Her eyes shot open, the sky her first sight, the sun shining down on her.

Black well-maintained but dirty shoulder-length hair, green round eyes gazing at the sky, the child watched without a thought, without a memory. Her thin pale body didn’t move, lying down on the ground. Her oval face, with a small straight nose and thin lips, was cute even if dirty.

Yet she felt it, in her mind, her body, every part of her, screaming, HUNGER.

Then memories flooded back into her mind, the hunger forgotten. She was Silvy, a half-elf, a race despised by both humans and elves. The union of those two species a despicable action, she was human and elf at the same time, neither of them at once.

And this wasn’t her tent. Not only she wasn’t in her tent, but she didn’t feel weak, nor pain. They were sensations accompanying her every waking moment, so it was strange to not feel them.

Quickly sitting up, she took a deep breath, fresh air filling her lungs.

The child’s green eyes opened wide. She was in a forest. The first question would be why was she here, but she couldn’t fail to notice the massive crater around her. The only thing standing for dozens of meters was a single pillar of dirt, the one she was standing on. This crater went up towards the edges as if a giant ball had smashed and compacted the ground, erasing everything else.

Silvy carefully stood up, looking around. In the air, not a single sound. Beyond the crater, many trees were bent or broken away from it, testimonies of a huge blast. What had happened? What did this? How? Where was the city?!

Her panic almost taking over, she took a deep breath, recalling the last thing she remembered.

The kidnapping. Someone had taken her to a dim underground cage, many others around her, some screaming, others crying, most silently awaiting their ends, their eyes dead, everyone afraid. She had passed several days down there, receiving only a bit of food every day from hooded figures, just enough to survive. One day, she had woken up seeing a plump man staring down on her, speaking to another person, a hooded figure.

This memory was hazy, unfocused, as if underwater. She couldn’t recall the face of the two men, nor their clothing, but she recalled the plump man bringing her in a brightly lit room with two other women, stripping them naked. They had given her a potion, and then… nothing apart from the pain. The pain was the only thing she remembered. Her skin had broken, her muscles had torn…

Silvy looked at her arms. A brown rag covered her body, torn and holed, with stains of blood. Moving the sleeves away, she saw a flawless skin. Lifting her rags, she confirmed her torso was devoid of wounds, dirty but unharmed. Looking at her feet, a scar she had gotten at eight years old was missing.

She stared at her feet for a few seconds, confused. What was going on? Healing magic existed, but why would a priest heal her? And even if someone felt pity for her, removing scars with magic was extremely expensive, so much so that only nobility and a few famous adventurers could afford it.

She had heard of a few gang bosses in the slums scrambling enough money to get healed, but the scars would remain, removing it too costly for them. And why was everything destroyed? She was no priest or mage, but she had never heard of healing magic destroying the terrain around the healed. And most importantly, where was the healer?! So many questions and not a living soul to ask them.

At this point, panic was starting to overcome Silvy. Her situation was strange, puzzling, and… to much silence. Something was missing. Hyperventilating, she realized… her heart wasn’t beating. She pressed a hand on her chest, only silence answering. No beating heart… she was shocked, so much that she had stopped breathing completely. And yet, she didn’t feel the need to.

Calming down, she breathed out all of her air, waiting for her body to ask, to beg for it. Five seconds… Ten seconds… Thirty seconds. One minute. Nothing at all.

She was like a dead, but not dead. She had heard a lot of stories about the undeads. Virtually everyone knew a corpse shouldn’t be left alone, lest it raises. You either burnt it or poured holy water on it. If you didn’t do it, the corpse would raise and move again after a few days, attacking everything not dead.

She had died and became undead? She had never heard of thinking undeads! And undeads didn’t recover from wounds! Or at least, that was what people said. Not only she was completely healed, but she was thinking, with no desire to kill everything around her, just towards the bastard that had imprisoned her. She wanted to kick them, tear them apart, biting slashing feeding-

Taking a deep breath, it was time to calm down. No point in thinking about this problem right now, she was just an orphan. After the death of her mother, she had lived in the slums, stealing and swindling to survive. The knowledge she had about monsters was stories and rumors heard here and there, bits and pieces she couldn’t rely on.

