I approached the glowing orb that rose up, to float gently and calmly, above the body of the skulker.

The ball of cloudy energy didn't at all seem threatening. I reached out with my healed arm to try and confirm my suspicions on what it might be.

[Examine your loot: y/n?]

"Yes," I said aloud.

Instantly two text boxes appeared to either side of the orb, confirming my suspicions that this new world was almost completely like a game in the oddest of ways.

[Loot List]

[1. Greater Bestial Shard.]

[2. Skulker Hide.]

[Inventory: 1/30]

[1. Simple Traveler's Garb.]

I scrolled over each of the items on the loot list. Smaller, pop-ups appeared to explain the items as I did.

[Greater Bestial Shard: A soul shard that brims with a greater than average amount of animalistic energy. Can be used for spell-forging/enchanting, combined with other soul shards, or refined for consumable crafting.]

[Skulker Hide: The skin of a mid-level skulker. Item level: 30. Can be used in crafting or as a reagent in certain spells.]

[Skulker Meat: The tough and muscled meat of a skulker. Restores 20 health/minute for 1 minute. Will begin to spoil in 12 hours.]

I moved all three of the items into my inventory. The loot list closed as it was emptied. My own inventory remained open, however.

Spurned on by curiosity, I focused in on the soul shard I'd received and turned my hand up as if I were holding something.

Just as I was hoping, a jagged, crystalline shape materialized into my palm as I willed it to.

The bestial shard appeared to hum with a soft, green power; almost as if it was a stored source of some kind of condensed energy. If I focused in on where my fingertips touched it, I could almost sense the primal freedom of a thundering heard of beasts hiding just below the hard, shiny skin of the item.

The implications of a piece of loot called a soul shard, though... was it possible that the System had been so interested in my soul because it turned dying creatures into things like this?

I felt like I might have part of the right idea with that hypothesis, but it didn't really seem to track fully. It was a soul shard, not an outright complete soul; the name implied that I'd only been given a portion of the skulker's essence in physical form as a reward for slaying it.

Then again, I had leveled up. Perhaps that was where the rest of the skulker's being had gone: with it being converted to whatever passed for experience points in this world. Or, more specifically, being made into a form of power that had become my own.

That seemed like a more complete theory: that the System had kept me, and presumably most other souls under its sway, from entering the afterlife because it had some vested interest in making sure we could all harvest each other for experience and loot.

But why?

That, I had no theory on. I'd need more time and, I imagined, more levels before I could gather enough information to make a guess as to the motivations behind the System altering reality on such a grand scale

I dropped my hand and allowed the bestial shard to reenter my inventory.

The idea of enchanting and spell making seemed interesting. While touching the shard, I'd also felt somewhat spurned on and full of life; perhaps some sort of stamina-restoring consumable could be made from it?

The skulker's hide, meanwhile, might be valuable as a item for trade, but I'd have to find somewhere to pawn it off first.

I also had no crafting skills at the moment, however, and had many more pressing concerns.

The meat, obviously, solved one of my issues; though I wasn't all that keen on eating the stinking thing's flesh.

Still, I needed to find water and a place to rest and recoup.

---

My dad had been a military man. Before he'd gone, he'd loved the outdoors and he'd instilled a few good tips into my then young mind.

"If you ever find yourself lost, Clare," he'd said, "find the nearest hill or ridgeline, if there is one, and look to see if you can figure out where you're at."

And that was precisely what I was doing now.

My phone was gone, not that I really figured it would work in this dungeon, and I definitely had no idea where I was at.

Picking a direction was just a matter of not going back from where the skulker had come from; I didn't want to run into whatever had nearly killed the thing that'd nearly killed me.

Making sure I kept going up higher in elevation, meanwhile, was just a practice in mindfulness. It seemed the oddly vibrantly-hued forest that I found myself in was situated in more of a mountainous area than I'd initially guessed.

Finding water as I climbed the hills and ridges, however, proved to be more difficult than I'd thought it would be. Or, at least, finding normal water was.

