Splashing through a stream once more, I sucked in a breath as I saw the broken reflection of the sky above. I whirled to look up and saw the deep reds and vibrant yellows of an aurora snake its way across the night, impossibly vast and beautiful as anything I'd ever seen.

It occurred to me then that this was the first time I'd stopped in an age. My breath was ragged, legs tired and shoulders aching from carrying the weight of my spear and shield. Given my enhanced attributes, I must have been running for a few hours at least, and at quite a pace too, to be able to reach this level of exhaustion so quickly.

And to have not noticed it, I must have been continuously using my aura Skill. After confirming I wasn't about to be attacked by any predators lurking nearby, I slowed my breathing and slipped into my soul-space, observing my core. It was barely alight, the silvery mana that trickled in at the bottom of my core in a constant draw from the environment all that sustained it. I had so little mana within me that even my pathbound aura Skill had been unable to sustain itself. I needed to rest.

I could neither hear, see, smell or otherwise sense any signs of pursuit by my erstwhile captors, but that wasn't really much to go on. I didn't expect to get much warning before I was caught, if they ever caught up to me. Perhaps they'd skip the capture and just go straight for the kill? Couldn't be sure that wouldn't be preferable too; after I'd killed one of their own, I doubted I would receive particularly generous treatment.

Thoughts churning, I turned and headed upstream through the little creek I had stopped in the middle of, in an effort to obscure any tracks I'd made. With icy cold water sloshing against my boots, I turned my attention to the subtle chiming in my mind, relying once again on Cloven-Hooved to keep my footing steady on the moss-slick rocks.

You have killed an Umbral Wolf (level 37). Experience gained.

You have killed an Umbral Wolf (level 39). Experience gained.

You have killed an Umbral Wolf (level 35). Experience gained.

You have killed a Human (Crimson Fang) (level 40). Experience gained.

Well, that confirms a few things. Firstly, I now knew that I received experience not just for creatures that I'd landed the finishing blow on, but also those that I helped kill alongside others. I still didn't know for sure if there was a threshold of damage I needed to do to be recognised by the system as deserving of experience, if a set amount of experience existed for each creature that I killed, or how my combat class differed from support classes in the experience I gained from kills.

So, while I'd gained confirmation that the final blow wasn't necessarily required, I still knew almost nothing. Can't believe I've never asked Jorge about this before.

I also now had confirmation that creatures didn't seem to have a class. Or rather, their class was not distinct from their species in any meaningful way. Given that the human I'd killed was clearly Shavkat, and I'd received information on what must have been his class, that meant that the system did show class information on these 'kill notifications' if the enemy had one… or so I suspected.

A sample of one was a little small to be making sweeping generalisations by, but then again, what was I supposed to do? Start killing more people just to confirm things? I shivered at the thought though, knowing in my bones that Shavkat wouldn't be the last human I killed. It felt like a hollow fear though. Part of me railed against the idea of feeling anything at all in relation to Shavkat's death – the man as a bastard, clear as day. And yet the other half of me was screaming out that my general apathy about what I'd done was a worrying development.

It was funny though. I felt more anguish at the memory of that great Elk I had killed all the way back in the Unclaimed Peaks than I did at the thought that I'd ended a human's life. Why should his mean more than any other creatures' life? Because he had the capacity for greater introspection, more complex action? If anything, it was his actions that made me think putting him down had been a good thing overall.

I hoped that was true of everyone I was forced to kill in this world. I'd not be laying down my life easily, but I had no wish to become a hardened killer. I hoped to keep the amount of blood on my hands as small as humanly possible, honestly, but I had at least three more humans chasing me, so that didn't seem too likely. While the world was in some ways less outright brutal than I'd assumed it would be given the insane inequality between the powerful and the weak in terms of sheer physical might, the fact that these mercenaries were so blasé about wheeling me around in a cage through hundreds of miles of open ground on well-travelled roads meant the practice was likely not that uncommon.

Come to think of it though… I hadn't seen a single other person during my several days of capture. Not a single person on the roads. We had stopped on occasion, wheeling off-road through underbrush every now and then, so perhaps that was in an effort to avoid other travellers? We also spent significant time cutting directly through the steppe lands, and I supposed the common presence of people with enough strength to pull huge loads on their backs without strain would make road networks less important?

Anyway, this was all irrelevant. Get yourself back on track. I didn't need to be the one to kill something to gain experience, and animals didn't have classes distinct from their species. I'd not actually fought many creatures with powerful abilities beyond their own enhanced physicality yet, and so I'd not had the chance to really consider it, but presumably this meant that if I fought a creature that displayed a certain ability – say, a powerful bite attack that could crush heavy iron – then all other creatures of the same species I encountered would have that ability as well.

It wasn't exactly confirmed, but I would work with that as fact for now. If nothing else, I would be more careful when engaging in a fight with a new animal I'd not fought before.

