《Deathtouched》 Chapter 1: The system and encounters A cool autumn breeze went through the forest Sophia was walking through. Closing her eyes, she stood still for a moment to enjoy the cool wind that brushed against her body. Sophia liked this. The noise nature made. The ruffling of the falling leaves. The sounds the various animals who live in this forest made. It was something she decided to do after she quitted her job at the supermarket she was working at. Well, it was more of a recommendation her therapist made a while back and she hadn¡¯t really bothered doing it. Sophia was afraid of large crowds. Something she had trouble with on a daily basis. Even though the school she was attending at was smaller compared to the other bigger schools, there were still about three hundred students attending. Too much for her to feel comfortable in. Sophia soon resumed walking through the forest. It certainly worked calming her down. It¡¯s not like she had a choice though. Having recently graduated from high school and having no money nor the smarts to go to college or university, Sophia tried applying to jobs where it had a more quiet environment. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t find anything. Her mom forced her to try the supermarket, as she worked there as well, saying Sophia didn''t have much of a choice. She couldn¡¯t just stay inside of the house all day. It was that or work at her brothers tattoo shop. She first wanted to go to her brother, but ultimately decided against it. She liked drawing. No, she loved it. But drawing on peoples bodies? Sophia was too afraid she¡¯d make a mistake and her confidence was going to drop rock bottom if that happened. So she took her mother''s forced recommendation and tried working at the supermarket. The large crowds and the large noises those same crowds made was slowly breaking her. But because of her inherent stubbornness and unwillingness to worry her family, Sophia didn¡¯t complain and ignored the chaotic emotions dwelling within her. Despite how uncomfortable she felt, Sophia held out quite long. Six months before she broke down and ran away. She didn¡¯t even change back into her casual clothes. Her family must be worried sick. And now she¡¯s here walking through a small forest pathway still in her uniform and jeans. Her uniform only consisted of a buttoned up shirt. She didn''t need to change out of her jeans or sneakers, so she kept them on. She was trying to forget the embarrassing scene she caused. Sophia sat down at a bench placed alongside the pathway and looked at the sky. She guessed the only thing she could do now was work at her brothers¡¯ shop. He was a patient guy who knew about her fears, so he¡¯d know what to do. ¡°I really should stop being so stupid¡­¡± Sophia whispers, scowling. Her family only had her best interests in mind and if she had immediately went to her brother, she wouldn¡¯t have to suffer for so long in that stupid supermarket. ¡°I¡¯m so stupid! Stupid stupid stupid stupid!¡± Sophia cursed under her breath as she stood up from the bench and started walking back from the way she came. ¡°I¡¯m going to go to Riley and ask to work for him.¡± Sophia kept muttering the same sentence about going to her brother, Riley, over and over again, as she absentmindedly walked back. Error! Foreign object is entering the earth''s atmosphere! Removing... ¡°Huh.¡± Sophia let out a dumb sound and stopped walking when a weird blue screen suddenly appeared in front of her. Error! Object could not be removed! Searching for viable methods. Please wait... Method found! Initiating¡­ System has been successfully established! Foreign Object has been removed! Time until the system starts: 3 min 30 sec ¡°What?¡± Sophia stared at the weird things the blue screen that suddenly appeared out of nowhere was saying. She didn¡¯t understand. Foreign object? What does that even mean? What is this system that removed it? Due to an unknown circumstance the initiation of the system has been started earlier than planned. The world as you know it will soon collapse. Please try to survive. It would not do if my precious creations were to suddenly go extinct. Sophia felt a sense of foreboding as she read the final announcement, which felt different than those monotone messages from before. She then noticed a timer in the corner of her vision. Time until the system starts: 2 min 50 sec ¡°Oh¡­¡± Sophia stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. She should get out of here first. But¡­ It¡¯s a thirty minute walk from where she was to just get out of the forest. She wanted to call her family, but in her haste to get out of the supermarket she forgot to bring her phone with her. Cursing her luck, Sophia decided to just wait until everything started. It could be her hallucinating after all. Yes, that was it. No reason to panic. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. 5¡­ 4¡­ 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Activating¡­ The forest went quiet. Then came the pain. ¡°Ah¡­¡± Sophia cried out and fell down. Her body spasmed, her bones breaking and molding back. Her muscles doing the same, tearing and mending to its previous state. The pain was bad. Even worse when she got that tattoo from her brother for her eighteenth birthday. No, it was incomparable with that. Sophia lost consciousness and woke up repeatedly. She had no control over her entire body. The pain was too much! Unbeknownst to Sophia, this was happening to every living thing in the entire world. Animals and humans alike experienced this torture as the system integrated within their bodies. The System has successfully integrated within the bodies of the various lifeforms! After who knows how long, the pain abruptly ended. Along with it, a soothing sensation came that made her forget about her traumatic experience. But before Sophia could sigh in relief, her head exploded in an agonizing pain. She felt like millions of tiny needle penetrating into her brain, twisting and turning to make it even worse. Sophia couldn¡¯t even think about anything as her mind went completely blank because of the pain. After what must¡¯ve been forever, but in actuality no more than a minute, the pain abruptly ended once again. The soothing sensation came as well, clearing her mind. When Sophia¡¯s head cleared and she was able to function normally once again, the dreaded blue screen returned with a message. The System has successfully integrated within the minds of the various lifeforms! ¡°Ugh¡± Sophia groaned as she tried to get up. She put her hands on the ground and pushed to stand up. But her trembling arms that were still recovering couldn¡¯t handle the sudden strain. That and her sudden dizziness she got when trying to get up didn¡¯t help either. She fell back face first on the dirt that is the forest path. It seemed like the soothing sensations didn¡¯t fix everything. ¡°Uuuuu¡± Sophia wanted to curl up and sleep. But the place she was in wasn¡¯t the best place to be sleeping. And there was the blue screen crisis that was the culprit of her recent suffering of course. After waiting a while for her body to recover, Sophia sluggishly stood up. ¡°Urgh¡± She groaned as she waddled away to find help. It was going to be a while though, as it was in the middle of the week. There probably weren¡¯t many people here. Sophia didn¡¯t encounter anyone when she was walking through the pathway. She