Chapter 6: Experience points
After opening the hut's door and landing on the grassy ground, he turned and went past the grave of his parents. The gigantic tower creature with many hands had been on the other direction and whatever it was, it terrified him so.
He went through a few huts and there in front of him, were the bodies of his people crushed under a fallen hut, beside him was the body of a child with its guts opened and eaten up.
Its eyes were wide open, Finrod knew that its death must have been a horror, it was most likely that they were eaten alive.
He looked away and continued in his run. He was wary of the thin mist that hung on the air, it gave a warm feeling but most importantly, it came from the opened rifts and he had learnt not to trust anything that came from there.
Then he went through the bush, through trees and then he jumped on a branch. Although he was weak like many elves, he had learnt to climb trees for their fruits just like the others, so climbing one was no big deal to him.
He squatted on a strong branch and he watched from below, he noticed that the forest was smaller, he squinted his eyes and confirmed it, there were fewer trees and many trees had lessened in size and were wilting.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
However, aside from that, he couldn't spot anything worth being cautious about aside from the prevalence of the red mist in the area but that had proven to be harmless, so far.
He turned his gaze to the right trying hard to extend his vision and there he caught something. It was far but it was large and noticeable, yet he didn't spot it well, he couldn't tell of its features.
It was a shadowy thing that crept forward and disappeared after, supposedly on four legs. He looked around again and after minutes of doing so, he spotted nothing.
He jumped to another large tree and swung up onto a branch. He looked again at the area he had spotted the shadowy figure and again, he saw nothing.
Finrod looked away taking his gaze to the fruits that hanged from the tree he was on. They were red, round and they looked very juicy, there weren't many of them however, it was even a surprise to him that there were still that many that were ripe on it considering that it wasn't far away from their abode.
All the running, jumping and worry made him hungry so he moved forward on his fours to where the fruits were. He took one, it was larger than his hand and he ate a bit.
"Hmmm." He let out, mostly in relief, he could still feel sweetness despite his broken heart. He rushed with eating the fruit, the yellow juice running down his hands as he did and staining his lips.
He finished it and then took another to keep. It couldn't fit into any of his pockets so he decided to fit it into his quiver and it held although pushing the arrows to the wall of the quiver and tightening them.
He was about to leave when he held a hiss, he turned to where it had come from and before he knew it, the fangs of a snake lunged at him.
"Whoa!" He let out escaping the strike and losing his grip on the branch, he fell and hit the ground, he hit it hard that he almost blacked out.
His back was in pain, so were his heels and arms but he couldn't let himself lose to the pain, to the unconsciousness and mostly to the wild snake.
He saw it squirming down quickly and with a pump of adrenaline, he flooded his mana across his body and rolled back to his knees.
He raised his eyes to the large black snake that coiled around the tree, its head raised and its eyes observing him.
[Reyin snake- in the middle of a transformative procss]
His identity skill informed.
He read it hoping it was information about the creature and he was right, it was about the snake.
'In the middle of a transformative process.'
With the thought, he looked at the snake hoping for some oddity and he spotted one.
From below its head down to its tail was a glowy fat line the same color as the mist.
'The transformative process. Creatures of Melos are changing as well.'
The snake moved its head about and then lunged at him again, his instincts flared up and so did his mana, he brought up his hand to protect his face and then there was a smack.
His eyes were closed but he had expected that he would be flung back if not squeezed and swallowed.
He opened his eyes slowly and behold, the opened mouth of the snake was right in his face although it was stopped by a curved wall of mana by his arms.
He swung his arms to the side throwing the snake on the ground.
He rolled two meters back, equipped his bow and arrow and released three arrows under ten seconds before it could move. One struck the head of the snake making it immobile and he missed the other two.
The lower body of the snaked squirmed to the side as the arrow pinned it down. It was still alive.
Finrod then unsheathed his steel sword clasping it in his hands. He took hurried steps forward and swung down the sword by its side cutting off its head.
Its lower part squirmed violently, rolling on the ground till it stopped a minute later.
Then a notification appeared in his mind. He chose to read it.
[Reyin Snake defeated, you have obtained appropriate experience points]
Finrod was confused, killing things granted him something and what were experience points?
He zoomed his focus on the tab and a new message came beneath it..
[You have gained nine experience points, experience points at 9/50]
[Gain fifty experience points to level up]
"Gain fifty experience points to level up?" the words of the goddess killer flashed in his mind again.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone