First Step [V]

Lucian stared at the massive corpse in front of him, disbelief and exhaustion clear on his face. He was taking heavy, ragged breaths.

"Holy... Shit..." He breathed out, looking down at his bleeding chest and pudgy stomach. "I've got... To get in shape... Or I'm going to get killed."

"Grrrr"

Startled, Lucian looked up, finding that yet another of these creatures was staring him down. It was much smaller, standing just over half a meter, and it didn't look friendly.

Lucian leaned back as the cub stumbled toward him, baring its fangs, its two tails whipping back and forth. He could tell that it was struggling to walk, as if it was carrying a small boulder on its back.

When the beast was on him, Lucian lashed out with his dagger, killing the struggling tiger in a swift motion. He looked sadly at the cub, and then back at the adult.

"So this is why... you wouldn't move from that spot." He breathed out. Lucian frowned as he looked at the bleeding cub that was just trying to kill him.

'Could I have kept it?' He wondered. 'No, that wouldn't have worked.'

He wasn't sure he could feed himself, let alone a fledgling beast that would grow to be bigger than him! Even if he had the food, the hate in its eyes...

"It's best not to think about it," Lucian sighed heavily, staring in the direction the cub had come from and hoping there wouldn't be more surprises. For five minutes, he sat perfectly still, doing his best to hold in the ragged breaths that were escaping him. Each time he breathed in, he could feel the wound in his chest burning as it was stretched.

When he was confident that another cub wouldn't come running out, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. His breaths escaped from him in bursts, and he groaned over his lack of self-care back on Earth.

"Gotta do something about this," He grumbled after finally catching his breath. "Ed! Can you cook me up a workout routine!"

[Error]

"Fuck you too," Lucian rolled his eyes.

He looked over the two corpses and thought about everything that had happened over the past few minutes. The fight with the larger tiger hadn't lasted long.

When his eyes met with the dead body of the tiger cub, he felt his eyes heating up. Visions of Lucian's children playing in the yeard flashed through his mind, followed by an image of their mangled-up corpses beneath some alien creature.

Lucian blinked away the tears that were starting to form and closed the open eyes of the little tiger with the palm of his hand. He turned his head away and thought back to the first part of the battle. His wounds were bleeding lightly, but they weren't deep, and he needed to rest.

'Why was I so intent on testing my endurance?' Lucian wondered. 'An effect of unlocking the Microlink?'

He played the battle in his mind, the initial attack, how his body moved so naturally, and then how he suddenly struggled when his mind was clear.

'Was... Was that even me?'

He couldn't wrap his mind around the way that his body moved, the way that he dodged at the last second, or even the details from the fight that he could remember. When he'd woken up after hurling out that black gunk, Lucian remembered how he had been able to feel and control the movement of different parts of his body. Had his body known how to use those muscles naturally this entire time, and it was his mind holding him back?

As soon as the thought surfaced, he felt that he was onto something. The muscles in his body twitched individually as he tried to recall how they'd all been used. After a few minutes of studying, he gave up but decided to incorporate this new form of movement into the daily training exercises he wished to begin.

Another thing that stood out was the movement of the tiger. It acted as though a weight had been dropped on it. Lucian remembered the sudden shift in gravity and how his body had felt much lighter. Did the tiger experience the opposite effect? What would have happened if the gravity was denser on this Tile than on his own?

'I'll have to be more careful from now on,' Lucian decided. Though he hadn't even thought about unlocking this Tile, it just sort of... Happened. How could something like that be prevented?

Finally, he reflected on how every time the tiger's claws struck the strange earth he was sitting on, sparks and embers struck out. He grinned when he thought of this. He'd finally found a way to make fire! There were no rocks on the surface of his own Tile, and he didn't have the proper tools to dig down and hope he found something useful.

"I wonder if those trees can even be burned?" He spoke softly. The bark was hard and was more of a rock-like material, as were the branches that were once lying around. He still hadn't managed to cut a piece of the core, but he was sure that it was as hard as metal! Then the material in between was nothing but clay.

"I guess I have to unlock another Tile?" Lucian lamented. He's wanted to use his last Psyon to purchase the [Strength I] Microlink, but it looked like that wasn't meant to be. He needed water and fire, neither of which he could create with his current resources.

"Whatever I decide, it needs to be done quickly," He muttered. Lucian had two fresh hides sitting beside him, and he only had a few hours to get started, or they would begin to spoil. He focused on the [Map] icon in the corner and waited for his position to be revealed. He would study the different Tiles thoroughly before opening another.

"Ed, are you able to warn me if there's something on the other side that can kill me?" He asked.

[Error]

"Well, it was worth a shot."