It was early in the morning, two full days after gaining access to his skills. Evan felt ready and ecstatic.

Heading into the dense forest, Evan carried his trusted bow slung over his shoulder, and a quiver full of arrows at his side. The sun just started to rise, bathing the foliage around him in a jade glow.

The forest, with its ancient soul, stirred with anticipation as Evan delved deeper into its depths. The towering trees leaned in, eager to catch a glimpse of the unfolding events this latest interloper would bring; their branches reached out like curious fingers. The rustling leaves whispered among themselves, their soft murmurs carrying an air of excitement and intrigue along the winds.

Each step he took deeper into the woods sent a satisfying crunch beneath his boots as the fallen leaves and twigs protested his intrusion.

Evan's eyes scanned the surroundings with acute focus, searching for any signs of movement or disturbance. Or prey.

Hunting was his passion; he relished the challenge of tracking and taking down elusive targets. The forest had always been Evan's sanctuary, a place where he felt truly alive. A delicate balance existed here, a dance between hunter and hunted.

Ever since he was a child, he had snuck out to the forest to watch the hunters work. Before that one time his parents found him a bloody and injured mess and forbade him from leaving the city. Years of trust-building had ensued for them to allow him to leave once more, and even more years for them to let him go this far. But it was more than worth it.

As Evan observed the tree line, a gentle breeze, like a mischievous messenger, caressed his cheek, nudging him forward on his path of discovery. It whispered secrets into his ears: tales of forgotten wonders and hidden realms that lay just beyond the veil of perception. The forest revelled in the unknown, thrived on the unfolding of events, and the interplay of fate and choice. As Evan strolled closer to the forest, another leaf brushed past his cheek, likely whispering some ancient woodland secret. Pity he didn't speak leaf.

Evan found himself taking a step forward, stopping when he heard rustling in the bushes behind him. He crouched, turned around, drew his bow, and nocked an arrow—a swift set of movements he practiced daily—now ready to spring free his intent.

He was surprised to see two familiar faces greeting him with wide grins. They were his childhood friends, a boy named Marcus and a girl named Lucia. Marcus had a boisterous personality, always cracking jokes and making light of any situation. He had a lanky frame and a mess of curly hair that seemed to have a life of its own. Lucia, on the other hand, was quieter and more reserved. She had a small frame and short, cropped hair that framed her heart-shaped face.

"Careful with those arrows, Evan," Lucia warned, watching him aim. "We don’t want another squirrel incident." Despite being in the presence of more magical and mythical creatures, Evan just couldn’t shake the feeling that the squirrels were watching them. And plotting something. They would always steal his rations from right under his nose, somehow. And his perfectly aimed arrows never seemed to hit them. And they usually hit everything. He was pretty sure that the forest's seemingly innocent squirrels were higher than imps in some hell's hierarchy. "You know, Lucia, these squirrels might seem harmless, but I've come to suspect that they're the true masterminds behind all the chaos in this forest. Don't let their innocent appearance fool you. They're like tiny furry overlords."

"Gods, enough about squirrels already! Evan, we heard you were heading out to hunt and we couldn't let you go alone," Marcus exclaimed, slapping Evan on the back. "I brought my new skills, [Density Control] and [Gardening], and Lucia has [Iron Grip] and [Ambidexterity]."

Evan was intrigued and asked them to explain how their skills worked. As they walked deeper into the forest, Marcus explained that his [Density Control] allowed him to manipulate his own weight and mass, making him stronger and harder to move. Lucia's [Iron Grip] allowed her to hold on to objects with immense strength, while her [Ambidexterity] enabled her to use both hands with equal skill and precision.

"You brought [Gardening] to a hunt, Marcus?" Evan asked, half exasperated and half amused. Marcus shrugged, "You never know when you'll need to grow a tree mid-fight!"

Evan pondered for a moment, realizing they were currently in the depths of a dense forest. "But we're in a forest," he pointed out.

Marcus grinned mischievously. "Exactly," he replied.

