Lukas spent the next few hours in a strange mix of pleasure and pain. The amor lily had transformed every sensory input into some form of erotic pleasure, pain included. But as the flower’s effects wore off, his senses began to function as they should. This meant that his many wounds started to hurt—badly. Pain was once again pain, no longer some twisted form of masochistic pleasure.
All Lukas could do was sit there and grit his teeth, enduring the growing agony as he waited for his body to heal. His recent increase in vitality was having an effect beyond a larger health pool. It was subtle, but Lukas could feel that his body’s natural healing rate had improved, even amplifying the regenerative effects of the meat he had eaten.
That being said, it would still be quite some time before Lukas was in any state other than terrible. With nothing else to do but hurry up and wait, Lukas moved from his spot on the ground and hobbled toward the burrow of the Pine Brute he had just killed.
It wasn’t much more than a hole in the stone outcropping that went in a few meters. Lukas had to duck slightly to enter. The burrow would’ve been small for the Pine Brute, but cozy. Inside, Lukas found the stone floor covered in pine needles, leaves, and grass from the nearby shrubbery, mixed with the fur of the beast that had once called this place home.
It wasn’t much, but it would do for now. Besides, what had Lukas expected? The place had belonged to a beast, after all. To be fair, it was much better than where he had been staying for the past few days. At least this was shelter; before, he’d been under the open sky.
Sitting against the wall just inside, Lukas looked out into the forest and let out a tired sigh. It was well into the evening, the shades of sunset coloring the woods before him. He was exhausted—bone tired. Even if he gave in to the amor lily’s fading temptations, he wouldn’t have had the energy to act on them.
So, Lukas just sat there, enjoying the view and the sounds of the birds. It was cool in the little hole, the stone against his back even cooler, helping to numb and ease his pain. His whole body tingled and itched as it healed, thanks to the meat he’d cooked with the re’in carnation.
Yawning, Lukas rested his head against the cool stone, closed his eyes, and drifted off into strange dreams, courtesy of the amor lily’s lingering energy.
*
When Lukas woke the next morning, he was relieved to find that a significant portion of his health and all of his stamina had returned during sleep. The effects of the meat he had eaten had long since worn off, leaving his vitality to handle the rest. As for the amor lily, its influence was gone entirely, much to Lukas’ relief. It was nice to have a clear head, free of the inappropriate thoughts the flower had induced.
Now fully awake, Lukas was eager to heal up and explore the area, searching for magic resources, water, and possible threats. He hoped the area was safe for now. A level 10 beast had lived here, after all; surely, the others knew to stay away. But that would only buy Lukas a bit of time. Sooner or later, more beasts would come. When they did, he needed to be ready.
Reluctantly, Lukas pulled out one of the re’in carnations and ate it for breakfast. He really wished he had some more meat to cook with the flower; the raw flower itself was far from pleasant. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten any meat from the Pine Brute, and it was far too late to skin or butcher it now.
The meat would have spoiled by this point, and honestly, Lukas wasn’t sure he wanted to eat anything from a beast that had already been looted. He didn’t know what that strange, heat-haze stuff was that came out of the beasts, but the bodies always looked desiccated afterward, and not at all appetizing. Sure, Lukas had a nifty race ability that could help with that, but it still wasn’t going to happen.
With no choice but to suffer, Lukas stuffed the flower into his mouth and forced himself to chew. Once again, his mouth was coated in a gross film with a nasty aftertaste. If only the raw flower tasted as good as it smelled, he wouldn’t have too much to complain about. When cooked with meat, it had a flavor reminiscent of strawberries. Maybe next time he would turn it into a paste before eating it. The texture probably wouldn’t be great, but better flavor might help.
Whatever the case, Lukas wasn’t about to start experimenting now. He had eaten one flower and didn’t know what would happen if he ate a second one right away. He could test that, of course, but with only a limited supply, he wasn’t about to waste such a valuable resource. For now, Lukas had nothing to do but sit around feeling useless.
For the umpteenth time, Lukas wished he had one of his puzzles with him. He thought of the one his little sister, Cassandra, had gotten him for Christmas. Due to the blizzard that had kept Lukas from heading to his hometown, he had missed Christmas, and Cas had mailed the gift to him. When Lukas had gone to the post office to pick it up, the workers had given him some good-natured shit about it.
The puzzle was a one-foot-by-one-foot cube of solid wood, and had some decent heft to it. Each face was completely smooth and polished, with no hint of how to start. Lukas had spent a week’s worth of free time trying to figure it out. He had even begun to suspect that Cassie had sent him a solid wooden cube as a prank, but shaking it revealed the sound of inner mechanisms rattling.
