Reidar's lungs burned as he pushed deeper into the forest. The sound of the monsters echoed through the trees behind him—thrashing, gnashing things of malice and hunger.
Each breaking branch was a reminder of how little space he'd truly gained, how flimsy his margin of safety still was.
His heart hammered in his ears, drowning out even the tremor in his throat. He forced himself not to look back.
His summoned sprites fought and died. They bought him precious minutes and were replaced by fresh conjurations as soon as they got destroyed. The process continued as he put enough distance between himself and the swarm.
The mana drain was crushing. Each new summon cost him a lot of mana, and his reserves dropped with each casting. But the strategy worked, albeit barely, just because Reidar spent all his points on A.C.U.M.E.N. earlier.
Otherwise, he would have just been dead.
After what felt like days but was probably only minutes, the monsters' snarls and screams stopped. Reidar slowed his pace and went to check his remaining summons, only for him to realize there were none of them still standing.
They had all been killed.
"Ah… Ah…"
The forest was silent now except for the rustle of wind through leaves and the distant crackle of the still-burning gas station.
A pillar of smoke unspooled from the direction he'd fled, staining the late afternoon sky in charcoal grey.
Reidar could see flames shooting upwards, winking in and out against the darkening sky.
"I made quite a fire…"
He could see it from his position, and he was not close.
Reidar was unfazed by the fire's destruction of the surrounding vegetation, considering the latter had likely covered the entire world.
Leaning against a tree, he slid down its trunk until he sat on the moss-covered ground. His chest raised as he caught his breath. Sweat soaked his shirt despite the cool forest air.
That morning Reidar had been driving to visit his parents, worried about nothing more serious than traffic delays.
Now he sat in a world where creatures from nightmares roamed freely, where magic flowed through his hands like water, and where he could summon as minions the same monsters that tried to kill him.
He had slaughtered thousands of monsters. The fact itself, the killing, and the number seemed impossible, but his eyes didn't lie, and frankly, he read too many books and played too many games to know that even the system notifications didn't lie.
I didn't work like that.
Nearly two thousand Rift-Sprites had died in the explosion, plus dozens more in direct combat.
The destruction he caused made his stomach turn. He had never killed before, and he didn't quite like the fact that he was killing now.
But he had to survive. It was a kill-or-be-killed situation.
Reidar looked at his hands. They seemed the same as always, but he could feel the mana flowing beneath his skin like a second bloodstream.
He checked his proficiencies.
—[«Skill Proficiency Status Update»]—
[« Summon Rift-Sprite Squad »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 5.75%
[« Fireball »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 3.45%
[« Aqua Pistol »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 3.45%
[« Stone Bullet »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 3.45%
[« Wind Blade »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 3.45%
[« Basic Combat »]
Tier: 1
Proficiency: 8%
—[«END»]—
Summon Rift-Sprite squad's proficiency instead must have increased more because it is harder to cast them and because I kept doing it while fleeing.>
Reidar was disappointed with his First Apprentice title; he didn't see much improvement in his skills, while he had expected more.
He turned to his surroundings. The forest was too calm.
If the Rift-Sprites swarmed like that on the highway, the woods probably hid worse things—but he hadn't run into any yet.
This was likely going to lead to a wide range of issues he would have to tackle in the future.
He kept his spear within reach and remained alert for any sounds that didn't belong there. The last thing he needed was to be ambushed while recovering.
His mana pool was regenerating six times faster than that of an average human being, but it still wasn't enough because A.C.U.M.E.N. also increased the depth of his mana pool.
Besides, the mental exhaustion from constant casting and having to fight for his life was worse than the physical fatigue from running.
Managing the summons, planning and coordinating their actions, and casting his spells had pushed his mental abilities to their limits.
With his boosted A.C.U.M.E.N., handling the gas station chaos would've been impossible otherwise. But even thinking six times faster, juggling spells and summons pushed his mind to the breaking point.
Reidar focused on his status screen. The interface materialized in his mind, showing his current capabilities and resources.
—[«STATUS»]—
Name: Reidar Miller
Level: 11
Health: 150
Mana: 600
C.L.A.S.P.: 665 / 4300
Available Attribute points: 0.00
Skills: Summon Rift-Sprite Squad, Fireball, Aqua Pistol, Stone Bullet, Wind Blade
Equipment: Improvised Spear
Proficiencies: Basic Combat
Attributes: (S.H.I.E.L.D.: 1.5), (A.C.U.M.E.N.: 6), (F.L.A.I.R. : 1), (F.L.I.P.: 2)
Minions: #N/A
Survival Points: 15,600
Trait: Skill Sharing
Perks: #N/A
Perk Points: 6
Titles: The Early Riser, The First Killer, The First Apprentice, The Pioneer, Creature Slayer IV, Rift-Sprite Hunter IV, The Exterminator
Profession: #N/A
—[«END»]—
The numbers were staggering. Level eleven after a single day. Thousands of survival points earned. Skills that would have been fantasy yesterday were now confirmed reality.
But what caught his attention were the new perk points.
He earned six of them, and according to the notifications, he got them every five levels. He had been too busy fighting and fleeing to look into the perk system, but now seemed like the perfect time to check it out.
Reidar went through the perk tree section of his interface. There were four perk trees: Survivor, Fighter, Mage, and Crafter. All of them came with perks, which did the most varied things. Most of them granted passive bonuses.