Chapter 6: Forest's Unknown

He looked at the first one and opened it.

[Shaft's Stats: 17 (+2)↑

Strengh: 1 (+1)

Agility: 2 (+1)

Endurance: 5

Wisdom: 4

Deception: 5]

'Hmm.. they did talk about pushing yourself to the limit or something..'

'I guess enduring my whole arm being ripped off gave me 4 points of Endurance, running for my life gave 1 Agility and another +2 points was for copying the ability.'

Malte sighed while holding his right shoulder and noted how he would 100% die under normal circumstances with all of those broken bones, no less, so the Endurance points might have been the lifesavers.

With nothing of importance to check anymore, he closed the tab and opened the Abilities Copied.

[Abilities Copied: 1/7 ↑

Teleportation (CD: 15s.) [Remove]

Allows the user to instantaneously move from one place to another. (Max range: 10 meters.)]

'Crazy. So I can basically have up to 7 different abilities. The ability itself will surely help me in a long run. It also seemed that it was possible to delete it, probably in case I had 7 out of 7 already and wanted to get another one. So, for now, I wouldn't have to worry about copying abilities left and right. When it's off cooldown, of course.'

Thinking of that, he opened his abilities section.

[.. Ability 1: Copy (CD: 94h. (32h.)).]

'Seems like I can approximately tell the time, but damn, I really have been sleeping for nearly 2 days.'

Sorting out his thoughts, Malte closed the screen and brushed the dust off of his body. Standing up, he wondered how he would copy abilities, as there wasn't a single life here.

'Now that I think about it.. where was everyone?'

Right after getting kicked out of the house, running through the empty streets toward the forest, Malte hasn't seen a single soul.

Even though the region could be considered as a stark desolation, where citizens were poor and deprived, each of them were set on surviving in the environment. And it wasn't like it was a couple of thousand of them. The area had approximately 190 million people. The district, where he lived, had an especially high population. Now, though, it looked as if Malte was the sole survivor.

He was particularly worried about his childhood friend, Villy, who used to come and play around with him and his sister. Since he lived pretty close to his house, Malte decided to visit him.

Brushing the dust off of his body, he stood up, stretched his back and took a deep breath.

'Alright, let's go.'

'.. Where do I have to go again?'

Unfortunately, Malte didn't know how to get out of here, and he also happened to be in a quite unpleasant mood. The reason being...

His stomach was growling.

***

5 hours later, Malte finally managed find his way out of the forest.

He moved his head up and stared at the vivid sunset, quietly mumbling.

"This is crazy. I'm definitely going crazy by now. Yeah. I'm mad. Can my life get any more miserable than this?"

He felt exhausted. Really, really exhausted. He lost his family, nearly got himself killed, lost his arm, was strayed in the woods, and he was starving. And all of this happened in less than a week.

His trip in the forest was somewhat uneventful, excluding the fact that Malte came across a Dreadspawn. Remembering whatever he saw, he broke through a sweat.

'There's no way I'm still alive.'

***

*3 hours earlier*

As Malte walked through the woods, he suddenly encountered countless of Dreadspawns.

Since some of them looked unbelievably identical to the one before, he couldn't help but get extremely anxious, nearly pissing himself. The only difference between some of the creatures were the cracks between their skin, as some of them were of other colors instead of orange. They were all randomly scattered across the woods, some here and there, some stood behind huge trees, some crawled near the boulders. Malte hid behind a bush, his mind filled with tons of questions.

'What the hell is that swarm of monsters? This is crazy.. Their numbers have got to be in hundreds... No, thousands... What the hell is going on here? Are they all the same, or are they any different due to those cracks? I've helplessly lost my arm to a single one, and now I have to deal with this? No, there is definitely a way out of here, I'll just have to be extra careful. But, more importantly.. what in the world is that thing?'

In the middle of some Dreadspawns, Malte could see a circular structure. It was around 5 meters high, its outside frame was made out of something resembling oak, the inside looked like a crimson void, swirling with sparks across the surface.

'Doesn't matter what that thing is, what I need to do is to find a way to escape this place, not panic.'

As Malte was about to back away, he noticed how a Dreadspawn suddenly popped out of the mysterious structure, and the.. whatever happened didn't produce a single sound.

'What the hell? Is that some kind of portal for the monsters? That's.. kind of cool. I wonder if it's someone's ability in action that I could copy.. Actually, screw that, I'm not risking my life for that.'

Although Malte couldn't, and wouldn't copy the ability, he wouldn't try to investigate it either, as it was clearly suicidal. Instead, he decided to use the Identify skill on the Dreadspawns, just for the sake of it.

He gradually regretted the decision, though. At first, Malte noticed how some of them seemed to brightly gleam with different colors, and some didn't. But as time went on, more and more of them kept glowing, he grimaced and abruptly staggered back. His heart was full of adrenaline, his head throbbed painfully, feeling as if it might split open, and he was left shaken.

Recognizing the danger, Malte tried to swiftly deactivate the ability.

'Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off already!'

Malte covered his mouth and tightly bit his lips to make sure that he stayed silent. As time passed by, he felt the pain slowly subside. He teleported back and fell down, gasping for breath as he tried to regain his composure and sighed.

'Well, now I'll keep that in mind. No more reckless moves. But who knew the effects would be that dire? Anyways, atleast the Dreadspawns haven't detected me yet.'

With a deep breath to steady his nerves, he rested for a few minutes before cautiously focusing on looking out for a path that would lead him away from the swarm.