suddenly stopped when she realised the sounds in the forest were noticeably different than before. How Sophia didn¡¯t realise it sooner, she didn¡¯t know. Instead of birds and little bug sounds, she heard loud chittering all around her and rumbling far off in the distance. Something that was chittering was getting closer to her. Sophia held her breath and watched in the direction where there were random bushes that were rustling. Something soon jumped out. What appeared was a huge black ant, which made Sophia widen her eyes in surprise, fear and disgust. The ant was as big as a chihuahua, its mandibles clicking as it stared at her. Its black carapace was filled with dirt, like it recently burrowed out of the ground. The ant started skittering its six dangerous looking legs directly towards her. Sophia cried out in fear and surprise as she stumbled backwards. She wanted to turn around and run away, but the ant was faster than expected. It crossed the distance in no time and pounced on Sophia, its mandibles clicking in hunger. Sophia screamed as the ant bit her right arm when she reflexively used it to block it from coming to her face. She flailed her arms around to try to get it off. But the ant stubbornly held on, attempting to rip off a chunk of meat. Before that could happen though, Sophia fell. Her right arm carrying the ant reached the ground first, Sophia¡¯s entire bodyweight came next. A disgusting sound came when the ant was crushed between the ground and Sophia. Sophia herself quickly stumbled away to escape the dirty fluids that were coming out of the ant. She didn¡¯t want to be covered in them. Luckily, only her right arm and part of her torso were covered. ¡°Ah!¡± Sophia cried out in pain when she remembered the ant had bitten her right arm. She carefully moved it up and winced when she saw the blood. Sophia¡¯s uniform was shredded on the right forearm where the ant had bitten. The mandibles were still attached to her skin, and blood was still gushing out. Sophia tried ripping a piece off the shirt from the under end, but doing it with one arm proved impossible. She then tried taking it off. After two agonizing minutes trying to unbutton the shirt, looking out for the ant¡¯s friends who would surely come, hoping she wouldn¡¯t pass out from blood loss, and wincing when she took of the sleeve for her right arm, Sophia finally succeeded. She wanted to use one side to clean the wound from the fluids of the ant and use the other side to wrap it around to keep it from bleeding so much. There was a problem though, the mandibles sticking in her skin were still there. Sophia lifted a shaky left hand toward the first mandible. She took a deep breath, grabbed it and immediately yanked it out. ¡°Fuck!¡± Sophia cursed as she dropped the bloodied mandible on the ground. ¡°Fuck shit!¡± She cursed again when she took the other mandible out. Having wasted enough time, Sophia immediately started cleaning the wound. It involved spitting on the cloth and carefully wiping the dirt, blood and whatever the fluids of that ant were called, off. After a minute of cursing and wincing, Sophia finally managed to clean the wound, she then wrapped it tightly around the forearm. ¡°Finally¡­¡± Sophia breathed out a sigh and stood up, preparing to leave. Right at that time, like they were waiting for it, a group of ants appeared from the same side the other ant came from, clicking their mandibles in a threatening way.. They all looked relatively the same as the other ant, except for the one at the front. Instead of standing on six legs, this one stood on four. The other two, Sophia assumed, were used as hands, or weapons. More like weapons, because they looked really sharp. And they didn¡¯t really look like hands. Its head and torso had a more human shape to it and its lower body looked like the other ants. It was also twice the height of the other ants and its carapace appeared to be a lot thicker, looking a lot more intimidating. The big ants creepy eyes glanced at the crushed corpse of its subordinate and then stared at Sophia. Sophia herself was paralyzed with fear. In her mind she was constantly cursing herself for being as stupid as staying with a corpse that other things might have smelled. That and her blood, that was pretty much all around her, must have also smelled delicious for these gigantic, flesh eating insects. Maybe it was for the best. Not the eaten alive by giant ants part, but she had a feeling things must be much, much worse at other places. She wasn¡¯t sure she was going to be able to handle it. Sophia didn¡¯t like violence unless it was absolutely necessary. And it would probably be necessary ninety-nine percent of the time to survive whatever was happening. She didn¡¯t really feel anything when she killed the ant. But it was because it was an ant. And it tried to eat her¡­ Sophia snapped out of her thoughts of justifying her first kill when the big ant clicked its mandibles in a different way than before. Following its instruction, five of the twenty or so ants skittered towards Sophia. Just as Sophia thought she might as well try to fight the ants because she couldn¡¯t possibly outrun them, a sudden rumble made the ants, who were going for her, stumble. Chapter 2: More encounters and healing The rumbling became louder and louder, as if it were coming in this direction. And, indeed, it was coming in this direction. It had a long elongated muzzle. Its tubular snout took up most of its head, having relatively small ears and eyes. Its long grey fur had patches of white running along its entire body and its bushy tail was wagging around in excitement. What appeared was a six meter tall, hungry looking anteater. It came from Sophia¡¯s right and the ants left, both staring at the giant furball stampeding along the pathway towards them. No, towards the ants. It completely ignored the dumbfounded Sophia as the anteater chased the ants, that were running away as soon as they recognized the monstrosity. Even that big ant was running like its life depended on it. Well, it actually did depend on its life¡­ Sophia thanked the cute gigantic furball as she started jogging along the forest path. If everything went well, she wouldn¡¯t meet any scary monsters along this path. She would safely reach the protection of the town and everything would be fine. Yes, everything will be okay. That¡¯s how Sophia hoped things would turn out. Unfortunately, it didn''t. After a minute of jogging, Sophia had to slow to a walking pace to catch her breath. It was natural since she was wounded and although she had a slim build, she wasn¡¯t a very fit person to begin with. She was also getting rather dizzy from blood loss, which worried her. If she fainted now, she¡¯d most likely die. Sophia didn¡¯t want to die just yet. At least not until she was sure her family was okay. And to top things of, another ant appeared on the forest path. Worse, it noticed Sophia, who hoped it wouldn¡¯t notice her. Instead of foolishly turning around like last, she decided to wait. The ant didn¡¯t care what Sophia did and just rushed her. Doing the same thing the other ant did, which consisted of skittering along the ground and when it was close enough, lunging at her. Sophia, at some degree expecting its movements, stumbled to the side. She managed to successfully dodge the ants lunge, which made her release a breath she didn¡¯t realise she was holding. The