Having his MP taken every minute gave Zack a hard time finding a food source, he's been flying for over 5 mins now but it feels like an hour or so. After the system gave his task, Zack immediately flew without hesitation and find either the fruit or flower the system's asking.
"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t! How am I suppose to find a food in here?!" He complained while looking at the trees around him.
Most of the trees don't have any leaves on them, giving them a dead tree vibe. One of the tree did have fruit on it but Zack's anxiousness kicked in before he thinks of approaching it. He doesn't know if it's edible or not, because the fruit looks like an enormous eyeball that seems to have ripped a year ago.
He's looking for something that looks like a literal fruit that can be eaten, imagining an orange or at least an apple tree out there.
Out of Zack's knowledge, his passive skill [Trail] was working at the very moment for thinking of flying at different directions, without it having an MP consumption, he won't know unless he's running from something.
At a distance, a wolf can be seen savoring its prey, fangs full of blood and piercing yellow eyes with a blunt of gray iris.
Having its food eaten, the wolf noticed something in the distance while drinking from the lake; a small creature with brown wings that leaves a trail of blue light, flying carelessly, inspecting its surroundings.
The wolf narrowed its eyes to see the small creature clearly until its eyes widened.
'What is that thing? How can it do that?' The wolf pondered while looking at the back of the creature which looks like it was summoning another of itself behind and dissipating after 3 seconds, one after another.
While its iris was slowly becoming dark;
'Was it an after image? But how..' It wondered.
______
Giving up, Zack let out a big sigh and complained on how would he find a fruit in a dead forest. He might even die first before he can see at least a berry.
Zack's face was unreadable but Sei can only guess that he was embarrassed for running his mouth instead of focusing on what he can do.
[Clairvoyance]
Activating the skill, Zack's vision became dark and narrow, making the distance appear for only 3 meter radius. For him, it looks like he just discovered a whole different world.
"Oh sh*t! It feels like an x-ray and a night vision got stuck up inside my head." He said
He can only see wires that appear to be the edges of every object, trees in front of him looks like a drawing without any color, giving Zack little bit of nausea. Now that his skill is activated; he thought of a flower, nothing in particular. Doing this, nothing seems to happen.
Zack proceeds to fly while his skill is activated until not far from where he is, a hint of a pulsing white light can be seen behind one of the large tree, hiding in the tall grasses.
Zack approached the light that came to be a flower.
The flower looks like that of a sunflower from earth but instead of a yellow collor petals, it has a dark purple color with its root being blue, it also gives a slight illuminating purple light around the upper part.
Deactivating his skill, Zack finds it alluring to approach and so he did. Seeing the color gave him the same feeling when he wanted to take a bite from a cake for the first time.
When he landed on the flower, he began to drink it until he felt relaxation in his muscles and mind as if he was dancing in the clouds.
As he drank the flower, a sudden message appeared in front of him.
[An unnamed substance has entered your stomach]
[Unnamed substance effect: MP regeneration]
[Would you like to allow the substance to take effect? Yes, No]
Without hesitation, Zack decided to allow the flower's nectar to flowed down his throat.
[Daily Task: Drink from flower's nectar, Complete!]
[MP full]
"What is this, what's going on?" He asked.
The reason of this is not because of what the system says or anything related but because in front of Zack, a bird figure that looks like flying in circle around him was attacking him— or that was what he thought.
Leaving off the flower; a sudden trace of crescent shaped wind pass through it, cutting the flower in half.
"What was that?! what the f*ck is going on?!" He cried, waiting for Sei to reply.
Running away, Zack received a system message.
[Survive from the Cron]
"That is a cron?!" He asked.
Not really looking at the Cron physically when Zack last encountered one of them, he don't have any clue of its appearance whatsoever.
The Cron's eyes was as big as an owl and as deep as the abyss, looking directly into it feels like you will fall to an endless pit because of how dark it is. The shape of its head was that of a normal crow but bigger, looking at its body, something like a black mist was swirling around its whole, along with its pitch black feathers. Apart from those, all its physical trait seems normal.
