Until dusk, Richard followed the trail of every animal he could find. As he lacked the sense of taste, everything that was made of meat was good enough, but he could only find some rats and bats hiding inside the still standing buildings. Those were too small to quench his hunger, and he would grab one of them and squeeze it until his hand was full of blood, growling and snarling in frustration.

In the late afternoon, the sun had set quickly, and a thin haze rose from the ground. Walking in the dark wasn’t a problem to him anymore, and his vision had turned from orange to red. Everything that had a heart that was beating was as bright as it could be.

This meant that he knew of the four hunched creatures hidden behind the piles of rubble, even if the slapping sound of their feet was as faint as possible.

They had followed him all the way to a large square, occupied by a roundabout and in the middle by a large bronze statue standing on a dirty and chipped marble pedestal of a man on prancing horse.

Lv.2 Husk spotted.

A face with two wide blood-shoot dark eyes, and a long muscular arm of pearlescent skin with sharp nails were the first thing he saw of the creature lurching upon him.

Richard grabbed its wrist and twisted it until the two bones of the forearm sprang out of the skin. The creature still had a stunned expression when Richard’s claws enveloped its hairless skull.

The skin made a sizzling sound as it melted under Richard’s flame, and when its limbs stopped from twisting in pain, he threw the lifeless body on the ground.

You have used Fire Touch. You’ve consumed 3 units of Mana. You still have 10 units of Mana to spend. You have defeated a lv.2 Husk. 23 EXP gained. You need 1345 EXP to reach level 7.

Another creature with a shriek jumped on his shoulders, and its long nails scratched his neck without making any damage, while another one bit his leg and was thrashing his head to pull out the scales.

A roar came out from Richard’s mouth. With one hand, he grabbed the ankle of the creature on his shoulders and he flung it on the ground, then he kicked the other one in the face with his free leg. Still holding onto the ankle of the first creature, he bludgeoned it against the one on the ground, again and again, until only a mass of withered black brains and pieces of bone splattered to the ground was what remained of their skulls.

You have defeated two lv.2 Husks. You gain 46 EXP. You need 1299 EXP to reach level 7.

He could’ve stopped there, but another one was hiding behind the statue, thinking that he could fool him. It shrieked when it saw him approaching and sprinted away from him on four legs, but Richard lurched forward and grabbed its ankle. The creature screamed as Richard bashed its body against the marble, splattering blood over it.

You have defeated a lv. 1 Baby Husk. You gain 10 EXP. You need 1291 EXP to reach level 7.

He roared again as he severed a leg of one of the creatures and tore the flesh apart with his fangs.

Richard woke up under the shade of the statue, in the middle of the Victory square. His vision had reverted from red to yellow again, and the pressure he felt against his temples was gone. Why was he here? It was at least a mile away from his house, and he didn’t recall having any reason to be in this place.

Your flame’s intensity had lowered of 125% and it’s now at a safe level. +100 REASON, -50 STH, -50 PER, -50 AGI.

You’re no longer hungry.

He stretched his stiff neck and closed and opened his hands, pushing the claws out and pulling them in. The skin of the palm was sticky by all the dark red blood on it, which wasn’t his, as it was green. A cracking sound came from his buttocks as he shifted his weight.

Richard gasped. It was a small skull that could fit in his hand, with the back part fractured. There were three other near him, twice the size but still smaller than a normal human, with one of them that had its facial bones completely charred. They looked like they belonged to a human, but not quite, as the many rows of sharp teeth were like the ones of a piranha, and the eye sockets and the cheekbones were so wide that they looked too alien.

The rests were new and one of the victims had his face burned. Richard looked down at his hands, and he should have gotten them dirty when he touched the skull, should it? But the blood was dry, so it meant that it been there for the whole time.

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Homo abhorrens, commonly known as Husk, base definition: humanlike creatures of unknown origin. They travel in packs of adults and their babies, hunting for small animals and humans who wander alone. Their babies are reported to never grow up into adulthood, and they seem to lack sexual organs, therefore their reproductive method is unknown. (Added by Unknown author, 2031).

The usual whistling sound he made when he was in distress came from his insides. He couldn’t fully recall what happened during the night, but in a recess of his mind, a tall red monster grabbed the leg of one of those creature running away from him and he bashed its skull against the statue’s pedestal. In fact, one side of the marble was dirty of blood.

That was the work of a monster, not him. He may have made the mistake of not keeping that alien part under control, but he wasn’t like this. And if all this was a simulation, it wouldn’t even matter. Everybody in videogames slaughtered hundreds of people and it didn’t make them murderers in real life. This should be the same, so he had to brush it under the rug and stop thinking about it.

Quest completed!

You’ve learned what it takes to survive. You gain +3 to Survival.

You gain +300 EXP. You need 991 EXP to reach lv.7

Quest N.5:

You’ve defeated enemies for the first time. Check your STATS in the Menu to see how’ve improved.

Well, that wasn’t his doing, but he’ll look into it because he was curious.

Lv.6, Rank B.

Strength 150 Agility, Sub stats discovered: Glide. 70/0 Perception 70 Endurance 40 Constitution 100 Magical Ability 50 Intellect, Sub stats discovered: Survival. 90/31 Charisma, Sub stats discovered: Speech. 0/0 Quest completed, +10 EXP.

All of this numbers weren’t going to give his life back. He wasn’t so sure anymore that it was something temporary, as he had fell asleep and was still trapped inside this monstrous body.

Richard rose from the ground. He needed to find answers about all of this, and the only way was to find someone alive, which should be quite harder than expected. If was still inside his normal body, he would have already been ripped to pieces or starved. It was hard to admit, but the stronger animal instincts had helped him out there.

John’s workplace was too far to reach in a day on foot, but the college campus, which had even a research institute, was nearer and should have some logs of what destroyed the city and why there were strange creatures lurking around.