"OH GOD! I've finally gone crazy!" James shouted, shaking his head in hopes of ending the hallucination. As if realizing his attempt to dismiss them, the blue boxes suddenly vanished, leaving only a small flashing exclamation mark in the corner of his eyes.

After closing his eyes and throwing his head left and right, till his migraine got even worse, James decided to ignore the flashing icon for now. A few minutes later his headache receded enough for him to be able to think about his situation more clearly.

Assuming I'm not under the influence of some kind of drug - and that's a big assumption, cause literally everything could be a hallucinogen in this fucking forest - then killing this boar just caused some random blue screens to pop into existence out of nowhere, only for them to vanish again. That's hella weird. I think I remember seeing some text on them, but I was far too distracted to read. Is there a way to reca-

Before he could finish that thought the boxes reappeared in front of his eyes while the exclamation mark vanished.

This time James carefully read them one by one, the screens vanishing as he comprehended their words, hoping to understand just what exactly was happening.

So first things first: What is the Primordial System? It does kinda remind me of some video games I used to play in the past. Am I trapped in virtual reality? Probably not, technology wasn't advanced enough for that to be possible. And who would possibly want to trap me in a game? Next question: How does it know my name? Can it read my mind? OH SHIT! It definitely can, the boxes responded to my thoughts. That's not creepy at all... It says I've been assigned a Path, is that a good thing? Novice Hunter doesn't sound too bad. And a new Skill? Dismantling could actually be useful right about now. And what's with the Tiers? Everything is Tier 0? Is that like the Level or -

"OWOOOOO"

Abruptly turning around to the source of the howl, James suddenly found himself staring into a pair of glowing red eyes that conveyed an intense feeling of hunger. Standing barely a few dozen meters away from him stood the most horrific beast he has ever seen. Glistening black fur, teeth the length of his arm, pale white bones forming a natural armor and a flexible tail that split into three sharp-looking marble spikes caused it to look like it just crawled out of hell.

Without any hesitation, he started running as hard as he could, leaving the dead boar behind to hopefully serve as a distraction to the monster.

SHIT!SHIT!SHIT! I'M GOING TO DIE! PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE! he frantically thought, in far too much panic to try and come up with a plan on how to survive. A minute later and not hearing anything that would suggest that the monster followed him, James decided to slow down a bit, so he could look back without tripping.

Strong relief started flooding him as he stopped to examine his surroundings, the beast nowhere to be seen.

"Stupid beast! Stole my dinner. Just wait till I learn some magic, then I'll hunt you down and make myself a nice new coat.." he complained, only to suddenly freeze as he heard a deep growl behind him. There, between two particularly thick trees stood the monster he thought hadn't followed him.

"Uhhh, I was just joking Mr. Monster. haha. How about you let me go and you'll never catch sight of me again? I promise I don't even taste good." James tried. Before he could even blink, the beast was suddenly directly in front of him, one of its marble spikes piercing his right shoulder, violently throwing him a few meters into the distance.

"AUGHHHHH" James screamed in agony while the monster stood still and merely looked at him with its hungry eyes.

Frantically standing up with a few new broken bones after having landed on his back, he started running again.

FUCK! THAT HURTS! he thought while trying to escape what seemed like his inescapable doom. If it can move that fast, why did it not kill me immediately? For that fact, why is it not attacking again? OH GOD! It's toying with me, isn't it?

Five minutes later James could be seen rushing through the forest, no signs of the beast around. But he didn't relax as he had no doubt that it was still hunting him. After nearly tripping over a fallen tree, he spotted what looked like a cave in the distance. Having no better plan, he decided to run towards it in hopes of finding a tunnel he could flee into that was too small for his hunter.

As soon as he reached the cave, James turned around, only to pause in terror. Practically next to him was the monster, its mouth curved in what looked like a wicked grin and its eyes shining in anticipation.

SHIT! IT LED ME HERE! he concluded. I guess that's it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Just as he resigned himself to his fate and decided to at least try to get a punch or two in before his ultimate death, a sudden explosion occurred where the beast was standing, raising a massive dust cloud.

A second later James was knocked down by a ludicrously strong current of wind, that cleared most of the dust away. Opening his eyes after miraculously not getting any dust into them, he was stunned silly by what he saw. A raven, the size of a building, was flying away with the beast that nearly killed him in its talons.

Before he managed to compose himself after what should have been his demise, another blue box appeared, covering part of his vision.

Why is it called Spiked Terror? Because of the tail? James asked himself, finally calming down as he got confirmation that the Terror wasn't coming back. Too afraid of the giant raven, and the sun just about to vanish behind the horizon, he decided to spend the night in the cave, now that its owner didn't need it anymore.

Trying to walk deeper into the cave, James suddenly cried out as sharp torturous pain shot through his body. Looking for the source of his misery, he finally recalled the huge ass hole in his shoulder.