With how my thoughts were jumping all over the place and refusing to stick to a single tack, I could tell I was nearing true exhaustion. A judicious application of will brought my fraying mind back under my control enough to focus on the remaining notifications.

You have reached level 31. Attribute points available for allocation.

You have reached level 32. Attribute points available for allocation.

I quickly distributed the attributes, putting an entire level's worth into endurance immediately. I then shared them between the other attributes with a slight focus on perception, hoping that would give me an edge when it came to tracking and survival in the wild.

I nearly groaned at the feeling of a full ten points of pure power surging through my body, changing me on a primal level and again reconfiguring what I thought was possible. Almost instantly I felt the exhaustion pushed just a little further away, my body feeling simultaneously both lighter and more solid, and the innumerable aches that I was trying my best to ignore became a little quieter once again.

With a final flick of attention, I read through the notifications of my Skill upgrades from the recent fight.

Skill 'Wilderness Endurance Hunter' has increased in level. Wilderness Endurance Hunter – level 7

This must be entirely due to the Running Skill that was incorporated into the larger merged Skill, since I had definitely not done any Meat Preparation or Foraging in the last few days.

Unless cutting a man's head off counts as butchery now? Fuck, that was a macabre thought – I need some rest.

Skill 'Cloven-Hooved' has increased in level. Cloven-Hooved – level 8

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Another two levels as well for my movement/balance Skill. Makes sense – I should run for my life for most of a night through unknown mountain forests more often.

Skill 'Check-Step' has increased in level. 'Check-Step' – level 10

Just a single level, but I'd only activated it twice in the frantic rush, and it had finally reached the soft Skill cap of level 10 now, anyway. Jorge had spoken about it sparingly, declaring it a 'problem for later on', but Skills struggled to level once the soft cap was reached. It was deemed a 'soft' cap because it could still be pushed through, but only by changing the way the Skill was used – pushing the boundaries. A deep understanding and familiarity with the Skill itself and one's path more broadly were required, and while it was a good thing to aim for, for reasons that would become clear in time, apparently, it wasn't anything that provided much extra utility in the moment.

All in all, nothing to complain about, though.

Skill 'Hill-Folk' has increased in level. 'Hill-Folk' – level 6

Another unsurprising addition. A single level in a Skill that primarily provided me with general toughness, in response to putting my body through physical hell while in danger. This wouldn't be a fun one to level in future, I suspected.

Skill 'Indomitable Prey' has increased in level. 'Indomitable Prey' – level 9

Two levels in my pathbound Skill. That's strange. Despite using it non-stop for most of a night, I was surprised by that increase. It had never jumped two levels from a single fight, no matter how hectic, and usually levelled fastest when I was directly pushing against the influence of someone or something else trying to dominate me.

But then Jorge had said that it was, due to it being a pathbound Skill, more heavily affected by my choices and decisions rather than purely my actions. While the fight and following flight themselves hadn't been huge for the Skill, the decision to break away from my captors, to refuse bondage and relative safety, to refuse to be swept along in the currents of others and the decision to risk it all forging my own path forwards… Perhaps that was responsible for the relatively fast increase in levels?

Skill 'The Forgotten Spear' has increased in level. 'The Forgotten Spear' – level 4

And finally, some levels in my weapons Skill. It was a very short fight, using my spear and shield only once or twice, depending on how you would define 'using' anyway, and so it was almost a surprise to gain two levels. However, I'd been training for weeks on end now with it and had pushed my theoretical understanding of the Skill and familiarity with its forms well past my practical experience in lethal combat; the moment I used that knowledge on the battlefield, the system rewarded me with levels.

I was personally hoping to ride out the foundations I'd built with Jorge, Vera and Nathlan in the sparring ring all the way to level 10 in this Skill, but time would ultimately tell how viable that goal was.

Skills reviewed, I was surprised to feel a single notification left pinging in my mind, like a thorn prickling at my shin – barely noticeable when busy but the moment I was no longer distracted, it became incredibly irritating.

Skill gained – Tinkering. No open skill slots available, Skill unable to integrate. Do you wish to merge into a greater Skill? Options:

Guerrilla Warfare

I blinked, surprised by the notification and then the option it was giving me. I paused for a moment, wondering what the Skill 'Tinkering' actually involved. The moment I did, new information flashed through my mind.

Tinkering – Active. With a curious mind, you have manipulated and deconstructed the tools and weapons you wield, and with the help of others you have improved them. You are no engineer to create something entirely knew, but you can tinker around the edges, making subtle improvements. Your changes are quantitative rather than qualitative, but small ripples can still change the face of the lake. This Skill will aid you in visualising and actualising minor improvements to your gear. Further levels will increase the scope and execution of such changes.

