"Is this the labyrinth?"
A second earlier, I was chasing the monster falcon, and now I'm inside a cave-like structure. I fell face first into the ground and it took me some moments to gather myself. My first instinct was to turn and run back. But sadly the only thing behind me was the rocky wall of the cave. I tried to put my hands on the rock but nothing happened. I didn't magically whiz through nor did I get teleported back to my village.
This is bad.
I was just a human without any combat training or experience. My experience as a tree doesn't hold much value here either.
With all the injuries accumulated on my body, I can't survive for long. Especially that deep wound made by that bird monster. Come to think of it, where is that bastard.
I turned around in search of the bird and sure enough, it was just a few yards away from me. Like me, it too fell onto the ground and was lying there. From the looks of it, the injury that I inflicted on its wing was severe.
With careful steps I inched near it, my hands clutching the broken wooden staff even more tightly. The bird didn't make any moves and with a few more steps, I stood right beside it. It was panting heavily, its beaked face was severely strained.
For a moment I felt sorry for the creature. But that didn't last very long. Once it understood that I was in its reach, it leaped onto me, with its talons pointed at me in a last-ditch effort to kill me.
The sudden attack made my dodge late by a tiny fraction. The talons graced my chest but I refused to let the chance go to waste. I was poised to strike and I did.
The wooden stake was brought down to its abdomen, piercing it. It gave out a loud irritable sound and I had to stab it a few more times to kill it.
< You've unlocked your stats>
< New skill unlocked >
Could you not speak for a few minutes lady?
The voice in my head reminded me of the latest success, but my body didn't care much. If the labyrinth is half as bad as I heard from James, my neighbor, I could die very soon.
Monster in abundance. That's what he told me. Since coming into this cave, I haven't met a lot of monsters, actually just one and that too which I followed from the other side, but I could be wrong.
Even if one monster were to come towards me right now I would die.
I need to escape, I need to find my way back to my adoptive parents, I need to find out why I've become a human. I want to do a lot more. So I can't die here, I have to survive.
I hurriedly focus my mind on my body and sure enough, my stats pop up.
Species - Human level 2.
Stats -
Vitality - 12
Mana - 10
Endurance - 7
Will - 13
Coalesce - 0
Skills -
Absorption level 1.
Character points - 1
The basic stats of vitality, mana, endurance and will all look okay. But coalesce? What does that signify? Nobody in the village said anything about there being a fifth attribute. If only I had some kind of manual on the basics of the System.
I guess there is no point in fretting over something I have 0 points in anyways. Onto my skills then.
Absorption, huh. What does that do?
< Skill - Absorption. Grants the ability to absorb >
Ehhh what? It's a unique skill so maybe it has something to do with my life as a tree? Hmm, I guess I'll have to find out.
Can't you give me a better explanation?
<...>
Okay, I guess not. At least now I know I have a skill.
So where do I use this skill? If I was a tree I'm pretty sure I would use it to absorb water and other necessary resources. But as a human what can I absorb?
Maybe I will try it on the rock. I placed my hands on the rock.
But nothing happened.
Definitely not this.
So maybe I'll try it on the ground. Again I put my hand on the ground and again a bust.
Then I tried my skill on soil, air, my clothes, piece of the staff, and pretty much anything I could think of. But sadly none of it worked.
I've tried everything in this place and yet I've failed. Disappointed, I slouched down onto the nearby rock.
If only I could ask someone, heck even if I could ask that guy I would take the risk. I poked the dead Parav with my leg.
And that's when it hit me. What if I could absorb this monster's body? That could explain everything.
As a tree absorbing nutrients from the dead and decomposed corpses were a common thing. So maybe that's what this skill is for.
I placed my hand on the corpse. I took deep breaths to steady myself and said, " Absorb."
To my extreme delight, the creature melted into a goop-like substance which slowly got absorbed into my hands in no time.
< Absorption successful. >
< Started body recuperation>
The absorbed energy started to spread out of my hands to the back, my thighs, chest and started to mend my wounds.
At first, I didn't notice anything, but slowly my wounds started to heal. The blood stopped coming out and clotted. Then the damage started to mend. And by the time it finished my flesh and skin were back to normal.
"By mother nature, this skill is amazing."
I checked my hands, thighs, and chest all of which were completely healed. When I reached out to my back, a sharp pain radiated the moment I touched the wound.
"Guess it couldn't heal everything," I said out loud, half amused and disappointed at the revelation.
