All contestants are to perform certain sets of actions [shortened to ‘acts’] to earn the approval of the system, bestowing them with myriads of Feats in the form of status points, aspects, traits, and ext. These acts are fair and equal for every contestant, and any two contestants performing the same level of act would be awarded the same level of Feat.

  —- Covenant 5 Clause 17.

  ***

  Zayn sat high up on the white-barked trees, occasionally tossing a rock or two in a lazy manner. Correction—not lazy, but intelligent. Intelligent! This was exactly what he was supposed to do according to his all-knowing benefactor.

  A stone golem, six feet tall, trudged below, stalking the trails of stones like the most diligent of detectives, attempting to decode why it rained stones today.

  Tossing another stone out, Zayn typed into the chatbox. “Is this going to work?”

  Northwalker: Yes. Having low points in intelligence means you have low mana sensitivity, which is the reason you have a hard time controlling mana and allotting points. To solve that, we’re going to make your next Feats award you INTs. Preferably multiple points.

  Zayn pursed his lips. He’d been told the same thing three times earlier. “I got that much—I mean, whether this is going to count as my kill?”

  Northwalker: Sure, the system counts kills made through terrain and traps as your own.

  He nodded. Apparently, everyone got a [Feat] after their 10th, 100th, and 1000th kill, and so on for every increasing digit until they reached a million. Logical enough. He’d gotten one for being the first to kill a monster in the apocalypse.

  Defeat Stone Golem I (7/10)

  Just three away from the feat, then. He waited as the stone golem lumbered closer to the great lake. He’d already gauged its depths, finding it adequately deep for the purposes of drowning stones.

  Northwalker: The system awards you points in [Feat] based on a few different criteria: action, intent, methods used, and need—in that order. I’ll admit it’s not one hundred percent successful, but this method is known to work and is used widely in the greater universe.

  Right. Northwalker clearly knew things better than him. Took the guy about two minutes to diagnose his symptoms and suggest a solution—something he’d only seen the likes of Sherlock Holmes do.

  Imagining Sherlock Holmes with white hair and a beard was weird, though.

  He tossed another stone down, right into the middle of the lake.

  Stone Golem - Lv 09

  Mr. Investigolem down there was increasingly perplexed by the anomalous stones falling from the skies. It hesitated, standing before the lake. Weirdly enough, these golems showed growing signs of consciousness as their level increased, demonstrating instincts well beyond murder.

  This one in particular was rather cautious.

  Zayn threw another rock down, testing its patience.

  In response, the stone golem raised its sword-like hand and shot out a shard, too. Fighting stones with stones! Zayn liked that. He licked his lips and continued his tactics, playing a game of ‘who had more stones to throw’.

  They said people feared what they didn’t understand—but sentient rocks were just the same. Eventually, the golem lost patience. In its lack of understanding, it walked into the swamp—right into its death.

  Zayn grinned. “Got you.”

  Drowning stones wasn’t usually a great idea. But stone golems were brittle, had fractured bodies, and weak joints to boot. It wasn’t going to die of asphyxiation, but its joints would crumble and shatter—and even if they didn’t, he didn’t believe stones could swim out.

  Unless this one proved him wrong just out of spite.

  The jungle rang with the noise of a fierce struggle—a golem showcasing the great stone will to live. Zayn darted his eyes around, fearing other golems might be attracted to the noise. Fortunately, the resistance died out soon.

  Then came a rush of energy. A notification he hadn’t heard in a while.

  Ding! Defeat Stone Golem I (8/10)

  Zayn raised his eyebrows. “It worked!”

  ***

  Zayn sank his teeth into the peach-like fruit, satiating the growing hunger inside him.

  Gravefruit (Astral) — Once, the Luminous Monkey tore off the immortal trees of heaven in rage, raining celestial fruits upon the mortal lands. Their seeds still live on, warped by the passage of time.

  Recovers lost health and spirit.

  This forest, being dead, had no meat or food source other than this. But this one fruit hung on every tree. And for a while, he’d refrained himself. Not because he wasn’t hungry, but because the thing was called gravefruit.

  What did astral even mean as a rank, anyway?

  The white peach tasted tangy—something between orange and lemon. Energy dispersed through his body as soon as he bit into it. It wasn’t the same burning energy he’d get after defeating a golem. It was cooler, softer, caressing his injuries warmly.

  The system chimed in.

  Just so you know, you’re eating something out of a grave.

