Seizing the opportunity he had created for himself, Alex jumped into action as he reached the huge rabbit's position while it was still in its disoriented state and launched a barrage of swings and lunges with the flimsy wooden stick.
After no longer than a minute, the huge rabbit came to a complete stop in its actions. Its chest no longer heaved up and down as it had breathed its last breath. It's fiery red eyes becoming a dull, cloudy white.
There was a thud as the body of the huge rabbit fell to the ground.
'Fucking finally!'
Alex was about to check the new screen that popped up in front of him when a glint coming from the dead rabbit caught his eyes.
Drawn over by his curiosity, he moved over to the corpse with caution in each step until he finally came face to face with the thing.
Now that he was closer he could see clearly what the glint that caught his eyes was. Sitting on the ground right next to the rabbit's mouth was a grape-sized purple orb. They emitted a weak glow, turning the white fur of the rabbit a light purple.
Alex looked at the orb and blinked, he looked confused.
'Isn't this loot a little bit underwhelming compared to what I've heard other Awakened earned from their first kill?'
Nevertheless, he went up and grabbed the little orb with his hand.
However he was rendered speechless when they disappeared immediately upon contact with his skin.
Before he could even take a proper look at the orb, it disappeared.
Alex felt dazed. Was his hard earned loot gone just like that?
They looked underwhelming but they were loot from his first ever kill in the Primordial expanse! He was infuriated!
Just before his mood worsened even more, the notifications he had brushed aside from before once again reappeared before him, as if they would only go away once he acknowledged them.
[You have killed a beast, Rabid Rabbit.]
[You have survived the attack of a higher life form, Galephant. Awarded Talent [Soulforge]]
Alex had to do a double take when he read the message of surviving the attack of the Galephant. Since when was he awarded a talent?
'I didn't see that when I read it before?'
Confirming if the message was telling the truth or not, he opened his status to check if his talents had changed..
[Details]
Name: [Alex]
Age: [17]
Talents: [Soulforge]
Trait: [Commoner]
Trait Description: [...]
Rank: [Seeker]
Soul Core: [F- (Inactive) 0%]
He closed the trait description since he didn't need a reminder of how insignificant he is. But unsurprisingly, his talent list was no longer empty!
He tried his best, but there was nothing he could learn about it other than its name. He even shouted aloud 'Description' multiple times before he gave up. It seemed like Alex would have to figure it out himself.
'Now what should I do…'
He glanced in the direction of where the dead rabbit lay. A smirk creeped its way onto his face.
"It would be stupid of me to waste such free food."
***
Four hours later, Alex stored water and other essential resources leftover from the carriages into a rudimentary bag he had crafted from the pelt of the huge rabbit.
As for the meat, he cooked and ate all that his stomach could hold before burning the rest to ashes and dousing the fire with water to not attract any nearby creatures.
After all, he had no doubts that the huge bonfire the previous night contributed to the Galephant discovering their camp and attacking them.
With the bag slung over his shoulder, he took one last look at the devastation before him before he turned away to depart in the direction the sun was setting.
Alex wasn't very well travelled, so this was the only way he could tell which direction he would be going with confidence.
His journey only lasted 15 minutes until he could feel the ground shaking and trees rattling in the distance behind him.
With how loud the commotion caused was, Alex knew this could only be one thing.
'Fuck, that Galephant behemoth is still near!'
He held his verbal curses back to not alert the Galephant to his presence, but knowing that thing was behind him made him want to get out of this cursed place as soon as he could.
Glancing all around him, he realised that the sun was about to disappear on the horizon. His sense of direction would be gone by that point, so he simply hurried his pace forwards and didn't look back.
After a tireless amount of jogging throughout the night, Alex could barely take the exhaustion anymore, and the large rabbit hide bag over his shoulder only hindered his pace even more.
He didn't know how long he had been running for, but he guessed that he had at least covered 20 kilometres. He had no more juice left in him to keep going. But he knew he had to, that distance may seem like a lot to him, but to something like that 'Higher lifeform' Galephant that was just a few steps.
Through sheer willpower, Alex made it through another hour of travelling and at that point he felt like he would literally die if he forced himself any more.
He still felt unsafe, but he had no choice.
He found a ditch between some trees and covered himself and his bag with some leaves before he lay down — as soon as his head touched the ground, he passed out.
[Accessing inventory]
However as soon as he entered dreamland, a message from the elusive Primordial Expanse itself decided to show up. This time in his mind directly.
Alex already found himself in a pure black space before he saw the message, his eyes bulging at the sight.
'They never told me we get our own inventory!'
His jaw practically hit the ground in excitement, except there was no ground beneath his feet.
In fact, he didn't even have feet in this space. The best he could describe the feeling was that he was viewing things through his 'Mind's eye'.
In the entire black space, there was only one purple orb floating, emitting that same faint glow.
Alex's smile blossomed as he knew what they were as soon as he laid eyes upon them.
'My loot!'