Hope crouched low and held his breath as he studied the Grathen ahead.
Now he just needed to—
??Sharpwatch (Level 1?2)
When unseen, you see more. Your senses heighten in silence and shadow.
? 10% increase in perception while observing unaware targets.
Oh… ok.
But the distraction only lasted a second.
He burst forward, spear in hand. The beast noticed him, but too late.
Hope thrust with everything he had—stance solid, arms locked, aiming dead at the throat. No half-measures. This was either a clean kill or another trip to the pain zone.
The tip struck deep.
Blood sprayed out in a thick arc as he yanked the weapon back and jumped clear.
The bear jerked, let out a low gurgle, then crashed to the dirt with a heavy thud.
Level 8 ? 9
He leveled up. Neat!
Must’ve been that nap back in the cave. Good timing.
Now—
“Congrats.”
Oh, right…
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She looked the same as ever—too clean, too calm, too weird. Still smiling like they were on some fancy walk.
Sleeping back in the cave with her around had been rough. Not ‘cause she did anything. Just… knowing she was there, not even making a sound. Gave him the chills.
But for all the troubles, he managed to squeeze some decent stuff outta her. Like how the screen and prompts worked. The text, the levels, skills, boosts—all that weird crap. She knew a lot. Talked a lot too!
She even offered to teach him how to read and write.
Hope kept his face straight. Gave her a plain ‘ok’ like it was no big deal. Truth be told, it was.
He always wanted to learn. Just never had the chance. No Crawler did.
As Mano used to say: “Ain’t nothin’ stronger than knowin’ stuff, kid. Learn all you can, and learn it like your life depends on it—’cause one day, it will.”
“Yeah, well… nothin’ much,” Hope muttered, resting his spear on his shoulder, chest puffed just a bit—like he wasn’t proud of askin’, but still meant business. “So uh… the numbers in Physis and Magia changed…”
He crouched down and scratched them into the dirt with the tip of his spear.
766(+23)
40
Evelia leaned forward. “I see. Yes, they increased. Your grade is C6, so you gain 34 attribute points per level—five go to Magia, the rest to Physis.”
Hope blinked. “Whoa, slow down. One thing at a time.”
He pointed at the bigger number. “Physis—that’s, eh… what’d you call it again? An attribute, right?”
She nodded. “Correct. It represents your physical capabilities—muscle power, reflexes, durability, stamina. A higher Physis means better overall performance in anything body-related.”
Hope scratched his chin, lips curled in focus. “Right. Got it.”
Then he jabbed at the smaller number. “And this… Magia thing. That’s the magic weirdness, right? What was it again?”
Evelia chuckled. Would’ve been kinda cute if her face didn’t look like someone sketched it blind and gave up halfway.
“Magia is your attunement to Magika—the latent energy all around us. The higher the value, the better you can perceive, store, and manipulate it.”
Hope squinted. “But I don’t feel nothin’ magic around me.”
“You will,” she said, brushing a strand of hair back. “Physis is easy to grasp—you’ve been using your physical body since birth. But Magia’s different. You need to actively tap the Magika around you to start feeling it.”
“And eh… how exactly do I do that?”
She smiled. “You’ll figure it out.”
Hope’s face fell as he stared at her. Seriously?
Well, whatever—keep it to yourself.
“It’s how I learned it too,” she added, still calm. “And don’t worry. As your Magia attribute gets higher, it’ll be easier to sense it.”
Hope exhaled. Okay. He’d buy it.
For all the creepiness, the girl seemed honest. A bit too naive… but honest. Still, he shouldn’t forget… she was a Citizen.
Hope didn’t dwell much on it and scanned the space around him. While he had learned much from Evelia, his goal hadn’t changed: hunt, get stronger, and move forward. Those three things would keep him alive—and that’s all there was for a Crawler like him: survive.
He calmly observed his spear. According to Evelia, the material he used to make it was called wood, and the brown pillars it came from were called trees. But more important than that, Evelia had said one of the main things he should focus on, if he wanted to grow stronger, was his weapon. “Learn to use it properly, as Weapon Handling is one of your Rank 1 core skills,” she said. Hope didn’t understand entirely, but after some questioning, he got the gist of it.
He also learned that he didn’t even need to hold it all the time, like he thought. He could strap it to his back and still keep the boost active—so long as he treated it as his weapon and used it like one.
He looked ahead and started jogging, searching for his next prey… and soon he found it.
Grathen
Level 10
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He focused on it, and his senses sharpened—just a bit. Like the air got quieter, the edges clearer. He caught the slight crunch of dirt under claws, and the twitch in its thick, furry shoulder.
Weird feeling at first, but he’d grown used to it. He also knew now that it came from the Sharpwatch skill—that temporarily boosted his perception.
He watched it for a couple of seconds—slow breath, steady stance. Then, when it shifted its head the other way, he sprinted.
The Grathen barely had time to react.
Hope’s grip shifted mid-run, low and tight.
Aight, let’s try somethin’ different.
He went for a quick double thrust—first jab, then another right after.
The first one landed, thunking deep into muscle.
The second slipped—off-angle, skidded along a rib with a nasty scrape.
“Shit—”
The Grathen screeched, reared, and swung a claw wide.
The claw whooshed past—too damn close.
He grit his teeth, planted his boot hard into the ground, and lunged low, ramming the spear straight through its throat.
The beast staggered, let out a gurgle, then collapsed hard, dirt puffing beneath its weight.
Hope held still, chest heaving. Blood seeped out, staining the grass dark.
