First Hunt

I made my way south with no particular destination in mind, just letting my feet carry me. It was after midday; the sun had begun its descent towards the horizon.

Eventually I came to a road. It seemed well traveled. Like a dream after waking, most of the details of the world I'd been given by the goddesses had begun to fade, but I was sure this was the primary trade route connecting most of the larger villages. I wanted to go deeper into this region and not reveal myself to the larger towns so quickly.

Still, I could follow the road until I found a smaller road to a preferred destination. I did find such a road, and shortly after turning down it, I came upon a transport wagon being pulled by a pair of horses. Two human men walked along the wagon, using spears as walking sticks. They seemed bored.

Perfect.

As I'd walked, I experimented with the less-physical qualities of this world. I learned how to observe things about myself like health, experience, stats, and various skills. It was very strange to understand my very life in terms of a number, but I knew it was correct.

Health: 25/25

All of my physical attributes were astronomical, thanks primarily to my Theronic form ancestry, but my magical ability was nothing to sneeze at, either. Especially my skill in dark magic.

I had to try everything; in time, I would. But first, I wanted to kill these men. I had no reason at all to hate them. It was just that they were in the wrong place in the wrong time. I was unchained and I had a lot of pent up frustration to burn through.

I focused on the only active ability that appeared in connection to my Assassin class. Without being able to fully describe how I as able to do so, I activated it. I felt its effects instantaneously, as well as being made aware of them with incredible clarity.

Assassin Skill: Shroud

Stealth: 00:59:59
Adrenaline Surge: 00:00:59

My hiding place had grown dark and quiet around me as the shadows gathered around my location. It was time. Shooting to my feet, I bounded towards the wagon in eerie silence. The physical strength buff allowed me to close the gap to them astonishingly quickly, it felt incredible! Taking a running leap, I flew through the air and landed on one of the men with all four of my clawed limbs. Claws pierced flesh and my wide jaw closing with a too-loud crunch and a snap around his neck and collarbone. Hot blood sprayed everywhere.

I knew that he was dead before his body had even hit the ground beneath me. Something I instinctively understood to be experience points entered my awareness. The value of his entire life contained in that one number. I could have laughed. So this was the feeling of being uninhibited by false virtue. I could get used to this. It was a rush.

My victim's partner screamed and cursed, eyes wide with terror as he saw me. I grinned up at him, opening my jaw to drop the heavy weight of the now-corpse. He was the first man to ever see a thing like me, and my sense of vanity enjoyed the horror that played across his face even as he awkwardly swung his spear towards me. He was quick, but I had the edge.

I ducked my head and the blade of the spear scraped across the thick hide at my shoulder. There was pain and the soft warmth of blood began to spread over the area. But I could see my health in my mind. Barely a scratch.

Adrenaline Surge: 00:00:08

The tip of his spear bit the earth at the end of his swing and I lashed out at him with a few of my tentacles, testing their strength. He was barely four feet from me and I was already on all fours. Two of my longest tentacles snapped like whips and snaked around his arms, coiling easily around forearm and bicep, rendering his weapon useless in the face of my overwhelming power.

He cried out as the barbs sank into his skin in his **** struggles to retain control of his spear. I could smell his panic; it was delicious.

Pleased to find that my tentacles held him easily, I stood to my full height and savored the moment. Humans. Pathetic. I raised a hand to deliver a fatal blow. Killing them had been even easier than I'd thought.

Adrenaline Surge: 00:00:00

The timer hit zero in my mind and the awareness of the buff left me. And that's when I learned that the strength buff affected more than just my primary limbs.

With a **** grunt of pain and effort, the man swung his spear back up towards me, connecting with my belly in a broad arc that cut deeply. The tip of the spear then struck a rib and cut sideways and out my side. My body seemed to suppress some of the mental shock of the pain, but the number in my head dropped dramatically. I had to wrap my shorter tentacles around my own body to keep from spilling anything more than blood to the ground.

Health: 6/25

Bleeding

I howled and pounced on him before he could get the spear back into position to strike or thrust. Claws and teeth flashed and he went down hard. I wanted to hit him again to make sure, but I felt the experience enter me. I was sure.

If not for my tentacles limiting his mobility in that moment, he'd have had me for sure. I snarled at the pair of corpses at my feet. Fucking humans and their critical hits. I was certain it was a crit; I was supposed to have a huge physical defense. Maybe he had an enchanted weapon? No, it would have cut my shoulder more. Perhaps he had his own active abilities. Hm.

There was much I still didn't know about this world. I decided that I shouldn't put too much stock in a number if I didn't understand its relative weight. I had good physical defense, but maybe not so much on my belly. And I was still naked. And an assassin-priest, not a proper warrior.

I had been careless for a moment and it had nearly cost me my life. There had been some talk of resurrections and reincarnations while I was in Creation, but I had no guarantees they would apply to me.

Keeping a careful eye on my Bleeding status, I let the pain of the wound burn the lesson into my mind for a few minutes and a few points of health before using my healing magic to repair my body.

Priest Skill: Healing Magic
Health: 25/25

Stealth: 00:54:33

All in all, not a bad test of my abilities. I'd gained an appreciation for the list of defensive priest abilities I possessed. And if I understood the new knowledge in my brain I'd gained enough experience to level up. That shouldn't have come as a surprise; the first level was always easy to get.

As I turned my awareness to the concept of levels, I sighed. This was a lot to deal with. Couldn't I just kill things?