Everything was black, and then it wasn’t. As suddenly as Hailey had disappeared into the shadow of the tree, she just as suddenly reappeared, only it was now early morning. The sun had just broken over the horizon and the shadow she had been hiding in had disappeared, prompting her re-emergence into the world of the living. She shook her head trying to make sense of it all.

  One moment it was night, and now its morning? I didn’t think it was that close to daybreak. Maybe time moves differently in the shadows? Or maybe I just passed out. Or something. I don’t know, I’ll have to figure it out later.

  Her stomach turned. She realized that if she was going to experience it later that meant that she was going to get hurt again. She took a deep breath and forcefully pushed the air out of her lungs.

  It can’t be helped. I can’t grow stronger if I don’t encounter risk. And I need to grow if I want to live a life free of worry. Either I need to get strong enough that no one can do anything to me even though I am an assassin, or [Masking] will need to level up a lot. Though both of those goals go hand in hand.

  Hailey took inventory of herself. Both daggers were still sheathed by the small of her back, and her gifted rapier was still hanging in there. Her clothes had seen better days. Her pants were more ripped and torn than they were a coherent piece of clothing. Her shirt faired a little better, but it too was on its way out.

  I wish I had a change of clothing right about now, Hailey thought. That’s just one more thing to buy… Fuck. My money was in my pack. I’m back to being broke again. Fuck me. That’s not fair.

  She looked at her arm and stopped. It felt fine. Like the wolf’s attack never happened. But her skin told a different story. She felt it, and it didn’t feel out of place. It was smooth and unblemished. But it lacked any sign of colour. The skin that had covered her wounds was almost unnaturally pale in colour and stood out compared to her sun-touched skin.

  Hailey checked over the rest of her body and noticed that all of the areas she had been injured now featured patches of pale skin. She looked at the area where the Owlbeast had cut her, and the recently repaired skin flawlessly matched the rest of her arm.

  I guess that’s just a byproduct of using [Shadowmend], she thought. There was one more thing she needed to check before starting her day properly.

  Status (truncated)

  It took two Absorbed Shadow Units to heal me? That… well… I don’t know what to make of that. That is today’s system learning goal then, figure out how I get ASU. If I remember correctly I add small functions to the system. Let’s see if I can have it chime every time an ASU is acquired.

  There was no guide on how to make the system work for you, but Hailey felt that just thinking about the function was enough for the system to go ahead and make it a thing.

  Satisfied that she had been fully healed, and her health and endurance had fully recovered, Hailey surveyed the land around her. To the sides of here were mountains, but they didn’t seem too familiar. In the other directions, one side of the valley descended, while the other direction ascended. She had no idea where she was, or where the path could be but she knew that she was descending. As long as she hit the base of the mountain chain, she would eventually run into a road and be able to get her bearings. With her stomach growling she began to walk downhill.

  -_-_-

  Hailey kept an eye on the sky as she descended the valley. She realized that the bird that had been following her yesterday was likely the very same bird that had attacked her last night. While her powers had grown, that beast was way out of her league and would be for some time.

  With her stomach growling she took a chance and picked up a couple of berries she saw growing on a bush. She remembered her teachings that she was not to try to eat things that could potentially be poisonous, but her sense of logic was taking a backseat at the moment. She started with one berry, then waited what seemed to be half an hour before judging that the berry was unlikely to be poisonous. She ate the rest of her gatherings.

  The berries alone were not enough to satiate her. Her stomach was crying out for calories, no doubt to replace the spent energy from the night. Her provisions were gone. No doubt by now the wolves would have eaten them. Her canteen was also a sorely missed item as the morning wore on.

  The base of the mountains still seemed to be quite far away. If what Tennison had said was correct it was a full two days of travel to make the descent. Hailey figured that if she kept at it, she would make it there by the end of the day, but she needed some water to make it happen. The food she could likely live without. But it would make any potential fights riskier.

  Stolen story; please report.

  There were a lot of thoughts ruminating around in her head, as there was nothing else to do but think while she walked.

  -_-_-

  Water. I need water. Hailey thought. After another two hours of walking through the valley she had reached a breaking point. Against her better judgement she beelined for a section of forest. If there was anywhere that had a stream, or even a small pond, it would be there. It wasn’t out in the opener part of the valley. And if it was, Hailey couldn’t see it.

  She held her knives at the ready, reaping the benefit of perception-based time dilation to carefully move through the forest. Upon entering, she had felt the domain of monsters tickle her sense of… well, domains, she guessed.

  She heard a cracking sound come from ahead of her and she took cover behind a tree. She didn’t dare breath as she peeked out. There, a couple of meters away from her, was a charging boar. It was approaching quite a large size. But the more important thing was the pond it was drinking out of.

  Hailey’s mind was instantly made up. She knew what needed to happen. She took a breath and used [Shadowstep]. She popped up behind the occupied boar in a bent over form, her torso hovering above the boar’s back, and she reached forward, and in a quick motion, brought her daggers under the boar’s neck, then pulled them up into its flesh, yanking them through the beast’s thick neck muscles.

  The boar slumped over, its barely attached head flopping on the ground. Hailey put her boot on the boar’s midsection and pushed the corpse away from the water’s edge. The last thing she wanted to do was drink water contaminated with boar blood.

