Feeling the warmth of the sunrays bathing his face, Tear's eyes slowly opened. Having slept on top of a pile of dead leaves, he was feeling itchy. The number of itty bitty crawlies was undeniably very high and they were clearly the culprits behind the itch.
-*sigh*
-"Well... Having insects crawl over me is still better than having to look at those petty skirmishes that happen on the streets in the morning there."
-"Let's hope my second day here is better than that chaotic first one."
Stabilizing his thoughts, Tear got onto his knees and took a deep breath.
Composing himself, Tear decided to finally get a hold of himself and get a grasp of his location.
He walked across the leafy floor and stood next to a tree. Tear placed his palm onto the flaky surface of the Birch bark.
-'Is it even a Birch? Hell, as if I would know.'
He gathered energy in his leg muscles. His muscles suddenly bulging and veins popping from his quads, he could physically feel a motion opposing his muscle's contraction but he pushed them even further to their limits. Exhaling as a mist escaped from his mouth, he finally pushed up his legs with all of his might, launching himself into the air. Moving like a missile, Tear resembled a streamlined rocket as he tore through the wind. He managed to reach an altitude of about 20 meters, where he latched his arm onto a thick branch, bringing his ascent to a stop. Planting his feet firmly on the offshoot, Tear surveyed his surroundings and looked across the wide forest. Tear had been moving since yesterday and was able to ascertain that the water level was receding from the supposed center of this marsh. Where he started off was somewhere halfway across the radius. Tear assumed that if he continued moving as he had, he would end up discovering a different area.
A translucent screen suddenly popped up in front of Tear, one which's existence he still wasn't sure of. Was it something that physically existed? Or was it just a figment of his imagination? He didn't know.
*Explore more areas to unlock the map feature and earn additional rewards*
*New mission added… Explore the area!*
I keep getting these alerts saying I'll get rewards for completing missions and quests.
Tear could infer that the difference between these missions and quests would be that the quests tend to have a larger range of effect while the missions would normally just result in increasing his own arsenal be it his resources on the form of information or tools that could assist him.
Tear honestly felt much better having to adapt to this new environment than having to face another day back there in the slums. He was much more willing to face hardships requiring physical efforts rather than those that made him a lesser human.
-'Huh, as if I know what bigger humans are'.
Eating, drinking, thinking and even simple actions like breathing were now vastly different for him. His abrupt increase in strength, speed and agility was bound to help with this. As well as his new unique ability to heal his body. Rather than adapting to the new environment, Tear thought that adapting to his new physicality was going to be much weirder.
-"Well, something that's going to feel nice to adjust to."
Tear still recalled the weird incident that occurred the previous day where he first encountered a maniac who stabbed him with a twig. Something even more surprising was that he didn't come across him since then. The other incident was when an eerie voice spoke into his head. It was bothering him a ton but he decided to place the thought at the back of his head. At least he didn't give away his real name. Living in the slums truly made him much more alert than other kids his age.
-"Honestly though, what was the dude's deal? I still don't get how I wronged him. Hmph."
-*sigh*
-"I'll just solve what I come across one step at a time."