*Boom!*

“Fuck!” Vince cursed as he held back the recoiling rock that blocked the exit. His body felt numb and battered after absorbing the hundredth or so blow.

He didn’t know if it was him or the crumbling rock going to break down first, as both options were worse than the other.

They were really walking in a thin line.

“Any second, kiddo. Any second. Just hold on.” Vic, next to him, also held the rock back with him and had a grim expression. He was in better shape in contrast to Vince.

[Attributes] difference between those two showed their difference in moments of crisis.

After a couple of hours of experimenting and interpreting the limited knowledge given by the System, Vince and Vic managed to crack down on how his [Talent] worked.

And results were…

Lackluster?

Vince, although, wasn’t impressed that much by his [Talent], Vic said his [Talent] must be one of the late bloomers. It would show its real might as he ‘comphered’ Sigils and increased his new [Special Attributes] to make his [Talent] more potent and powerful.

Yeah, everything would solve itself with time.

But Vince didn’t know if he had that time.

Anyway, now, Vince had a shining orange wisp silently orbiting around him, softly illuminating the surroundings. When Vince looked at the wisp, he saw a very little dot inside the core of the wisp, and the word ‘Rosh,’ which was Sigil of Power, resonated in his head, stating the name of the sigil he was looking at right now.

What was the Sigil of Power doing?

Thankfully, System gave him the answer albeit limited.

Rosh, Sigil of Power

* Tier: Seedling

* Gain 4 points at [Power] per instance of Sigil of Power.

* Gain 4 points and %3 increase in [Strength] attribute.

* The strength of the Ro, Sigil of Power, will increase as you comprehend the Sigil and boost your [Will] attribute.

[Power] was a [Special Attribute] like [Will] and [Intelligence], but, unlike others, he had no idea what he could use it for and what it did. Now, he was only using the Sigil to boost his [Strength] five points.

Vince was good with every scrap he could gather, regardless its big boon or small.

Speaking of [Attributes]. After a long session of arguing and questioning, Vince managed to distribute his thirteen-month-plus lifespan.

And, after a very grueling period of adaptation, he was pleased with the results.

Name: Vincent D’Raan

Age: 9 hours

Rank: Extinct

Citizenship Tier: T1 [+] (1 Years)

Remaining Lifespan: 3 months 10 days 14 hours

Talent: [Invoker of the Sigils]

Path: [None.] (Seek a Monolith of Power.)

Skill(s):

* Dormant (Select a Path to Unlock Skills.)

Basic Attributes:

* Strength: 30(35) [+] (3 Days)

* Agility: 45 [+] (4 Days)

* Endurance: 40 [+] (4 Days)

* Vitality: 40 [+] (4 Days)

Special Attributes:

* Intelligence: 2 [+] (10 Days)

* Will: 3 [+] (10 Days)

* Power(T): 4

First of all, what the heck, mate?

10 days for one point in [Special Attributes]?! That was worth more than 3 points in [Strength]!

Of course, Vic argued that special attributes were special, so they were totally worth the price, but Vince wasn’t that much convinced.

So why did he give 30 days of his life for 3 points in special attributes?

For experimenting, of course.

[Intelligence] made him closer to the world and allowed him to perceive it better while enchanting his awareness. As for [Will], he could only understand that it helped with his mental fortitude and invocations but didn't know if it had an actual effect on his actual will as he didn't have a way to know.

Vince saw the improvements in Sigil's powers, but it was so miniscule he couldn’t discern the difference if it wasn't his [Talent].

It seemed like how Vic said, his [Talent] was a late bloomer, so it didn’t have much use right now.

And the rest was distributed like how Vic said. Vince mainly focused on attributes that allowed him to run faster and longer. When Vince asked how [Endurance] and [Vitality] affect his stamina, Vic explained that even though they didn’t directly affect his stamina like the special attribute [Stamina], [Endurance] made it a little harder to tire out and [Vitality] gave him indirectly more energy to spend.

“They are slowing down.”

Vince broke out of his gaze and lifted his head with a frown. Without noticing, tremors started to slow down as more time passed. Howls of drowners drifted away, and then they vanished.

For the first time in a long while, Vince allowed his haggard body to relax and slide to the ground, letting his legs rest a little.

They have made it. At least the first part of the plan.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Let's wait a couple of minutes as the strong fuckers takes cover in dark areas. After that, we will rush. Do you remember the rules I told you?” Vic wiped the sweat on his forehead to his sleeve as he asked.

Vince nodded as he hooked a monster core he didn’t drink after finding Sophia's pouch. He felt the lively energy inside and drank the lifespan.

The first rule Vic stated for Vince was always to be in the optimum state.

And how was he going to do that?

Of course, with the rush provided by Monster Core. Vince felt a little bit of lifespan slowly circulate in his body and rejuvenate him to a rested state, suppressing both his craving stomach and dry mouth.

Easy, right?

Hell, no.

Vic said this trick only worked if you took a significant amount of lifespan and was a big one to feel the rush. As a newly resurrected guy with measy lifespan, any amount of lifespan was significant enough to let Vince experience the rush. Also, rush only suppressed his hunger and thirst, not got rid of them. Vince would have permanent damage in his body, if not outright die, from thirst and hunger if he went with for a long amount of time with no nourishments.

As their plan was to reach Sanctuary in around 4 hours or so, Vince wasn’t in any danger at that angle.

Vic spoke a word Vince understood as something like ‘extinguish,’ and the flame that was lighting their cave for hours flickered and was gone. Then, after taking a deep breath, Vic pushed the rock aside and let the first ray of light of the perfectly normal sun enter the cave.