ant itself didn¡¯t expect to miss, so it barely managed to land. And Sophia saw an opportunity she didn¡¯t miss. She half ran half stumbled towards the ant that was still trying from falling and kicked it on its side. A similar disgusting crunching sound emanated from the place Sophia kicked the ant. She almost fell because of the force she used, but managed to not embarrass herself. The ant flew half a meter before landing on the ground. It twitched and tried to get up, but failing. Its three legs where Sophia kicked were broken, so it was pretty much impossible for the ant to get up. Instead, it started dragging its broken body towards her. She was dumbfounded for the fact that the ant didn¡¯t give up or tried running away. The other ants did so when the anteater came, so why wasn¡¯t this one doing so? Was it because of the color? Instead of black like the ones Sophia met before, this one was blood red. Now that she looked closer at the figure, it looked slightly bigger? Sophia shook her. Now was not the time to ponder. It¡¯s friends would soon come and she believed she wasn¡¯t going to be as lucky as last time if she didn¡¯t get away in time. Sophia walked towards the unyielding ant and crushed its head with her foot. She could¡¯ve just left it there, but what if it could follow her scent or something? And then direct its friends towards her? The paranoid Sophia didn¡¯t want to risk it. She then started walking again, but at a slightly higher pace. Nothing really happened for several minutes, so Sophia listened more closely to the sounds emanating from the forest. Chitters, rumbling sounds of something big moving, bird sounds that were louder than usual as well. One sounded particularly clos- Sophia¡¯s train of thought got interrupted by a piercing pain on her shoulders. She screamed as something big lifted her off the ground When she was three meters high, she got pressed down by a huge weight, plummeting back towards the dirth. ¡°Ugh¡± She was shocked due to the force of the crash and the sheer weight kept her from breathing. The bird, Sophia assumed, and something else were pressing her down. She felt her right arm crack when her body, that of the huge bird, and the third party were pressing on top of it. The panicking Sophia struggled to get out of her restraint despite the pain, but it was fruitless. She heard a cry of an eagle and then she heard a chittering noise. Was it another ant? But that chittering sounded a lot different than the noises the ants made. It was higher pitched than the deep chitter of the ants. The eagle and the third party struggled, crushing Sophia under their weight. She was terrified. The eagle soon stopped moving, and when she was about to pass out from suffocation, the pressure lifted. The third party dragged the eagle off Sophia. She gasped for breath when she was completely freed from that crushing weight. Sophia coughed and looked at the corpse of the big eagle and the slightly bigger spider that was dragging it into the forest. She widened her eyes when she saw the three meter wide corpse of the eagle. It must¡¯ve been about seven if you counted the wingspan. It had beautiful white and brown feathers. It was lying on its belly to the side so Sophia couldn¡¯t really see its face or talons, but they would look very intimidating if she saw them. But Sophia froze in fear when she saw the four meter long spider dragging it with the help of a thick, sticky thread. It didn¡¯t appear it had noticed her so Sophia stayed very still, holding her breath in fear she might be noticed if she breathed. She stayed like that for the remainder of the time she saw the spider dragging the corpse into forest. She slightly relaxed when the spider was out of sight. She tried getting up, but the pain in her shoulders and her broken arm made it difficult. Eventually, she managed to shakily stand up. Her breathing was sluggish, she was dizzy and everything hurt. And now, she was having a panic attack.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Sophia tried to force her breath to steady. Her ears were ringing and her heart was beating so fast it might burst. She managed to stay relatively calm in front of the ants, because that was something she could handle. That big group was different. Although she felt fear, it was different when she saw the two heavyweights. The anteater she could handle too. Well, not really, but it didn¡¯t really have any interest in her, so that didn¡¯t seem as a problem. She just needed to not provoke it, which Sophia was a master of. But a massive eagle that wanted to eat her? Not only that, a terrifying looking tarantula? She didn¡¯t want this. She hoped this was all just a bad dream. She held back tears as she moved at a snail''s pace. Her shoulders were burning! It was like they were ripped to shreds, which they probably were. Not only that, she just noticed her ankle seemed to be strained. She didn¡¯t know if her luck was good or bad... ¡°Haah¡­ Haah¡± Sophia was gasping for breath even moving at this pace. Was she¡­ going to make it? She wasn¡¯t so sure. It would be at least another twenty minutes before she was even out of the forest. She was bleeding all over the place. She¡¯d probably attract predators before she could get out of here. But what then? What if the town wasn¡¯t safe? What if it were even more dangerous than the forest? Sophia¡¯s future seemed bleak. She suddenly stopped. What was that annoying blinking in the corner of her vision? As soon as she thought that, a message came. Congratulations! You are the eighth to kill another species since the System was established! You received a Healing potion! To receive the Healing potion please recite ¡®receive¡¯ in your mind or out loud. Level up! You received three unallocated stat points! To add unallocated stat points to the wanted stat, please recite ¡®status¡¯ in your mind or out loud. ¡°What?¡± Sophia was surprised reading all of these messages. ¡®What is this, a game?¡¯ Was the first thing she thought when she read all of it. It sounded ridiculous. Stat points? Status? Healing potio- Wait. ¡°Receive?¡± Sophia recited, secretly hoping it wasn¡¯t some dumb joke. A glass vial with a blood-like substance in it materialized and floated in front off Sophia. She grabbed it and stared at the vial. Healing potion This was what appeared in her mind. ¡°Uh¡­ Okay¡± Sophia didn¡¯t really trust the message. It was too convenient for her. There¡¯s only so many times she can survive with luck. Well, she didn¡¯t really have much of choice. So she hoped for the best. ¡°Please don¡¯t be poison. Please don¡¯t be poison.