That decision barely took a thought.
Jake whipped around and bolted, his footsteps hammering out a fast, ragged rhythm. He didn't run in a straight line. He plunged deeper into the woods, using the terrain to keep changing direction.
A fallen log blocked his path—he slipped around it sideways. Low brush tangled up the route—he shoved through from the edge, branches scraping along his body with a dry, chattery rustle.
The club dragged in his grip, occasionally kissing the ground with a faint scrape.
Wind cut past his ears.
His heartbeat started syncing with his stride.
He didn't look back.
Couldn't afford to.
Running chewed through stamina fast.
His chest tightened. His breathing turned sharp and heavy. The muscles in his limbs started to burn with that sour, creeping ache that came from sustained output.
Jake could feel his stamina getting siphoned away, bit by bit. Every step was him spending the last of what this body had.
And only now did it really sink in—
running and attacking both cost stamina.
This wasn't a neat little "bar" in the corner of a screen.
It was a real, physical drain.
Just as brutal as the real world.
He didn't know how long he ran.
But when the edges of his vision started to darken and his footing got unsteady, he finally hit the wall. Jake staggered to a thick tree stump, braced against it, then slid down the trunk until his back hit rough bark.
He gulped air.
Every breath stabbed going in, hot like his lungs had been singed. His heartbeat thudded loud in his ears, each beat landing with a heavy echo.
But slowly—
the forest settled.
No voices.
No footsteps.
Just wind sliding through leaves, that steady shhh drifting between trunks.
"…Hah."
Jake let out a long, shaky breath.
"This should be safe. For now."
He lifted his head and scanned the area.
He was definitely deeper in. The canopy pressed the light down darker here. A few gnolls wandered through the trees.
Some moved in loose groups of three or five, keeping a bit of space between each other. Some were visibly bigger than him—broader shoulders, clearer muscle lines. The kind you could tell at a glance were level 2 or 3.
Those stronger ones carried a faint pressure in the air, the way predators did even when they weren't doing anything.
But weirdly, they only looked at him from a distance. Their eyes paused on him for a beat, then drifted away again, no aggression at all.
Only then did Jake let himself relax—just a fraction.
"Thank god… I'm still considered monster faction."
He couldn't help a bitter little smile.
The players' earlier chatter echoed in his head—sixty thousand people crammed into one newbie area fighting over spawns. At that density, a level 1 "wild mob" was basically living inside a meat grinder.
And the server was still pulling in new players.
The Nine Realms had been live for only minutes.
Just imagining that flood of bodies made Jake's scalp prickle.
"Yeah… I'm not picking fights with players for a while."
His voice dropped.
"I'll farm mobs the honest way."
As his breathing evened out, he felt stamina start to creep back, slow but steady. The weakness faded, replaced by a sense of strength pooling again in his limbs.
When his body finally felt under control, Jake pushed himself to his feet.
This time, his movements were careful. Restrained.
He let his eyes travel through the trees, scanning for targets.
The standard was simple: only level 1 Gnolls (Frail).
The system had only given him five Healing Potions at the start.
He'd already burned one.
He couldn't go back to the starter village for supplies. Not like this.
One mistake and he'd be dead broke—no buffer, no second chances.
Caution was the only play.
Luckily, this area was pure monster territory.
No players.
No competition.
And him—he was just one more wild mob in the crowd.
As long as he didn't start something, other gnolls basically ignored him.
So he started hunting.
The first Frail Gnoll got forced out from behind a rock.
Jake approached at a measured pace, steps light and steady. The moment it turned its head, he surged forward, his arm driving the club down from above.
Air compressed with a low, cutting whoomph.
BAM!
The dull smack of wood meeting bone echoed through the trees. The gnoll jerked, then dropped.
The second one was tucked into a patch of brush.
It sensed movement and tried to back up, but the branches snagged and boxed it in. Jake closed fast, power collecting in his arm, and a clean sideways swing landed right where he wanted it.
BAM!
The third tried to run.
Its steps were messy, direction unsure—but Jake was faster. He chased it down and, the instant it glanced back, he added one more hit and put it flat.
System notifications kept popping up.
[Killed Gnoll (Frail) (Lv. 1). Captured 10 Essence. Gained Level 1 Talent Evolution Shards +1. Gained Level 1 Rarity Upgrade Points +1.]
[Killed Gnoll (Frail) (Lv. 1). Captured 10 Essence. Gained Level 1 Talent Evolution Shards +1. Gained Level 1 Rarity Upgrade Points +1.]
[Killed Gnoll (Frail) (Lv. 1). Captured 10 Essence. Gained Level 1 Talent Evolution Shards +1. Gained Level 1 Rarity Upgrade Points +1.]
…
When the fifth one went down, Jake finally stopped.
He leaned against a tree trunk, body pitched slightly forward.
Sweat slid down through his mane.
His arms ached.
But his heartbeat was weirdly steady.
Wind moved through the woods.
Leaves swayed softly.
And in that moment, something clicked.
This wasn't running for his life.
It wasn't scrambling.
This was the first time he'd actually controlled the pace of his own survival.
Jake stayed against the trunk, letting his breathing settle before pulling up the status panel again.
The translucent screen opened soundlessly in front of him, its faint blue-white border glowing in the dim forest like a sheet of glass floating in midair. The numbers and entries mattered more than any scenery. His eyes cut across EXP, Rarity, Talent Evolution Shards—then landed on the one thing he'd been waiting for, his breathing picking up without permission.
He stared at that line for two seconds, throat tightening, then spoke under his breath.
"…Upgrade Talent."
The instant he confirmed, the air around him felt like something had been gently plucked.
Then a strand of golden light dropped quietly from above, draping over Jake and wrapping him whole.
It wasn't just visual flair. It was change you could feel.
First, a faint warmth rippled over his skin. Then that heat seeped into flesh and blood, spreading from his shoulders down his arms, across his chest—like countless tiny sparks slipping into the seams of his bones, only to melt and settle a heartbeat later.
Jake tightened his grip on the worn gnoll club without even realizing.
His body didn't go through the obvious recalibration he'd felt when he upgraded Rarity—no bone shifts, no change in frame. But something more hidden definitely moved inside him.
It was hard to describe. Like a buried wildness deep in his blood had been turned up a notch. The cold edge of his claws felt sharper. Even his vision seemed clearer, keener—like if he landed a clean hit on a weak point, there was a higher chance he'd tear straight through.
When the golden light faded, he immediately looked at his Talent line.
[Talent: Inferior Gnoll Bloodline (Unranked). Basic attacks have a 6% chance to deal 2x critical damage.]