Night in the Greenwold was a different world entirely.

  Arin discovered this within the first hour after sunset. The forest, which had been full of birds singing and rustling leaves during the day, transformed into something altogether more mysterious. New sounds came. The hoot of an owl somewhere in the distance, the chittering of insects, and the occasional snap of a twig that sent Arin's awareness spiking with alarm.

  However, it was also cooler, which meant a lower risk of water evaporating from puddles and creating the humid air that made Arin's mass feel sluggish. The temperature drop was actually pleasant, invigorating in a way that surprised him.

  I prefer the night. Is that strange?

  Arin couldn't remember Levi ever mentioning a preference for day or night. Most of their time together had been spent in the laboratory or Levi's room, where the time of day mattered little. But here, in the wild, the distinction was significant.

  During the night, Arin felt less exposed. His red coloration, so obvious in daylight, became just another shadow among many. The darkness was an ally, and he found himself moving with more confidence than he had during his daylight hunt.

  He descended from the pine tree hollow, flowing down the trunk with practiced ease. The forest floor was carpeted with fallen needles that provided good traction, and Arin began to explore the area around his temporary shelter.

  I need to understand this place. Learn its rhythms, its dangers, its opportunities.

  The thought felt very Levi-like, methodical and careful. It made Arin's core pulse with something that might have been pride or might have been grief. Perhaps both.

  A rustling in the undergrowth made him freeze. Arin compressed his mass, making himself smaller, less noticeable. Through the darkness, he could see a shape moving, low to the ground, cautious, with a distinctive waddle.

  [ Woodland Raccoon - Level 3 ]

  The raccoon hadn't noticed him yet. It was focused on digging through the leaf litter, its nimble paws searching for grubs or seeds. Arin watched, curious, as the creature worked. It was methodical, patient, checking several spots before moving on to the next.

  A scavenger. Like the rats in the sewers, but different. More careful.

  Arin let the raccoon pass without engaging. He wasn't hungry. The fox had provided enough mass to sustain him for now, and the raccoon hadn't done anything to threaten him. More importantly, watching the creature hunt provided Arin with valuable information about the forest itself.

  That's where the grubs are. Under the rotting logs. And the raccoon knows to check the base of trees where water collects.

  After the raccoon disappeared into the darkness, Arin continued his exploration. He found a small stream, barely three feet wide, that cut through the forest. The water was clear, cold, and absolutely deadly to him. Arin kept a careful distance, rolling parallel to the stream but staying well away from its banks.

  The stream led him to a clearing where the canopy opened up, revealing a sky full of stars. Arin had never seen so many. The tower window had provided a limited view. Here, they filled the sky.

  Beautiful.

  The word surprised him. Beauty was a concept Levi had discussed once, reading from a philosophy book while Arin rested in his jar. "Beauty is the recognition of something greater than survival," Levi had read aloud. "It's what separates living from merely existing."

  Am I living now, Levi? Or just existing?

  A sound from above interrupted his musings. Arin looked up to see a shape silhouetted against the stars, an owl, its wings spread wide as it glided silently between trees. The bird was hunting, its head swiveling as it searched for prey below.

  [ Great Horned Owl - Level 5 ]

  Level five. Higher than me.

  Arin remained perfectly still until the owl passed, then quickly retreated to the tree line. The clearing was beautiful, but it was also exposed. He made a mental note to avoid open spaces, especially at night when predators like the owl were active.

  ***

  By the time dawn began to lighten the sky, Arin had learned several important lessons about the Greenwold's nighttime ecology. Owls hunted from above. Raccoons and other ground-dwelling scavengers owned the forest floor. Small rodents like mice, voles, and shrews were everywhere, but catching them required more speed than Arin currently possessed. And most importantly, the darkness that seemed like an advantage could also hide threats until they were dangerously close.

  Arin returned to the pine tree, climbing back to his hollow just as the first birds began their morning songs. The sounds were different from the night chorus—brighter, more energetic. Within minutes, the forest was alive with chirping and trilling.

  So loud. How does anything sleep through this?