Another deep breath, she jumped down from the pillar into the crater. The ground was tough like a rock, a light kick not raising a single speck of dirt.

This forest was packed with trees, green and blooming, the ground filled with roots and bushes making the journey difficult. The trees were tall, easily surpassing the highest building she had ever seen up close, an inn with three floors.

The biggest problem remained unresolved, though. Silvy had no idea where she was. Taking a guess, she’d say this was the forest closest to the city, directly to the east, but even then, she had never gone so far from the city. The slum district was dangerous, no doubt, but the outside was deadly. Monsters of all kinds roamed the land, more numerous the farther the cities and roads. She had heard many tales, of wolves as fast as the wind, bears ripping men in two, swarms of poisonous insects, and many more, and this was enough to scare her.

The forest close to Chilog. She had heard this wasn’t a bad place for adventurers with a few skills to their name, not a place for newbies nor veterans, a middle ground.

Reaching the edge of the pit while having these thoughts, she pulled herself up, watching the crater one last time, still unsure of what to make of it. Turning around, she headed away from the rising sun.

Half an hour later, the child was still moving, having heard a few worrying sounds recently. Whatever had made them sounded angry, with roars shaking the land and noisy crashes, like trees falling. But they were far from her.

A new noise appeared very close, foliage moving. Silvy stopped in her tracks, tightening the grip on the branch she had picked up, staring in the direction of the sound. A few seconds later, a fox-like creature appeared, orange tending to yellow fur, big black ears, deep brown eyes, and tail almost as long as its body. With no delay, it launched itself towards the child at high-speed, no fear or hesitation.

Silvy didn’t expect such speed and ferocity, the fox reaching her neck and biting down hard. A strange sensation came from her neck, not pain, but as if energy was spilling out from the wound, fast. The fox ripped off a big chunk of flesh, spraying blood around, the blood loss stopping after a few seconds.

The fox didn’t care and Silvy didn’t notice this detail, the child retaliating against the biting fox, the branch hitting its body. The fox didn’t let go, however, biting down harder, trying to rip off another chunk of flesh. Silvy was hitting the fox repeatedly but the animal didn’t seem perturbed by it, as if it wasn’t feeling her attacks at all.

The situation wasn’t promising, but Silvy didn’t feel urgency, not feeling fatigue nor pain. At the beginning of the fight she had felt scared, but you didn’t survive long in the slums controlled by fear. She thought fast, realizing the rate the energy was going out of her body wasn’t as dangerous as she had feared, taking at least an hour to empty her.

Stopping the attacks on the fox, she calmly planned her next move. The fox attack with a third bite, Silvy formulating a plan. Dropping the branch, she grabbed the hind legs of the fox just as it ripped off a piece of her neck, its claws lacerating her shoulders.

She then spun on the spot, the fox crashing against a nearby tree, Silvy spinning again in the opposite direction, the fox slamming again on the other side. Again and again, Silvy smashed the fox against the tree, Hit until it stops breathing, the animal uselessly thrashing around at first, Hit until its heart stops beating, slowly wavering and losing strength, Hit until its body is broken, only a slight wheeze coming out of it after sixteen hits, HIT-.

The tree was covered in blood and gore, bits of bark missing, the fox’s head warped beyond recognition, its spine disintegrated, blood and brain juice dripping on the ground.

Feast. You-

Looking down, only the bloody bones remained, cleaned of every meat. The sun in a different position, Silvy’s arms covered in blood, just like her face, Silvy felt much better, with surges of energy moving through her body, feeling blissful and powerful. Touching her neck, it was now intact.

Silvy felt fear. Did she just eat the body? But she had no memory of it!

This was terrifying. Would this also happen with humans? And was this feeling she felt after having eaten the reason undeads attacked and ate living beings? And what about her neck, how was it healed?

More questions with no answer. With more doubts than before, she restarted her march, a bit more confident in her chance of survival after this victory.

And just a few minutes later, an attack from the back took her by surprise, a big wolf ripping her right arm in a flash, probably attracted by the smell of blood. Blood poured out of her new wound, the flow stopping after a few seconds as if there was no more blood to lose.