I slowed my walk as I came upon yet another stream of what seemed to pass for fluid in this dungeon.

The flowing liquid was far more transparent than most of the muddy water of earth's mountain dwelling rivers; it was almost like the mud and sediment that it flowed through couldn't properly mix in with the fluid.

The water also seemed to glow with a blue mist and I could swear there was a magical humming that I could just barely make out with my sensitive ears.

I'd refrained from drinking the odd, sound-producing, and glowing water because... well, why wouldn't I? Who would drink something like that without caution and thought?

I'd probably have to give in, eventually, if I didn't find an less odd source of hydration, though; even now I could feel my lips and throat becoming parched from the two hours or so of walking I'd done.

Still, I wasn't stopping just because I'd come upon another odd waterway.

No, it was because of what was drinking from the moderately deep water that I'd paused.

It almost looked like a panther, but where it should've had only two back legs, this thing had four. Additionally, its thick fur had a deep indigo hue and it's tail appeared not as thick as most other big cats I'd seen on earth.

[Mana Cat, Level 25.]

The nameplate appeared above the creature's head as I inspected it.

Level 25? That meant it was nominally weaker than the skulker had been, but I still had far too little data on just how levels worked in this world to be sure of that.

One thing was for certain: the cat looked big enough to put a lot of deep gashes in my flesh with its thick, stubby claws.

I wasn't too close to the mana cat yet. Maybe if I just--

The moment my back foot retreated into a slow step, the thing seemed to lift its head. I heard a growl, but couldn't see the cat's face to confirm that it came from the feline.

Even my new ears, which were somewhat massive in comparison to my former human ones, hadn't really heard my own footfall, so how had the monster if it hadn't picked up on my coming up on it in the first place?

Or had it?

The mana cat turned to face me. Its eyes scanned the bushes, seeming to sweep back and forth to look for me.

I grew still for a moment and hoped it wouldn't see me.

I watched as the creature growled again; it seemed quieter than the one from before. Then I heard another small growl, but this one seemed louder.

Unfortunately for me, the second growl didn't come from the mouth of the mana cat that I was looking at; I could see that now that the creature had turned towards me.

I whirled around to face the second beast that was approaching me.

[Mana Cat, Level 30.]

Okay, not good.

The second monster was easily within twenty feet of me and it, unlike the first, most definitely had its eyes locked on me.

Despite my best efforts, I probably wasn't going to get out of this without a fight... and with two monsters of a similar level to the skulker no less.

My heart began to beat with anticipation and fear.

Backed into a corner, I had no way out. The first cat would no doubt be seeing me right about now and coming to join its kin.

I opened my hand and took a deep breath.

I'd always been a decisive person. Decisions had never not come easy to me. I knew who I was and that meant I could figure out what I would do fairly easily.

I reached for the feeling of my heart in my chest and for the strange energy that had flowed from it when I'd cast my first spell.

I felt my mana respond then, but, unlike before, there now seemed to be a much deeper well of it waiting for me to dip from.

As I exhaled, the exhilarating power surged down the nerve-endings of my right arm and flowed into my fingers.

Burn, I ordered the mana mentally.

A small spark ignited on my palm and, with the sound of it sucking in a large pocket of oxygen all at once, the mystic blaze spread at first into a spear of flame and then solidified into the shape of a crude sword.

My mana bar ticked down somewhat, but the loss appeared negligible; that was good then, because that meant I could use [Raging Blade] for much longer than before.

The mana cat hissed and took a step back. I fell into something between a fencing and a boxing stance. Fighting with an actual sword would be somewhat different from stabbing with a foil.

As it was, my raging blade appeared as a one-handed longsword; the weight was seemingly non-existent as well, which would take some getting used to.

I didn't waste the moment of fear that was clear in the cat's three eyes. I jumped forward with a practiced lunge and with a thrust that was aimed directly at its forehead-slotted eyeball.

I could hear my sword cindering in anticipation for the strike.

The cat though, to its credit, recovered quickly from its state of being unnerved and lunged to the side, and then, to my surprise, it blinked out of existence.