  He scoffed. He’d much rather eat something out of a grave than buy food with mana crystals! And nothing in the store quite rivaled the healing function of these fruits.

  All the injuries on his body had formed solid scabs by now. It wasn't without its shortcomings, however. The more his body healed, the more his mind gave up. Not good. He needed to speed this up.

  Carefully, he lured another golem out.

  Stone Golem - Lv 10

  Less cracked than the earlier ones, this one had a peculiar design. Weirdly, its left arm was much thicker and more grotesque than the right one, like a tragic misstep in evolution. It even struggled to walk with such a disjointed mass, which made it the perfect little monster for the next trap.

  Zayn called it all the names he knew. And surprisingly, it followed him faster after being verbally abused. Right into the trap.

  Then it tripped on the first wire, it fell into the second, then the third, fourth, and one after another, completely tangled within a web of thin wires set up by Zayn. It wasn’t a particularly well-laid trap, but the stonehead being dumb and heavy, it screwed itself over and stepped into all of them.

  Time for the final blow. Hacksaw in hand, Zayn walked to the tree that had nearly a meter of it bitten off by something, looking like a half-eaten bar of chocolate. Whatever caused such devastation, he wasn’t curious to know.

  He just knew it wasn’t his time to fear. Someone else could fulfill that role. Now, he had taken on the role of predator.

  Now, he was the forest’s Jigsaw slaughter!

  Zayn waved goodbye at the golem as the tree came crashing down.

  Defeat Stone Golem I (9/10)!

  ***

  First, Zayn had choked and drowned stones. Then, he’d crushed them under wood. Now he was cooking up an even more outrageous proposition—to impale stones! He sharpened thick branches into sharp, conical spikes.

  Then he waited, like some kind of primal hunter preparing to strike a colossal monster.

  And a golem walked in, trudging among the trees peacefully—cluelessly heading toward its death.

  Stone Golem – Lv 12

  He watched it slowly trudge forward. The biggest weakness golems had after their brittle bodies was their lack of a neck, meaning as long as he was on top of the trees, they would never detect him.

  Zayn poised himself on his knees, and as the golem passed below, he shot the spear down. He’d been a fine shot back in the day; did a bit of lancing too. But the sport was too boring, and within three days he’d quit and gone back to gambling.

  Now, he was trying to put the old techniques back into practice! Intelligence! Let’s go!

  Despite his refusal to admit it, the mix of patches and gravefruits had gotten to him. He barely held his fading consciousness together as he shot the spears down one after another.

  They tore through the air with a whistle, flying toward the golem in a single line. The golem stopped, and the spear missed its mark by a foot.

  “Fuck.” In quick succession, Zayn lanced down the spears with terrifying velocity, his increased strength from the feats showing effect. But the same boon rendered his aim terrible.

  He’d miscalculated.

  Before this, he hadn’t noticed how much his body lacked coordination. He hadn’t had time to get used to the changes. Either that, or he’d lost his talent and refused to admit it.

  Probably both.

  The only spear that hit wedged into its shoulder and shattered its arm, turning it into a one-armed golem. Losing its balance, the golem did its best to stay upright, which strangely looked like breakdancing.

  Not something Zayn wanted to see while half-asleep.

  If he had known this would happen, he would’ve prepared another few dozen wooden spikes. He clenched his jaw, eyes following the golem as it passed beneath him.

  He wasn’t about to let his hard-earned kill pass by.

  Pulling his hammer out, he prepared to lunge down in an attempt to become the forest’s stone butcher—but in his drowsiness, he lost his balance and fell right on top of the golem—from two dozen feet above.

  Defeat Stone Golem I (10/10)!

  “Eh?” Zayn ignored the popping noises in his body, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as mana stormed inside him.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Feat unlocked!

  Maker of Mayhem (Bronze)!

  You choke, you drown, but more importantly, you fall down!

  Effect: +2 Strength, +1 Fortitude

  ***

  Northwalker: How did that happen?

  Good question. He wasn’t going to answer.

  By now, he was really struggling to move. All the adrenaline had run out, leaving him with a body that screamed for rest. Healing had made things worse—now there was no pain to keep the sloth at bay.

  Should he sleep? He couldn’t sleep on the ground. Then where? Maybe the trees. He could sleep in the trees. Some of the branches were wide enough to hold five of him. He wasn’t a messy sleeper, and even if he fell in his sleep, his feats would save him.

  Before he could decide his next step, however, the entire area shook. The leaves rustled as if coming to life—faint at first but stronger with each passing second. As if a being of titanic proportions treaded the land.