  Her weapons vibrated, and a smalling tinging sound went off in her mind as the system spoke to her.

  *Ting* ASU acquired. Total: 3.

  Well, that makes a lot of sense, actually. I’m stealing the shadow of the monsters I kill? Hailey looked at the boar’s corpse. She circled around it, and sure enough, the defeated monster no longer had a shadow.

  That’s complete and total system fuckery if I have ever seen it. Aren’t shadows a physical property? And yet, here’s a lump of meat that doesn’t cast one. Just how powerful is the system anyways?

  Hailey could ponder these questions all day long, but first she needed to drink. Looking at the pond, she was delighted to see that the water was crystal clear. The multicoloured rocks at the bottom were clearly defined. There was no macro-sized life in the pond, just some plants that were living their best life at the waterside.

  Not wanting to waste another moment Hailey bent down and cupped a handful of water and drank it. It was cold and refreshing, but most importantly, it tasted clean. The water that Hailey usually drank carried a slight metallic taste to it, from the metal containers it was transported around in. But this, this was untainted.

  Hailey drank her fill then sat back. The stench of battle and defeated monster would keep any potentially wandering monsters away for a little while if what Tennison said was true. Hailey had a feeling that it was a mostly fact. Unless it was an intelligent beast, or an apex predator, or some other biological factors override the monster’s normal operating procedures.

  She surveyed the surroundings. There wasn’t much to write home about. It was a small clearing, the sun shone through the small hole in the forest canopy, and the forest extended in every direction. Her stomach grumbled.

  “I guess I could eat that monster,” Hailey said out loud to herself. She pushed herself up and set to gathering firewood. A few minutes later and she was fashioning a makeshift fire-starting jig out of some very dry pieced of wood. She had made a nest of dry tinder, then placed a small bit of it into a more board-like piece of wood that she had cut a divot into. Holding a sharpened stick between the palms of her hands she began to roll the stick back and forth as the friction between the wooden point and the tinder began to generate heat.

  Try as she might, she couldn’t get the tinder to catch. She was so close though. Twice it had started smoking and Hailey had tried to transfer the hot tinder, only for it to not catch fire. Anger radiated through her as she grabbed the stick once more determined to make it work.

  The world slowed down this time as she let her emotions guide her attempt. Her hands moved a little faster and were a little more coordinated in this state. The tinder started to smoke, but Hailey knew better this time and continued to roll the stick. The tinder caught fire, and when transferred to the rest of the dry nest, it easily ignited.

  A couple of minutes later and a full-fledged fire was underway. And all it had cost were the beginning of some blisters on her hands. With her knives, Hailey cut off one of the boar’s massive hind legs. She rigged it using some sturdy pieces of wood, and skewered it through its length, and set it over the fire.

  Hailey sat back and relaxed for the first time in a while. She reflected on how she had gotten here. Her lifelong ambitions of being a non-combat worker of some variety had been dashed. Now she was stuck killing things for a living, and that, well, if she was honest with herself, the thrill of fighting was intoxicating. She was almost starting to look forward to her next fight. Her stomach rumbled at the sight of her future meal, but she knew it would be hours yet before it was fully cooked. In the meantime, she took stock of her situation.

  I have a source of water. I can make fire, and I can hunt and kill monsters for food. There are berries that I can eat. I think I can afford to spend some time here and train. There really is no rush for me to get to Oreside city as fast as possible anymore. My mother is healthy again and she can make her own damn money again. And what Johnathon said is probably true. The higher level I am when I arrive, the better off I’ll be.

  Besides, I’m going to need to get a collection of teeth going if I want to eat when I get there. Or maybe buy some new clothes. Hopefully some graded clothes, because if what everyone said was true, then they are more durable, and I can’t keep throwing clothes into the rag pile every time I go out hunting.

  She sighed. I think I can stay here for a while. Not stay, but hunt. I can hunt here. I can grow and then avoid having another midnight terror-fueled sprint down the mountain. Even that bird would have to think twice before attacking me. She paused for a second. Maybe that bird will be out of my league for a while, but I’ll catch up to it and pay it back.

  Hailey got up, drew her knives, and set into the forest. The first thing she did was walk back towards the open valley, where she had come from. If she was going to do this, then she needed to do it properly. And that meant being able to navigate the forest without getting lost. She knew her sense of direction was lacking and needed to be developed, but she would need help to survive until it was sufficient.

  Within a couple of minutes, she was back to the open valley. A quick bit of effort later and a collection of stones had been piled into a makeshift marker. Now, when she got lost, all she needed to do was exit the forest and walk along side it until she found the marker. The forest in reality was not that big. It occupied roughly three quarters of the area in this particular mountain valley.

  The mountains themselves almost formed a staircase. The ones closest to the plains were quite small, but they grew taller the further from the plains one travelled, and the valleys between them grew larger too. If Hailey had to take a guess, she would say that she had made it to the halfway mark. The further down the range she went the smaller the valleys would get and the likely hood of finding good monsters to hunt would grow slimmer.

  But for now, it was time to explore in the forest that she would be calling her home for a while.