While Zack was flying away from the Cron, it followed him behind after it missed the attack earlier and keeps releasing it towards Zack, noticing this, Zack thought if it's either the Cron has a bad eyesight giving its eyes as big as a human fist or its missing in purpose.
Now that Zack made quite a distance from the Cron, he recalls what Sei said about it being the same one as before.
"Now it makes sense." Zack said out of the blue.
"Last time, I ran for at least 2 hours; making it appear that we're not originally from here, from the Bear's territory," He said. "unless the Bear's territory is as big as 100 football stadium, we came from another side." Zack paused.
"That means; that Cron is from where we also came from, remember that time before our first encounter with it? There's an earthqu- a sudden vibration that for the system, it was recognized as a threat, giving me the task to escape." He explained.
"Back then, when we flew away, the Cron followed us having the task to still ongoing. It's purpose is to capture us, but since you said that it has low intelligence; gave me more reason to believe that an order has been made." He continued. "Right now, we're on the Bear's territory and that guy is firing wind slashes at us, without a doubt; it now has plan to kill me!" He cried.
"And that's why the system gave me the task to survive, not escape again. Someone was giving an order to this Cron!" Zack cried out loud.
Meanwhile, while Zack was talking to Sei inside his mind, the Cron keeps firing its wind slash toward Zack's Trail.
When suddenly, Zack's passive skill deactivated because of his lack of focus in different directions, causes the Cron to lock onto Zack's wings.
Releasing another wind slash, the Cron was able to hit Zack in his right wing, causing him to crash.
"Sh*t, that actually hurts!" He cried.
His right wing looks like someone tried to cut it in half but failed the first time, making the upper part hang like a paper mid-tear inside a notebook.
Unable to fly, Zack tried to move his 6 legs planning to ran away.
When he did, the Cron landed in front if him. Tilting its head, the Cron seems confused about something.
'F*ck! This big guy is about to eat me alive!' He cried.
His vision was getting blurry as the Cron was getting closer and closer until it stepped on him. Although not bled, his wings' injury seems serious for a butterfly.
'Why do I always pass out when I'm about to die..' He thought.
While he was about to lose consciousness, he glanced a dark figure jumped over at the Cron, pinning it to the ground.
"You're not supposed to be here-.." a deep and angry voice said.
____
Waking up, Zack was welcomed by the system's message.
[Daily Task: Eat a fruit, Complete!]
[Daily Tasks reward granted...]
[1 stats point aquired!]
[+50 Exp]
'50? That's a lot for a daily task isn't it?' He thought
Recalling what had happen to him, Zack finds it confusing.
"Wait, how the f*ck am I still alive? and where am I?" He asked.
Looking at his surrounding, he seems to be inside of what looks like a man-made cave. The walls are made of big rocks on top of each other like an alternative bricks, putting a cement on top of it to hide the traces of it being there.
The cave was big enough to call a house for human standards, there's also no hint of fanciness inside the cave for it to call a shelter. Only a red cloth on the ground that looks like a banner of some sort.
'Can't you at least put a light in here?' He thought.
The night sky has now held its beautiful appearance, the only lightsource that's entering the cave was the two moons on the sky; touching the floor.
Fortunately for Zack, the cave has a... door or at least a cover.
'The owner seems to like hang clothes here and there,' He thought.
Having his time lying on the ground, he can hear voices out of the cave, a lot of voices.
"Where do you think he found him?"
"Hey, did you see those thing?"
"Can you please..."
"Time to work..."
...
Being completely honest himself, Zack was quite excited to see humans from this world, not that he's a histrionic person whatnot but he just arrived in this world after all.
Not completely understands what they're talking about because of overlapping noice, Zack found himself looking at the shadow behind the curtains of the entrance.
'Now that is f*cking confusing' He thought.