I didn't see the enemy in front of me, anymore, so I made a call and jumped back myself as I rotated around.

I should've raised my weapon as I'd done so, however, because the cat was already barreling towards me with outstretched claws from where it had reappeared behind my back.

My lack of foresight and absence of familiarity with opponents that could teleport cost me, as the beast cut hard into my left calf.

I watched my health bar fall by nearly a tenth as the pain of having a chunk of flesh ripped out of my leg made my blood run cold with shock and then red with rage.

My sword ignited with a greater power, bursting out into an even wilder shape as my anger flowed.

Before the cat could recover its footing, I struck out and bit deep into its attacking shoulder.

The fire from my blade flowed into the cat as it also shredded its flesh. The aura of the weapon intensified on contact with the feline's skin, draining my mana further as it did so; rather than simply burning the cat everywhere that the fringes of the main blade's flames touched, the aura of fire also took small nicks out of the animal's flesh.

[+1 to One-Handed.]

The cat screeched in pain and blinked back into the aether.

Meanwhile, I heard another rustling of the forest floor to my left.

[+1 to Blind Fighting.]

The second cat would reappear soon, but that didn't mean that I could ignore the other one.

I shifted onto my right foot and this time I thrusted as I spun to face the threatening sound.

The first cat was met with a violent stab, directly into its torso, as it lunged towards me.

Unfortunately, I then felt the weight of its comrade slam into me hard.

The cat's sharp teeth tore into my lower, right side, and my flame blade was torn from my grasp. Myself and the second mana cat rolled violently into the dirt in a tumble of claws and limbs.

As my back hit the ground, and the wind was shot from my chest, I watched the first cat also hit the ground with a limp thud. The other beast scrambled as my mystical, red-hot sword remained buried in its chest.

My eyes flared with a violent, fiery aura as I activated [Raging Sorcery].

Somehow, the use of my powers already seemed as second nature. I watched as my flaming blade broke from its established form and flowed into the deep wound I'd inflicted on the other mana cat.

My eyes were, unfortunately, torn back to the monster that was on top of me as the loud sound of my [Raging Blade] exploding filled the forest.

My health was now down to less than half as the second cat bit into my shoulder and it was only ticking away as the seconds passed.

I raised my left hand to grab the cat's chest. I needed to get this thing off of me and it was too close and too dominant in strength for a sword to be the best choice for doing that.

Maybe [Fire Manipulation] could help me now?

I didn't know how much mana it would take to create a new spell, but, as the cat began to twist off a piece of my right shoulder, I did know I might not have a second chance at trying to.

Throwing caution to the wind, to avoid the risk of falling just short in this life or death situation, I pumped as much power down into my left hand as I could.

I willed my mana to compress, compact, and form into an outward facing cone. I could feel the energy pushing against my intent as it was forced into a even more concentrated form; I had to fight the energy just to keep it all together and then, when the pain in my right shoulder became too much to bear... I ordered the mana I'd collected to catch fire and release itself.

I felt the spell form into life and explode, but not before a distinctly different power from within my body flowed into it; somehow, I instinctively knew this potent, additional contribution of energy was from the amplifying effects of my [Raging Sorcery] perk.

[You have learned a spell! Fireball [3rd] added to spell list.]

The mana cat went flying as burnt chunks of its body flew all over my own prone form.

[+1 to Spell Control, Fire Manipulation, Spell Attack, and Spell Efficiency.]

My vision blurred as my health ticked down to nearly a fourth of its maximum. It hadn't taken the two cats even three minutes to shred me up pretty damn bad.

My leg was crippled. My right arm was now useless; I definitely couldn't lift the limb anymore.

And, despite having used up over half my mana, with most of that coming from the use of [Fireball], I still hadn't received a single System notification to even indicate I'd killed anything.

An injured growl flickered oddly into the air as the first cat, the face of its chest and body crippled from where my blade had exploded within it, materialized a foot or two from me.

The cat limped towards me; murder and desperation were in its eyes.

