Antler Rabbit's Eye(String Cheese is-)

Jerarme stared at his home, sights he had never seen in his eyes. Small figures weaving around crowded places, houses and houses lined up in rows. Something he couldn't believe he would ever see.

But he turned away, he couldn't go back now. He needed to become a person worth loving. Maybe then, he'll come back.

Jerarme followed the dirt road, occasionally observing his surroundings. There were animals he saw in books: green squirrels and horn rabbits. Leaping among the grass and climbing trees as he passed by.

Flowers of purple dotted the wealthy land. He didn't know what they were called. Jerarme took one in hand looking at its wavy petals. "I shall name you Joulishalla… until destiny makes us introduce each other." There is a sweet scent from the flowers of purple. He has a name for it.

Jerarme continues on the earth road. The flower left on a rock.

One thing that had never left his mind when he left was the strange help Solis had given him. 'What was it again? Something like… [Stats]?'

————

[Stats]

Name: Jerarme de Selfine

Title(s): Counterfeit Cursed Being, Lonely Loveless Lad,

Affinity: ???

Strength: 4

Agility: 3

Defense: 3

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 45

[Skills]

Passive: [Hunger Resistance Lv. 8] [Mental Stability Lv. 42] [Sanity Lv. 31] [Poison Resistance Lv. 4]

Active: [Speed Reading Lv. 22] [Sleep Lv. 12] [Appraisal Lv. 1]

————

Jerarme widened his eyes in surprise. The floating words were back again, both in mind and world. 'There's something more than last time,' Jerarme thought. 'It's [Appraisal].'

[Appraisal Failure! No Specific Target Selected!]

Another surprise after the other. 'What is this?' He wondered. 'No specific target selected?' Jerarme turned to the large tree next to him. '[Appraisal].'

[Tree]

'...Not much to gain from…' Jerarme grinned wryly. 'Maybe if I keep on doing it, it'll get better.' It was an obvious conclusion since his levels of [Speed Reading] was so high, it must be because he had read so much. The other skills he had were leveled quite high compared to the [Appraisal].

'How did I know that Lv. Meant level?' A sudden thought rushed through him. There were no acronyms for 'level.' But why did he know that it represented level? 'Knowledge must have been implanted in my brain.' What a thought. He frowns.

Shaking his thoughts away he trudged on. 'What is the difference between passive and active skills?' Having a hypothesis in his mind, Jerarme tested it out.

[Mental Stability]

'Seems like I was right.' The 'passive' skills meant that they were always there, and 'active' was that they were used by activation.

'... Very specific answer from just a testing of a theory.' Someone did add a little something to his mind. The wind blew, cold.

————

Jerarme had been walking for hours, stopping by occasionally to [Appraisal] the wildlife around him. The sun was setting rapidly over the horizon. He knew the dangers of the world at night.

Trying to find a place that would be safe would be difficult. 'Besides I'm really hungry.' He hadn't eaten for at least three days including today. 'It would have been okay at the room but…' He was actually moving around and taking up energy. Which made him even hungrier. It felt like an, even bigger, gaping hole in his stomach.

For now, Jerarme had decided to sleep under a well-covered tree. Sleep grabbing him through the guise of night. Though he would have liked to sleep in a tree, he felt that he would fall off instantly.

[Appraisal]

[Bush]

Though it didn't do much, it didn't help to check what was around him. It helped in the darkness of the night.

[Appraisal]

[Bush]

'Ding!' A bell-like noise ran through his head. His hungry and drowsiness, forgotten in an instant.

[Appraisal Leveled Up!] [Appraisal Lv. 2]

Quickly he moved to appraise the bush again.

[Appraisal]

[Medium Bush]

'Indeed it is an improvement.' Though a bit minuscule if he was to train [Appraisal] enough, what else could he learn about the world? Jerarme smiled.

His smile waned. excitement dying down, his drowsiness and hunger back. He could endure, nothing could quite beat the scene he was seeing.

The night sky was glorious. The stars twinkled, sharp and clean. The moon glowed, bright as the stars, he gazed at the full moon. Breathtaking it was, the moon and stars, overlaying each other. He tried to discern the constellations he had seen in books of the night sky. Though he had tried his best, he could only find the 'Antler Rabbit's Eye.' A group of four stars, all in a curved line. Though it didn't at all look like a rabbit's eye, it was named that way. 'I wonder why.' Jerarme wondered, facing scrunching at the question.

Slowly, the day's events crawled up to him in the shape of sleep. His eyelids dropped, heavy like lead. Curling up in the grass underneath a tree. His figure covered by well-placed bushes, he closed his eyes.

But there is no rest for the weary.

"Caw! Caw!" A bird flew over the skies. Bigger than the young boy and colored like the night view.

His eyes snapped open again, the loud screech ringing him awake. But he didn't dare to move. His heart started beating rapidly, blood in his veins ran. His eyes frantically looked around for the source of the noise, but he couldn't see anything through the cover of darkness. Then, an idea hit him in-

[Appraisal]

[Night Sky]

[Appraisal]

[Night Sky]

His eyes went all over the skies and forth, searching for a single thing.

[Appraisal]

[Night Sky]

[Appraisal]

[Large Bird]

Found it! There it was though he couldn't quite see it, there seemed to be a blurry shape in the night sky. It was flying around the tree he was sleeping under, circling him. Jerarme followed the outline with his eyes, using [Appraisal] as a guide.

His mind was in a frenzy. 'Was the bird targeting him or something else?' The instant he thought this, the bird changed courses. It dove straight towards Jerarme. 'It's after me.' Quickly, Jerarme jumped up from his resting form, barely avoiding the bird as he hid behind the tree.

But such things did not deter the bird. Recovering from the miss, the bird rose higher into the air again.