  He stared at the stones jumping from the continuous tremors. The scattered shards rising and falling—the trees shaking. It was getting closer.

  He darted his eyes in every direction. Once he finally turned a full one-eighty degrees, he saw a serpentine head peeking from behind the trees, staring back at him with its beady eyes.

  Stone Turtle Lv-32 (Neutral)

  Its wide, streamlined head poked out of its egglike shell, its beady eyes blinking as it noticed him. Though as large as a building, its stone-bound body was held well by four pillar-like limbs. It stretched them out and stepped toward him with a boom.

  Its extremities glowed red like magma, and every step it took left sizzling marks on the ground. Air whistled as waves of steam sprang from its joints, and with each sizzle, its eyes smoldered a deeper red.

  Zayn backed up a step… afraid to aggravate whatever the fuck this was.

  Stone Turtle Lv-32 (Hostile)

  The stone turtle stared at him like he’d chosen death, then roared—spurting a plume of steam at him. He dodged by an inch, feeling the heat nearly blister his skin.

  Rising, he ran like hell, his lips tugging into a laugh of ridicule. He had used up all his luck. And now, it was as if all the problems in the world had climbed on his shoulders.

  “My ball of mana! This might be the best time to put all my points in speed!”

  Despite the clear pleading, the mana inside his abdomen was as silent as a dead monk.

  An immense feeling of danger pulsed through his body. He leaped to the left—dodging the open maw that lunged for him. Where he’d just stood, the turtle bit off a couple of meters of ground. Smoke leaked out of the hollowed pit.

  Zayn felt sweat roll down his forehead. If that had caught him, he’d have been hard-boiled. Cooked and spit out. Eaten and left with no bones.

  “Shove my points up your—” The curses had to halt; the energy was better put into avoiding another chomp.

  Who the hell called turtles slow and steady? Clearly, they hadn’t seen this fucker right here.

  He kept sprinting, weaving in sharp turns—all he could do to avoid getting cooked inside a turtle. After a while, the noise behind him died down. Thinking he’d successfully lost it, he huffed, hands on knees.

  The loud noises of wood popping broke him out of his delusion.

  Alarmed, he looked up. His eyes widened. The stone turtle was airborne—limbs retracted into its shell. Defying all laws of physics, it hurtled toward him like a spinning turbine, its body snapping trees like dry bamboo.

  He barely had time to dive to the ground. Air pushed him down with a shrill stream as the turtle missed him by a mere few feet. It crashed ahead with a deafening boom, leaving a web of cracks on the ground.

  As shockwaves rippled toward him, he was caught in the relentless waves of residual energy, flung away. His internal organs swung and battered into each other like ropes in the wind.

  Warning! Health under 30%!

  [Undying Cockroach] in effect!

  Swallowing the blood, he rose and did his best to limp away. Despite the feat doubling his fortitude, his one intact foot screamed in pain as he put his entire weight on it to limp away. After a while, the noise behind him died down again.

  Dread rose in him as he twisted his body, half expecting the turtle to be right above him. But there were no flying turtles chasing him around, not this time.

  Really? He stopped. After a while of ‘do or do not,’ he dragged himself back to the place where it had landed. He gaped at what he saw.

  The stone turtle was stuck upside down on its back, its towering legs twitching helplessly in the air. Every few seconds, it would thrash around in complaint. Zayn felt his lips tug upwards.

  How did it get stuck like that?

  After a moment of gloating, he decided to walk away. Watching it thrash like a real turtle would’ve been funny if he wasn’t half-dead and bleeding from all his orifices.

  It wasn’t his turn to kill it.

  The attack from the earlier fight had left the forest in shambles. Trees were torn out of the ground and scattered like fallen chess pieces. Soon, something caught his eye. Gravefruits. Usually, they’d be too high up in the trees, making it a pain to climb and gather, but with this many trees torn down, he had enough to gather as he wished.

  He filled the storage ring with as many as possible before limping away to hide once more. Once he reached a safe distance, he climbed onto a tree branch—the only place he felt relatively safe.

  Then he vented his frustration on the fruits.

  During his feeding spree, the stone turtle clambered in his direction again, its beady eyes glinting with fury. He stopped biting—even held his breath—as it passed below him. Each step sent vibrations rippling through the land, and Zayn could feel them crawling even high up the tree.

  Thankfully, soon it wedged itself between two colossal trees again, its legs flailing helplessly in futile protest.