Eventually, he figured it out. All he had to do was shift one side of the cube slightly, revealing a small opening with a switch. The sides were so finely cut that it looked like a single solid block, a feature that continued through each step of the puzzle. It had taken him another week and a half to finish the first part, at which point the sides fell away, revealing a smaller cube inside.
Over the next few months, Lukas had only managed to get through two more layers as the puzzle grew increasingly difficult. He wasn’t even sure how far along he had gotten before being whisked away in the middle of the night. Sure, he could have looked up hints online, but that would’ve ruined the challenge. The fun was in solving it on his own. Even getting help for one step felt cheap to him. He needed that challenge, it was one of the only things that truly stimulated his mind in that muted existence.
Thinking about the puzzle box stirred thoughts of his family, and with his newly enhanced emotions at that. Before now he hadn’t really thought of them, too caught up in what was happening to slow down and think about anything other than the present. Back home Lukas felt like he was walking through molasses everyday, and not just physically. Even emotionally he could never invest himself in just about anything. He just couldn't bring himself to really care about anything, he didn’t have the energy.
That being said, he had always loved his parents and tolerated his sister, as siblings do, and now his emotions were vast, like an ocean compared to the shallow stream they had once been. And now the floodgates were open. Memories flashed in his mind, fresh vibrant emotion filling in the dull and monochrome.
Christmases and birthdays of years gone by. Family vacations, visits from his grandparents, and so many other special memories brought a hollow feeling. It wasn’t due to a lack of emotion, but because of deep regret and sadness. He’d been so detached in those moments, unable to truly enjoy the quality time he spent with the people that meant the most to him.
Lukas wondered where his family was now and what they thought had happened to him. Surely, they assumed he was dead, and the thought of his parents and sister being distraught over his disappearance weighed heavily on him. He could imagine their panic when they turned up at his cabin and found it empty, with Lukas nowhere to be found. They would have waited for hours, assuming he was out walking or working on a project. Neighbors would have been called, then the police, and Lukas would have been declared missing, only to be presumed dead—killed by an animal or an accident.
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Tears welled up in his eyes as he imagined his own funeral. His mom and sister would be crying, his dad’s expression grim as they said their final goodbyes—not even having a body to bury. It had been so long since Lukas had seen his family, almost a year since he had seen their faces or heard their voices, and he was beginning to forget. He longed to hear them again, to see them, to joke around and mess with his little sister.
He wished there was a way to let them know he was alive and relatively okay, but he was so impossibly far away. He was on another planet, for god's sake, and if his title and the magic were anything to go by, he was also in another dimension. There was nothing he could do except hope that one day he would find a way back home to let his family know what had happened to him.
For hours, Lukas ruminated over the loss of his family, wallowing in the emotional depth he could now experienced. That was all he did until he realized the flower's effects had worn off. It was around noon, and the gray clouds from the day before were even thicker now. He had regained a large portion of his health—just over half his total health. It was all thanks to the magical flowers; without them, Lukas guessed it would have taken a full day or two to reach this point.
Pulling himself out of his self-imposed stupor, Lukas got up with a grunt, boxing up his memories to avoid any more tears. Stepping out of the small cave-like burrow, he enjoyed the cool breeze that blew through the forest. He wasn’t fully healed yet, but with about two hundred health and no plans to fight another level 10 beast, he figured he would be alright. Besides, he needed something to distract himself for a while.
Pulling out his sword, Lukas began searching the area. This part of the forest was different from what he was used to. The terrain here was rockier and far less even than the slopes and valleys he had traveled through before. Large moss-covered boulders, rocky outcroppings, and drop-offs were common. The brush was thicker, too. Back in the hills, there had been mainly conifers and magical flowers. Now, though, there were many more non-magical bushes and plants littering the forest floor. While there were still magic materials to be found, they were harder to spot with all the extra foliage.
Slowly but surely, Lukas began to map out his new surroundings. As he moved through the area, collecting magical plants, he noticed how fast he was walking. To him, it felt like a casual stroll, but his pace was more like a light jog. He was really starting to notice the effects of his increased stats. First, it had been his perception—his senses becoming sharper with each point gained. Then, it was his vitality, as his body’s natural healing sped up. Now, it was his speed—or agility, as his stat screen called it.
Strength was something he felt he should have noticed, but he hadn’t really used it much outside of combat. It wasn’t as though he went around lifting heavy objects in his daily life. And in fights, he had been up against beasts with stats likely higher than his, which meant they could match his strength, so he wouldn’t notice the increase. That brought up an interesting thought, though. Recently, Lukas had been tearing through anything below level 5 and finding it easier to fight monsters between levels 5 and 10.
‘Am I stronger than the lower-leveled creatures now?’ Lukas wondered. ‘It would make sense, but I don’t know the relative stats of those beasts.’
