Barging back into the forest, the first thing Zayn did was crash out.

  His lungs rejoiced as the fresh smell of greens burst in. Thanked the god or whoever was responsible for oxygen. His entire body convulsed and settled down, and he immediately fell into the realms of dreams.

  It took him a long time to return to his senses. Even longer for the sense of disorientation to flush out of his system. He devoured quite a bit of food and metal, though which one of them was food was blurry to him now.

  Might have devoured a bit too much, though, to the point of feeling bloated. Only when his heart refused to bond any more metal did he stop. It seemed like he was plateauing.

  Not good.

  He also made Hollowfang go through another couple of rounds of enhancement. The result was astounding.

  Hollowfang(+5): Created by the best of Fae craftsmen and enchanted through a lost method, Hollowfang has superseded its former glory. Even the best of craftsmen would be at your heels, asking you about the secrets of enhancement.

  Characteristics unlocked!

  [Light when retracting, Heavy when striking]; Now the sword can become as light and heavy as the user can bear with their current stat.

  This weapon can’t be enchanted any further.

  He stroked its edges and felt its hook-like body with his fingers. It resembled a curved half moon now, pretty yet lethal. The glowing sheen on its body diffused the pain of lost wealth.

  “Surely, that shouldn’t have cost 234 of them, though?” He suspected the coffin was filching more crystals than necessary. He sent the thing a suspicious glance, to which the coffin returned some awkward clacking.

  It was stealing! For sure!

  Still, he made his clothes go through another couple of rounds of enchantment. This ability was far too useful not be put to use. Crystal thief it might be, but its work was immaculate without doubt.

  He also looked through his current skills.

  Skill: 8/8

  Reinforced Strike (Initiate - Mid)

  I see through it (Initiate - Low)

  Scarlet Veins (Apprentice - Peak)

  Blood tangle (Initiate - High)

  Sylvan Spear Arts (Apprentice – High)

  Thorn Burst (Initiate – Low)

  Crimson Claws(Initiate - Low)

  Verdant Skin(Initiate - Low)

  He looked through the choices and found a problem.

  The number of skills has been capped! To add a new skill, you must remove one first.

  The removed skill will turn into an useable skill scroll!

  It felt like the system had asked him to give up a kidney. Bullshit! Why was there a skill cap? So what happened if he lost Verdant Skin? No more adaptation? Does he lose his adaptations?

  Unacceptable, that was.

  But there were still some things he could do without removing a skill.

  Skill analysis complete! Racial Skill ‘Sylvian Spear Arts’ can be upgraded!

  Sylvian Spear Arts(Apprentice) has evolved to Sylvian Weapon Arts(Initiate)!

  Sylvian Weapon Arts (Initiate - Low) : You are mildly proficient in every weapon, a jack of all trades. Just enough not to make a fool of yourself. But the door of mastery is yet to be touched.

  The more you use this skill, the more techniques you unlock from the vault.

  It was a passive skill, so it only added more knowledge. Memories that clearly didn’t belong to him. Memories of someone tirelessly striking with axes, training with swords, and awakening with a new spear technique. He wasn’t sure he liked it, but it certainly proved useful to not suck at fighting.

  It was much harder to rank up passive skills than active skills, which made some sense. He didn’t appreciate it, though.

  Status

  Zayn H. King, Level - 32

  Race: Human (Low)

  Combat Class: [Red Rager]

  Affiliation: Human (Earth)

  Talent: ??

  Feats: [Undying cockroach] [Fall damage...what’s that?], [Bloodthirsty], [I’m a gamer]...

  He felt rivers of dopamine coursing through him as he stared at his status. He’d been here for about a week or so of Earth’s time. In that time, he had gained about 32 levels, had a talent, and quite a few feats.

  Who else could have gotten so many in so little time? Who else other than him?

  He sighed.

  Probably a whole lot of people, as long as they weren’t running around in a circle like him. How far was he from the people who could hunt in groups? Human society thrived in unison, so there might be a lot of people stronger than him by now.

  He needed to be faster.

  Stats

  Strength: 26

  Constitution: 29

  Vitality: 26

  Fortitude: 37

  Intelligence: 14

  Dexterity: 29

  Free stats: 8

  His stats looked good, well, mostly.

  Strength had twenty-four points, carried by three bronze [Feats]. He’d actually not put that many points into it, just seven or so of the seventy or so stats he’d gotten.

