The night was deathly still. Almost like the wind itself was holding its breath, desperate not to be noticed by the strange monstrosities that prowled in the dark shadows cast by the moon.
There was only one place where the wind blew. It gently swirled and fluttered in small eddies around me as I meditated.
Of course, I was completely unaware of this. In fact, I was completely unaware of everything. My mind had sunk deep into itself, retreating into the depths of my own psyche, the only thing that existed to me was the next breath that I might take.
Then, in the still air of the night, another gust of wind picked up.
Hot air blasted against my face, blowing my hair back.
I snapped out of my meditation and my eyes bolted open. It was hard to make out anything within the dark shadows cast by the moon, something seemed to be blocking out all the light in front of me.
A sharp snort broke through the tense silence that blanketed the night and then I finally realised what was going on.
Not even 2 feet away from my face, a giant wet black nose was sniffing my face. The owner of this nose was so large that when it loomed over me, it obscure the sky and blocked out the faint light that came from the moon.
The grass rustled as something enormous moved in it and the nose moved further back from my face. Now, I could see two huge black eyes as big as dinner plates that stared curiously at me. Above the eyes, two massive horns curved wickedly from the creature's forehead.
When the creature moved further back, I caught a glimpse of shaggy black and white fur. All in all, the creature was enormous, I couldn't say exactly how big, but judging from the size of its head, it had to be at least as big as an elephant, maybe bigger.
'A cow?' I thought, too stunned by the sheer size of the thing to feel afraid.
The cow was deceptively quiet for its huge size. Its enormous hooves carried it softly through the tall grass and it slowly disappeared into the night.
After this strange encounter, there was no chance that I would get back to sleep. I sat up and looked around slowly, careful not to make any noise that might attract predators or wake up my sleeping companions... they needed the rest.
After the brief stint of meditation, my mind felt crystal clear and my body was brimming with energy. Not in the metaphorical sense of 'Brimming with energy' But literally brimming with energy. I felt like I might burst.
I cautiously checked my status to see what was going on and was shocked to find that my mana had increased by 3 all of a sudden.
[Name: Robert Melior
Race: Human
Class: - Martial arts Student
Level: 11
Experience: 0/1200
Strength: 23
Agility: 24
Intelligence: 19
Mana: 15
Skills:
Passive: (Martial Arts LVL 41) (Basic Survival LVL 15) (Gaming LVL 1) (Stamina LVL 1) (Balance LVL 1) (Reactions LVL 1)
Active:(After Burner LVL 2) (Light as a Feather LVL 2)
Distance from the Edge of the world: 29750 miles
(Menu)
Messages: (2)]
After spending a while thinking it over, I couldn't figure out how it had happened. It should have been impossible since I didn't level up, and yet here we are.
Since it was a good thing, I didn't end up overthinking it and pushed my increased mana to the back of my mind.
Quietly, I made my way over to Kyle and Kashyap to check on their injuries. Kyle looked far better than he had earlier. His face was flushed and his breathing was stable. He looked so much better in fact, that I started to question how it was even possible for him to recover that quickly.
Kashyap had similarly made great strides in his recovery. His breathing had become far less laboured and none of his many wounds were bleeding. Although his face was battered and bruised, the fact that he was already looking this much better filled me with hope.
Since they were both looking vastly improved, it gave me some food for thought. 'Perhaps their increased stats allow them to heal faster as well as fight better... If that's the case, I may need to try and help them level up while they are still injured to speed up their recovery.'
The problem then was how to let a nearly crippled person level up. 'I could almost kill something, then allow them to get the finishing blow,' I mused. It would be dangerous and the only way the plan might work, was if I was overwhelmingly stronger than what I was fighting.
'It's definitely possible, I just need to level up first so that I can catch things for them to kill,' I realised that this was doable.
Sadly, it wasn't possible tonight. I couldn't leave them to fend for themselves in the middle of the night. Kyle and Kashyap were defenceless and August was fast asleep.
Thus, I waited quietly in the darkness for the sun to rise. While I waited, my eyes were drawn to a certain patch of the sky. Amidst the nebulas and glowing stars, an ugly scar ran across the far corner of the sky. The scar was the same empty patch I had seen last night. Inside it, not a single star glowed and tonight, it looked a little bigger.
...
When the sun finally peaked over the horizon, sending a pinkish-red glow onto the deep blue ocean, I was close to tears.
"Thank god, I was close to dying of boredom," I muttered to myself.
After sitting still for an entire night, I had been getting antsy. By now, there was a small patch free of grass that surrounded where I sat. I had been so bored that I started to pull out the grass and fiddled with it.
I have always liked to keep my hands busy and this time, the tall prehistoric grass was the victim of my restlessness.
A quiet groan caught my attention and I saw August stretching like a cat. He rolled over, grumbled and then sat upright. His short black hair was a mess, sticking up in all manner of strange angles.
He looked over at me with hazy eyes that were still clouded by sleep. "What time is it?" He mumbled.
"I don't know, my phone broke during the crash," I admitted. It was still quite upsetting to think about.
"Oh... ok," August said before lying back down to sleep.
"No, you don't!" I shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.
"Urgh, what is it," He grumbled.
Before he could fall back asleep, I told him what I had found out last night and my plan.
When he heard that we would need to level up a lot, August's ears pricked up like a dog hearing it was going on a walk. And then they drooped back down when I told him we would be helping Kyle and Kashyap level up.
"Do we have to? I don't even know them that well." August grumbled.
I was stumped by this selfish reply. Because of his thoughtful actions yesterday, I had almost forgotten that most of the time, August was a selfish asshole. I needed to find a way to make him want to help out.
"Hmm... aren't you always saying that you want to be a king or something like that?" I asked him.
August blushed furiously and stuttered, "Who... Who told you that?"
I looked at him stunned, "You did. Did you think I didn't hear you muttering about being the king of the city in the mountains earlier? And you wanted the crown jewels. I mean come on, your class is Blood Noble. Did you seriously think I hadn't noticed?" I asked him with an amused smile.
August frowned for a moment and then his expression changed from flustered to sombre, "Since you already know, then yes. I have always wanted to rule." His expression was deadly serious.
I shrugged and thought about this for a moment, I wasn't about to ask August why he wanted to be in power, but maybe I could use this to get him to help, "How about this, King's usually have knights right? The type of strong people that are indebted to the King," I said.
August nodded thoughtfully, "You're right. Especially in this new world where strength is everything, it will be important to have strong allies I can trust,"
Now I had him. "Ok, so let's say you had some injured companions that were in a desperate situation and you helped to nurse them back to health, all the while letting them grow stronger. Wouldn't they be the perfect candidates for Knights?" I asked him, trying to make the suggestion sound as enticing as possible.
August frowned, his thick black eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it. Finally, after a long moment of silence, he looked over at Kyle and Kashyap who were still sleeping.
"I'll do it." He said.