He didn’t lower the spear until the twitching stopped.
No upgrades this time.
He didn’t delay and went for the next. After all, he felt full of energy today—might as well make use of it.
And one after another, the Grathens fell. After four more, he got the next prompt:
Level 9 ? 10
The additional boost in Physis gave him a bit more confidence to experiment. He also understood the beasts better now—their range of attack, their basic movements and patterns—so he used that to his advantage.
No longer focused on one-hit kills, but more on learning to use his weapon.
He tried varying the grip—higher up for control, lower for reach.
He tested footwork too. Tight angles instead of straight charges. Using small sidesteps before thrusting made it easier to readjust mid-move, kept him balanced when the target didn’t fall right away.
On one attempt, he jabbed shallow on purpose just to see how fast he could pull back and stab again. Timing was rough, but it taught him how to recover and stay alert.
Another time, he aimed for the legs—low strike, then an upward feint toward the neck. Didn’t land clean, but it forced the creature to flinch.
Each fight was a drill. Each kill, a rep. The point wasn’t to be pretty.
It was to get sharper. Meaner. Faster.
He didn’t speak much during it. Evelia didn’t either, and most of the time it felt like she wasn’t even there.
And Hope… really appreciated that.
And so he went on, and along the way he leveled up two more times.
Level 10 ? 11
Level 11 ? 12
But more than that, what truly made him smile was the upgrade to two of his skills.
?? Close-Quarter Combat (Level 4)
Instinctive adaptations for tight engagements.
? 20% reduction in stamina drain during close quarter combat.
? +30 Physis permanently.
??Spear Handling (Level 4)
You’ve grown used to the feel of a spear—how to hold, move, and strike with it.
? 20% reduction in stamina drain when using spears or spear-like weapons.
? +4% to Physis while the spear is your designated weapon.
Especially the latter—in Evelia’s words, one of his core skills.
Damn, did it feel good. His body felt solid—quick, sharp, strong. If he went back to the tunnels now, he’d be top dog for sure…
Well…
His face fell.
Bits of the end flashed in his head—the slow deaths, the silence after.
Right… there was no one left.
He looked up at the sky and scratched the back of his neck.
So what now? After all this shit?
Or was this it? A world full of hungry beasts, Crawlers aiming to kill each other, and bored-ass Citizen girls who stalked him around?
“What are you thinking of?”
“Nothing, really, just… wandering,” Hope turned toward her. Maybe… “Do you know where we are?”
She stayed quiet for a moment, then smiled. “Yes.”
“Oh… so… where are we?”
“Hmm…” Her eyes shifted to the side, and her hands locked behind her back as she leaned. She stayed like that for a while, then her gaze settled back on him.
“We are in *BEEP*. Somewhere in the *BEEP* of the *BEEP*.”
Huh?
What the heck was that beep?
“Pardon, but… did you just make a weird sound? It felt like—”
“Oh…” Her eyes narrowed as she looked up. Lips pressed tight. She stayed there for several seconds, then let out a long exhale and lowered her gaze.
“Fuck…” she murmured.
“Pardon?” Hope blinked. No way she just said that.
Evelia returned to her usual smile like nothing happened. “Nothing. It seems I won’t be able to answer that question, Hope. Apologies. Just know you're not on the same planet you were before. And you were brought here for *BEEP* and *BEEP* — you heard the beep again, right?”
Hope nodded, completely lost on what the hell was going on.
“Apologies,” she said, her face a bit down.
Hope had seen some weird shit in his life, but this? This was top five, easy.
Then again… it’s not like Crawlers like him were meant to understand Citizens and their weird stuff.
“It’s okay. Don’t, ehm… yeah, don’t apologize. You’re helpin’ me a lot, Eve. I don’t know why, but… thanks, I guess.”
He never thought those words would ever come out of his mouth toward a Citizen, and yet… they felt right.
Evelia smiled, softer this time. More refreshing than usual. “Eve?”
“Oh… I mean, no, I—”
She let out a small laugh. “It’s alright. It does sound better than Evelia, doesn’t it? Yes… you may call me that.”
“…O-kay.”
Hope didn’t dwell on it. “Alright, I’ll… keep huntin’.”
“Please do. Don’t be bothered by my presence.”
He gave her one last glance before heading off again.
But then something clicked in his head. Didn’t she have to hunt too?
Wait a sec… wasn’t her level still 1!?
Well… Citizen stuff. Yeah. Better not overthink it.
Hope kept hunting the Grathens, and slowly his mind focused completely on it, forgetting Eve’s presence—always silent somewhere near… probably.
So the hunt continued.
And it kept going…
Level 12 ? 13
And going…
Level 13 ? 14
??Longstride (Level 4)
Your body remembers the rhythm. Endurance becomes movement.
? 20% reduction in stamina drain while running.
? +30 Physis permanently.
And going.
Level 14 ? 15
??Sharpwatch (Level 3)
When unseen, you see more. Your senses heighten in silence and shadow.
? 15% increase in perception while observing unaware targets.
?? Hunter (G6?G5)
You’ve tracked, fought, and brought down 100 living creatures. The body begins to harden with repetition.
? +60 Physis permanently.
Hope exhaled sharply as he stared at the corpse of the Grathen. Blood dripped from four places—its left eye, the corner of its mouth, a puncture near the front leg, and the deep gash in its neck.
He stared at his spear. It was starting to feel light in his hands.
Physis: 1000(+40)
He might need another upgrade.
And… some food too.