As Evan mulled over Marcus' response, an intriguing thought crossed his mind. A big impractical weapon? or... instant camouflage? Dang, that's pretty smart actually... Evan then gave Marcus a strange, appreciating look, silently acknowledging the unexpected ingenuity.

Evan grinned at his friends, happy for the company. "Fine by me. Let's go get some game."

As they walked deeper into the forest, they discussed the recent events at the testing ceremony. They had all seen the boy taken for his immortality skill, and it had shaken them. They wondered about the kind of horrors he would face, now that he had been marked as an immortal.

"It's scary how heartless those guards can be," Lucia said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I'm sure he's out by now; they're just trying to keep us safe. Plenty of people get let go,” Marcus, ever the optimist, you had to love that side of him, really.

Evan didn’t want to talk about it. For a while, he just didn't want to worry.

He listened to his friends, impressed with their skills. He then told them about his own two skills, Teleportation and minor postcognition. They yipped and whooped before going silent, remembering where they were, and congratulated him silently.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sight of a strange creature with large, glowing eyes lurking in the shadows. It was a Duskstalker, a local feline predator known for its ability to blend into the sun's god rays—radiant sunbeams that illuminate the sky as the sun dips below the horizon during twilight hours—and ambush unsuspecting prey. As the sunbeams were most strikingly visible when the contrast between light and dark was at its peak, they knew to avoid the open canopy during twilight hours.

It was a creature of pure magic. It looked like a large cat, as big as any man, with a mystic and spellbinding appearance. Its body was covered in thick fur as black as coal, yet shimmering with an iridescent sheen in the light of the setting sun. Its form was lithe and agile, with powerful muscles rippling beneath its sleek coat as it moved with effortless grace.

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The Duskstalker's eyes captured their attention. They were massive, larger than any creature of its size should rightfully have, and they shone with an inner light that seemed to pierce the very soul of those who looked into them. The eyes were a brilliant shade of gold, with cat-like pupils that dilated and contracted in response to the changing light of the sun.

Its most striking feature was its mane. It was a rippling mass of fur that shifted between the colors of the dawn and dusk as the creature moved, when viewed from different angles, the mane seemed to change colors matching the hues of some distant sky, ranging from the softest pastel pinks and blues to deep, rich purples and fiery oranges.

Despite its beauty, the Duskstalker was a formidable predator. Its razor-sharp claws and powerful jaws could take down prey many times its size. Hunters who dared to venture into its territory during twilight hours, when the sun's rays illuminated the canopy in a radiant display of color, often found themselves victims to the Duskstalker's ambush tactics. They had heard tales of hunters taken down by the beast's razor-sharp claws and powerful jaws.

The beast growled and stepped towards them, and in a panic, Evan tapped into his skills, the blazing mana of [Teleportation] shifting in his core and the mana of [Postcognition] deep in his mind engulfed him. The world briefly lurched and spun, the entirety of existence shifting across his vision.

His attempts at skill activation were interrupted as the sun shifted slightly overhead and peeked through the trees, the clouds far above the canopy having moved. The sun's god rays washed over them in a large swath. And In a heartbeat, Evan, Lucia, and Markus were exposed to the beasts hunting grounds; a myriad of sun rays. They panicked.

The Duskstalker pounced.

Evan yanked his bow from his back, an arc of motion so fast it blurred. Arrow nocked, he let it fly toward the Duskstalker. The arrow soared and missed, scraping off the beast's sheening furr.

The creature vanished as it landed near them, blending into the forest's rays.

Evan's eyes darted. His limbs moved with a speed that defied logic, launching him toward where he suspected the Duskstalker would reappear.

He was right.

The Duskstalker materialized, lunging for Lucia. Evan's body blurred as he moved at unnatural speed, stunning Lucia and Markus as he appeared in the beast's path in a flurry of movement. Evan was the strongest of the three, he always had been, even before they’d unlocked their skills. But they had never seen him move that fast before.

The momentum of his movement catapulted him like a human missile. He crashed into the beast's side with his knees.

Something cracked.

