Sarah had been running through the forest for a while now. She had been afraid of the dryer parts for nothing. Though she heard and saw a lot of big animals, not one had attacked her so far.
Most of them ran away immediately upon seeing or smelling her. The animals that looked like predators glared at her with fierce eyes. But they did nothing else.
If she had to make an educated guess, she’d say that she smelled horrible. The animal skins she draped herself with smelled gruesome. The stench of death was her constant companion. And apparently, it was an effective repellent.
She also didn’t want to attack other animals right now, as she was on her way to find the exit. She really wanted to get out of this place.
So she ran. Around ten days had passed since she started looking for an exit. She wasn’t even sure if she was walking in the right direction. In the beginning, she wanted to direct herself according to the sun, but that didn’t work out at all. She never noticed until now, but the sun seemed to move across the sky in erratic curves.
"This cursed spatial error," she mumbled under her breath, staring up at the sun.
Even though the end wasn’t in sight yet, she kind of enjoyed her travels. The cool wind brushing against her skin, the leaves rustling in a breeze, and the earthy smell of the forest. These impressions seemed to ease a tension inside her that she hadn’t even noticed until now. The running made her feel like she was making some real progress instead of lurking around in the same region day after day.
Right as she wanted to stop for the day, she saw something in the distance. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it reminded her of something. She just couldn’t put her finger on it.
Excitement washed away all tiredness, and she ran faster than ever. And the closer she came, the more she knew what she saw. It was nothingness. The same nothingness she had seen when the system pulled her consciousness out of her body to see the recording of Dr. Becker.
She slowed down as she came closer to the border of nothingness. It hurt her eyes trying to look at the exact border of forest and nothingness. Her eyes simply had nothing to focus on.
The plants, the ground, and everything else seemed to have less substance closer to the border. And everything looked like it was in the process of disintegrating.
When she stepped closer, something primal in her screamed in fear. She had a gut feeling that it would be very dangerous to go any closer than this.
For some time, she walked next to the border. What did this mean? Could this be the exit, even though her instincts told her it would be dangerous going closer? Should she try a little bit?
She knelt down on the ground to lift up a stone, when something hard and heavy hit her in the back.
Loud cracks could be heard when she was pressed into the dirt. She wanted to scream, but only mud entered her mouth, making her gag. The pain was so intense that she nearly blacked out. But she wouldn’t let that happen.
Like the rat thing that attacked her in the past, she wildly stabbed behind her with her tail. As a thank you gift for her assailant, she pumped the maximum amount of poison into the tip.
She felt her tail hitting something. A loud yelp told her that it hurt whatever attacked her. The weight disappeared, and she immediately rolled to the side and stood up. The movement caused her immense pain, but she somehow suppressed it.
What she saw made her want to run away then and there. A huge black wolf stood in front of her, staring at her with hate filled eyes. The wolf was so big that he was still taller than her while standing on his four legs. Massive muscles could be seen underneath his fur. The wolf was twitching in pain and rage.
It was a monstrosity. But she somehow knew why it had attacked her. The beast also followed the Path of Conflict, just like herself. She always wondered what this part meant. Now she knew. The Path of Conflict was more than a categorization of her class. It was a path the system wanted her to walk. And the system wanted them to fight.
The wolf already frothed yellow-colored saliva, clearly affected by the poison. But he still seemed full of energy.
Sarah started to walk away backward but stumbled over something. The wolf immediately attacked her again.
He slammed into her with so much force that her rib cage caved in, and she was thrown back a few meters.
She could barely breathe anymore. While nearly losing consciousness again, a crazy idea entered her mind. She suppressed the pain as best as she could and took a bubbling breath, before coughing out dark blood. That was not good. She had to hurry.
The wolf backed away again, afraid of her poisonous tail. And it waited for his chance again.
Sarah stood up and stumbled to the side, not letting the wolf out of her sight. The wolf twitched and growled in rage, eager to finish her off.
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When she was in position, she acted like she had tripped over something again. As expected, the wolf immediately reacted. It jumped at her with insane speed.
Forcing her body to move, Sarah jumped out of the way. The wolf sailed through the air, a hair's breath above her. Right into the border region of nothingness.
Sarah fell to the ground and looked at what had happened to the wolf. It was fascinating. The wolf seemed to rapidly lose substance while trying his best to leave the border with his disintegrating legs. He even managed to do it. But as he left the border region, his body started gushing out blood like a river.
Even with these horrible wounds, the wolf was still alive. With an evil grin, Sarah walked over to the wolf. The beast saw the intention in her eyes and wanted to crawl away. But it was to no avail.