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  He took a look at the [Feats] related to strength again.

  Bloodthirsty (Bronze): We're out for blood with this one! And you are the pioneer in this field—with the first kill of this integration…

  Effect: + 3 Strength.

  Stoneheaded (Bronze): Did you just choke a rock to death?

  Effect: +3 Strength.

  Monster Slayer II (Bronze): You’ve slaughtered more than a hundred monsters, the early signs of a budding monster slayer.

  Effect: +3 Strength.

  One shot(Bronze): Wow! You have one shot at something ten levels above you, not once, not twice, but thrice! Perhaps next time, try to get to know them better first.

  Effect: +2 Strength

  He nodded, happy with the 26 points in strength. He was capable of effortlessly uprooting trees and benching a hundred kilograms without problem.

  He could have put more, but his damage output wasn’t entirely dependent on his base strength.

  Whenever he was attacking, it was either through Bloodmetal or Reinforced strike. Though his talent did reflect his strength, Reinforced Strike boosted his Strength manifold.

  How much was anyone's guess; Zayn assumed it to be over two hundred to five hundred percent, depending on the amount of mana he used.

  Then came the Constitution, at 29. Although he would like it to be higher, he only had so many points to allot. It still got many points out of him—seventeen, almost three times the amount he put in Strength.

  Fall damage…What’s that? (Silver) : What a dive! You just fell from one world to another! And didn’t go splat! Wow!

  Primary Effect: +3 Constitution, +2 Fortitude. Additionally, damage taken from falls is reduced by 33%, and damage dealt by falling down on opponents is increased by 33%.

  With each level only giving him three points, he had to budget through the points like monthly expenses.

  Next were the vitality-related stats, and 26 points were serviceable. Spirit wine made up for the lacking vitality, and his natural vitality wasn’t terrible either, with Weeds. Skin damage patched itself and healed within a minute or so, while flesh damage took up to half an hour, even less if he used bloodmetal.

  [Graveborn Vitality (Bronze)]: What happens when you devour too much of something called ‘Gravefruit’?! This! Exactly this!

  Effect: +3 Vitality. Additionally, the closer you are to death, the more effective your vitality is.

  [Deviant (Iron)]: For drawing upon the powers of a forbidden source. As it was unintentional, this is a warning by the righteous factions.

  Effect: 1+ Vitality. Righteous doctrines will be less likely to provide you with their [Blessing] and [Boon].

  [Heretic practitioner (Bronze)]: Your intentional use of ‘Cursed’ mana sphere has displeased the righteous factions! Watch out for random divine thunder smiting your existence!

  Effect: 3+ Vitality, Righteous gods will not allow you any [Boon] or [Blessings] until you go through the Repentance protocol.

  Screw your repentance protocol. He mentally scolded all the Gods, not daring to utter it aloud, lest they really struck him with lightning. Already, he was on the hitlist, and he didn’t want to become a wanted criminal before even roaming into the world.

  Funny enough, The System gave him four points in vitality in these two feats. Why? To help him survive the smiting? Surely, that couldn’t be it.

  That would be…so arbitrary.

  He then came to his favourite stat, and the stat he’d invested most of his points in—eighteen. Fortitude sat at thirty-seven points, and he would like it to be at a thousand, minimum. It was the literal ‘pain go away’ stat. The aura farming stat. The best freakin’ boy.

  The amount of damage he could shrug off with it, especially with his legacy feat fragment [Undying Cockroach], was…a bit concerning, even to him.

  Undying cockroach! (Legacy feat fragment 1 of 3)

  A gambler dares. A cockroach lives. Few would dare to jump across worlds during integration. Fewer would survive the fall. This is a feat for someone who has a death wish, as well as an indomitable will to live.

  Primary Effect: Whenever you’re under 30% of your maximum health, your fortitude increases by 100%. Additionally, for every 5% of health lost, it scales by an additional 30%, capping at 250%.

  Secondary effect: Locked. Unlocks when the fragment ‘Death’s Gambit’ is unlocked.

  Tertiary effect: Locked. Unlocks when fragment ‘Atop the peak’ is gained.

  Different from his other feats, it even had other fragments left to unlock, each probably as powerful. The more time that went past, the more he realized how broken the feat was. Nothing in his arsenal could quite compete with it.

  Though to unlock the secondary and tertiary effect, he’d probably have to do some nut-cracking, nuke-surviving feat.