He mulled over the thought as he continued his walk. It wasn’t as though he had any way of finding out; he still didn’t know what exactly was gained when someone leveled up. This brought him back to his stats, and the need to better understand what they did.
A few stats seemed self-explanatory. Perception obviously pertained to his sight, hearing, and other senses. Strength made him stronger—no surprise there. Agility made him faster, more nimble. Vitality increased his health and healing speed. Endurance did the same for his stamina.
But after that, things got less clear. Toughness seemed fairly straightforward, likely making him harder to damage and more robust overall. Intelligence probably made him smarter—maybe that meant better knowledge retention? He had no idea what wisdom did, but he suspected it was related to his mana pool, which he still didn’t know how to use. His reasoning was simple: each point in vitality and endurance gave him ten points of health or stamina, so his 36 vitality gave him 360 health. His mana pool was 260, and since he had two stats at 26—endurance and wisdom—he concluded that wisdom must be tied to mana. As for willpower, that was a mystery. It might increase the strength of his will, but Lukas suspected it had something to do with magic or mana.
The longer Lukas spent in this world, the more he felt it was important to understand his stats. For now, all he could do was make educated guesses, but when he eventually found other people, he could truly begin to learn about his new world. At the moment, though, Lukas had something more pressing to focus on: the sound of trickling water, picked up by his heightened perception.
The sound was refreshing, like wind chimes on a cool summer day. Straining to listen, Lukas made a beeline for the source, not even bothering to go around obstacles as he barreled through bushes.
Before long, he found it—a small stream, no more than five meters across and less than a meter deep. The area around the banks was clear of foliage, slightly sunken from years of erosion. Fist-sized rocks on the streambed caused disturbances in the water, the source of the trickling sound. The stream curved and twisted as it made its way through the lush forest, making it hard to see how far it went or where the water originated.
Lukas stared at the stream in awe. It had been just over a week since he had arrived naked in this new world, and in that time, he hadn’t had a single thing to drink. If not for his Steel Gut ability, he would have died of thirst days ago. Now, he was really starting to feel it, especially after yesterday.
Wasting no time, Lukas ran to the water and threw himself down, shoving his head into the stream. He knew he should probably boil the water before drinking it, but it was cool and clear, and besides, his ability would help him out. He eagerly took in mouthfuls of water, but quickly spat it out in disgust as the taste of blood and dirt filled his mouth.
Pulling back, water dripping from his face, Lukas stared down at the stream. A murky brown and red cloud drifted downstream where his head had just been. That’s when he remembered he was absolutely covered in dried blood, dirt, grime, and sweat.
“Right,” Lukas muttered in disgust, looking over himself. “Time to get cleaned up.”
He stepped into the stream, the cold water instantly dissolving the layers of filth caked on his feet. Soon enough, he was standing thigh-deep in the water, scrubbing his cloak to remove the bloodstains. He hadn’t expected it to return to its former pristine condition, but to his surprise, the fur’s silky texture came back. Satisfied, he tossed the still-damp cloak into his inventory to keep it clean while he washed himself.
Lukas plunged into the water, using his hands to scrub away the old blood and grime. He had to admit, he felt amazing after just a few minutes. His skin was smooth and clean, no longer sticky and gross, and his hair was free of mud. Now that he could properly see his body, he noticed the new scars he had gained since his fight with the wolves. Some were small and thin, others thick and jagged, but they crisscrossed each other all over his body.
He was messed up, to say the least, but he didn’t mind. Each scar was proof of a battle won and strength gained in one form or another. He was proud of them. They were reminders of his refusal to give up and die. Before being pulled into another dimension, he had only a few small scars on his hands, gained while building his cabin. He had been proud of those too; they, like the cabin itself, were proof of the hard work he had put in.
Now, Lukas had new goals: getting stronger and leaving his mark. He wasn’t entirely sure how to do that yet, but he would figure it out. And he would earn more scars along the way. For now, though, Lukas wasn’t doing anything. He just lay in the stream, letting the cool water wash over him, taking away the last traces of dirt, while drinking as much as he could without getting sick.
Ten minutes of peaceful rest in the refreshing water was all Lukas got before he heard a rustling in the brush on the other side of the stream. His head snapped toward the sound as he stood up, pulling out his sword, ready for a fight.
A moment later, the creature came into view. It was a stag of some kind, its fur shifting colors to match its surroundings. Its antlers were such a stark white they seemed to glow, and looked preternaturally sharp. The creature was about the size of a white-tailed deer, but with an extra pair of front legs—a strange addition Lukas had seen on other beasts and monsters. Maybe it was some kind of evolutionary adaptation?
The stag spotted Lukas a split second later and seemed almost startled to see him. The two stared at each other for a long moment, each waiting to see who would make the first move. Lukas took the opportunity to identify the creature:
Mystic Stag - Level 8