The same fire likely shined in my own, as my eyes quite literally caught themselves ablaze once more.

My second ever [Fireball] took pretty much all of my remaining mana as it rushed out of my nearly unmovable right hand. The violent orb of smoldering ignition roared straight into the already mangled and burnt face of the mana cat.

The monster was sent flying, much as the second had been, as the ball of flame hit and combusted against its singed fur and crisped flesh.

The near exhaustion of my mana left my heart feeling strangely hollow, as if the strange energy had so firmly become apart of me, in so little time no less, that its near absence was incredibly uncomfortable.

I had a few moments to watch my health fall to only a third of its remaining maximum as my wounded body bled onto the ground.

Clinching my teeth in determination, I rose to stand.

I didn't care what level they were, the damn cats looked pretty beat up too. They couldn't have much more health than me in them.

And I had a trump card: I just needed to level up to get some health back.

Any other beasts would have run away after being beaten to near death, but not the monsters of the System's new world it seemed.

The first cat was still slumped against a tree, twitching and fighting to stand up upon its feet.

The second cat, meanwhile, was already rocking back onto its paws, perhaps showing the strength of its extra five levels as it came to alternate between slowly limping and sloppily teleporting towards me.

The cat then rocked back on its paws as it blinked once more into lunging range. With what I assumed was the last of its strength, the beast jumped forward with its blood covered, natural weapons extended.

It would finish me off with those claws if it managed to hit.

I didn't have another [Fireball] in me, or enough mana to play around with making an entirely new, but cheaper mid-range spell.

Instead, I opened the palm of my left hand outwards.

[Raging Blade] formed against my skin, facing the mana cat, creating itself from one-half of my remaining mana.

The other half of my mana, I willed to explode outward from my palm, behind the fiery blade.

The result? My mana bar fell to zero, leaving me almost breathless in a way, and my summoned sword was sent flying forward to impale the monster lunging towards me.

The blade bit into the jumping creature's skull, finding some resistance, but still managing to sink a fourth of itself into the bone.

I wasn't willing to risk the creature connecting with me, however, so I willed the summoned sword to ignite with [Raging Sorcery].

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 13.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 14.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 15.]

I fell to my knees in relief as the second mana cat's body was knocked off of its course towards me by the smaller explosion of my weapon.

I felt an even greater relief as my calf and shoulder began to mend rapidly as a side effect of my level advancements.

My health bar began to tick back to full and the feeling of emptiness in my chest was quickly remedied as my mana surged back into my core.

Breathing heavily from the previous exertion, I felt the sweat drip off of my skin as I looked up to where the first mana cat had now stopped trying to struggle up off of the ground.

The cat's chest slowed and a small orb floated up from its limp body.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 16.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 17.]

My progress was slowing noticeably with every kill, but I figured that was a good thing. It meant I was getting closer to parity with the creatures of the dungeon.

Even if I was only half the level of the two monsters I'd just slain, and even if they'd made me work for the kills, the fact that I'd even managed to succeed in the fight meant that my gamble with [Fire Manipulation], while also keeping in mind the benefit of the System's gifts, had worked out well for me so far.

I rose to my feet and began to approach the loot orb of the nearest slain enemy.

However, before I could access the fallen cat's inventory, a massive roar shook the mountainside.

I looked up to see an outcropping I'd previously been unaware of. From a great vantage point, a massive feline stepped out from what appeared to be a cave of some sort.

The body of the creature was at least three sizes bigger than the previous mana cats', and it appeared to have more of the bulk of an oversized lion than anything else. Its body was marked with strange glowing glyphs of bright power that shone ominously through its gorgeous fur.

[Ruler of the West, Level 35 Elite.]

The creature locked eyes with me and then roared once more, the second time being no less impressive than the first.

The glyphs underneath the thing's glossed coat flared with a bright fury and, then, with a flash the ruler's body became a bolt of crashing light--a light that was barreling down from the cliffside and coming straight towards me.

"Fuck," I whispered aloud, in the way you only did when you just couldn't catch a break.