Pain. Excruciating pain.
It was the first thing I felt as I clawed my way back to consciousness.
'Did I just touch the staircase to hell and snap back to life?'
My mind was hazy, and my eyes were covered in darkness despite being wide open. For a second, I thought I'd respawned inside a Windows error screen.
Every nerve in my body screamed, my ribs throbbed like broken speakers, and my head pounded with a rhythm that could've put nightclub DJs out of business.
When I finally got my vision back, the light of the three moons above looked far brighter than the sleepless eternal city nights, and the world looked… different.
"That's a… new one, ahem."
My wounds were no longer gushing fountains, but sealed shut with angry red marks. My clothes, however, were stiff with dried blood, sticking to my skin like bad duct tape.
I groaned and shifted, trying to move my stiff body.
The legs, ribs, and pretty much my entire right side were hurting like hell after that Sand Attack. Was it some kind of skill that made the attack so effective, or did that damned wolf have some other kind of hidden power?
'In any case, I'm as weak as a chick!'
If a mere wolf of this world was strong enough to hurt me to this degree without even actually touching me, then just how strong would the other things be?
'It's a good thing I have these skills, or else—.' I was thinking about how the skills saved me this time when my hands finally found some strength to push me back up.
But as soon as my head looked up, two blood red eyes as angry as a wounded wasp glared back at me from the darkness.
"Argh…!" That was a jumpscare!
Surrounding the blood red eyes were bodies lying on the ground, their eyes closed, and peace present on all of them.
Across the barrier of faint green light stood the wolves. The same SUV-sized bastards that had nearly turned me into chew toys… Their massive bodies lingered just beyond reach, pacing, growling low in their throats.
"What the fuck?! They're still here?!" Don't these guys have jobs? Or do wolves in this world just freelance in 'harassing helpless women at night'?
Instead of moving on, they were still here, with only the alpha being awake, his teeth and nails visibly damaged.
Between us shimmered a dome of green light with a light as safe as the green lantern's— translucent, steady, humming faintly like it was alive. A magical barrier. My magical barrier.
"The safe zone…" I whispered, my voice raspy, but oddly relieved.
All around me, now that I took a closer look, there were marks of struggle.
Marks of deep cuts on the ground, craters that had their own stories, even strange burning marks that seemed like lightning had hit that place.
Many of the wolves in the pack seemed wounded, but instead of being wounded by a third party, it seemed like they got hurt by their own family members while they were trying to break this barrier.
"So are you telling me the barrier saved me all this time?" That was kinda awesome, but does that mean the safe zone had been sustaining damage while I was out cold?!
My wounds were also healing… was this the barrier's doing as well? For more chapters visit N0veI.Fiɾe.net
Just as I was thinking these things, as if to have realised my concerns again, the pink status windows popped up once more.
[A skill explanation has been presented by the Skill: Assistance System.]
[Safe Zone (Novice) Established]
• Permanent structure.
• Heals all physical wounds and restores stamina gradually.
• Blocks harmful entities without permission.
• Cannot be moved once created.
• Can only be dismantled or harvested by the owner.
[Durability: 996/1000.]
I let out a shaky laugh. "So… this is basically permanent, huh? Just like those rigid datasets from the archives— once you lock them, good luck moving them."
Now I trust my life to end up being saved by something as stubborn as enterprise storage. Just wow.
"Then I guess I don't have to worry about them for the time being."
I tilted my head back, staring at the dome's ceiling of faint green light against the night sky dominated by three blue moons, all three in a slightly different stage of the lunar cycle.
I felt safe here. There was light, there was a small space, there was no danger to my life at least… and even if I have to spend a few days or weeks in here, I won't have to worry about getting killed anymore.
"Shit…" but none of that really mattered right now.
The sounds of the forest. Sounds of the deadly creatures that were lurking in there, beyond that darkness.
These wolves couldn't be the apex predators in this forest. If there are wolves, there will be things that hunt wolves, just like how there are things that the wolves like to hunt.
