Fantastical. The forest outside of the cave was truly fantastical. On first sight, my eyes were overwhelmed by the bright green of the overgrown forest. Golden sun rays penetrated through the thick trees illuminating the mossy rocks. Bugs jumped from one tree trunk to another catching their prey in midair. All kinds of noises echoed around the forest. There were the creaking of insects and water going down creeks from a nearby water source. There were also sounds of danger. The soft hiss of snakes waiting patiently for their prey and roars of ferocious beasts strong enough to not care about being noticed.

I took in the first sight of this magical world that had now become my home. Then I shivered at the thought of all the dangers and trials that await me in it. I took a deep breath and took my first steps outside of the cave.

“Time to go out and live life.”

Nothing happened for the first few minutes after entering the forest. There were footprints outside the den proving the cave was indeed home to a creature. I must find myself a new home tonight or I will be spending the night with the sky as my roof.

I continued making my way into the forest using my hands to move the long bushes and tree branches that blocked my way. I made sure to use my skill once every hour to get an exact measurement of its range and the size of the items I can summon. The range as it turned out was roughly 15 meters radius around me. As for the size of the object, I could not get an exact measurement, but the conclusion I came to after a couple of experiments was that the item must be an object I can carry or use.

After hours of walking my legs had grown tired and throat hoarse. The only reason I lasted this long must have been because of my new stamina Status, the old me would not have lasted this long. Luckily, I had not meat any danger so far or else I would have been long dead.

“AAAAAAA!!”

A loud scream cut off my thoughts and resonated throughout the forest.

“Why did I have to jinx it?”

I slowly walked away from the direction the scream was coming from. I have no idea of just I strong I am in this new world, rushing into danger to save someone will likely get me killed. I turned around and decided to walk towards the opposite direction from the screen.

I had not taken a step before another scream came from the forest. This one louder and more desperate than the last. My soul shook from the thought of the terror and agony that would make someone scream like that.

I took a deep breath and ran towards the scream. Turns out, even having 10,000 points in Sanity does not stop me from doing stupid shit.

Forgetting about my previous fatigue, I rushed towards the direction of the scream. As I ran, my mind was racing, thinking of different simulation and how to best deal with it. Within minutes I arrived at the site and I saw was beyond whatever my mind thought of.

It was right in front of me. 

My first ever monster. It had the body of a giant lizard, the size of a fully grown human. It had grayish green scales covered with fresh blood that sparkled in the sunlight. Its three eyes were all looking downwards towards a pool of blood. I made out a white hand sticking out of the pool before the monster sharp jaws came down and ripped the hand to shreds. Its bloodshot eyes seemed to glow with ecstasy as it jaws back into the pool once again.

I turned my gaze away from the monster to find other pools with blood mixed with bones and pieces of fabric all over the forest.

My heart started beating faster, my vision blurrier. Every bone in the body started shivering uncontrollably. I did not, could not, turn my gaze away from the pool of blood in fear of seeing something worse. My vision focused on the blood covered pieces of fabric laying next to the monster, their image forever engraved in my memory.

The monster finally turned its gaze towards me. And our eyes locked: mine deep green and shaking with fear, his deep red and wild. His eyes seemed to have gazed right into my subconsciousness as he could see through all the things I can and will ever do. Then it turned its gaze back down and dug its blood covered teeth back into its meal. It knew I opposed no danger to it and even it let me be, I could not run away from it. It did not even see me as prey.

I collapsed onto my knees losing all hope of ever defeating this monster. There was no need to senselessly run to my death, it was inevitable that I will die right here. I dejectedly turned my head around trying to have one last look at this world before I bearish.

And then I saw a girl lying near a tree not so far off. The girl was using the trunk of the tree for support as she frantically looked for something within her bag. Her clothes were in tatters, and what body part they revealed was covered in injuries and dried blood. Her eyes looked hazy as her hands worked to open the bag but always ending up failing to do so.

I laughed at the scene I was witnessing. I who was in far better condition than her had given up and she who was only steps away from death was fighting. Is there a limit to how useless I can be? Am I always going to give up before I even give it a try?

Using my knees for support I got back on my feet. I took a deep breath and focused my gaze on the lizard monster in front of me. Listen Felix, nothing matters anymore. The corpses on the ground don’t matter. The girl on the side does not matter. It is just you and the monster ahead, stare it down and hack it to pieces.

“Summon”

A double bladed sword disappeared from one of the blood pools nearby and appeared right into my hands. The leather grip of the sword was slippery from a mixture of blood and sweat but I tightened my grip on it. I never used a sword before, but I knew to stick them with the pointy end.

The lizard monster must have sensed my movement as it turned its gaze back to me. It locked eyes with me and roared at me, revealing its beartrap-like jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth. My legs started shaking but my eyes stayed locked with the lizard’s. Done with trying to intimidate me, the lizard closed its mouth and disappeared in the next second. Just like that, it disappeared from sight.

Its sudden disappearance unnerved me. Camouflage? No. Invisibility. My grip on the sword hilt grew even tighter. How is it going to attack me? From behind? Is it going to flank me? If so from which direction? My legs could not stop shaking, my pupils moved frantically within my eyes. My palms were starting to hurt from how hard I clenched my sword.

Calm down Felix and listen. It is going to attack anytime now and when it does, dodge and counter attack. Focus on nothing else but killing your target.

At that moment, the grass around me rustled and I saw a white flash coming from my right. I instinctively threw my whole body weight to the side to dodge the incoming attack. A sharp pain came from my leg and went through my whole body like an electric shock. My mind blanked out for a second before an immense amount of pain woke me up. My whole body seemed to have gone numb with pain, but I still counter-attacked slashing my sword towards my right with no specific target in mind. My sword was only able to hit empty air.

The lizard monster had already jumped back to the pool of blood and chewed on the meat in its mouth before swallowing. It turned its gaze back to me. Its eyes seemed to be mocking me, taunting me. My rage and desperation to kill it overcame my pain and agony of having a piece of my body ripped off right in front of me. I clenched my teeth together and prepared to strike again. Only this time I was willing to use my body as bait to lure the monster in. As long as I kill this shit fuck of a monster nothing mattered.

The monster did not bother going invisible this time and leaped at me. I prepared myself. I intended to let the lizard monster eat my left hand and use that opportunity to stab him with the sword in my right hand. I didn’t care to die as long as it comes down with me. The monster was fast, in the span of seconds, it was only a few meters away from. 

That was when the world started to fade away and time slowed down. Everything became a blur before fading to white. The only thing that remained was me and the monster that was now leaping towards me. My mind started calming down, the vision suddenly enhanced I could see the pieces of meat stuck within the monster's jaws. My mind naturally started thinking of different ways to escape this situation and kill this monster, And I found one. A way to win this fight without killing myself in the process.

I quickly rolled myself out of the monsters way while simultaneous activating my skill.

“Summon item”

The monster crashing into the ground behind me as a large warm object fell into my hands. The monster never got back up and a beat came from the object within my hand before it came to a permanent stop. A warm mucus-like liquid covered my hand. I had summoned the monster's heart right out of its body killing it in an instant.

My vision returned back to normal for a second before completely fading to darkness.

[New Skill Unlocked!]

[

Name: White Space

Type: Passive

Scarcity: Rare

Description: A passive skill that activates when the user in live or death compact situation. The skill shuts down all the secondary activities within the body to enhance the user's reaction time and speed while also enhancing his thinking capabilities.

]