So if one dead body could heal me this much, I'm sure the next one could probably heal me completely. Now that is a piece of good news. I could survive here and eventually get out if I keep repeating this.
Good, now I have a plan. It's time to kill some creatures, again!
I got up from my resting place, picked up the stake which is the only weapon I have, and moved along the tunnel-like cave.
The place where I ended up inside the cave while I was chasing the Parav was a dead end. The end of this tunnel. So I only had one direction to move and that's what I did.
Other than the very basic details, I've got no idea what the labyrinth is. My information was limited and because of that, I had to be extra careful. The human body was very fragile and I've got zero experience baring the last two skirmishes.
With each careful step forward I could hear the voices of different creatures getting closer, everything mixed into one big uproar.
The surface was very rocky, just like any cave. There were huge boulders as big as me and occasionally I could find broken bones, pieces of fur, or some sharp nails and talons, the aftermath of the conflicts that took place here.
The unidentifiable noises gave away to screeches, howling, and loud growls as I walked further. Realizing I won't be able to go forward without being seen, I hid behind one of the boulders and took a peak.
What I saw was two creatures caught in a vicious fight. One of them was familiar to me - a wersok, the wolf-monkey hybrid, and the other was a much simpler-looking creature. A giant rat which was at least the size of a dog.
It had bloodstained black fur, blood red eyes, and very sharp pointed front teeth.
The wersok was the one on the receiving end of the stick. It had sustained heavy damage on its body and was dripping blood all over, while the rat had a huge piece of flesh bitten off at the back but it still looked like the better of the two.
I need to take one out, so I'll wait for one of them to finish the other. Or should I take them out both?
More dead monsters meant the more I could heal my body. What if I absorb one when I'm at full health? I guess I'll find out soon.
Meanwhile, the monster rat charged at the heavily wounded wersok. It tried to dodge the attack, but its limping leg gave it no chance. The hit connected and the wersok was pushed back a few feet away. The rat didn't want to give any chance to its enemy and charged again, but this time instead of dodging the attack the hybrid dashed forward. The wersok knew it wouldn't last long, so it was trying to take down the enemy with it. The wersok's sharp fangs dug deep into the smaller head of the monster rat, which fatally wounded it.
Now both monsters were on the floors heavily panting and bleeding.
The rat slowly pushed its body forward, to put in a final strike that would kill the enemy. But before it could reach the wersok a stake pierced its behind and straight into its guts.
The sudden attack left the monster defenseless and the kill confirmation that rang in my head confirmed that it died.
< You've gained enough experience. Level up.>
< You've got skill points to spent. >
Nice, I leveled up. Need to check my stats once more. But before that let me deal with this guy here.
And pulled the stake from the dead rat and walked towards the wersok. I raised my arms to strike it but quickly backed down upon realizing it was already dead.
Poison Fang!
"You were already poisoned, weren't you?" I asked the dead body for no reason.
"This just proves how dangerous this place is," I sighed, the realization of how precarious my situation was, troubling me to no end.
Time to absorb and heal my wounds. I placed my hands on the body of wersok in front of me and used my skill.
"Absorb," I said solemnly.
Just like before the monster turned into a goo like substance which I absorbed into my body.
< Absorption successful.>
< Starting body recuperation >
The same feeling as before washed over me. The energy flowing from my hands to my back. The healing process took a few more minutes and when I was done, my body was fully healed.
I stretched my back a few times to make sure I was okay. To my surprise, I never felt more alive, even when I was a tree.
"This feels awesome. I could get used to this," I said, amazement evident in my voice.
"Now onto the next."
I placed my hands on the body of the Poison Fang and used absorption. The body melted into the goo like substance and slowly dissolved into my body.
< You've acquired 1 pure energy >
Huh, so that's it?
Maybe I can use this later on. Seems like I can store energy in my body in some way. How much this will help me, only time will tell. If I can heal myself with this in the future, then it would be very helpful.
I'll have to put my theory into practice later. Now it's time to look into my stats.
But before that, I'll have to make sure I'm safe. I didn't know what lay ahead of me, so I decided to turn back to where I came from. Since the tunnel-like structure ended abruptly, I could always keep my back safe, which means I needed to check a portion of the tunnel. Once I got into position I decided to delve into my character stats.
Species - Human level 3.
Stats -
Vitality - 12
Mana - 10
Endurance - 7
Will - 13
Coalesce - 0
Skills -
Absorption level 1.
Character points - 2
James had told me that the character points or CP for short, allow you to make your stats better, so that's exactly what I'm about to do.
Now, where should I spend my CP on?