  Maybe one day, when he grew Fortitude and Constitution to a few hundred. He could take on nukes, too.

  A pipe dream to the level 32 Zayn, though.

  Who let him cook?! (Iron)

  You had one job. One job and you failed… ten times in a row. Rejoice that you’ve not blasted yourself to oblivion.

  Effect: + 1 fortitude.

  “Yeah, this too.” He was not sure how to feel about this one. More points were more points.

  And then came…Dexterity.

  WindStrider (Silver): Not many have the wind as their ally. But you can take strides without fear, for the gale has your back.

  Primary effect: + 6 dexterity. Additionally, Affinity with air spirits.

  Dexterity primarily had this one feat, and he put about thirteen more to increase it to 29 points. Once again, [Reinforced strike] did improve his speed too, by a significant amount, just as it did to his strength. Though the application of it was different in strength.

  Wanton Bandit (Bronze): You just ripped apart an ancient legacy...for a mug, and a bunch of manaless weapons! You are not just any bandit, but a wanton, indiscriminate bandit!

  Effect: Dexterity + 2, Vitality +1!

  Hmm? Yeah, well. This, too.

  And then finally, it came down to his lowest stat, Intelligence. He’d not put a single stat in it. He didn’t need to; he’d stacked quite a few of the feats.

  Ebb and flow (Iron): You have gained an elementary understanding of Mana movement.

  Effects: Intelligence +1.

  Autodidact (Bronze); Damn! You, of all people, found out a new application of your skill, that too all by yourself. What does that say about the rest of your populace?

  Effect: Intelligence + 1, Dexterity +1.

  Mana Convergence (Iron): To seek convergence is the natural state of all matter, including mana. You’ve understood a fundamental concept of mana movement.

  Effect: Intelligence + 1

  That was not all. Somehow, he had gained quite a few of them just earlier, too.

  Trail ‘Card of Intelligence I’ has been completed!

  Hunter Red (Bronze): Oh, The Man in Red hunts! Hunt, hunt, hunt! Tear their flesh, drink their blood, burn their existence! The Man in Red hunts!

  Effect: +2 Strength, +1 Intelligence.

  Deflectionologist Red (Bronze): The man in red endures, deflects all that is thrown his way, but how can one defend against the strikes from the ones closest?

  Effect: +3 Fortitude.

  Unavailable Red (Bronze): When hunting and deflecting proves insufficient, the Man in Red Runs, because that is what he is best at. That’s all he’s done his entire life.

  Effect: +3 Dexterity.

  Set bonus: + 3 Intelligence.

  He shot the system screen a deadpan glance and rubbed his red skin. His body had felt weirdly itchy and red recently with the increase in intelligence.

  After checking with Northwalker, he found out it was because his ‘Intelligence had increased a whole lot after having low Intelligence his whole life’.

  Though Zayn had much to protest about the phrasing, he was just glad that his body could naturally wield mana now. He could feel it pouring in from his pores, mere trickles of mana yet still overwhelming compared to the manaless him of the past.

  Big hundy (Limited): A hundred freaking stats within 72 hours of integration! Well done.

  Effect: All stats + 2

  Ten/Ten (Limited): All of your stats have reached ten points within the first week of integration. Could be faster, but not bad.

  Effect: All stat + 1

  And there were these, too.

  These two feats alone added eighteen points of stats. Limited (whatever that meant) aside, it made him realize he was racing against time. It had something to do with the amount of stats being awarded.

  He remembered Northwalker trying to say something similar to him.

  Thanks to the combined effort of these Feats, his Intelligence was at a whopping Fourteen, bugged still, but much better than before.

  “That's good enough for now.”

  Free points: 08

  He needed more fortitude and constitution next. That would always help.

  His benefactor disagreed, however.

  Northwalker: Although I doubt your method is going to yield any result, I'd suggest you put all the points in Intelligence first. Otherwise, even if you were put inside a Supernova, you’d have a negative understanding of Flame because your body couldn’t even hold any Flame mana.

  He hated how much sense he made. Left him with no choice but to agree.

  Sighing, he walked closer to a lake and stared at his own reflection. His white skin had grown red from scratching already. His face, in particular, looked like a monkey’s butt. And he…well, felt his body squirming whenever he thought about increasing it.

  But after a while, he nodded, “Fine, I’ll fix it myself.”