The Duskstalker howled as it recoiled. It swatted Evan away in a violent movement that left streaks of his blood across the forest floor. Flesh met flesh. The impact sent a shockwave through Evan's body, his bones aching from the collision. Evan tumbled and crashed into the foliage.

The beast's eyes narrowed in his direction as it vanished once more.

Evan's hand shot out, clutching a small tree, his fingers cracking its bark as he stumbled and raised himself from the ground. Sap spurted from the wounded tree as it attempted to twist away from him with movements that would take centuries to notice.

OK, healthcheck. He thought as he rose, examining himself for injuries. Nothings broken, but…Ow, that's a nasty gash. That thing sure packs a punch. The creature had scored a light gash across his shoulder, which was now swollen, bruised, and covered in quickly coagulating blood. At least I won't be bleeding to death, he sighed a pained breath of relief and looked around for signs of the creature. Markus and Lucia joined him in the desperate search.

Silence consumed them as they frantically searched. Lucia's eyes suddenly widened, she screamed causing the surrounding birds to take flight. "Markus, watch out!"

Golden eyes of the Duskstalker appeared some distance to their left and fixated on Markus, and Markus made the mistake of meeting its abnormally large feline gaze. To meet the gaze of the beast was to risk falling momentarily under its thrall. Transfixed by its gaze, Markus' body refused to move for a moment, but a moment was all the beast needed. It bounded towards Markus’s dazed form, its claws aimed at his neck. Lucia lunged as her arm shot out, her muscles propelled by her [Iron Grip] skill, her fingers dug into Marcus's gear as she tugged at his clothing and shoved him out of the way.

He looked up and saw nothing but teeth and death closing around him.

In a mess of panic, he accessed his [Teleportation] skill. He sensed an unsettling tug deep within his gut. The pull tightened, as if woven from invisible threads of mana intent on dragging him to an unknown destination. His muscles tensed, his mind alight with desperate focus. He fought to keep the destination close, to remain in the fight, but it was like wrestling with a sentient tide. For a moment, it seemed as if the pull and the skill's mana had whims of their own, eluding his control. He fought it for control, and lost the battle for direction. In an instant, he found himself yanked toward that distant, unchosen place. He vanished from between the beast's jaws in a puff of displaced air and feline saliva.

Crash.

In that split second, where the wrong choice would lead to his friend's death, Evan's gut churned. Whenever he ventured this far out into the forest, it was always in secret, and always alone. He could’ve survived this encounter if he was alone and either escaped or easily avoided the canopy. If he had been more alert, he would have pulled them back the instant he noticed the suns light shining strong enough through the trees to create visible rays.

But instead he let his friends follow him, knowing that the two of them had no experience of this section of the forest or even with how any of their skills functioned.

What had they been thinking? They had been drunk on the euphoria of having finally gained access to the magic of their skills, and been overconfident; too eager to test them without being prepared. And now his friend was about to die, and he was too far away, and too unskilled with [Teleportation] to save him. As he made to run towards his friend; a voice inside him still screamed at him to do something.

But it seemed hopeless. His only options were to use the skill he had barely even mastered to teleport and attack the beast before it eviserated his friend, and hope his friends survived an attack from a beast that was famous for killing experienced hunters.

Or… he could try to rewind time again.

But how did he even do it the first time? How did he move through time? He only had three skills, a skill that let him see the past, a skill that teleported him through space, and a third skill; one that had nothing to do with time or movement.

But none of them should allow him to travel through time. And as far as he knew, such a skill was virtually impossible.

So how did he do it?

The wind whipped past him as milliseconds ticked. Markus was less than a breath away from becoming a bloody smear across the forest floor.

As the beasts jaws descended upon his frozen friend, Evan delved deep within himself to the reservoir of power hidden within his mind, the center point of his [Postcognition] skill. As he touched the skills mana, it burst forth, coursing through him and consuming his senses with hundreds of visions of the past. His [Teleport] skill burst to life and triggered in the same moment.

The world went white as he crashed into both man and beast.