Cultivation Rank: F-1 (0/20)
Five grueling hours of cultivation and Matias is as strong as he can get without leaving the dungeon. The essence in the dungeon cannot be used to rank up the dungeon core, that essence must be obtained via cultivation or beast core absorption in the outside world.
After eating another meal, this time buttered pasta with lukewarm milk to drink, Matias prepared himself to exit back into the real world. After a moment of concentration on leaving, he felt the gradually more familiar feeling of inversion before materializing deep underwater in the river. After spending a moment in shock from the cold water, he swam quickly to breach the surface and gulp down some air, taking a moment to observe his surroundings and come up with a plan. Seeing as he was stuck in a fast moving river with sheer cliffs on both sides, his plan was just to stay above the water until he sees a riverbank to exit the river. Luckily he was finding the swim much less strenuous than before he had opened that meridian and found that most of the time he was not even out of breath.
* Swimming Level 1 (novice): You can move through the water 1% faster*
* ...
* Swimming Level 11 (initiate): You can move through the water 15% faster
After an hour of treading water and avoiding rocks beneath the surface, Matias saw a portion of the cliff that collapsed, creating a rocky slope straight into the river. He swam over and grabbed onto the rocks to anchor himself in place. The stop caused some lacerations in his hands, but he was able to exit the river and climb up the side of the cliff using the jagged handholds left behind by the collapse.
Cresting the cliff, he looked into a forest that was sparser than the one he escaped from but somehow seemed more solid. Feeling for it I realized that what I was sensing was a higher essence density, with most of the essence aspected towards earth and nature essence.
* Warning: You are entering a zone with a recommended rating of C-0 *
Yikes, still naked and only slightly stronger than he was the day he arrived in the forest. This does not bode well, but Matias still has some tricks to try out. He turned towards the pile of large rocks he climbed to get here:
"Store Rock"
Matias saw the rock twist inwards and disappear before he felt it appear in the empty room he initially travels to. He continued to store rocks until he got a message saying his storage was full. He was able to store 5 of the large rocks and 3 smaller ones. He wasn't sure quite how he was going to use these yet, but he had a few ideas.
He walked into the forest slowly, watching where he placed his feet to minimize noise and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. He didn't have much of an idea what he was doing since he grew up around fields not forests, but he knew the general idea was to not be seen or heard.
* Stealth Level 1 (Novice): You are now 1% harder to detect*
Well it is a start, the system seems to be reacting more to each thing Matias does. He doesn't know if that is because of the transformation or if it is coincidental since he is doing a lot of things he has not done before. He continued on like that, hoping to come across a plant or small animal he could use to make clothes.
If only he could be so lucky. He froze suddenly to take in what he was seeing. His instincts couldn't decide if he should laugh or shit himself. About thirty yards ahead and to the right, a creature hunched over to gnaw on a tree. It had the head of a grisly bear, with a long nub of bone protruding from the forehead and the build of a large rabbit. In fact it greatly resembled a rabbit if rabbits could be the size of a rhinoceros! People in Matias' village used to tell funny stories about the smaller, all rabbit versions of these but this creature deserves none of the lighthearted humor awarded to its less evolved brethren.
* Evaluate Level 1: You have a chance to see the name and rank of a creature
*
* Dire-Bear Spronglepoof
* Rank: D-9
This ridiculous name put Matias closer to laughing and freed him from his fight or flight response. He has to be smart about what he does here. That thing is no pushover and is so far above himself in cultivation it may as well be immortal. He slowly crept his way to the nearest tree and skirted its base until he was out of sight of the beast. Ignoring the burning pain in his hands, he then reached up and began climbing the tree.
About 30 feet off the ground the branches are still thick enough to stand on, but spread wide enough that even in the forest sparsely populated with behemoth trees the branches intersect and form bridges that can be traversed. Matias crept along on these branches until he managed to reach the tree upon which the Matias-proclamed "bunny bear" was still chewing. It did not spare so much as a glance for the insignificant creature it sensed in the trees. He knows it sensed him because his stealth skill has not increased by even a percent.
When he got directly above the creature, he continued to climb until he was about 50 feet in the air. That ought to do it, he smiled at the ridiculous thing he was about to try.
"Retrieve stone" he whispered.
Matias watched in satisfaction as a stone that had to weight 300 pounds plummeted towards the adorably deadly creature below. By the time it sensed the danger it was far too late, and there was a satisfying crunching noise as the stone collided with the back of its head. Quickly scurrying down the tree, he stored away the now viscera covered rock in his dimensional storage. Looking at the head of the corpse, he saw a glow coming from just under a broken fragment of the skull. Reaching his hand in, he grasped his first ever beast core.