  Bigger and dumber. He smirked.

  Titansfall (Hidden) — Specific quest:

  Defeat a Stone Turtle. (0/5)

  Just half an hour ago, he’d scoffed at the system warning. Why would he run? He even had a ten-out-of-ten plan in hand.

  Farm golems and get strong…Then kill stronger monsters to become even stronger! Beat the bosses and get stronger still!

  His plans had scattered to dust. Every time he killed one of these, the next battle grew slightly stronger. As their cracks faded, so did his hopes.

  Where could I even run to?

  In this hellscape of trees and rocks, there was no escape. Being a dungeon-ditcher was still preferable to turning into meat paste. Dead men had no titles.

  ‘Northwalker’ has sent you a text!

  Northwalker: Fine. Gaining a bronze feat isn’t terrible. Doesn’t matter if it gave you no INT; it added to your other stats, which was what we were trying to do in the first place. At the very least, now you should have STR in double digits. You can choose a Berserker or Fighter class without *******************.

  Benefactor ‘Northwalker’ has been muted for 36 hours for repeated attempts at giving out classified information!

  Zayn snorted. Sure, that might as well happen, too. That was how his luck panned out—he knew.

  After devouring the fruits, many of his internal injuries started repairing themselves. But the wave of fatigue finally caught him. His eyelids kept crashing down, despite his desperate attempts to keep them open.

  Earlier battles had taken everything—mentally and physically.

  In the back of his mind, one final thought rose as everything turned pitch black.

  Are Leah and Ma going to be okay?

  ***

  Leah King crept along the fence of grasses, tall enough to reach her waist. Her boots, torn, made it a pain to walk. She scraped them on the grass. Raised her wooden shield closer to her chest. It's frail, insufficient frame providing her with some comfort...in this strangely desolated mountain range.

  A nauseating smell of blood struck her nose. The blood littered on the shield and the medieval clothes on herself. Both were gifted by the guide who brought her here. An ankle-length tunic, with a red belt around her waist. Along with the pair of shiny boots. She used to like it. Even the shield.

  Back when she received it, it was burnished grey, the strange luster on it a fascinating shade of brown. A weird, yellow insignia was embossed on it. Now, lines of blood covered it. Whose blood, she couldn’t tell anymore. And no matter how much she rubbed it, the smell wouldn’t go away. It stuck there like it was meant to be there.

  “Mmph.” Feeling a strong bite in her legs, she let out a muffled scream.

  Her right leg burned as a blade of grass stabbed it a little. The long gash made by the wolf-like creature was torn open, yet again. Blood welled out of it. Her ears felt hot, and her chest thundered and aimed to tear her eardrums apart. She shredded the strand of grass, crushed it, and rubbed it into her wound carefully, dulling the pain and the ever-increasing vertigo.

  The guide had told them… about the healing properties of the blades of grass.

  Blessed Grass of Healing (Unranked) — Mana-infused strands of grass with divine healing properties, blessed by Mother Prosperity. It is poison to the monsters that roam the ground near the node, acting as a deterrent for monsters.

  After a while, she felt like herself again. That swift slash of the wolf still played in her mind. It stood taller than humans. A horde of them had attacked her and her groupmates, causing her to be scattered. Away from the group. The map of the mountain—she didn’t have it. It was on Hogan…

  Grief numbed her right up to her soul as she thought of him. The scene still played in her mind. How he had placed her behind him. How that one claw had ripped him apart.

  She was supposed to marry him just two days later. She was supposed to roam the world with him, to see every corner of Earth alongside him. A dream of hers, and one he had begun to share over time.

  Now Earth was gone, and so was he.

  She wiped her eyes clean and breathed deep and low, not daring to make too much noise. No time to grieve here. She must find them again. She must live. She must take revenge. For him.

  Teeth gritted, she set off again, ignoring the burn in her leg.

  The mountain range had many colorful, alien fauna—mushrooms and flowers half her size. But she knew better than to touch those. The guide had warned them of plants that eat people. They were lethargic now, but they would grow. The skies were growing dark as nightfall drew closer, and she used the shadows of the mountains to move from place to place.

  Suddenly, she stopped in place.

  She had heard the sound of a low sob coming from somewhere close in the shrubs. The sound was like… that of a child. That was impossible. Children and the elderly were near the safe node. There should be none of them down here.

  Could it be some beast… with a weird voice? Like an owl. Or worse.

  Despite the danger, she crept forward with low, muted steps.