'Having watched NetGeo for so long, I at least know how the doggies are in their natural habitat.'
The Wolves aren't the final bosses; they should merely be mobs. But, if the mobs are so strong, what about the worst things deeper inside this forest?
'What about the things that the safe zone cannot block?'
Hugging my cold legs in a fetal position, I stared upward at the gray clouds drifting in the sky.
'This feels familiar…'
It reminded me too much of before.
The lonely apartment I lived in as a kid.
The nights where I had nothing— no family, no one to talk to, just four sides of the cardboard walls, and silence.
I remembered coming home that one dark night, the sky painted orange, people shouting as flames devoured what used to be our "home."
My parents inside... the smell of burning wood, the radiating heat all around my body… the adults covering me in a blanket, pulling me away.
The stretchers, the perverted councillor, the bad people, the bad world I had never known the existence of…
'Snap out of it, Aria.'
I thought those memories were already buried deep inside my head, but I guess they aren't as deep as a data lake if something as small as this death experience can trigger them.
"Haaaa…" This isn't the time for that kinda stuff.
I clutched the book tighter against my chest. The one I'd nearly died protecting.
Its hard, black cover gleamed faintly in the green light, the golden letters etched into it— World Guide— shimmering like ichor.
I swallowed, pushing myself upright despite the soreness, and flipped the book open.
The alone made my eyes widen…
Pages filled with intricate lettering, headings that looked almost alive, some glowing faintly as if breathing.
The illustrations of monsters, maps, and strange symbols moved at the edges, not quite animated but so detailed it felt like they could crawl off the page.
"This… this is no ordinary book," I whispered under my warm breath. My fingers traced the ink, half afraid it would burn me.
The first entry of the book was the question I had ever since the first blue screen popped up before me.
[Title 1: Status windows.]
-All living beings in this world possess a status window. It reflects growth, abilities, and limitations granted by the world itself.
-At the age of mental awakening, beings obtain a Class that best aligns with their fate and destiny, a class that may or may not be what one grows up wishing for.
-Stats are quantified representations of the abilities, powers, or strengths that an individual possesses.
-Class EXP is the accumulated experience acquired through different tasks that align with the class.
-Levels are a numerical representation of a cumulative experience gained through various tasks like killing monsters, achieving different feats, or progressing with the class levels.
-Coins stored in the system panel are a common currency that is accepted throughout the world in different denominations that one can call forth at will.
There were entries about the skills, their types, the titles, as well as explanations of different common things.
Innate skills: Skills that one is born with or inherits from someone with shared ancestry. They are divided into F-rank to S-rank (F>E>D>C>B>A>S).
Job skills: Skills related to one's Job Class. These are common skills that all those sharing the profession obtain at different levels. *One job skill gained at each level.* (Novice> Beginner> Learned> Expert> Master> Owner.)
Other skills: There are skills that one can obtain through different means throughout this world. There are other skills that are acquired and can scale up to (SS-rank) or (SSS-rank).
'Then what does 'EX' rank mean? Exponential? Ones that cannot be compared to anything?'
Perhaps that was the case. Or perhaps since the book was created by the Assistance System, it concealed information about the EX-rank skills.
It did not list different classes, though. The book only seemed to have an overview of a little bit of everything I needed to know about this world.
'It's written that the titles are special indications of different achievements. Possessing different common and known titles grants one a different kind of buff that remains passively activated.'
Again, there's no information on the titles themselves, so I guess I'll have to find things out on my own.
"There it is again…" While the book is easy to follow for the first few pages, I cannot understand anything written within it after a few pages, as if there's some kind of restriction.
Again, the words and content are there, but when I see it, everything looks like a jumbled mess, with words floating around the place aimlessly.
Still, whatever the case may be, the book contains information about this world and things I wanted to know since earlier.
The guide promised answers… but the forest outside promised teeth. And if I had to bet? The wolves weren't the only ones still hungry tonight.