It seemed like an obviously useful Skill, and I was glad to add it to my collection. It was clear where it had come from – it seemed using the weapons I'd helped create was the only missing piece to receiving the Skill after my time in Colchet with Sally the Tinkerer, and that piece was missing no longer. I accepted the merger.

Skill 'Tinkering' merged with Guerrilla Warfare. Integration complete.

It would synergise well with Improvised Weapons by the sounds of it, and would fit seamlessly into Guerrilla Warfare, so there was little danger of ruining that merged Skill. I knew I needed to be careful of diluting a merged Skill with too many additions that took away from its central purpose, but that didn't seem to be the case here at all. Preparation was all the rage when done with violent intent so far as my Skills were concerned, and there was little more intentionally violent that modifying weapons to make them more deadly.

The only real downside was that I was adding a relatively low-levelled Skill to a higher-levelled merged one, and thus would have to focus heavily on levelling Tinkering to get it to a point of parity with the rest of the Skills within Guerrilla warfare before the whole merged Skill could level further.

This was somewhat off-set though by the massive influx of experience with the Tinkering skill I'd received already. It seemed designing, creating, and then actually using two artifacts was a big enough deal to garner me a fair few levels in the Skill right off the bat, despite the fact that'd I'd had significant help.

Come to think of it, working with a 2nd tier tinkerer to design and create the weapons was probably responsible for me gaining the Skill to begin with. Sally's influence on me during the design and pickup of the artifacts was likely more significant than I'd first thought, or else every noble, general, or requisitions officer in the world would probably have a million Skills related to bartering and supplying and who knew what else. Huh. Thanks Sally.

Again, I yanked my thoughts back into order. Time for a final review of my status before actually looking to the immediate future.

Status:

Ancestry: Human (unevolved)

Level: 32

Class: Blood Of THe Hills

Titles: God-touched

Attribute allocation:

Strength: 40

Agility: 30

Endurance: 30

Perception: 20

Cognition: 22

Available attributes: 10

Current Skills:

Guerrilla Warfare: Level 8. Passive.

Wilderness Endurance Hunter: Level 7. Passive.

Cloven-Hooved: Level 8. Passive.

Heart of the Hills: Level 4. Active.

Check Step: Level 10. Active.

Hill-Folk: Level 6. Passive.

Indomitable Prey: Level 9. Active

The Forgotten Spear: Level 4. Passive

I noted with mild concern the relatively low level of Heart Of The Hills. That was lagging behind the rest, especially so for an active Skill. It didn't look like I'd have enough time to work my way through that though. My immediate future seemed set to contain a lot of violence and struggle, and not a lot of call for cooler heads. Heart Of The Hills had been invaluable in keeping me alive when the whole world was new and my instincts were mostly to just curl up into a fragile little ball of panic and fear, but that wasn't the man I was any longer. Indomitable Prey had seen to that, and now my instincts hummed an entirely different tune when danger was in the air.

In fact, since I'd received my pathbound aura Skill, there hadn't been much progress at all with Heart Of The Hills. It was redundant, in many ways. Not all, of course, but it was something to keep in mind as I strove to progress as many of my Skills as much as possible before reaching the 2nd tier at level 50.

It was hardly the most pressing of my concerns at the moment, but I did linger in the back of my mind, despite Jorge's insistence that it was fine. Yes, getting my Skills as high as possible before cracking the 2nd tier and upgrading my class would give me more powerful options, but it was not a dramatic shift in quality, and the amount of time and danger one would need to invest to do so would be better spent levelling directly through the 2nd tier. Sure, if you spent another few years with your 1st tier class before classing up, you'd be stronger for your level… but that was exactly the point. Stronger for your level.

Why strive to become a top-rated 1st tier when any middling 2nd tier would dismantle you with ease? The attribute allocation alone was a quantitative shift for most, let alone the types of Skills and mana capacity one could gain.

Either way, I didn't have too much to worry about. I already had a somewhat rare and powerful class, doubly so if one took into account that it was a combat and not support class, and I had plenty of challenges to push me to my potential before I could even think of classing up.

Put another way, I had lots of danger in my near future and plenty of opportunities to die. A cheery thought, as always. I couldn't really deny my excitement through as I turned my attention to the world around me.

My feet were somehow still dry, the icy water unable to make it through the waxed hide of the sturdy boots I wore. They were cold though, so it felt almost the same. Half an hour of hiking through a frozen stream would do that to you, I supposed.

Getting my bearings, I decided it was time to leave the creek and head directly up into the deeper hills. I would be being followed, if not now then soon, and I needed to get as much distance between myself and my pursuers as possible. The deeper hills would offer me more cover, more places to hide and most importantly, more powerful creatures to hunt.

I had been given a taste of progress after months of stagnation, and I was keen to grab the fire with both hands and keep it burning.

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