A new day has risen in Vince’s new world and created a magnificent view to admire the calm and grand blue ocean, a golden beach that was stained with shipwrecks, and the forest that was alluring people to get lost inside.

But instead of relaxing, Vince held his nose in disgust as the lingering scent of blood became too much for a moment, and looked at the sight on the skirts of the cliff.

Most of the cliff's parts were either painted in blood or beaten to different shapes, but strangely, there was no corpse, only drowners who were trying to hide in the shadows of the trees while giving a pained screech. Other survivors who survived the hellish night slowly climbed down the cliff and ran to the east, which had a tight corridor between forest and cliff in a rush.

With the sunlight, Vince managed to see all of the Drowners better. They were how he remembered them, zombies with disgusting pruned skin and a web of purple vein and a purple heart but what disturbed him was their clothes.

He saw a drowner in a gray business suit with a pen skirt and a crouching one with a black hoodie and shorts. Another one with ragged robes and long hair that reminded Vince of Xianxia novels, a big drowner with a scrap hazard suit and mask, the purple eyes glowing ominously underneath.

They were awfully familiar but in strange ways.

He didn't know if they were from his world or not.

“Do not get close to other caves when climbing down.” Vic didn’t see the grim sight on Vince’s face as he started to climb down.

Vic took a deep breath and invoked his second Sigil with a strange, ethereal voice.

“Fâhn.”

The moment he spoke, the orange wisp, the Sigil of Power, faded away, and a new green wisp, which was more active and moving, appeared in its place. When Vic looked at the core of the wisp, he felt the word ‘Fâhn’, the Sigil of Freedom, resonate in his mind.

Fâhn, the Sigil of Freedom

* Tier: Seedling

* Gain 4 points at [Freedom] per instance of Sigil of Freedom.

* Gain 4 points and %3 increase in [Agility] attribute.

* The strength of the Faa, the Sigil of Freedom, will increase as you comprehend the Sigil and boost your [Will] attribute.

The Sigil of Freedom boosted his [Agility] for five points instead of [Strength], which was not useful in what came next, and changed [Power] to the [Freedom], which also had no idea about.

Seeing his new wisp, Vince nodded his head in satisfaction and followed Vic’s steps. They were slowly getting down as they maintained a healthy distance from cave entrances painted in blood.

As they got down, Vince, with his highlighted senses, heard the horror-material breathing sounds, someone crumbling the bones with teeth and many disgusting things. Vince held back a shudder as he made it to the ground.

Vic glanced at him for a moment and started to rush east like other survivors, the direction of the Sanctuary. Vince ran in tow.

Drowners who were in pain lunged at the people who passed near them without caring about the sunlight. Vince looked at the coming Drowners and felt their movements were more sluggish than he remembered as a faint confidence to take them down in a couple of swings with a random thing he picked up from the ground appeared in his heart but didn’t take the action to confirm.

Instead, he dodged them as he followed Vic.

The second rule Vic stated was always to be on the move, no matter what.

If you stopped for once, then it was pretty much the last one.

“Fucking idiots. Do not stop, no matter what.” Vic scoffed suddenly.

Vince frowned and looked around but only saw the drowners who were chasing them but slowly left behind. He didn’t understand why Vic said that but took his word seriously.

And after a couple of minutes, Vince understood why. He saw a couple of corpses underneath a four-person group, three men and a woman, as they were grinning while eyes glued to the pouch on the woman's hand and kicking the corpses, which looked like death-rowers.

Even in this situation, do they kill each other for profit?

Vince grimaced and tensed as he got closer to Vic. A grim moment on sight.

A brute who was kicking the head of the corpse was the first one to notice the duo as he laughed and lifted his club from the ground.

“Hahaha. We are having the day of our lives, guys!" He drew others' attention to the duo with his free hand and continued with greedy eyes, "A dead man walking and an Extinct with a bou–”

A primitive throwing knife flashed through dozens of meters in an instant and penetrated the brute’s head, leaving on the other side in an instant.

*Thud*

The other three had a stunned look as they saw their comrade fall to his knees, blood flushed down from his forehead, and then collapsed on the ground.

Vic didn’t wait for them to react as he threw three more throwing knives to the remaining three, but three quickly came out of their stupor and deflected the knives.

The woman had a fierce expression as she took out her glass shank from the corpse below.

She turned to two of her remaining and hissed, “Stall him. I will take his head.”

After saying those words, she slowly vanished to the thin air.

Oh shit. Invisibility? Vince's nerves became taut as he saw the trick.

Two nodded, as they were scared but also determined to live this adversity as they rushed to Vic and Vince.

Vic snorted with disgust before grasping the air and pulling back with his right hand.

Vince almost stumbled as he tried to understand what had just transpired. The throwing knives that missed their target started to shiver with Vic’s grasping motion, and, with the pulling motion, they sped through two death-rowers rushing. The knives penetrated both of the death-rower’s head and heart before returning inside Vic’s cloak.

Vince suddenly felt the wind on his back as he glanced behind and felt his heart skip a beat.

The woman who disappeared appeared next to Vince and Vic and then stabbed his glass shang to Vince’s heart with vicious eyes. She had a frightened pale expression as she had just witnessed Vic’s might and knew she couldn’t hurt him, not to talk about killing him.

So, she decided to hurt his load before escaping.

But her plans fell apart as a flame flared to her face and made her practically blind and on fire. She let out a terrorized shriek as fire, like a living being, delved into her skin and tortured her.

Next, a crisped head flashed through the air, and another body hit the ground.

In just tens of seconds, Vic managed to take down four death-rowers.