"How the fuck do you forget receiving a mortal wound?" he asked, still in agonizing pain. "Did my adrenaline really suppress all of that until now?"

Analyzing his shoulder he realized something was seriously wrong with the wound. It's not bleeding. he thought in confusion. How is it not bleeding? Did the Terror do something? Now that I think about it, I would have bled out long before I reached the cave, so it probably did. Most likely some kind of magic.

James decided to rip off the remaining pieces of his shirt, carefully bandaging his shoulder. It probably wasn't the best idea to put a dirty cloth onto an open wound. But considering he planned to sleep on the ground and he didn't really fancy having any rocks inside of him, it was better than leaving it as is. It took him far longer than it should have, mainly because he couldn't move his right arm anymore and even the lightest touch hurt like hell.

A short break later he continued his way forward. The cave was quite spacious, big enough for some huge abominable beast to comfortably move around. Spread around all across the floor were various animal remains, mostly bones and claws with the occasional piece of rotting flesh, causing the air to reek of death and decay. That could have been me he thought with a shudder. Another minute later and already deep enough he couldn't see the exit or smell the stench, James found some glowing purple moss covering the walls, illuminating the cave in an eerie light.

Lost in thoughts his stomach suddenly growled as an especially strong wave of fatigue hit him. Knowing he needed to eat something if he wished to have enough energy for the next day, he examined some of the moss. Not seeing anything dangerous like thorns or hidden bugs, he scraped a piece off the wall. Please don't be poisonous! he hoped. I know this doesn't exactly seem safe, considering the moss is fucking glowing, but I have no choice. He looked back at the piece of moss in his hand, only to notice it stopped glowing at some point. Blaming magic and happy that it at least wouldn't light up his stomach, he carefully put some in his mouth. It tasted just like you'd expect purple moss to taste, namely like moss. James decided to wait a couple of minutes to see if anything weird happens to him. Noticing no instantaneous combustion or transforming flesh, he quickly filled his stomach with the stuff.

Finally not hungry, but still in immense pain, he sat down, continuing his thoughts about the System before he was so rudely interrupted. Tiers... What exactly do they mean? Now that I think about it the Spiked Terror was Tier 3, so the higher the Tier the stronger it probably is. Basically levels, right? I'm currently Tier 0, so does that mean I need to gain experience to reach the next Tier? Now that I think about it, the System does seem quite similar to some video games from back home. If that's the case there should be a character screen, no? Let's try-

His musings were interrupted by a big blue box, taking up most of his vision.

Status

Name: James Sallow

Species: Human (Tier 4)

Tier: 0

Titles: Dimensional Traveler

Current Path: Novice Hunter (Tier 0)

Progress: 1%

Finished Paths: N/A

Blessing: N/A

Stats

Vitality: 12

Stamina: 13

Mana: 1

Intelligence: 11

Skills

Dismantling (Tier 0)

Running (Tier 0)

After carefully studying his Status card, James focused on his stats. So, vitality probably decides how much damage I can take or something, stamina is self-explanatory, mana is most likely the capacity to store supernatural energy and Intelligence... decides how smart I am? Considering the System gave a small boost to my stats the average for a human adult is probably around 10, except for mana. Or are my stats not a good representation for that? I did feel like I was able to run for longer than usual, but that might just have been the adrenaline. How do I increase them? Do I get attribute points for reaching a higher Tier? Well, moving on, why are humans Tier 4, is that an average or some kind of limit? And progress should be how far I am with my Path, no? And does the existence of blessings mean that gods exist in this world? Most other things are pretty obvious. Let's see if I can find out more about my Tit-

James was once again interrupted mid-thought by yet another box.

Dimensional Traveler - This Title allows you to automatically learn any new common normal language after a set amount of time. Achieved by traveling to another universe.

So I can learn more about Titles by concentrating on them. Well, this one seems very useful. I haven't even thought about a possible language barrier. But what does it mean by normal? And how long exactly does it take? Guess I'll have to find out.

James decided he would try and see what else he could get information on.

Human (Tier 4) - Humans are known as one of the most common species in the System. They have few limitations in the Skills and Paths they can acquire while not being restricted to any magic schools. The average human adult finds himself at Tier 1, but they have the potential to reach up to Tier 4.

Novice Hunter (Tier 0) - A basic Path, that focuses on hunting and dismantling monsters. Unlocked by having killed one Tier 0 or higher monster by yourself.

Dismantling (Tier 0) - This Skill gives you some knowledge on how to best dismantle a dead monster. You receive less knowledge the stronger the monster was.

Running (Tier 0) - This Skill allows you to run slightly faster.

So the System calls them monsters. he thought while yawning. I should probably go to sleep now. Hopefully nothing tries to eat me.

Dead tired, but having found answers to at least some of his questions, James settled down on a nearby patch of moss and soon drifted off to sleep.