Finrod looked through half of his stat information, garnering new information about his abilities. The saying 'Knowledge is power' held true In all worlds and he needed all the power he could get to survive this paradise turned hell.
He then focused on the vitality tab and as expected, he was shown new information.
[Vitality: Quantifies your life force and level of healthiness. At a point of large growth, the vitality stat may grant the ability to regenerate]
"Regeneration?" Finrod uttered, his eyes wide open. Such power was not meant for mortals, for none of the inhabitants of Melos, as far as he knew.
On to the next, Strength couldn't be more obvious with what it was but the system could be withholding information, a cheat or maybe even a glitch to grow stronger.
[Strength: Quantifies your degree of physical power. One can increase in strength by performing rigorous activities over a long period of time although it is inefficient]
Nothing he hadn't not known, disappointing but it was to be expected.
[Dexterity: Quantifies your skill with performing tasks with your abilities. Increase your dexterity and you might feel like you have extra arms performing multiple tasks at a time]
Finrod cringed from reading it, he pictured two long arms below his current ones and quickly shook away the thought.
"Might as well make me a demon." He shook remembering the corpse of the four-armed demon laying on the grass.
[Intelligence: Quantifies the speed at which spells are activated. Increased enough, you can use spells as quick as a blink]
"Ohhh, I like this. I'll need to find my way with weaving spells first."
He cracked his neck and twisted his torso a bit as he felt stiff, he stretched out his arms and legs and cracked his fingers.
[Wisdom: Quantifies the number of spells that can be used at once.]
[Endurance: Quantifies your measure of persistence over pain or discomfort]
[Agility: Quantifies your quickness of motion]
[Health: Quantifies your state of well-being]
[Mana: Quantifies the level of the goddess's energy inside of you]
[Stamina: Quantifies your energy to do work over a period of time]
He finished with a sigh looking up above at the large branches overhead him. He had never been to this part before, despite being so close to the woods where their abode once stood. He even began to doubt whether the old ones had left to see what was beyond the woods, they had all lived a very confined life, one filled with ignorance.
"I have been very lucky so far, it only gets harder from here."
The presence of the midst was a lot reduced in the area but it still seeped around and Finrod couldn't help but feel wary of it.
'What if I lose my sense of self and fall into the control of that thing? What's it?! I hope I'm not the only one who survived. I suppose others ought to have gotten classes if they survived the onslaught. I shouldn't have left, I should have stayed and looked for survivors… So what? So that you'll die, you couldn't do anything, Finrod, you'll only add to the bodies.'
Thoughts bombarded his mind, unwanted and annoying ones, the feeling of regret wasn't the best.
He had to move on, to where? He didn't know but he knew that he had to keep moving, at least for the sake of his sanity.
The area was much denser with thick plants and bushes beneath the trees, the woods paled in comparison in terms of plant life diversity. It was dark as well, it was a miracle that he could still see although a little.
He got up and began walking through the spaces in between the trees riddled with bushes and vines.
He walked for close to an hour not hearing anything of needed attention. Everything strangely seemed normal when he heard the croaking of toads.
They were loud, much louder than the croaks he knew. He didn't bother about it and just continued walking on until he met one, it was on his path and it looked directly at him.
[Sand Brown Toad(Transformed)- lvl 4]
Finrod was afraid, he had never seen a toad so large before. It was as tall as he was and twice as wide. It opened its mouth releasing a croak and then jumped away seemingly minding its business.
Finrod watched as it continued to hop until a bush hid it, although he was afraid,he couldn't help but feel marveled by the phenomenon, even little creatures like toads grew exponentially. It excited and scared him and his mind wandered to the terrifying dungeon mimic.
The long black legs and tall tower, the combination was too uncanny and it felt like the creature cast fear in the hearts of those who had seen it.
He shook his head violently, thrashing away the fearful thoughts, he needed less of that if he was to continue living.
He continued and later saw two that had their mouths joined in a mating activity of some sort.
'Oh, a rite perhaps.' Finrod thought stopping to watch them a little, they remained fixed in their spot, both brown and massive and roughly of the same height and size.
He sighed and moved on, not wanting to spend more time lest the feeling of missing his people came.
He wanted to jump on the trees but his fight with the large snake advised him against it and he just continued brushing against bushes and vines.
"Egghhh, terrible annoying thorns." He said in dissatisfaction as his hand pricked a thorn.
'Somebody, somebody. Anything but the demons, there must be friendly creatures that live around, it couldn't be that they were all slaughtered. I see no rift and the mist is much reduced here.'
He continued threading in disappointment and mild frustration. Then, he stopped and looked up above, on the large tree on the longest branch rested a purple fissure in space.
"A rift." Finrod spoke.