Chương 10: Chapter 9: Stage 2

They appeared in a forest that looked much like the last one, with bioluminescent trees casting an eerie, otherworldly glow. The canopy was so dense that sunlight barely penetrated, creating a perpetual twilight. The first thing Thalion did was check his new status screen. Status: Name: Thalion Walker Age: 30 Height: 1.

93m Level: 5 Race: Common Human (G) Class: Shapeshifter (Rare) Health: 100/100 Mana: 380/380 Stamina: 90/90 Experience points: 0/672 Stats: Strength: 10 Agility: 7 Endurance: 8 Intelligence: 38 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 5 Perception: 6 Toughness: 6 Vitality: 10 Fate: 3 Skills: Fireball (Common), Mana Barrier (Common), Telekinetic Dash (Rare), Acquire Form (Rare), Shapeshift (Rare) Titles: none Bloodline: none Emily, beside him, panicked.

"This is bad! This is bad!"

"What happened?" Mike asked, concerned.

"Well, I thought I would get a gun, but it looks like I have to wait six days for the system shop," Emily muttered, calming down a bit.

"Don't worry, we're all awesome," Lukas assured her.

"By the way, Thalion, can you transform into the Manta?" Thalion took one Manta corpse out of his spatial ring and placed it before him on the ground. He placed his hand on the body of the beast and used Acquire Form. Mana pulsed out from his hand and traveled through the beast's body. After a while, the spell dispersed. It failed.

"Maybe it's been dead too long," Thalion muttered. Not gonna lie, he had high hopes for the manta. Next, Thalion checked his tutorial quests and frowned at the new additions. At least the first one was fine. Tutorial Quests Stage 2: Requirement to enter stage 3 reach level 25 and evolve to F grade. Kill 30 humans reward 1. 500 Credits Kill 100 humans reward 6. 000 Credits Kill 20 orcs reward 1. 500 Credits Kill 80 orcs reward 6. 000 Credits The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Kill 12 elves reward 1. 500 Credits Kill 35 elves reward 6. 000 Credits Kill 10 vampires reward 1. 500 Credits Kill 28 vampires reward 6. 000 Credits Lead a group of 25 survivors reward 700 Credits Lead a group of 50 survivors reward 1. 000 Credits Lead a group of 100 survivors reward 3. 000 Credits Lead a group of 500 survivors reward 20. 000 Credits Lead a group of 1000 survivors reward 50. 000 Credits"This stage will be much harder.

We need more levels, and the quests encourage a slaughter fest," Mike said after reading the tutorial quests.

"We should get moving," Thalion said, already thinking through the possible scenarios.

"It's already getting dark, and we need a safe place to rest. There will be groups out hunting for careless survivors at night."

"We could try to get up in the trees. Those leaves are big enough to sleep in", Thalion added checking out the near surroundings. „"Maybe people on the ground can't spot us when it's dark."

"I agree. We should make camp on one of those trees," Mike nodded while looking at the absolutely enormous trees in this jungle.

"We should take this one," Emily said, pointing at a giant tree. The trunk alone was 20 meters thick and it was one of the taller trees in the surrounding area. All in all, probably their best option.

"Okay, let's go," David nodded. The others climbed the tree pretty fast. This system really did make people stronger, Thalion thought. He stayed on the ground because he wanted to lift himself up with the mana barrier. It worked for the first six meters, but then he lost connection to his spell and glided back down to the ground to try again. If you do something, you should do it right, and he really wanted to get better at controlling his spells.

At the moment, he didn't have anything better to do, and without a knife, he couldn't help cutting vines or leaves. After an hour of trying, he managed to ascend all twelve meters to their camp. Their camp looked like a natural leaf bunker, as if a gust of wind had pressed some leaves together. They even prepared nearby branches so it wouldn't stand out. Probably even people higher up in the trees would have difficulty spotting them.

At first, they wanted to use leaves to sleep in, but after a test round, they decided against it. It would be clear to anyone on the ground that this was a hideout, and they agreed that stealth was more important than comfort. They used vines to secure themselves if they wanted to take a little nap on the tree branch. This was also an important topic, no one felt tired. Maybe a bit exhausted, but most felt they could stay awake the whole night without a problem.

However, they forced Emily to at least take a short nap because, with her skill, archer's sight, she was the most important member of their group. Another topic was food and water. They debated whether they should use Thalion's fireball to grill some of the Manta meat, but in the end, no one was hungry, so they let that topic slide with a final comment from Mike that they would try to find water tomorrow.

Shortly before nightfall, Thalion slid down to the ground and placed six different grasshopper corpses in various locations. They cut eye slits into some leaves to watch those locations overnight and maybe discover what beasts were lurking in the area. Thalion had a lot of fun using telekinetic dash to move around, and he loved the skill. It felt like someone threw you in a certain direction. The sheer speed felt amazing.

After a short time, Thalion was back at their tree and used mana barrier to lift himself up to join the others in their hideout. No one spoke as they all lay down in their positions, and with the passing of time, the fear became more tangible. With the preparation finished, everyone lay low, holding onto the same vine. If they spotted a beast or survivor in the distance, they would tug once if it was distant, twice if it was close, and three times if they were discovered.

For the night, they all agreed on three rules, no speaking, no sudden movements, and no identifying. They tested it, and you could really feel a little nod if someone was identifying you. The no fast movement rule was enforced by Emily, who argued that with archer's sight, it was easy to spot any movement. The night came, and it wasn't as bad as Thalion first thought.

Many plants still glowed with bioluminescent light, and although he could see much better in the dark, now probably a side effect of the evolution, he had no trouble watching his grasshopper in the distance. It was clear to everyone that if they were discovered, it would be the end. Those hunting at night were most likely stronger, and even if they managed to defeat or escape them, the noise would alert every hunter in the area. For the first hour, nothing happened. But then they came.

Thalion felt two fast tugs as he was slowly checking his other eye slits. He saw them. Three giant Orcs, at least two and a half meters tall, with broad shoulders and muscles everywhere. They easily weighed over 200 kg. The blue bioluminescence of the nearby plants shone on them as they moved swiftly and silently with the precision of expert hunters. The two on the sides had giant battle axes, while the one in the middle carried a massive mace on his back. What classes did these monsters have to earn such weapons?

Thalion wondered. There was not even the slightest doubt that if those three brutes discovered them, their journey would be over. He started to sweat as he saw them coming closer and closer. If they held their current course, they would pass within twenty meters, give or take. How could something this big move so silently? Thalion nearly had a heart attack as the orcs passed by closer than he liked, but after fifty meters, they stopped.

One took out his axe, carved something into a tree next to him, then turned to the left and exited his line of sight. After the shock wore off, Thalion returned to his favorite activity. Watching the unmoving corpse of the grasshopper. There better be a strong beast nearby he could take the form of, or things would get difficult. After half an hour had passed, the grasshopper was attacked by, of course, another grasshopper. After devouring one of its own kind, it disappeared into the jungle.

Man, life could be depressing, Thalion thought with growing annoyance. At the moment he was not sure if shapeshifter was the right choice for a class. No, he needed to stay patient. His opportunity will come. He signaled to Emily, who was lying next to him, that he was going for a little nap, and closed his eyes. This night not much happened on his side of the tree, but the others were signaling almost every hour that something or someone was close.

From time to time, they heard the sounds of battle in the distance. Thalion tried to remember the direction, but it was useless. Over the night, there were at least eight fights in different directions. As he checked the number of total survivors, over three thousand had died, and the number was still slowly ticking down. Man, this tutorial was evolving more and more into a slaughter trial.