Twelve hours had passed since I awakened my system and got my SSS-rank skill. My wounds had healed in less than six, and I was as good as new, a fact that gnawed at the back of my mind.
The sun shone with a fierceness I didn't expect from it, but it was a welcome one. It was far better than the heavy downpour and black skies that were a pictorial representation of doom. I very much preferred this sunny weather to the rain that had nearly drowned me.
I ran my fingers over my forearm, tracing where the falcon's talons had carved three deep lines from my shoulder to elbow. There should be scars there, but instead the skin was smooth. It was unmarked without even a scar to remember the encounter.
It didn't make sense.
In Tower of Babel, wounds healed based on your endurance stat and any regeneration skills you possessed. My current Endurance stat was a pathetic 7, and I had no skills besides 'Dimensional Archive'. By the game's logic, I should still be bleeding out in the mud, not walking around like nothing had happened.
So what was different?
There were two possibilities; either my system was something completely different from the game, or this body I'd inherited came with perks I hadn't accounted for.
I stared at my hands—the same hands that belonged to whoever this body was before I woke up in it.
That could be it. Maybe whoever Zenon Castellan had been before I took over was different.
I sighed as I pushed the thought aside. Either way, I wasn't going to complain about being alive. Besides, I had something important to do at the moment.
Standing in a small clearing, I reached through the thread of connection that pulsed faintly in my chest and called out to Horus.
Instantly, the air in front of me shimmered, and a gold magic circle manifested in the air. A ripple of mana passed through my core, and I felt the drain immediately, a hollow sensation in my chest, like something was pulling at the marrow of my bones.
Horus materialised from the magic circle, his form solidifying from talons to crown in the span of a heartbeat. He was magnificent in the daylight, his feathers gleaming with that dark iridescence, his ember eyes catching the sun and burning brighter for it.
He spread his wings once, a span of nearly eight feet, and settled onto a low branch with a grace that made my breath catch in my throat.
Then the dizziness hit with full force, and the world tilted.
My vision blurred at the edges, and I stumbled, catching myself against a tree trunk before I could fall. A sharp chime rang in my head, and a red-tinted translucent screen flashed before my eyes.
---
[WARNING!]
[MANA INSUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN CURRENT SUMMON!]
[CURRENT MANA: 2/12]
[MINIMUM REQUIRED: 5]
[SUMMON DISMISSED AUTOMATICALLY!]
[MANA LEVELS CRITICALLY LOW]
[Sustaining summoned entities requires continuous mana expenditure]
[→Increase Mana Stat to maintain summons for longer periods]
[→Higher-ranked summons consume more mana to maintain]
---
I let out a slow breath as the dizziness faded. Twelve Mana. That was all I had, and from the look of things, just keeping Horus manifested drained my already pitiful reserves steadily. As things stood, I could barely maintain Horus for three minutes. If I wanted to fight with him and use him to his best capabilities, I'd need to increase my mana capacity.
But this led me to another problem: leveling up.
In Tower of Babel, you gained stats when you leveled up, and the most practical way to level up was to kill monsters. However, you couldn't kill monsters effectively without a class, and you couldn't get a class until you reached the Sanctuary.
I killed Horus, but I didn't get any experience, stats or level up for it. The Tower of Babel didn't let you level up until you had chosen a path. I could kill a hundred monsters, but without a class to channel that experience into growth, it was worthless.
Right now, I wasn't in a position to fight anything. My priority right now was to head to the Sanctuary and awaken my class.
I started walking west. The forest here was different from the one I'd stumbled through during the storm. It seemed older and quieter, with massive trees whose roots carved through the earth. Moss hung from the branches in thick curtains, and the air smelled of damp earth and different floral blend.
As I walked, my thoughts drifted back to my system screen. The typical game system was blue. Blue screens, blue borders, blue text. It was consistent across most players; so why was mine gold?
I slowly stopped walking, my hand instinctively going to my chest where Horus' presence rested. The system screens I'd seen so far all had gold borders. They were nothing like the clean, minimalist interface I'd spent thousands of hours staring at on my monitor.
Was it because of the skill? An SSS-rank skill changing the UI? Or was it something else? Something the game had never—
A sound suddenly cut through my thoughts.
I could hear voices. Although they were distant, they sounded human. However, I could also hear the unmistakable jabbering sounds that belonged to a notorious species; goblins!
I froze, my hand instinctively going to my new weapon, a crude spear I'd wrestled off the body of a dead challenger.
The sounds were not far from me, so it was close enough for me to investigate.
I moved forward slowly, my steps as cautious as possible to maintain my stealth. The thread to Horus pulsed in my chest, but I didn't summon him yet. I had to be careful with my mana usage.
The trees thinned as I approached, and I dropped into a crouch behind a thick trunk, peering through the branches that grew in tangled thickets at the forest edge.
A small clearing opened up beyond the thickets, and I could finally see clearly.
Four challengers stood in a loose formation, their backs practically to each other as they engaged a pack of goblins.
I counted six of the green bastards, their green skin stained with blood and mud, and their crude stone axes dripping with something dark.
One goblin was already down, its body crumpled near the center of the clearing, a sword wound split across its chest. Another lay a feet away, still twitching, its life bleeding out into the dirt.
The remaining four goblins suddenly moved. They attacked with a coordination the challengers clearly hadn't anticipated, but they kept up pretty quickly.
The woman was the fastest. She moved like water, her twin daggers flashing as she weaved between two goblins, cutting their throats with anatomical precision.
The tallest of the men, who was their tank, played his role to the best of his capabilities. Each time a goblin tried to flank, he was there, a shield slamming into their faces, sword cutting them down.
The other two—a wiry man with a spear and a bald man with an axe—handled the edges, picking off the stragglers and keeping the pack from regrouping.
Their coordination wasn't perfect, but it was efficient. They'd definitely done this before, probably more times than they could count.
I watched the woman take down the last goblin with a spin that drove both daggers into its throat, and then it was over.
There were now six corpses. All four of them remained standing. The tank was breathing hard, but the others looked barely winded.
I made my decision.
Confrontation with this group would be troublesome. I didn't know their motives. I didn't know if they were they type to kill strangers for loot or what their temperament was. Either way, I was alone, unleveled, and running on empty. It was best to leave before they noticed me.
I began to ease back, shifting my weight, preparing to slip away the way I'd come when a knife suddenly buried itself in the tree trunk merely three inches from my face.
I froze, my heart slamming against my ribs. The blade had come from nowhere, just the sudden sound of steel biting wood. I didn't notice it at all!
"That's close enough for observation, don't you think?" The woman suddenly said. Her voice was monotone and calm, almost bored.
I stared at the knife, its hilt still vibrating from the impact, and slowly raised my hands.
I exhaled slowly, my mind racing. None of them had looked in my direction during the fight, I'd made sure of it. Therefore, this meant only one thing. The woman had a wider perception stat than I'd accounted for, or maybe a skill. Either way, she'd known I was here from the start.
A fight would be troublesome at this point. I had no class and poor stats, and I doubted that Horus that would be enough against four experienced challengers.
"Don't make this difficult," she said. "Come out, or the next one goes through your eye."
I had no doubt she meant it.
No choice then.
I stepped out from behind the tree, my hands still raised, and walked into the clearing.