¡± She muttered while sitting down with her back against a nearby tree. Sophia couldn¡¯t really hold it and uncork it. Her right arm seemed very much useless. Her left arm was unharmed, but her shoulder wasn¡¯t the same. Luckily, she could manage moving her left as long as she kept in mind it would hurt a lot. She placed the vial between her legs to keep it from falling over. She then used her left hand to uncork the vial. Being successful, Sophia lifted the vial towards her right shoulder first. She thought about removing her shirt, but it was going to be impossible with her painful wounds. She dropped a small amount on her shoulder. ¡°Hiss¡± She grimaced as the wound burned. Sophia felt the muscle and flesh mend together. She almost dropped the vial there. She placed the vial back between her legs and started removing the dirtied, shirt that was wrapped around her right forearm. Having successfully removed it, she threw it away and grabbed the potion. Sophia dropped a few small drops on the wound. Now being prepared, she kept her left hand steady. She felt her bones snapping back together and Sophia looked in wonder as the muscle and flesh mended before her eyes. It wasn¡¯t completely healed though, so she dropped a few more drops in until it was completely healed. The only thing visible from the wound was a scar, but Sophia could live with that. It was better than dying. Sophia tried using her right arm. Although it felt a bit stiff and her shoulder didn¡¯t seem to have been completely healed, everything seemed completely fine. After putting another drop on right shoulder to completely heal it, Sophia used the rest on her left shoulder and ankle. Luckily, it seemed she had just enough of the stuff to mostly heal all of her wounds. She then decided to try the next thing that message said. If ¡®receive¡¯ worked so should ¡®status¡¯ right? ¡°Status?¡± Name: Sophia Kanze Level: 2 Specie: Human Sex: Female Age: 20 Class: n/a Attributes: Strength: 9 Dexterity: 15 Agility: 10 Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 11 Perception: 12 Skills: Sophia stared at the status screen that appeared in front of her¡­ ¡°So, it was real¡­¡± She exclaimed in wonder. She shook her and decided to figure out what all of this was. She wasn¡¯t really into games, but she knew this was somewhat like an rpg. Class¡­ what could that possibly mean? Sophia didn¡¯t know and decided to just skip it. Strength was strength, obviously. Dexterity¡­ something with hands, right? Right. Agility was speed. Endurance was stamina. Intelligence was how smart she was? How does that make any sense? And perception was¡­ How you see things? Skills? What does that imply? Sophia didn¡¯t understand half of what these things meant¡­ Wasn¡¯t there some tutorial mode? Since this resembles a games so much it must have it right? ¡°Tutorial?¡± ¡­ Nothing happened¡­ Well, it was worth a shot. Sophia needed to make a decision of where she should place her points. She had three. One should go to endurance since she was tired, and she was probably going to get even more tired in the future. One in agility. She needed speed to outrun things, obviously. She had one more point¡­ Maybe another on endurance or agility? Strength was pretty useless to her. She could already destroy the little ants even with her strength, and the other creatures were probably so strong that 1 measly point wouldn¡¯t really make a difference. Maybe intelligence? It might make her smarter. She¡¯d probably need to be smart to survive. Dexterity? It probably wasn¡¯t very useful to her as of right now. Although Sophia was pretty good with hands, she couldn¡¯t really think of anything that might have her need the nimbleness of her fingers... Perception seemed like a good idea. It allowed her to see things more clearly right? That might be really useful. How? Sophia didn¡¯t know¡­ ¡°I wish I were smarter¡± she lamented. Then, to hopefully make her wish come true, put the final point in intelligence. Name: Sophia Kanze Level: 2 Specie: Human Sex: Female Age: 20 Class: n/a Attributes: Strength: 9 Dexterity: 15 Agility: 11 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 12 Perception: 12 Skills: Sophia didn¡¯t really feel any smarter when she put that point in intelligence¡­ She put her hands on her face and sighed. Of course it wasn¡¯t going to make her smarter. What did she expect? Become smarter for just putting a point into an imaginary screen? She was actually hoping that would happen... Well, she couldn¡¯t do anything about it now. No point in being angry at her past self for being so stupid. Sophia dismissed the status screen, grabbed the vial and resumed her dangerous trek through the forest. Chapter 3: Pain and sleep Instead of walking along the forest path, Sophia decided to walk just outside of it. She did this to avoid being ambushed by big birds. She also constantly stayed alert, looking at every tree to make sure there wasn¡¯t an enormous spider hiding there. There were the ants as well, but those were lower on Sophia¡¯s scale of scary things she met. She didn¡¯t need to worry about the anteater though, since she could hear them from a mile away even if she wasn¡¯t paying attention. This went on for several minutes. Occasionally meeting a lone ant, which seemed to always notice her, forcing her to fight it. This was when Sophia felt the difference when she put in the stat points. Although it was slight, she was faster than she was before when dodging. She also tested her dexterity by throwing rocks at trees, and once did it on an ant, which was strangely effective. Finding a weapon other than her body, Sophia picked up as much rocks as she could, which wasn¡¯t a lot. She realized there weren¡¯t a lot of rocks in the forest¡­ She thought about using a strong branch aswell to use as a weapon, but all of the ones she found were too brittle. After killing one more red ant, she leveled up again, receiving another three stat points. She decided to put it in agility, perception and strength this time. Sophia picked agility for the same reason as before. Strength was because she decided she might need it. And perception was, again, she might need it. No point in neglecting one thing now, when she might need it in the future. Yes, Sophia decided to raise everything, so it stayed relatively the same until she was sure what everything did. This was to avoid doing something stupid. Although Sophia didn¡¯t yet know what intelligence did, if it was something important and she neglected it, she was definitely going to regret doing that. Aside from leveling up, Sophia met two ant groups of ten once, the red ones and the black ones. They were in the middle of the path, fighting fiercely against each other. Luckily, they were too busy doing what they did to bother with Sophia, which made her very happy. She didn¡¯t test her luck and made a wide berth around the chaotic battlefield. It was probably another five or ten minutes untill she would get out of this damned forest and reach the parking lot. She could use her bike to quickly go back to town. That is, unless someone stole it, she forgot to lock her it... Sophia stopped when she heard a grunting noise further down the forest, veering away from the path. It sounded vaguely human. She widened her eyes, but still stayed cautious. It sounded like he was struggling with something. Was he fighting? Should she go and help? Sophia decided to check things out for now. If she could help, she would. But she highly doubted that. She hoped he wouldn¡¯t die or something. It was kinda scary being alone. Sophia wouldn¡¯t mind depending on someone to get her out of here. She crept closer to the sound were the grunting came from. She chose a random tree to hide behind. Once there, Sophia looked at the culprit making the noise. She widened her eyes and clamped her hand against her mouth. She gasped when she saw something she never would¡¯ve expected. It was a man. He was about 1,80 meters in height. His short, black hair was stained with dirt and blood. The black tank top and grey trainers he wearing were dirtied the same way. The hand that was holding a kitchen knife was repeatedly stabbing an already mangled corpse of what once must¡¯ve been a living, breathing human. It looked like the man was torturing- no, the other person was already dead. Sophia couldn¡¯t tell if it were a he or she. She couldn¡¯t quite see what the man did, as he was in front of the corpse with his back to her, but Sophia didn¡¯t want to see what things he must¡¯ve done to him/her. This was bad. Really bad. Sophia slowly sneaked backwards, trying to avoid having the man spot her- *Snap* The man''s head whipped around to face Sophia. The bloodied grin he was wearing became even wider when he saw the frightened girl standing there. ¡°Well, hello there.