As Sylas had expected, the Physical of the red fox was only so high due to its main stat: Dexterity. In addition, it seemed that the odd move it had used before wasn't something it could use continuously.
It probably had decent Speed as well, but agility would definitely be its strong suit, maybe even acceleration.
The more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt that the stat system wasn't nearly comprehensive enough. There should be more to it, but none of those thoughts slowed his movements.
He rushed after the red fox as it rolled across the grass, slamming into a nearby tree before it could go too far. It tried to scurry to its feet, but the impact with the tree threw off its timing and, right then, Sylas swept in.
He pierced down with his femur short spear.
It was then the red fox did something that was out of Sylas' calculations once again. Its tail whipped against the tree, giving it the extra balance it needed to swiftly dodge.
Sylas' short spear barely grazed against its ear, drawing blood and nearly cutting it in two.
The fox leapt backward and let out an enraged yelp before leaping right at Sylas' head.
Its agility was simply beyond common sense. Sylas hadn't even retracted his hand from the first pierce. His body was off balance and the only saving grace was that the fox was facing his body from a narrow angle.
Sylas tried to force himself to spin out of the way, but he wasn't nearly as agile as the fox. At the very least, his own Dexterity stat seemed far more focused on accuracy and control.
The fox bit into his shoulder, angrily tearing into it with its teeth.
The jolt of pain shot through Sylas' body and his mind went blank.
In his life, he had never broken a bone, he never suffered any severe wounds, he had never even had any close run-ins with death, even given all the rare snakes he worked with…
This could be said to be the worst sort of pain he had experienced in his life, and it came from a small creature with a maw so small it couldn't even properly get a hold of even his relatively lean shoulder. Even the bite marks were hardly a couple of centimeters deep.
An odd feeling welled up in his heart as time seemed to slow around him.
It was one part humiliation, another part a reality check, and a final part…
Excitement?
His opposite hand suddenly flashed over with the antler blade. His Blade Aura was just about to tick down to zero, but there was still just enough left to drive it right through the eye socket of the fox.
The red fox released in panic, but it couldn't dodge as it fell to the ground.
Sylas raised his injured arm and drove the short spear right through the throat of the red fox.
His Blade Aura blinked out, and a wave of fatigue hit him.
He took deep breaths, standing there with his shoulder pooling with blood. His heartbeat was no longer calm, beating like a drum in his chest. Every pump seemed to force more blood out of his shoulder and reverberate through his very bones.
It took a long while before he calmed down.
Just what was that rush?
---
[Red Fox]
[Gene Detected]
[Fragmented Gene: Dexterity (F)]
[Attempt Assimilation?]
[Yes][No]
---
Sylas didn't forget himself entirely. He couldn't stay here for long.
He had some worries about whether that fox had rabies. If it did, he would be in trouble. But he felt that he should be safe unless this system spawned viruses as well.
For all of these extinct creatures to suddenly return, they had to have been recreated by some unknown method, maybe a far more advanced kind of cloning than the people of Earth had access to.
In that case, unless they were also being needlessly cruel, there shouldn't be a reason to release viruses along with that. That wouldn't preclude new viruses from manifesting on their own, but he could at least hope that he wouldn't be that unlucky.
[Gene Assimilation Starting…]
[Gene Assimilation Triggered]
Sylas felt his Title activate once again.
---
[Gene Assimilation Successful]
[Gene Talent Detected]
[Trade 10 Fragmented Dexterity (F) to unlock: Sudden Burst?]
[Yes][No]
---
Sylas' brows raised. He hadn't expected to run into such a thing so quickly. But he could only choose "No". He didn't have ten Gene Fragments in total, let alone ten of this particular kind.
It would also be a hard pill to swallow, even if he had the opportunity. After all, losing ten Gene Fragments would also mean losing all the stat boosts that came with it.
---
[Name: Sylas Grimblade]
[Species: Human (F)]
[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]
[Level: 0]
[Titles: A Patient Stalker]
---
[Physical: 8]
>[Strength: 5]
>[Constitution: 5]
>[Dexterity: 13]
>[Speed: 8]
[Mental: 6]
>[Intelligence: 5]
>[Wisdom: 10]
>[Charisma: 2]
[Will: 11]
[Luck: 1]
---
[Gene State: Soft]
[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); (2) Dexterity (F)]
---
[Gene Talents: Blade Aura (Mutated - Weakened)(-); Sudden Burst (Dormant)(F)]
---
Each Fragmented Dexterity Gene had given him a +1 to his Dexterity stat. If he wanted to awaken Sudden Burst, he would need to give all of that up.
He had been lucky, getting two successes in a row. But the failure of the elk was still looming over his head. There probably wouldn't be such a good chance to kill an elk that easily again, either. Unlike the red foxes, the elks out-massed him. If he got caught by an elk like he had the red fox just now, instead of a few shallow wounds, it would have been broken bones at best.
In this environment, he couldn't afford such devastating injuries.
The good news was that, according to his grandfather, just the existence of Aether within him allowed wounds to heal much more quickly. An injury that would usually take weeks to heal might only take a few days now.
Even so, those few days were too valuable to him right now. His Soft Gene State would end soon.
'I need to target small animals, ones that are at best 10% of my body weight, at worst 50%. Until I have the strength to go up against much more dangerous creatures, I will have to stick with what I can comfortably deal with even if I have no Aether or extra Genes.'
