Wet wood hissed and smoked, coughing black into Xenos's face every time he leaned down to blow on it, dying rather than igniting.
Every fire he created barely functioned, sputtering out for a long time before eventually ceasing.
"Yeah, this is definitely working."
Sighing, he went back to searching.
This jungle wasn't exactly dry, and he was far from a survival expert. All he knew was that he needed a dead tree, or at least a branch, but he wasn't finding any.
Even the fallen branches he found on the ground were still wet, so it felt like a lost cause.
'Am I really going to pull back from here just because I can't get a fire started?'
He couldn't believe that this was what had him stuck.
The game didn't have survival mechanics, so his thoughts never really went there; despite this no longer being a game, and that meant that he hadn't prepared for this at all.
"Dammit."
Frustrated at himself, he kicked a half-dead pile of leaves.
"…oh."
Luck smiled on him—or maybe it was pity—because his foot clipped a small stack of dry wood tucked right beneath them, as if prepared there by someone else.
"Oh!"
He blinked at it, expression flat.
"Of course."
Luck giveth; Calamity taketh away.
Humming with happiness, Xenos picked them up and waddled back to camp.
Soon enough, he had a small but steady flame crackling in front of him.
Next to him was a monkey hanging upside down, remnants of blood beneath it.
'It should be dry by now, right?'
Asking that question to no one in particular, he skinned it with clumsy hands, removed its guts and disgusting-looking bits, cut it up, and roasted the cleaner meat on a stick.
The thing tasted like burnt socks dipped in mud, but it filled his stomach.
He didn't complain... much.
"Better than starving."
Afterward, he trekked to a nearby lake and drank deeply.
The water was cold, oh so cold, and his dry lips loved every sip.
He stripped right after and jumped in, caring not for who was watching.
Scrubbed clean from all the dirt and blood, he floated on his back for a while, staring at the night sky, fully surrendering to the water, his little dragon peeking out to say hi.
"Ah... not bad, not bad at all."
Xenos was truly enjoying himself, experiencing a freedom he never knew possible.
Dripping and half-frozen, he stepped out, dried himself, and put on his underwear.
He left his clothes to dry on a nearby tree, then grabbed a few giant leaves, found two sturdy trees that could easily support his weight, and tied up his makeshift hammock.
His first attempt to climb up dropped him face-first into the dirt; the second one rolled him sideways and spat him out, though by the fifth try, he managed to stay in, wrapped tight in leaves like a mummy.
'Goodnight, Seeker Xenos.'
Nodding at Eris, he smiled contentedly and closed his eyes, letting sleep take him.
...
Morning came, and birds screamed, waking Xenos up.
With his back aching, he bid his Soul's sole resident good morning, stretched his body, and stared at the sun creeping over the canopy.
'Hm... I need to move.'
But he didn't act without a plan, so, while getting down and donning his clothes, he began to think ahead, planning out his Rune Path once more, trying to find new ways to 'level up.'
Unfortunately, no matter how much he thought, most methods required drachma.
Especially if he went and had someone carry him through dungeons, those lot asked for much, and all he had to his name was enough for a few nights at a crappy inn.
Other ways required him to be stronger; no way he'd survive them as he was now.
Gambling? But that required more constant Luck, something he didn't have yet, so for now, there was only one option left:
Grind.
And grind he did.
...
Much like the last, the next three days blurred into each other, filled with Cercopes after Cercopes, all shrieking, clawing, and whipping their tails.
Xenos moved through it all with a surprisingly calm demeanor, almost a bored one.
It seemed that the thrill of killing them had waned, becoming no more than a chore to him.
A feeling that he was quite used to while playing the game; only difference was that now he had no music to accompany the chore.
Their shrieks and his own breath were boring to hear on repeat, especially when all it was accompanied by was a single scene that repeated hour after hour.
A tail would swing down, he would step in, feint, duck low, and drive the blade straight through a monkey's chest, ending its life.
It was all the same, though sometimes Calamity struck, and they hit him, but it was never serious, as Luck always spared him, the two working in tandem.