¡± He spoke in casual tone, like he wasn¡¯t just enjoying himself torturing the unknown person. And although he spoke in a foreign language, Sophia clearly understood everything he said. Was it because of the system? She didn¡¯t dwell on those thoughts as she was frozen in fear. She cursed her luck once again. Why did she had to step on a branch now of all times? The man, Sophia deduced he was someone from Eastern Europe, swept his gaze over Sophia¡¯s body. Sophia didn¡¯t know how a person, from a country where the Soviet Union held power, was doing here. The relations between West and East kept most from traveling over here or there. That and the wall separating the communists and the capitalists from each other. It¡¯s not like there weren¡¯t any Eastern Europeans here, it was just really rare. ¡°Hmm¡± He appeared to be thinking about something, when his gaze turned from maddened to lustful as he decided. ¡°You look pretty nice. Care to have some fun?¡± Sophia already bolted when she heard ¡®pretty¡¯. Her sneakers crunched the dead leaves that she stepped on. She dodged trees left and right and jumped over suspicious branches that may have had her trip. With her luck it probably would have... She quickly reached the forest path. Not pausing or even looking back if the man was chasing her, Sophia crossed it and continued sprinting into the forest. Her lungs burned as they begged for fresh air as she ran and ran.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Until something lodged itself on her back. With a shriek of pain, Sophia fell. The rocks that were in her hands fell all around her. She used her hand to feel what hit her. She grimaced when she felt the handle. It seemed like the man had thrown the knife he was carrying with him. Sophia looked behind her and saw the man walking towards her, slightly out of breath. ¡°Please¡­ Please don¡¯t!¡± She begged she crawled away, her hope dwaning. Sophia remembered what the man had said and started crying when he crouched right in front of her. He kept smiling as he grabbed the knife handle and yanked it out. Sophia screamed in pain. ¡°Someone please help! Please please please!¡± She cried out, hoping the noise would attract something. ¡°Quiet¡± the man growled as he grabbed the struggling Sophia¡¯s pants and ripped it off. ¡°Nooooooo!¡± She tried pushing and flailing, but the man was too strong. ¡°Oooooh! Those are some nice tattoo¡¯s!¡± The man praised as he saw the two pictures on her thigh and leg. Sophia didn¡¯t want to hear the man¡¯s disgusting praise. She grabbed a close-by rock, that previously fell from her hands, and used it to slam it onto his head. The man stumbled as it successfully connected with his jaw. Sophia tried to get up and run, but the pain in her back kept her from completely standing. She ended up half running half crawling to try to get away. She barely ran five meters before being tackled to the ground. Sophia cried out in pain and desperation as the man turned her around to face him. Instead of the maddened grin he was wearing before, the man¡¯s facial expression was distorted in rage. She opened her mouth to beg, but was interrupted by his fist. ¡°You. Fucking. Bitch. That. Hurt.¡± Each word he said was accompanied by a fist directed at Sophia¡¯s face and body. She didn¡¯t know how long she lay there, but after tens of punches the man finally stopped. Her vision was blurry. Her beaten face drooped to the side. She saw the bloodied knife close to where her hand was and tried to grab it. But she couldn¡¯t. Her hand wouldn¡¯t move. She tried and tried. Even when the man ripped up her shirt and took of her panties, she was unresponsive. Her eyes were slowly closing. Sophia felt that if she closed them now, she would wake up from this nightmare. Yes, if she just closed her eyes, everything... would end. A sudden spike in pain in her lower body woke Sophia from her stupor. She screamed, grabbed the knife and swung it above her. She felt slight a resistance when swinging. Something warm and sticky sprayed on her face shortly after. A weight was released from Sophia¡¯s body as the man fell on the ground. She immediately sprang up and lunged at him. Her half naked body straddled the man. She looked at the cause of her recent misery. His eyes were widened with horror as he held his slit throat with both of his hands. His mouth opened and closed, but Sophia didn¡¯t care. She hadn¡¯t stopped screaming since her lower body started bleeding. She raised her hand that heldthe kitchen knife and swung down. She raised it and swung down. Over and over again. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. After the man was completely unrecognizable by the many stab wounds and Sophia¡¯s voice was hoarse from screaming, she finally stopped. Tears were streaming down her face as she silently raised her bloodied body and walked away, dropping the knife in the process. The only thing she was wearing was her loosened bra, a ripped up T-shirt and her dirty, bloodied sneakers. Her body was bruised, she was raped and her face was beaten unrecognizable. She could only see through one eye and her vision was blurry and swimming. She didn¡¯t know where she was going. Sophia wanted everything to end. Living was only accompanied by pain. She would never forget what happened recently and she didn¡¯t want that. She¡¯d rather die. She hoped a monster would come and eat her or something. Yes, this was what she wanted. So why was it that since she encountered that asshole, not a single spider, ant, anteater or whatever the fuck was in this forest came when she wanted it?! When she was screaming! When she was not trying to avoid their presence! This was complete and utter bullshit! She stopped ranting inside of her mind and squinted her eye, trying to see where she was. Sophia didn¡¯t know how to explain it, but something was wrong? The air here seemed thinner, like she was high up in a mountain. Through her limited vision, she saw dead trees and the dirt seemed to be cracked. Everything around her was dead. Not a single trace of life except for Sophia was here. But, even though there was something that was screaming for her to get away, she didn¡¯t. After all, didn¡¯t she just decide to die? Who cared if there was danger over there... So she continued walking. Passed the dead trees. On the cracked earth. It became harder to breathe with every step she took. Her laboured breathing slowed her even more. Her limited clothing withered away into dust. Her skin dried up and her shoulder length, chestnut colored hair started withering away. Her eyes and ears started bleeding as a certain pressure overcame her. Her hearing became bad and her already bad eyesight became even worse. She dropped to her knees. It was to the point where she was desperately gasping for air, but finding none. The pressure made impossible to stand up. Sophia accepted her fate and dropped to the ground. While taking her last short breaths, Sophia¡¯s sight became slightly clearer again. How, she didn¡¯t know. She saw a sickly green horse with a hooded figure on top. The horse seemed to be sick as foam came out its mouth and pieces of its flesh were rotting, showing maggots and other disgusting creatures wriggling around. The horse didn¡¯t seem to mind while it was standing on a field of bones. The bones didn¡¯t just lay there. They moved and formed a gigantic humanoid, standing behind the hooded figure. ¡°Well well well. What do we have here?