Even though Sarah was badly hurt, the wolf was even more so. The slow chase could have been comical if not for both participants' gruesome wounds.
When Sarah reached the wolf, she grabbed its enormous head and started punching. With her mutated muscles and increased strength, her punches were no joke. Every time she hit, the head of the wolf caved in more and more. She only let go of the wolf when it stopped twitching.
With a groan, Sarah let herself fall to the ground next to the mutilated beast. She coughed again, and this time there was even more blood. Something was seriously wrong with her insides.
Even before she could think of it, the system reacted on its own.
* Acquire Mutations ‘High density bones’ and ‘Magic Power nourishment system’ (89% survival rate) * Acquire Mutation ‘Body Alteration: Four-Legged" (91% survival rate) * Take a bite from the wolf (unclear survival rate) * Walk into the nothingness (0% survival rate) Please choose quickly.> Sarah would have sworn at the system in anger about the once again absurd options. But she wasn’t able to talk anymore. At least she was still able to choose an option. The timer in her mind seemed to go down way too slowly, as Sarah literally felt her life flowing out of her. When the pain from the mutations hit her, she was strangely relieved. Even though it hurt, it didn’t hurt as much as her wounds. And the pain meant that she would survive. A fire burned in her soul the moment she realized this. She survived against all odds and would once again emerge stronger than before. Wild excitement filled her that made her forget the pain. This excitement carried her through her mutation until it stopped. It was over. She had survived. It felt like the chaotic emotions inside her would burst out if she didn’t do something immediately. So she screamed. It was a scream filled with an insane mixture of excitement, terror, and fear. Small tears left her eyes, which burned away the caked-in dirt, blood, and goo on her face with their high acidity. She screamed until her throat hurt, and she couldn’t bring out much more than a hoarse sob. After this, she lay on the ground for quite some time. She felt empty but also relieved. She was finally able to breathe and think again. So she stood up while cleaning the snot out of her face. Maybe it would cheer her up if she looked at the status screen. All this pain should have brought her some nice improvements. She had leveled up a whopping four levels, bringing her straight to level fourteen. She hadn’t leveled up since reaching level ten, so this was very welcome. She also had the usual increase in Magic Power, Life Force and Mental Power. Even her endurance increased by a whole two points. And there were also new mutations listed in her skill screen. Bone structure: * High density bones (2 LF): Robust and dense bones. Higher stamina consumption due to increased weight. Organs and processes: * Magic Power nourishment system: Your body is adapted to run only on Magic Power. You are able to sense Magic Power in other living organisms and feed on it. Most substances that enter your digestive system and lungs will be converted into Magic Power. Warning: High potential for cell breakdown if your Magic Power is empty for too long. The former "Magic power nourishment" had merged with her new mutation. This didn’t bother her, because she never found out what she should do with it. But now it would be different, her senses being focused on feeling Magic Power and all. It was also great that most things that she consumed or breathed in would be converted into Magic Power. She tried really hard to ignore the part about cell breakdown. She just made a mental note to never, ever use up all her Magic Power. Luckily, her only skill that could use up enough Magic Power for this was her Invasion skill. But she had it under control by now. "But who cares!" she shouted while forcing herself to laugh. "I become more and more like a cockroach. Did I insult myself?" She shook her head at her own stupidity and went to her next point on the program. Taking a bite from the wolf. The system had proposed it as a possible solution. Of course, it could also be another of its pointless remarks, but she had to eat anyway. After this ordeal, she was insanely hungry. So she trotted over to the remains of the wolf and kneeled down next to it. She had never eaten anything this big, so she had no idea where to start. She tried to rip out flesh with her hands, but that didn’t work out very well. This left her with one option. "Thanks for the food. I guess." She mumbled while ripping into the flesh with her teeth. It didn’t taste particularly different from the other mammals she had eaten. She had expected it to somehow taste better because it had been so strong. In the end, everyone died equally. She ate the tough meat of the wolf while thinking about what to do next when another system prompt appeared. "A Special Mutation again, huh?" She muttered after cleaning her bloodied mouth. These mutations definitely made her a lot stronger. But they also deformed her. She was somehow happy, that it wasn’t enough for the system yet. So that was something for future Sarah to worry about. "So sorry, future Sarah." She apologized to herself, while standing up and pointlessly dusting herself off. Her body was so dirty by now that she couldn’t even tell the color of her own skin anymore. Standing there at the border of nothingness, she had no idea where to go. She was clueless about where the exit could be. Her only guess was, that it was somewhere along the border. Not wanting to waste any more time in this forsaken place, she turned left. With firm resolution, she started walking a safe distance away from the border. She just hoped that the exit wouldn’t be too deep in the swamp area.