He'd slip in a puddle of monkey blood only to skid under a Cercopes's lunge. Another time, one leapt early, getting the jump on him, literally, only for its tail to get tangled in a branch, hanging it upside down.
Calamity would also have them throw poop at him instead of rocks, and thankfully, he managed to dodge those fully, since to him, it'd have been a fate worse than death.
Though directly opposing each other, the Elements liked to 'proc' together, i.e., trigger, keeping him alive and well.
Repetition kept carving itself into his body, making his steps and strikes quicker and his breathing steadier.
Generally, his frame continued to thicken little by little, with muscles emerging where there had been nothing but bone and skin.
Xenos could feel his stats etching themselves into his bones.
It was Divine!
Yes, there was a massive experience reduction, but he was still getting much stronger.
And he wasn't doing too badly on the mental front. Eris talked to him every few hours, momentarily taking his mind off the constant and relentless repetition.
By the fourth night, however, he finally stopped, deciding that it was enough.
He had returned to his camp, where fire burned low, and his hammock swayed gently in the cold breeze. After a quick bath, he sat with his back resting on a tree, his sword leaning across his knees.
"Yeah... I don't have much time."
The Pluto Academy's gates would be opening soon. Xenos needed to head out by tomorrow morning at the earliest.
Problem was, though, he was broke, and there was a high chance there'd be no one heading the way he was; most attending the Academy were likely there for a few days now.
That, unfortunately, made his previous plan of hitchhiking and mooching off people practically impossible.
He could only walk the entire way there.
"Ugh..."
He groaned.
"…kill me now."
Still, if it was any consolation, the walk would raise his Endurance.
Because, yeah, grinding with his own two legs counted too; it was just that getting more Soul and Divinity was a cheat that took care of that much faster for Runebearers, so this method was somewhat useless for most.
'I need to rest well today.'
Ding!
As if waiting for that thought, the system's only sound echoed in his mind.
—
╔════════╗
║OVERFLOW!║
╚════════╝
╔════════════╗
║☆ LEVEL UP X 6 ☆║
╚════════════╝
[You've Slayed Cercopes X 261!]
[EXP = 157!]
[Level: 6 → 12]
[+ 18 STAT POINTS!]
—
"Oh… not bad. Not bad at all~."
Xenos checked his stats:
—
{Level: 12}
[• EXP: 4 / 40 •]
{Health Points}
[• HP: 102/102 → 252/252 •]
{Divinity}
[• D: 69/134 → 266/266 •]
[Strength] 6 → 12 (F → E) (World Avg: E)
[Intelligence] 16 → 19 (E → E+) (World Avg: F)
[Willpower] 19 (E+) (World Avg: F)
[Speed] 9 → 14 (F → E) (World Avg: E)
[Endurance] 15 → 19 (E → E+) (World Avg: E)
[Appearance] 70 (B+) (World Avg: C)
[Personality] -1 (G) (World Avg: D)
[Luck] 60 (B) (World Avg: C)
—
"Yeah, not too bad at all."
Again, though it was much slower than he liked, he was still moving up.
That showed him just how tough it'd be to level up later on, as the 'experience' requirement rapidly increased with the higher levels, reaching the tens of thousands.
Of course, the more Runes a monster had, the more 'experience' they would give, but such monsters were too strong to grind, requiring cohorts of Runebearers to fight them, and more importantly, there weren't many of such monsters, making even finding them a challenge.
Xenos needed to seriously think this through and find an alternative; grinding out like this wasn't fast enough. He needed a boost to surprise whoever would be sent after him; otherwise, he was dead meat.
"It's a lot, but..."
He leaned back in his hammock, staring up at the canopy.
"That's a problem for future me~."
Wasting time thinking about it here wasn't going to help. He'd rather sleep than worry about what he couldn't directly affect.
And so, with that, Xenos shut his eyes and let himself drift, already half-planning the long walk tomorrow, somehow forgetting about something very important.