¡± She heard a melodic feminine voice, as Sophia closed her eyes and sighed out her last breath. Chapter 4: Horseman ¡°Well well well. What do we have here?¡± Just as the woman decided to greet the visitor¡­ she died. ¡°Darnit¡± She muttered with a frown while looking at the slowly decaying form of the girl that came all the way over here. A grumbling noise interrupted the woman¡¯s thoughts. She turned around to look at the twenty meter tall mass of bones that was standing behind her. ¡°Yes yes. I know. Don¡¯t be so hasty.¡± The woman said in mock exasperation and unmounted her horse. With a casual move of her hand, the body of the girl stopped rotting. The body glowed and started to rapidly revert back to normal. The woman moved her hand once again and the girl¡¯s body went up and started hovering in front of her. ¡°Hmmmm¡± She observed the body, appearing to be thinking. ¡°Her status isn¡¯t anything special. Although her dexterity seems to be decent and no inherent skills huh¡­¡± The woman muttered to herself. She flicked her fingers and the status screen disappeared. ¡°Oooooooohhh!!! Although that guy was a disgusting little thing, he at least knew how pretty these¡­ what were they called again?¡± The woman was praising the drawings on the girl''s body, but appeared to have forgotten what they were called. A rumbling sound coming from the mass of bones made her widen her eyes in realization. ¡°Yes yes! Tattos! That¡¯s what they were called!¡± She smiled and looked at the giant mass of bones. ¡°Thank you Hector¡± It, or rather, Hector rumbled again. Probably saying something along the lines of ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡±. There were two of these ¡®tattos¡¯ on the girl. One on her entire right leg and one on her left thigh. The one on the right leg was what appeared to be a Chinese dragon, although the woman thought about something entirely different. It was very pretty with its completely red eyes and beautifully drawn out whiskers. It also had a mane on the sides of its head. The skin below the scales were colored in a light pink and small branches with flowers colored in red were drawn all around it. The one on her left thigh was a skull lying in branches with flowers. The drawing started at her upper thigh and ended at her knee. The branches were drawn as waves and they partially covered the skull. The smaller flowers that were attached to the branches were colored in a light pink and the bigger flowers at the knee stayed uncolored. The skull¡¯s eyeholes were slightly colored in black and the shadows of the branches were also further accentuated. ¡°Ah!¡± She let out a dumb sound when she remembered something important. Turning around, the woman faced Hector. ¡°Hectooor! How is the girl going to accept a chapter when she¡¯s unconscious?!¡± She yelled in nervous tone. Hector rumbled in response and the woman shook her head in frustration. ¡°If we wait until the girl¡¯s conscious again, she will be too hungry to listen to anything we say! And even then, we didn¡¯t get her word that we were allowed to do this! What if she refuses to do it?! What do we do!!!¡± She started panicking as the woman thought her plan was ruined by the girl dying too soon. She underestimated the trauma rape and being beaten half to death caused. It was the perfect opportunity when she teleported into this world for her purpose. A girl all alone, and two guys who were randomly teleported here as a consequence of the System being established too soon and abruptly. It was even better when one of the two guys seemed to be sick in the head, as he started torturing the guy when he got wounded when they were fighting a flesh eating hare. She didn¡¯t want that one guy, so the woman let him die. She didn¡¯t want the psycho either as he was a bit too unpredictable. The girl however, seemed to be a perfect pick. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. At first she thought it wouldn¡¯t take long for her to break, as she got wounded rather quickly when she panicked seeing that black ant. When the girl survived and that ant group came, the woman lead a natural predator over there. After all, it wasn¡¯t yet time to reveal herself since the girl hadn¡¯t broken yet. And it wouldn¡¯t do if she died too soon. But even after sending that little eagle and eager spider for her to see, she didn¡¯t break. The more the woman saw of the girl, the more she thought her luck was really amazing. The woman kept the more dangerous animals away and only let her fight those two kinds of ants until the girl was close to the psycho. The woman thought the best way to break her was to let someone from her own race do it. When the psycho and the girl were relatively close to each other, the woman silenced every being around them and slightly amplified the girl¡¯s hearing, so she would hear him. The woman slightly panicked when the girl was stealthily sneaking away! Luckily, there was a branch nearby and the woman made good use of it. Not only that, to make sure he heard, she amplified the sound. The rest went perfectly. She remembered praising her foresight back then, but she hadn¡¯t anticipated the girl dying. Well, she expected it, but she hoped it would¡¯ve been after forcing her word on the blessing and giving her the chapter. She wasn¡¯t really thinking about it when the girl was at her fingertips. The woman couldn¡¯t just let such a good seed die off like this. She just hoped the girl wouldn¡¯t come to resent her and try to get revenge. If she did that, the woman would be forced to kill the girl and give up on this place, which would be a pain... Hector rumbled again, forcing the woman out of her thoughts. She turned to the giant and smiled. ¡°Forcing the letters of that language into her mind would probably kill her, but having it as so that the knowledge would only be available to the girl when she has suitable strength, would be a pretty good idea¡­¡± The woman paused to put her thoughts together. ¡°But that would still be potentially crippling. You know what happened last time when someone tried that¡­¡± ¡°But if could do it based off recognition, it would most definitely work!¡± She finished her thoughts, conveying them to Hector, who rumbled in response. The woman smile went bigger as she responded at Hector''s question. ¡°I know that giving a book of the dead is forbidden and applying them to the body is as well. But I have an idea! If we make it so the girl and only her can recognize it, that wouldn¡¯t go against the rules right? Besides, I can just make a failsafe in case some powerful being finds her and the scriptures written on her body¡­¡± As the woman talked, she pointed a finger to the girl¡¯s left arm and started writing. ¡­ After finishing her masterpiece, The woman looked at it with pride. ¡°I did a pretty good job, right Hector?