The wolf in front of Silvy was big, almost reaching Silvy’s head. Its long, black and gray fur swayed in the wind, the shadows of the trees making it hard to see, even in broad daylight, the wolf almost fusing into them. Sharp teeth were visible in its growl, its red eyes fearless, already knowing he was going to win.

The wolf swallowed her arm after a few bites, challenging Silvy with its gaze. The situation was bad, the wolf too big to use the same trick of the fox, especially with a single arm. Running wasn’t an option, its speed so fast she had barely seen a shadow passing by her side with its attack. And this time, the energy in her body was flowing out faster, probably related to the severity of the wound suffered.

Silvy had thought about this energy. What was it? Was it magic people talked about? Maybe she could use it then?

Feeling the energy flowing out of her shoulder, she concentrated on it, creating a straight line like a sword, the sharp edge turned towards the wolf, the sword positioned between her and the opponent. She felt her energy plummeting, worrying her. Not only was the energy constantly leaking out the wound, but she was using a decent amount to sustain this blade. Based on the feeling she had got moving around, this energy was keeping her together, alive, and she didn’t want to discover what happened if she ran out of it.

If the wolf didn’t make a move soon, she’d have to, but the wolf was faster than her, hard to hit.

In the meantime, the wolf was slowly circling Silvy, studying her with its predatory eyes. This was easy prey, small and weak, covered in blood. He had wanted to play with it, feeling her terror, but after his initial attack, the prey hadn’t even flinched. This had confused him, mildly unsettling him. Preys either ran or fought him, but this small one was just watching him, awaiting its death. They would scream when he ripped their limbs, but this one didn’t.

Leaving its unsettledness aside, the wolf, bored and hungry, focused on its prey, leaping towards Silvy.

Silvy only saw a shadow moving towards her, so fast she couldn’t even react, running itself into the sword. The wolf then crashed into her, pushing her down into the ground with its sheer weight, Silvy losing control of the blade, disappearing into nothingness. She felt half of her energy disappearing at once, the world going black and silent for a few moments.

The dead wolf was now above her, pushing her down, and only after a few minutes of struggling she managed to get out. Standing up, she studied the wolf, a big hole piercing through its whole body.

Worthy feast. -

Only bloody bones remained in front of her. Fur, organs, meat, all gone, just like the fox. But that made no sense. This wolf had been bigger than her, where was she putting all the meat if she was eating it? If she hadn’t eaten it, what was happening? And why was the memory missing?

Noticing the light slowly lessening, she looked up, the sun slowly setting. Hours had passed in this black state and she now felt slow, sluggish, not powerful at all. She Knew she could keep going, slower, but not stopping, but she wasn’t sure How she knew it.

Taking this into consideration, she decided to sleep. Adventurers often talked about “awakening the undead”, so she figured even undeads slept.

But this was no place to sleep, a dead body- well, bones, just beside her. Who knows how many predators would arrive, picking the scent of blood. The least she could was climbing a tree and hide inside the thick foliage.

Looking into the vicinity, she located two trees close to each other, with branches intertwining. Problem was, her right arm wasn’t back yet, and she couldn’t climb with a single one.

She experimented a bit, using the energy inside her like a rope, hooking branches and going up. After a few tries it became easier, even fun. How was this so easy? She was no [Mage].

Reaching a decent place midway to the top, a few thick branches close enough to create a semblance of bed and foliage covering her all around, she closed her eyes, falling asleep instantly.

Rest is for-

Just as Silvy had suspected, monsters came during the night, sniffing the carcass of the wolf, but moving away finding it stripped of every edible part. They didn’t locate Silvy, hidden from sight by leaves and from smell by the thick scent of blood all around, the night passing quietly. It was only noon when Silvy opened her eyes, feeling refresh having slept like a rock.

[Warrior class acquired]

[Warrior level 6]

[Passive: Danger Sense]

[Passive: Basic Piercing Style]

[Passive: Unflinching Stance]

[Sorcerer class acquired]

[Sorcerer level 2]

[Passive: Minor Mana Preservation]