Sylas laid down his pride and realized he couldn't be some big game hunter if he wanted to survive. If he could just eat bugs on his way to gaining Genes, he would do so. But he had killed a few while stalking the elk just for a meal, and there was never anything to gain.
He assumed that the system had some sort of minimum size requirement, or he was targeting the wrong kind of bugs.
There was some good news aside from the blow to his ego.
For one, the corpses of the two red foxes he had killed were much more manageable than the elk. If he used his Blade Aura to target a small part of it, he could even cook them without starting a fire.
'Grandfather said I should look for a dungeon soon as well. Reach 20 Physical as quickly as possible and enter a Dungeon…'
There were only two ways to gain items and treasures aside from Genes in this gamified world. The first was to steal from spawned cities, and the second was Dungeons.
These spawned cities were different from the System Cities that would appear after the trial period was over. They were challenges created for those that chose the Common City Stele. Though there was no rule that said that Sylas couldn't attack one even without a City Stele, it's just that he would have a death wish if he tried to do so.
The second and more manageable challenge were the Dungeons. That wasn't to say that they were easy, but rather that the variables were tightly controlled.
Unfortunately, entering a Dungeon was easier said than done. According to his grandfather, Dungeons gave off a dense concentration of Aether. Due to that, more powerful creatures tended to flock around it even though they could not enter. 20 Physical was more of a requirement just to lay eyes on it than it was a minimum to enter.
Sylas took a breath. 'Sleep.'
He broke out into a light jog, taking a more roundabout route back to the elk's territory.
He found a natural gourd hanging from a tree and ripped it off. Then, he entered the region of a familiar lake.
Gourds needed to be carefully dried and prepped for a long while before they could be used like containers, but Sylas had a convenient shortcut for that. At this point, Blade Aura felt far more useful for miscellaneous matters than it was for actual combat.
This would be the only convenient time he would be able to come to this lake, so he had to take advantage.
Sylas froze.
He looked down at the clear waters and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Aside from the dirty reflection that looked back at him, beyond that, deep within, there seemed to be something radiating a dense pulse of Aether.
It was a Dungeon, Sylas was certain. But what he couldn't understand was how he could possibly be so unlucky.
If the Dungeon was in the water, wouldn't that mean that all the most powerful beasts would flock here after their evolutions were complete?
Even if he followed down the river, because of what he had learned from his grandfather, he knew it would be useless. With this level of Aether being pumped out, it would definitely follow the current and raise the concentration for countless kilometers. The longer this Dungeon went unfinished, the worse the situation would get.
How would he get water?
'Fruits? Rain? Blood?'
These were the only answers Sylas could come up with, but each was unreliable.
Fruits or vegetables could tide his hydration over for a while, but how long? An extra few days?
Given how much exercise he was doing on a daily basis, his throat was already dry after just today alone and he was running on empty. If not for his great stamina, he might have already collapsed.
Rain? This was a rainforest, after all. In a particularly tropical rainforest, it might even occur every few hours.
However, in this last day, no rain had fallen. In addition, he had no idea how the introduction of Aether would impact the ecosystem and weather. Even if it had rained, it would be hard to rely on it.
If he took a step back and chose to blindly believe that it would rain, how would he capture it? His mobility was his greatest asset right now, but having a reliable form of collecting rain required a base, a protected one. And what if one day his base was compromised, and all his accumulated rain was ruined?
Relying on blood was the worst of the options. He still hadn't dismissed the possibility that the red fox gave him rabies. How could he, in good conscience, drink blood? Even if he was willing to take that chance, blood had a sodium content about as high as salt water. He would just be killing himself slowly.
Sylas dunked his head into the water. Having already been chilled by the night, it was a nice shock to his system.
He greedily took large gulps, and for the first time, he wasn't hyper-fixated on the surrounding environment, always looking around another corner for the next creature that wanted to eat his flesh.
It was easily a minute before he pulled himself out.
This was what he had wanted, no? Excitement? Was this exciting?
No. It was terrifying.
There was a slight tremor in his body that hadn't been there before. The idea of slowly dying of dehydration played in his mind so vividly that he might as well have already experienced it once before.
That was the ultimate outcome. No matter how many ideas he thought of, that was the end of it. He couldn't escape it.
If he left here today, it would be a race between his body tapping out and his Physical reaching 20, but even if the latter managed to win out, what state would his body be in at that point? Could he even fight his way back here?
He had followed that elk for so long, moving across dozens of kilometers, and yet didn't see a single ounce of water elsewhere.
He didn't like that feeling of helplessness. It was why he had made the stupid decision of coming here in the first place.
Sylas stood at his feet. He pulled his blood-matted shirt and pants off before he began to clean his body. All the dirt, mud, and grime from the day were peeled off layer by layer under the harsh rubbing of his fingers.
His green eyes didn't contain any fear, nor helplessness. It was hard to read his emotions at all as he finally stepped out, feeling the cool wind slowly dry him.
He stood there in silence, ironically as one with nature as he had ever been. Somewhere deep inside, he seemed to understand that this might truly be his last day.
His gaze landed on a tree with particularly large leaves and he pulled down a few vines from the surroundings. Carefully, he bundled his clothing into these leaves and tied them up tight using the vines.
Then, he dove into the waters, holding his short spear and antler blade in one hand, while dragging his bundle of clothes in the other.
He would rather die in that dungeon than slowly cannibalize his own body out here.
That was the choice of Sylas Brown.
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