¡± She asked the giant who hadn¡¯t moved for the entire two hours she was enjoying herself. Hector made another rumbling sound. ¡°Awww, thank you.¡± The woman shook her head bashfully which caused her hood to fall off, revealing her face. If any human were to see this, they would either wretch on the spot or faint from shock. The woman¡¯s head was full of acne and rotting flesh. Maggots made their homes in the pus filled holes that were her eyes. Her partially bald head had patches of dried out hair and mold covering the skin. The woman smiled widely revealing her rotting teeth. She let out a disease filled sigh full of anticipation. ¡°It¡¯s about time we began the process right?¡± She turned her body towards Hector, who nodded its massive head. It raised its hand, holding out a finger. It glowed as a spine came out of it. The woman grabbed it with her left hand and then held out her right. Like the giant¡¯s finger, her hand glowed as well and some strange, squirming green substance came out of it. She then clapped both hands together, making the white bone and the green substance fuse together. ¡°After this we¡¯ll leave Hector. If we stay any longer, the entire region might turn into blight and the girl will die of hunger if that happens.¡± The woman added while combining the two forces. Hector rumbled in response, conveying its agreement. What appeared was the spine in a sickly green color. It was radiating thick miasma as the woman started carving strange symbols onto it. Finished carving the strange symbols, the woman struck out with her free hand into the girl¡¯s back. Grabbing the spine, she ripped it out and quickly replaced with the one she was holding. As soon as the spine was replaced, the girl¡¯s body started undergoing changes. The woman didn¡¯t stay to watch the spectacle however, as she had seen it numerous amounts of times before. ¡°Let¡¯s hope we¡¯ll be able to establish ourselves here¡­¡± The woman murmured to herself while mounting her horse that was seemingly forgotten about. Hector rumbled and the woman looked at him. ¡°It¡¯s true we were lucky finding a perfect opportunity so soon. But we both know that in the beginning the System starts, most people die. The ones with the most potential won¡¯t be able to fully utilize it when they are dead. Although the girl¡­ Sophia was it? Sophia will have a few benefits, but if she can¡¯t utilize them well¡­ she¡¯ll die just like the rest.¡± As soon as she finished talking, the woman, the horse she was mounted on, the giant and the field of bones disappeared, leaving the changing Sophia behind. Chapter 5: Hunger and change Sophia woke up by the rumbling of her stomach. ¡°Ugh¡± She groaned when she felt pain all over her body. Her stomach, left arm and back especially hurt. She opened her eyes to see that she was in the same spot she- ¡°Huh¡± She let out a dumb sound. Isn¡¯t she supposed to dead? She clearly remembered not being able to breathe. How come she can see through both of her eyes. Wasn¡¯t her face supposed to be pummeled by that guy? Sophia felt a sudden burst of anger towards that man. She wanted to rip him apart and eat his delicious flesh- She shook her. What the hell was she thinking? Eating a human? What is she, a cannibal? Speaking of food, she felt so hungry. Now that she was aware of her extreme hunger, Sophia couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it. She started examining her surroundings. It seemed she was unconscious for a few hours as it was getting dark. It was as she saw before losing consciousness. No sign of life in the entire area. The earth was so dry it cracked. In the distance she could see a few sparse dead trees. She wasn¡¯t going to find something to eat here. Sophia then smelled something delicious. She drooled as she smelled the most delicious smell she ever smelled!. Her head snapped in that direction. She rapidly rose from the ground and sprinted in that direction. Sophia lost all rationality as she ran. She didn¡¯t notice the changes that her body underwent. She didn¡¯t even notice her not getting tired even after a full minuteof sprinting. It was a great achievement for someone who didn¡¯t exercise their body. She soon got out of the region where everything was dead and the forest looked like an actual forest in the middle of fall. When Sophia reached the place, she didn¡¯t even recognize the man¡¯s body that was getting eaten by a flock of hare¡¯s. The hare¡¯s looked relatively the same as the ones Sophia would recognize. They looked slightly bigger. Their bloodshot eyes stared at the intruder as they showed sharp, bloodied teeth and hissed. Sophia completely lost it at that point. All that she thought about was the feast that was strawn in front of her. She opened her mouth impossibly wide, her human teeth morphed into the same ones the hare¡¯s had. She then roared at her food. The hare¡¯s didn¡¯t seem to be allies, as over half of them fled and the remaining three decided to fight her. They started running at her in three different directions. One in front, one on the right and one on the left. Instead of just standing there, Sophia sprinted at the hare in front of her. There was no strategy involved, she was just so hungry that she couldn¡¯t wait for the hare to arrive. They reached each other in less than two seconds. The hare lunged at Sophia. She responded by stepping to the side and opening her mouth impossibly wide again. The hare couldn¡¯t stop its lunge as Sophia¡¯s mouth reached its side. Her mouth clamped shut and it went through its muscles and bones. The hare let out a whimper as its body was bitten in half, some of its little organs in Sophia¡¯s mouth. Not even chewing, she swallowed the lump of flesh in her mouth. Her throat swelled slightly when she did. This only took five seconds, but by then the other two hare¡¯s reached Sophia. The hare on the right was now facing Sophia, so she put her attention to that. As it wanted to headbutt her stomach, it prepared to jump. The hare wanted to use its strong back legs to make it jump fast enough so it wouldn¡¯t end up like the other hare. But, before it could jump, Sophia moved and grabbed it by the neck. She squeezed and blood spurted out as its neck was crushed. The one that was on the left was faced with Sophia¡¯s back figure as she bent down. It clamped its sharp nails onto her. It then bit into her shoulder. Sophia growled and instinctively moved something inside of her. The hare screamed as it let go and fell to the ground as its face and paws started melting. Sophia ignored its wails and started devouring the hare with the crushed neck. She soon moved to the first hare she killed and swiftly devoured it as well. Sophia then turned towards the hare who literally turned into goop. She went on her hands and knees and her head moved towards the sickly green substance. She started slurping the goop, and in even less time than it took to eat the other hare¡¯s, it was all gone. Finished, Sophia burped and then slowly turned her head towards the half eaten corpse of the man. She stood up and moved towards it. But with each step she took, her body slowed. She slowly gained back control of her body. When she reached the body, Sophia''s teeth morfed back into normal human teeth and barely stopped herself from feasting on the corpse. She stepped back and looked around her. She saw two bloodied patches were she ate the two hare¡¯s. A patch where the fallen leaves withered and the dirt blackened was also there where she, uh, drank that hare. Sophia wanted to vomit but couldn¡¯t. She didn¡¯t actually feel anything, even when she got back control. She found this ¡®normal¡¯ but it clearly wasn¡¯t! What was happening to her?! Even now, she was constantly finding reasons to not eat that corpse. It should''ve been the other way around! Tears were streaming down her face. ¡°Great. I¡¯m now a monster and potential cannibal.