  But despite the noise, Arin found himself drifting toward rest again. The night of exploration had drained more essence than he'd expected, and his mass felt heavy, sluggish.

  [ Current Essence: 24/100 ]

  The notification appeared unbidden, and Arin studied it with interest. His essence had dropped from thirty-two to twenty-four just from moving around and maintaining his awareness throughout the night. That meant he was constantly using energy, even when not fighting or hunting.

  I need to be more careful. Can't let it drop too low, or I might not have enough strength to defend myself.

  Sleep claimed him before he could pursue that thought further.

  ***

  A sharp chittering noise woke Arin several hours later. The sun was high in the sky, filtering through the pine needles in shafts of golden light. The chittering came again, closer this time, accompanied by the sound of claws on bark.

  Arin shifted his vision toward the opening of his hollow and found himself face-to-face with a squirrel.

  [ Red Squirrel - Level 1 ]

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  The creature was small, perhaps a third of Arin's current mass, with russet fur and a bushy tail that twitched with agitation. It chittered again, a sound that Arin interpreted as distinctly angry, and stamped its tiny feet on the branch outside the hollow.

  It wants me to leave. This must be near its territory.

  Arin began to flow out of the hollow, intending to find another resting spot, when he noticed movement deeper in the hollow he'd been occupying. His vision, which worked in all directions simultaneously, caught sight of something he'd somehow missed in his exhausted state the previous evening.

  A nest. Small, made of woven grass and leaves, tucked into the deepest part of the hollow. And inside the nest, three tiny shapes, pink and hairless, squirming blindly.

  [ Baby Red Squirrel - Level 0 ]

  Babies. I've been sleeping next to baby squirrels.

  The adult squirrel chittered more urgently now, its meaning crystal clear even without words: Get away from my children.

  Arin froze, part of his mass already outside the hollow, part still inside. The squirrel was tiny, barely a threat even at his current strength. He could dissolve it in seconds, and the babies wouldn't even know what happened. Three easy sources of mass and essence.

  But the image that came to mind wasn't the squirrel or its babies. It was Levi's face, the night he'd explained why he'd chosen to study alchemy instead of combat magic like so many of the noble children.

  "I want to create things, Arin. I want to help things grow, not destroy them. There's enough destruction in the world already."

  Would Levi want me to kill babies? Would that be surviving or just... being cruel?

  Arin pulled his mass completely out of the hollow, reforming on the branch beside it. The squirrel's chittering changed pitch—still wary, but less aggressive. It darted past him, into the hollow, and Arin could sense rather than see it checking on its young.

  I'll find another place to rest. There are plenty of trees.

  As Arin began to climb higher into the pine, searching for an unoccupied hollow, he felt something in his core that might have been satisfaction. Or maybe it was just the memory of Levi's approval, imagined but no less real for that.

  He found a suitable hollow about twenty feet higher, this one empty and facing south where the sun would keep it warm. As he settled in, Arin noticed the squirrel had emerged from the lower hollow and was watching him from a nearby branch.

  They regarded each other for a long moment. Then the squirrel flicked its tail once, a gesture Arin chose to interpret as acknowledgment, if not quite gratitude, and disappeared back into its home.

  ***

  Over the next three days, Arin established a rhythm.

  Sleep during the midday heat, when the forest was at its most dangerous for him due to the increased risk of dehydration and exposure. Hunt during the late afternoon and evening, when prey was active but the light was still good. Explore during the night, when darkness provided cover and the forest revealed its hidden paths.

  He learned which trees had the best hollows—oaks and pines were reliable, while birches were too young and had shallow homes. He learned that staying high in the trees wasn't just safer from ground predators, it also gave him a better view of the forest and advance warning of approaching threats.

  Birds became a particular focus of study. They were everywhere, in dozens of varieties, and each species had its own patterns and preferences.

  [ Common Sparrow - Level 1 ]

  [ Blue Jay - Level 2 ]

  [ Woodpecker - Level 2 ]

  [ Crow - Level 3 ]

  The crows were the most interesting. They were smart—not sapient like Arin had become, but clever in ways that reminded him of Levi's problem-solving approach. They worked in groups, posted sentries, and seemed to communicate with each other through complex calls.

  Arin watched a group of four crows mob a snake one afternoon, driving it away from a nest with coordinated dive-bombing attacks. The snake was twice their size, but the crows' teamwork made them the dominant force.

  Cooperation. Even without words, they work together.

  The observation felt important, though Arin wasn't sure why. He was alone, after all. A single slime in a vast forest. But perhaps there was a lesson to be learned about finding strength in unexpected places.

  He tried hunting birds twice, but both attempts failed. They were too fast, too aware, and the moment Arin launched himself from his hiding spot, they simply flew away. It was frustrating, especially as his essence continued to drain.

  [ Current Essence: 18/100 ]

  Squirrels were a better target. They were slower than birds, stayed mostly on the ground or lower branches, and were common throughout the forest. But Arin found himself hesitant to hunt them after the encounter with the mother and her babies.

  Not all of them have young. Some are just adults, foraging alone. Those would be fair game.

  The rationalization didn't make him feel much better, but survival demanded food, and sentiment was a luxury he couldn't always afford.

  On the third evening, Arin finally managed to catch a squirrel—a large male that had been so focused on burying an acorn that it didn't notice the red slime until too late.

  [ +8 Mass ]

  [ +6 Essence ]

  [ Skill Available for Absorption ]

  The last notification made Arin's entire being pulse with excitement.

  A skill! I can absorb a skill from this squirrel!

  He focused on the notification, trying to understand what it meant.

  [ Skill Available: Climbing - Tier 1 ]

  [ Accept skill? This will occupy 1 of 2 available skill slots. ]

  Climbing. That makes sense, squirrels are excellent climbers.

  But did Arin need this skill? He could already climb, having done so for days now. Would having it as a formal skill make him better at it, or was it redundant?

  I can only hold two skills at a time. I need to choose carefully.

  In the end, Arin decided against taking the climbing skill. He was already proficient enough, and there would be other creatures, other skills that might prove more useful. The notification faded, and with it, the opportunity.

  [ Skill Declined ]

  Part of him wondered if he'd made a mistake, but there was no taking it back now. The system had rules, and he was still learning them.

  ***

  On the fourth night, Arin discovered something that would change his understanding of the forest entirely.

  He'd been exploring a section of the Greenwold he hadn't visited before, following a game trail that wound between massive oak trees. The path was well-worn, suggesting regular use by larger animals, and Arin had been careful to stay hidden in the underbrush alongside it.

  That's when he heard the grunting.

  It was deep, rhythmic, accompanied by the sound of something heavy moving through the leaf litter. Arin froze, compressing his mass down to nearly nothing, and watched as a shape emerged from the darkness.

  [ Wild Boar - Level 6 ]

  The boar was massive, easily four times Arin's current size, with coarse dark fur and tusks that gleamed in the moonlight. It was rooting in the ground, its powerful snout tearing through dirt and roots in search of tubers or grubs.

  Level six. That's two levels higher than me. Could I even fight that?

  The answer was probably not. At least, not directly. The boar was too large, too strong, too well-armored with thick hide and muscle. If Arin tried to engulf it the way he'd done with the rats and fox, he'd likely just get gored by those tusks.

  But watching the boar work, Arin felt something stir in his core. Not fear, though there was some of that. Something else. Something primal and hungry.

  That much mass. That much essence. If I could find a way...

  The boar moved on, following the game trail deeper into the forest, and Arin let it go. But the seed of an idea had been planted. There were larger prey in this forest, creatures that could provide significant growth if he could figure out how to hunt them.

  He just needed to be smarter. He needed to plan. What Arin needed to do was to think like Levi would have thought.

  As Arin made his way back toward his pine tree hollow, the eastern sky was just beginning to lighten with pre-dawn gray. Another night of exploration, another collection of lessons learned.

  The forest was teaching him, one encounter at a time, what it meant to be a predator. What it means to be alive.

  And somewhere in the back of his consciousness, a question formed that Arin couldn't quite answer yet: Was he hunting to survive, or was he beginning to enjoy the hunt itself?

  The distinction might matter. Eventually.

  Next one comes tomorrow