Life Energy exhaustion is no joke. Minamoto had given me the broad strokes on what happens, but he basically said that if I experienced it, I had better be in a good place or else I would most definitely die. I now realize that I severely misjudged just how bad Life Energy exhaustion was.

I woke up with a gasp, coughing as I filled my greedy lungs with dirt and much needed air. It was disorientating. Everything was moving normally, but my mind was still catching up with my surroundings. For a moment, I had thought I was still in my small room, living off my parents, until I found a dead wall demon right in front of me.

It had fallen over at one point. The smooth wall that composed its body was covered in cracks that bled black. The largest crack split the creature in half with a large hole where the largest of the trees had grown from bored straight through the creature. I could make out the other end of the tunnel as I looked through the hole.

There were many thoughts going through my head as I looked at its unmoving corpse. The most predominant one was wondering how strong Minamoto was. I had neglected the Shikigami spell because I hadn’t thought it would do much. At most, I believed it to be some defensive measure, but when I had used it, I knew how wrong I was.

It was… enlightening, for a word. I felt so weak in comparison. After running for so long, forcing my exhausted body to just carry one with the small hope that my slipshod plans might work, all I needed to do was use Minamoto’s handout. That, out of everything, hit me the hardest.

I was weak. Compared to the strong in whatever crazy world this was, I was probably not even worth a second. It was okay when I was fighting the skeletons, using my Life Energy, and planning on taking down a murderous wall. However, now that the clear difference was laid out in front of me, I couldn’t help but be discouraged.

For a second, I felt that I was back in my room. The tunnel’s stone walls were the bare, single-colored walls that enclosed me, and my enthusiasm for the day had dried up as soon as I woke up. It was an escape. A way to simply ignore the world and forget about everything else.

I sighed, putting my hands on my knees and pushed myself back to my feet. I wobbled for a bit, but eventually I got my balance back. If there was one thing I was good at, it would be distracting myself from one thing with another. “None of that. You’re in a crazy fantasy world, David, do crazy fantasy things.”

With a mildly concerning motivation, I stood up straight and walked through the now enemy-free tunnel. And then promptly slipped on a shard of bone that rolled under my feet. I felt a spike of pain as my hands caught my body on the way down, and I glared futilely at the piece of bone that I tripped on. Bones, living walls, and Oni. Those were now on my dislike list. Which, if I was going to be reasonable, was going to include quite a bit of things at one point.

However, my annoyance was quickly dashed when I saw the boneyard I had just created. The scene should have been macabre. Those vines and trees had basically torn everything down into finger-sized shards with one the odd cracked arm or misshapen femur poking out from the piles. Yet, those things were not like the skeleton amalgamation. The creature has some solid structure to its wild shape, and it had survived the most damage. Though, only a cracked piece of its skullcap and left eye socket were left.

It was impressive in a sort of morbid way. However, my attention was more on the small marble peeking out from bits of skull surrounding it. A marble that looked remarkably similar to the one that Commander Nishimuro had taken out from the Oni’s head.

“No way…” I murmured, carefully inspecting it as if it could spring up and attack me at any moment.

If this thing was a skill jade like I thought it was, then that was super lucky. I had thought that maybe every creature had them, but when every skeleton was devoid of one, I had begun to realize that they might be pretty rare. Yet, now there was one in my hand.

Carefully, I reached out to touch it. The second my hand came in contact with the smooth marble, I found that there was a small skull within the glass marble that opened and closed like a video on repeat.

[March of the Dead(G)]

I stared at the screen in front of me. It was possibly the least informative one I had seen yet. Despite that, a rush of excitement filled me. This was definitely something like a powerup. Minamoto hadn’t really explained what skills were, but I remembered how every odd thing that Nishimuro did that Minamoto explained they were done with skills. From there, I could guess that they were something to definitely keep an eye out for.

Scared that it might disappear forever, I quickly snatched the skill jade up. It was cool to the touch. Almost like I was handling a small chunk of ice that refused to melt.

[Do you want to absorb skill jade “March of the Dead” into your G rank skill slot?]

[Yes/No]

Almost instantly, my excitement came to a stuttering halt. G rank skill slot? Did that mean that there was an F rank, E rank and so on? Could I get more of them? What was my maximum? As cool as getting a skill was, and as desperate my situation was, I didn’t say yes just yet. There was no knowing anything about my situation, so I just slipped the marble into my pocket with extra care.

I once again began walking towards the corpse of the wall. Prodding it with my foot, I stepped around the creature's body, making sure not to step into the pools of black blood that were finally beginning to dry. It was odd. The blood was like syrup, drooping slowly into the pools and sticking to anything it came into contact with. Definitely not something I could wash out of my clothes.

It was not without a bit of struggle that I made my way around the dead creature, but I stared around the cracks of its body by habit. Then, I stopped as I was climbing over a drier part of the wall.

“No way.” I said with a laugh. All my luck seemed to be coming to me right now.

I tore a strip off my ruined shirt, ignoring how I was slowly growing used to being half naked all the time. It was not my problem that the clothes here could not stand up to being stabbed by miscellaneous monsters. I wrapped my hand with the cloth, sucked in a deep breath, and forced my hand into a crack right between the creature’s two large eyes.

It was much worse than the skeleton. The skill jade had fallen out of wherever it had been when I killed it, but this one was much worse. All the tissue surrounding it was thick and stringy. I felt like I was putting my hand through a block of slightly unfrozen spaghetti, and when I pulled my hand out I had to not gag as viscous strings of black liquid came off with it.

