needing to confront the other rune. In short, no conflict was raised, and no rune stopped working.

Here, ‘Impact’ required permission from the 'store' and 'release' runes to let the smoke out. Hence, conflict. With all the runes depending on each other, a mediator, or a line in this case, solved the conflict by assuring everyone cooperated.

Without the other rune, they couldn’t meet their full purpose of creation. So they gave in and fully filed each other down, bringing, in turn, helping themselves.

“Oh, so many doubts...” Tetsu held in his anger.

Pinkies crossed. He promised himself to kill this Ru’nic god first and then die. He understood the stupid logic with the help of the information that came with the skill.

Hell, it made perfect sense, but that didn’t mean he would change his goal.

“Watch out, you rune freak. I am going to shove every single rune down your throat and...”

Before he completes his imagination, the sage and his skills inform him that said creation is impossible. There were just too many conflicting runes.

“Oh, don’t you worry... I will create a line that will erase all conflicts.” Tetsu adorned a menacing smile. “I fucking promise.”

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