¡± She whimpered. Sophia moved her hands to wipe away her tears and then remembered that they were bloodied. ¡°Oh right. I¡¯m naked as well.¡± She lamented. Feeling even more gloomy. She used her arms instead of her hands to wipe away her tears. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°What the hell?!¡± She yelled in outrage when she saw the tattoo on her left arm. ¡®Who decided to write a book on my arm?!¡¯ She screamed inside, her depression caused by things before she lost consciousness and her recent trauma of ¡®eating things alive¡¯ all but forgotten. It was exactly like she thought it was. Weird words and symbols were branded from her wrist to her shoulder. Worse, it seemed like gibberish. She couldn¡¯t understand what these words were saying. Sophia sighed. If she looked at it more closely, it looked prettier. Yes, a lot prettier. She wanted to grab her hair and yell out her frustrations, but she didn¡¯t want to attract anything over here. It would probably be best to leave now. As she moved, Sophia noticed that her hair was white¡­ ¡°Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!¡± She screamed, horrified. Her hair was snow white. It grew to waist length aswell for some reason. She dropped to her knees and pounded her fists on the ground, screaming curses all the while. ¡°Not the hair! Why the hair?!¡± What had she done to gain such an injustice?! After several minutes passed of Sophia¡¯s pounding on the ground, she stood up more depressed than ever. Why did it have to be white? It definitely wouldn¡¯t look nice on her! Luckily, she could still color her hair. Now that she thought about it, having white didn¡¯t seem as depressing as she thought. Sophia shook out of her thoughts. She needed to move. There was a problem though. She was naked and didn¡¯t have a weapon. ¡°Ah!¡± She remembered the knife she used to stab that guy. A sudden flood of emotions raged within Sophia as she remembered the things he did to her and the things she did to him. She wasn¡¯t going to tell this to anyone, ever. She shook her head. Now was not the time for her to dwell on this. When she¡¯s somewhere safe, Sophia would get plenty of time to cry out her pain and frustrations. She very quickly found the knife. It layed next to the body, the blade covered in some intestines. She was horrified that she thought it looked quite delicious. What the hell was happening to her? ¡°Oh¡± She suddenly remembered something very important. ¡°S-Status¡± Name: Sophia Kanze Level: 4 Specie: Human (Deathtouched, Blessing of Pestilence) Sex: Female Age: 20 Class: n/a Attributes (6): Strength: 10 Dexterity: 15 Agility: 12 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 12 Perception: 13 Skills: Bone manipulation lvl 2, Venom lvl 2, Summon Guardian Spirit Familiar ¡°What?¡± She had a suspicion this might¡¯ve had the answer as to what happened. It¡¯s a good thing she remembered¡­ Sophia was disturbed by all the things that changed. Also, her strength, speed and stamina were obviously higher than before, but nothing really changed there. She wasn¡¯t sure what all of these new things meant. She tried focusing on ¡®Deathtouched¡¯ to see what would happen. Deathtouched You have sacrificed one important part of your body(spine) to replace it by a body part of a specific undead(Boneyard) to become a half undead being. Along with some other benefits to that particular species of undead, you also receive a racial skill of the same undead. She widened her eyes when the information poofed in her head. She immediately swept her hand to her back, attempting to feel if there was something off. Luckily, she didn¡¯t feel some horrible disfigurement. So she was part undead now¡­ Sophia didn¡¯t know how to feel. The hunger for flesh and the changes to her body was because of this, but¡­ She briefly remembered that horseman and that giant figure made of bones. When she woke up, both of them were gone. Even that huge field of bones where the giant was standing was nowhere to be found. There was one thing that didn¡¯t make sense though. It said that she sacrificed her spine, but Sophia didn¡¯t remember doing that. Did she have memory loss? Now that she found the cause, she decided that there were still a few things she needed to do now that she found out that focusing on the word gave her an explanation. She felt embarrassed for not thinking about it before. Blessing of Pestilence You have been blessed by Pestilence, one of four undead horseman who serve Hel. You receive one of the various skills Pestilence accumulated in the past. ¡°Pestilence?¡± Sophia remembered the horseman before she lost consciousness. She wasn¡¯t really into religion, but weren¡¯t the four horseman and Hel from completely different beliefs? Or did the System make a mistake and it was supposed to be hell? She shook out of her thoughts. They were probably different from the various mythologies that were told. If they were really Gods, Sophia hoped she wouldn¡¯t meet them again. If she remembered correctly, those two beings although different, had one thing in common. They weren¡¯t exactly nice people¡­ Sophia stopped thinking about mythical beings. It wasn¡¯t as if they would help her. She then focused on her attributes and class. She wasn¡¯t going to skip the ones she was sure of though. She could still be wrong. The explanation that class brought was simple to understand. It was like a job or your specialty and it would be automatically filled when you reached level 10. So, if you specialized in brute strength, the resulting class would be of that nature as well. Strength was as Sophia thought. It increases your strength. Dexterity increased how nimble you could be with not only your hands and fingers, but your body. Agility was speed. Endurance was stamina. Intelligence didn¡¯t make you smarter as Sophia previously thought. It increases your mana pool, which you need for using magic and certain skills. It would be something she would frequently use, as she had Venom and that Bone manipulation skill which probably needed it. Perception increases your awareness. Your senses enhance the more points you put into it. Skills was a broad term used for the various abilities you gain while fighting or doing something like crafting. Or you could receive them like she did. Sophia wanted to put her focus on the three skills she got next, but was interrupted by a distant roar. She whipped her head in that direction and then turned her head towards the body. In her haste to find out what happened, she forgot about the delicious smell the body was giving out. If she found it delicious, other things definitely would. Sophia hurriedly dismissed her status screen and went on her way towards the forest pathway. When she reached there, she would find out about those skills and then decide where she should put her unallocated stat points.