  In this lone mountain range, it felt eerie, yet the chance of finding another human kept her moving closer to the source.

  There… Leah saw her.

  A girl no older than ten, sitting near a mutilated corpse of a woman, quietly sobbing away. Sensing Leah, she recoiled, fear flashing in those brown eyes.

  Fear of her.

  “I–I have nothing!” She quickly shook her hands, as if afraid Leah was going to rob her. “They took it all.”

  Leah frowned and traced the corpse, finding it stripped clean of everything, including clothes. Only then did she notice those small....wounds. They were not made by beasts. Those were stab wounds.

  Her heart chilled to the very core.

  Bastards.

  They killed her for her supplies and weapon. Supplies were given to them by the guide so that they could survive. She couldn’t believe it.

  How could they?

  Quelling the boundless anger flowing within her, she stared at the child. She couldn’t leave her out here, alone in the night.

  Controlling her expression, she pointed toward her shield. “See this shield? I chose a shield because I… wanted to protect others. Like you.”

  Not the exact reason why she chose this. She hated fighting. She hated blood and killing. She only chose a shield because it was the only weapon not meant for killing.

  “I mean you no harm.”

  The girl was on the verge of bawling her eyes out already and leapt into her embrace. Arms looped around the child, Leah hugged the quivering girl, patting her gently.

  She told her, “Let’s go and find the safe node, alright?”

  Taking her hand, they began to move, but it proved inconvenient to move around with a child. She had wounds too, and her skin was full of rashes, as though… she was infected. The guide had mentioned those. The alien pollens in the air were potent allergens that must be treated.

  The sound of leaves crunching made Leah’s soul freeze. Quickly wrapping her arms around the child, she hid between the trees.

  Blind Wolf, lv 6.

  She gritted her teeth and motioned for the girl to be silent. Surprisingly smart, the girl quieted down. They moved around the mountain to avoid the wolf’s sight. These wolves couldn’t see, as though something—or someone—had scooped their eyes out. The hollow, empty holes were somehow scarier.

  Not much of a help either, as it compensated for its lack of sight with an extremely powerful sense of smell. The stench of blood on her was too thick.

  When she stepped out, she saw the snarling beast standing before her. Saliva dripped from its grotesque jaw. Rows of teeth still had flesh stuck between them.

  Her nervous system seized. Raising her shield, she shoved it forward—right into the widened jaw of the beast.

  A stupid move.

  It tore through with a snap of its jaw and sheared it apart like paper.

  She kicked it in the shin and leapt with the child. Unfortunately, her attack didn’t even make the beast flinch. It crept towards them… slowly. Almost methodically. Its hollow eyes seemed to look at her. Mock her impending doom.

  A growing sense of despair veiled her.

  Just as she was about to give up, a whistle rang through the air.

  Level up!

  The next thing she knew, the wolf dropped down with a whimper. An arrow etched into its skull. Thick black blood spurted from the hollow holes of its eyes.

  How?

  She looked around with caution and fear.

  Archer, Lv. ??

  A silhouette wearing dark robes stepped out, face veiled by a hood and the lack of visible light. He coldly scanned them before taking out a knife and skinning the wolf with brutal precision. Then, he began to leave immediately.

  Just before departing, he pointed in a direction.

  “T–the safe node… It’s in that direction.”

  The awkward stammering voice sounded young. Someone in his teens.

  The hill he pointed toward was at least a mile away, its silhouette growing darker as the sun sank on the horizon. If she were uninjured and alone, she might have made it back before nightfall—but now, with a child and a wounded leg, it was very unlikely.

  Looking at his retreating silhouette, she gritted her teeth and screamed, “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to help us?!”

  She pointed toward the child behind her.

  “Or at least take her! She’s just a child!”

  It was only right for people to help each other. That was why mankind survived the ice age. Anyone with a conscience should help others if it was within their power to do so.

  Not him.

  Turning around, he looked at her as if she had made the most absurd demand imaginable.

  He thought for a moment and fished out a green vial, throwing it toward her.

  “Help… yourself.”

  Basic Potion of Regeneration (Ungraded) — A basic potion crafted by an inexperienced brewer. Heals a total of 500 points of health.

  This…

  She turned her head in surprise, but he was already gone.

  Nodding gratefully, she drank half of it, and gave the remaining half to the child. With renewed determination, they began to make their way toward the mountain.

  They couldn’t stay out here for long.

  The true horror of Eldera… only began at night. She still remembered the guide’s repeated warnings—about the nights in Eldera.