Nearly gagging, I forced a smile as I stared at the second skill jade, covered in thick, black blood, within my hand. I wiped a spot clean with my rag and tapped it. Inside the glass-like sphere was a swirling abyss that seemed to shift into a multitude of various shapes. Cool.

[Presence Correction(G)]

Carefully, I stuck this one in a different pocket. It seemed like a good skill as well, but like my first reasons, I had little to no knowledge on this subject. For now, it was best to just find Minamoto and stick to his thigh.

A flash of something in my sixth sense let me know that the tunnel was doing suspicious things again, and I wanted nothing to do with it anymore. I hurried over the wall demon and carefully touched down on the opposite side before sucking in a deep breath.

Before me was the path the wall demon had taken in its efforts to reach me. The previous tunnel had turned into a rectangular hallway with defined corners and almost polished walls. There were small pockmarks and divots where the creature’s fingers had dug in, but other than those, I couldn’t find any fault in the walls.

My eyes dragged over a piece of broken wood and fabric. It had been pressed into the floor and the top parts of it were grinded down into nothing, leaving a small hole where a sword could probably fit. I knew I had dropped Matsumura’s sheathe when I broke his sword in the creature’s eye and ran, but seeing the last of it being destroyed too was a bit saddening. This was the weapon that had saved me from countless skeletons before. He definitely was a good guy.

I kneeled down and touched it gently. “Thanks. You crushed a bunch of skellies. You will be missed.”

My eulogy finished as I turned down the tunnel and began walking. That walk turned into a brisk jog when I felt my sixth sense flash again that the tunnel was doing something. It had changed from the feeling of a blacksmith into something different. I got the image of cogs turning before I knew it, but I was busy rushing down the tunnel to where the wall demon had been to care for it.

For some reason, my body felt lighter than before. However, it was only when I finally put Life Energy into my legs that I realized just what might have changed. Everything felt… more. Life Energy once made my physical abilities better, but now it was doing it with much better results. Where I had been pushing olympic records with my Life Energy before, this felt like I was going into the territory of super humans.

I stopped when the tunnel in front of me was replaced with an opening that led out into a foggy area. It seemed that my tunnel adventures were finally coming to an end. I won’t miss it. However, while that was a cause for celebration, I was more focused on my changed body. My breathing wasn’t heavy or coming in gasps anymore. Instead, I probably couldn’t have been any better.

“This is wild…” I whispered, looking at the exit before turning my attention to my hands. They didn’t look any different, nor did I seem to grow any new appendages. “[status].”

[True Name: N/A]

Name: David Wyatt

Life Rank: F-

[Stats]

Body: F-

Mind: G+

Soul: F

[Class: 1/2 Conditions Cleared for Class Advancement]

[Techniques: N/A]

[Skills: N/A ]

“Uh…” That was a large change. I could’ve sworn I had another step to reach Life Rank G+ but now it looks like I had reached that long ago. When was it? I knew I had been using Life Energy for pretty much the entire time till I almost passed out, but this seemed very sudden. Even my body stat had reached the next stage. No wonder I felt like I was stronger.

However, there really was nothing to gauge myself against. Was this good progress? What could I fight with this? Certainly not a wall demon or that skeleton amalgamation. With Ranks in G, I barely could contend with skeletons without Life Energy, so what did it mean now?

“They really need a guidebook for this stuff…”

In any case, I now had a chance to get a class. Which was cool. I think. All Minamoto had said was that I could get one when I joined an organization or did something worthy enough to get one. It was some bullshit excuse to not really explain it, but I had my attention focused on Life Energy and his training.

“Don’t come through the opening!” Someone yelled from the foggy exit.

I shook off my gripes of not having a manual for this world in front of me. Squinting my eyes, I caught a couple of figures dashing through the fog with speed that outstripped me in every way. It certainly told me the answer to some of my previous questions. I guess I can’t have good things…

“We’re coming in! Be careful!”

I stepped aside as a small group of three Samurai and an Exorcist dashed through my exit, stumbling into the tunnel. They tripped and fell, and some even rolled head over heels deeper into the hallway. One of them hurriedly unsheathed their sword and shakily pointed it towards the exit into the fog. Several others did the same while the Exorcist pulled out a man-shaped Shikigami.

A large serpentine silhouette moved erratically through the fog nearby. I could only breathe silently as the sounds of something sharp scraping on the ground echoed eerily in the fog. It sounded almost like someone was dragging a sword on a piece of metal.

Despite how loud it was, I still heard something over the scraping. I leaned away from the exit, but I heard it anyway. A deep, guttural gasping that sounded like someone was trying to talk with vocal chords that didn’t belong to them.

“C- C- Co… Come Out-ut-ut…” I felt a chill down my spine as I recognized the words finally. They echoed constantly and only disappeared when whatever silhouette in the fog was lost from view.

The three Samurai exhaled deeply, sitting down and resting. On the other hand, the Exorcist seemed to be fairing the worst of everyone. His back hit the wall and he slid down, holding the sides of his head while whispering “Face Stealer” over and over. I honestly was getting kind of concerned about the situation.

That was when one of the Samurai finally noticed my presence. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to spit at my feet, but his face twisted, trying hard to fake a smile. It was fake and we both knew it. The rest of the Samurai found me, too, but they just scowled at me and turned away.

“Gaijin, you have a good relationship with the Exorcist of the Sleeping Woods, right?” The man with the fake smile asked, and I could only offer a wry smile. I knew what he was going to ask, but I also knew that I was going to break his heart.

However, that was when the rest of the group looked at me with barely concealed hope. I just knew this was going to be bad.