Chapter 4

The moment those words left it's lips, Adrenaline flooded his body and 'thinking' took a backseat. His

body responded to the danger instantly.

Having decided not to give it a chance to attack. He ran forward, ducking low and stabbed into its thigh as hard as he could, his full body's weight pressing onto the knife.

He struck gold; black blood oozed from the wound, and the beast screamed.

Aughhhh!

it yelled out, its arms flailing toward Andre. Quick thinking led him to sidestep and move backward.

He moved to strike again before realizing he had no weapon. The knife was stuck.

In his hasty attempt to get away, he managed to leave his only weapon in the creature.

Left weaponless, he started to panic, but the beast gave him no respite.

It lashed out. An overhead strike came toward his head, which he managed to dodge by throwing himself out the way, this time to the side which resulted in him crashing into a wall.

'Fuck me, I knew I should've gotten a bigger place.'

Taking note, the creature turned and struck out with a kick from its good leg.

Crash!

Andre was sent flying toward the balcony. Pain exploded all throughout his back, the glass shards firmly lodged into his flesh. He felt a sharp agony like no other in his lower back.

He had slammed his spine onto the balcony railing; it groaned and bent slightly. His vision swam, tears streamed down his face, and he thought back to his time in the void: it was suffocating, cold, and dark. He didn't want to go back.

Thump, thump, thump.

Gritting his teeth, he focused completely on staying conscious. The beast was now charging towards him. Time slowed down as he felt death approaching.

In a final act of defiance, he moved towards the creature, making it not even one step before pain flared in his back and he dropped to the ground, hard.

His eyes widened; something was seriously wrong, but the beast gave him no time for thoughts as its hooves smashed directly into his ribs.

Although his last charge was for naught, it wasn't completely useless. The beast had kicked him, most likely breaking several ribs, but it also lost all balance and smashed into the balcony railing.

The railing, unable to take the momentum from the beast, groaned before it broke and fell, taking the beast with it.

Andre, however, was too busy dealing with a newfound pain he had never experienced in his life. He felt his ribs poking through his shirt, blood pooling at his feet. Worst of all, his legs were in severe pain.

Thankfully, he could still feel them and even move them, but any attempts to get up rewarded him with mind-numbing pain.

'Oh God, please no…this can't be happening, i can't die here, not like this.'

Too busy focusing on his own mortality, he didn't notice the transparent screen in front of him.

It took a few more moments of stewing in pain before his mind started to return to him.

"Wha...what is this?" he questioned no one in particular.

The screen was almost transparent, black with golden lines intricately woven into its edges.

[Congratulations, you have killed an Aberrant!]

[You have become Level 1! 5 stat points available.]

Looking further down, he spotted two more notifications.

[Ability unlocked: Morph.]

[Additional functions available.]

Not managing to shake off his disbelief, he simply stared at the screen for what felt like hours before snapping back.

The pain in his ribs was a constant reminder that this was no dream. He put pressure on the wound and felt bits of bone poking through the skin. It was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. Everything felt wrong and out of place.

He grimaced, starting to lose focus. His vision of the apartment was starting to grow darker. He could tell he was running out of time.

Desperate to find anything that could help, he focused back on the screen. Two things stood out to him: the new functions and his new skill.

He raised a hand to touch the new functions notification, but it seemed to sense his intent as the screen expanded into what looked like a video game status screen.

—----------------------------------------------------

Name: Andre

Level: 1

Health: 57 / 200

Stamina: 7 / 50

Mana: 10 / 10

Strength: 9

(Determines your physical power and how much you can lift,carry and exert.)

Agility: 5

(Controls your speed, reflexes, and overall mobility.)

Constitution: 8

(Represents your endurance and resistance to damage or fatigue while also influencing your recovery rate.)

Mind: 5

(Governs the amount of mana you can hold and control.)

Intelligence: 4

(Enhances the potency and refinement of your abilities and mana.)

Stat Points: 5

—----------------------------------------------------

The numbers and labels glowed softly, floating in front of him. Andre took a moment to process what he was seeing. His health was dangerously low, his stamina nearly depleted, but his mana was untouched, likely because he hadn't known how to use it yet.

"stat points," he muttered, understanding that these were points he could allocate to improve his abilities.

He breifly began to consider where to invest the points before a flare of pain brought him back to reality. He needed to recover quickly; he didn't know how many of these creatures there were, but he needed to be ready. He focused on using the points, and the screen shifted slightly.

—----------------------------------------------------

Stat Points: 5

Strength: 9 + [ ]

Agility: 5 + [ ]

Constitution: 8 + [ ]

Mind: 5 + [ ]

Intelligence: 4 + [ ]

—----------------------------------------------------

Andre thought carefully until the pain reminded him he was running out of time.

After a moment's hesitation, he made his decision. He allocated 4 points to constitution to increase his overall durability and hopefully health. He then added one point to agility to help him regain some mobility; not being able to move in this kind of situation was a death sentence.

As he confirmed his choices, he felt a surge of energy flow through him. His body felt warmer, and the pain was slightly more bearable.

The stat screen updated:

—----------------------------------------------------

Name: Andre

Level: 1

Health: 97 / 240

Stamina: 27 / 70

Mana: 10 / 10

Strength: 9

Agility: 6

Constitution: 12

Mind: 5

Intelligence: 4

Stat Points: 0

—----------------------------------------------------

Both his current and max health had increased by 40, while his stamina had increased by 20. It seemed each point into constitution added 10 points to his health and 5 to his stamina.

The whole event felt surreal; before, he was barely able to keep himself from passing out, but now he felt wide awake. With his vision no longer a blurry mess, he also took note of his stamina bar going up. It had now reached 30.

While it was stagnant before, it seemed as long as his health was over a certain amount, his stamina would also regenerate. It made enough sense to him, and frankly, he was too focused on staying alive to even care.

Using his newfound strength, he slowly pushed himself off the floor and leaned against a nearby wall. The near unbearable pain in his legs had turned into more of a dull ache. The pain was still there, but it was nothing compared to what it felt like before.

He stumbled towards the washroom, opening the drawer under the sink and pulling out a first aid kit.

Andre opened the kit and surveyed its contents: antiseptic wipes, gauze pads, bandages, a pair of scissors, a roll of medical tape, and some painkillers. He grabbed the antiseptic wipes first, knowing he needed to clean the wounds to prevent infection.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed the wipes against the cuts, hissing as the antiseptic stung his flesh. He cleaned the area around his ribs, wincing every time he touched the protruding bones. Next, he grabbed the gauze pads and pressed them against the wound to staunch the bleeding.

He wrapped the medical tape around his torso, securing the gauze pads in place. The bandage roll was almost out, but he had just enough to wrap tightly around his ribs, providing some support and stability.

Andre then took the painkillers, dry swallowing them. He knew they would take some time to kick in, but any relief was better than none. He continued to bandage up the other cuts on his back and arms, using the remaining gauze and tape.

Exhausted but slightly more stable, he leaned against the sink, catching his breath. The immediate danger had passed, but he knew he couldn't stay here. He needed to find out more about the Arcane Nexus and his new reality.

Summoning the Nexus screen again, he focused on the "new ability" notification. If he was going to survive, he needed every advantage he could get.