Dusk

Kaz stared at the corpse-like creature that seemed eager to get to him by any means possible. As the shadow that currently protected it moved a centimeter, it was there with it, waiting to seize the opportunity as it continued to shriek and hiss what sounded like enraged demands to come closer. Kaz snapped out of his daze and stood up with the husk watching his every move, but then Kaz heard something that chilled him to his bones, another shriek, and another, and even more unending shrieks appearing. Almost every ruin around the nexus crystal deposit had them coming.

His attention was brought to the ruin in front of him as he heard a panting growl as another husk appeared and ran past the first one to get to Kaz and lept out into the sunlight straight at Kaz, who at last turned out of the way. He watched the second husk squirm and shriek in pain as its skin burned away in the light. Slowly it stopped moving and only charred bones were left.

'The light! It hurts them, I'm safe out here…but only 2 more days, and then I will have to survive this for a whole week!'

The realization that he was lucky to revive at the beginning of the day cycle dawned on him, as well as the fact that he didn't have much longer until the night, what would happen then? He has to prepare, but what can he do, he was unsure of what he could do to prepare. Besides sunlight what else could he use?

Kaz up to this point hadn't worried about weapons because he had believed this planet to be uninhabited.

"I thought you said nothing lived here?" Kaz questioned the system with a bit of animosity.

[I never said that Aeloria was void of inhabitants, I said planets abandoned by their god typically die off, but a husk isn't exactly alive, they are somewhat stuck between life and death, and are only sustained by nexus energy, which is probably why they went for you, and is probably why they are nesting around this deposit of nexus crystals.]

Kaz furrowed his brows while still analyzing the foe in front of him. Kaz hadn't really learned to fight or ever been good at it and was unsure of what he could do to defeat this thing. He wanted to leave but if he didn't find out more before he left, he wouldn't have the time to when the sun went down.

First he decided to make a light and see how it was affected, since sunlight seemed to harm it.He made several lights of various intensities, and when shined at the creature they showed an increased effect of irritation and reddening of the body, but didn't burn it like the sunlight. Next he wanted to try to make an energy based gun like before, and actually managed to propel some energy at the creature, but upon impact, it seemed to absorb it.

"Do I have to resort to physical combat for this?"

Kaz then fabricated a quick spear, in which he tried to stab the creature with, which at first easily batted it away, and stepped out of the shadow for a second in irritation before retreating back again, continuing to be enraged. Kaz then finally got a connection on the creature's neck. At first the creature seemed to be in pain, but then it grabbed the spear and Kaz could feel a weird sensation, one he hadn't experienced before. His energy was directly leaving his body, but through his hands and into the spear, towards the husk.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

The notification made Kaz realize what was happening. He tried to pull the energy back, but the suction was so strong, and he felt as if his hands were being glued to the spear making him unable to escape the situation.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

The drain slowed but it continued, notification after notification.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

Kaz could feel his energy leaving him, but he continued to try and pull the energy back, only slowing it.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

Kaz continued to focus on pulling the energy back inside, hoping to survive this stupid decision some way.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

[Wisp count below 10, critical level reached, resulting in a reduction of stats.]

Kaz slowly felt his body weaken, lessening his ability to think as well as his strength to resist the pulling of his energy. The husk took a step backwards pulling Kaz a step closer to the darkness, from which two more Husks appeared, as if waiting for him to cross the shadow line.

'Stop moving, don't take another fucking step body, pull your energy back!'

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

He continued to inch closer, only about a meter away now, causing the other husk to become impatient and reach out slightly, then pull their arms back after being burnt.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

Kaz started to become desperate, feeling his energy disappearing.

'Please stop this!'

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

'Wait please!'

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

'Just fucking wait!!'

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

Kaz started to become manic, he was only 30 centimeters away.

[Nexus wisp drained: -1]

[Wisp count at 1, continued drainage will result in failure of the game, unlike the tutorial, you will not be brought back this time.]

Kaz looked for any way out.

"I SAID FUCKING STOP!"

Kaz's wisp count stopped, and the husk that was taking his energy seemed to start to struggle. Finally Kaz understood why he couldn't send out energy, why he couldn't pull the energy back, because he wasn't truly controlling it, merely trying to absorb it. Could a rag take in water if it was being rung out? Instead, he needed to change his approach not to absorb the energy, but to subdue it. He needed to be a catalyst, not a sponge, he needed to direct it like a lightning rod does to lightning, so he focused on directing the energy into him, instead of trying to absorb it normally, the approach was different than before, and then another notification appeared.

[Nexus wisp absorbed: +1]

He was coming back, he could feel his energy increasing.

[Nexus wisp absorbed: +2]

He could feel its flow increasing.

[Nexus wisp absorbed: +2]

[....]

This continued and he reached his strength again, but didn't stop, at this point he was stronger than the husk, now he pulled the husk out, using the spear to flip it's body over his head and slamming it to the ground and putting his leg on its face as he drained the last bit of energy from it.

[Enemy destroyed: gained a total of 10 nexus wisps]

[Wisp count reached and passed a threshold of 25, further increasing stats. increase strength]

[Due to reaching a new understanding of nexus energy and how to use it, a new skill has been acquired.]

[New Skill Acquired: {Nexus Affinity lvl.1}]

[This skill helps the user in their control of nexus energy, increasing the range of control and the proficiency of the control with each level.]

Now Kaz could feel the world a bit differently, his range immediately increased 5 times from 1 meter radius to a radius of 5 meters of the range he could feel, he also felt as if his senses were better, and he could sense the husks energy better back by the entrance. He turned back towards it, and thrust his spear again, this time feeling it land a hit more easily thanks to the stat increase he got from the wisp threshold. After landing a hit, he could pull the energy from the husk much quicker, and was able to kill it as well.

[Enemy destroyed: gained a total of 5 nexus wisps]

'The amount decreased? Why?'

[Due to the previous husk being able to absorb your energy, it was able to produce more by using your as a catalyst, effectively increasing its level, if it hadn't, you would have gotten the same rewards.]

Kaz was half tempted to allow a husk to take some energy to get more back, but he decided it wasn't worth it for now. He quickly dispatched the third husk and made his decision to enter the ruins again.

Kaz began to hunt the husk, to learn more of them. Currently, he was not that good with the spear, and tried to lure them in various ways away from each other, since fighting one was hard enough. Sure he killed the others before, but they weren't able to get to him before, but now, with him being in the ruins, they could reach him and they did. He continued to fight them, he wasn't able to absorb as much energy from them, because of the fights and a lot of their energy dispersed, resulting in few gains, but something else happened as he thrust his spear through the head of husk.

[New skill acquired: {Basic Spear Mastery lvl.1}]

[This skill increases the technical capabilities of using a spear, allowing the user to become better at wielding the spear the more it is used.]

At this point he had been fighting for a few hours and he was feeling like he gained an understanding of how to fight with husk now and he headed back to the entrance. Upon stepping out he received another notification as he looked at the now twilight sky, with the sun threatening to hide behind the horizon.

[Time is now Dusk, you have 36 hours until the night arrives.]

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