As he woke up, Finn felt the toll that his training from the day before was taking on his body. He felt smashed, with every muscle aching. His excitement knew no bounds and pushed him through the aches, a fast breakfast and again the hike to the spot he had been training at yesterday. It was secluded enough that he had seen nobody in the entire day. It was close enough to home that he could walk back when exhausted as well. It was perfect. 

This time he brought more food and drinks with him and some basic camping equipment, telling his parents that he would be out camping for a few days. After his Dad confirmed with him that his college had indeed ended for the summer, they wished him a good time. As usual, his mother seemed to be somewhat worried and kept asking how long he would be gone. Finn told them it would be for just a few days and then quickly set off. 

The hike went past in no time, and Finn assumed it was because of his increased stats. Once arrived, he put his stuff down, set up his tent and then sat down on the large boulder again. Starting his day off with four hours of meditating on the Ant of the stream cultivation technique. Well, roughly four hours. It was more like four and a half hours as Finn was still getting the hang of correctly judging time in this meditation state. Everything seemed fluid and slow. He would forget about the idea of time often before snapping back. But his work kicked up his Mind Attunement skill to 76% finished towards its next level. 

Content with his progress, he got up and stretched out, deciding to do some spell casting next. As he got ready, Finn cursed himself as he realised he would be using mana now. Mana that could have been replenished when meditating, his order of things was wrong. He groaned as he made a mental note and then started to prepare the spell. He was getting used to the mist now, how it coiled around his hands and fingers with its ever-changing cascade of colours. It started to feel natural, or at least normal. 

Finn fired the spell at various things nearby. Wood, both a dead, rotten log as a live trunk. Grass, plants, dirt, water. Nearly everything that was near him and that he could single out. Each time writing down the effects and experience gain in a notebook that he brought. It seemed that nothing changed with the experience that he gained, so the increase came from the act, not the result he theorised. A minor setback as he had hoped to find something that would boost his experience gain. He saw the long line of an ant colony marching out and bringing back in resources as he was finishing up. He also tried his spell on the colony, and to his surprise, this got him more experience, albeit a small amount. With mixed feelings in his gut about using ants like this, he tried the spell several more times on them, burning the ants to a crisp. But after his fifth attack and nearly finishing off the entire colony, he suddenly got a popup. 

Your acts of violence have attracted Demonkin. Be wary.

"Demonkin? What?" Finn rubbed his chin as he read the text. 'Demonkin' certainly did not sound nice, but it wasn't a text he could focus on to open up more information about it. Finn checked his mana, depleted to roughly 30 % remaining. He could still use his spell a few times, but what was a Demonkin? What did it mean to have attracted it, especially with acts of violence? And if it showed up and attacked him, would he even be able to do anything against it? Could the spell harm it? Could he? Since the popup said he attracted them by acts of violence, could that mean the Demonkin were the Systems arbiters to prevent abuse?

As Finn stood pondering, he suddenly felt a cold spike in the back of his head. The hair of his neck standing upright, as if his whole body reacted to something, his instincts took over. He immediately dropped down to a crouch and turned around. And then he listened intently, focussing his whole body to be as perceptible as possible. 

The forest around him was silent, save for leaves rustling in the wind or birds chirping a cheery tune someplace far away. Due to his training, most living things had left his immediate vicinity. Had he been careless by staying in the same spot?

For a while, Finn didn't notice anything at all. But then he picked up a sound. A low rustling of leaves, different to when the wind touched them. Slower, softer. Along with that, there came a sound of scraping against the forest ground. It took him a few moments before he could locate where the sound was coming from, but once he focussed on the direction, he could tell that something was creeping upon him in some bushed nearby. Some 4-5 meters away from him. 

By the way the bushes moved, it looked like it should be the size of a dog. It couldn't be much larger to be able to hide in those short bushes. Finn started to charge his spell, looking around. There was nothing nearby that he could use as a weapon. He didn't bring anything either. But there was a long, thick stick not too far away. It lay in the direction of where the thing, whatever it was, was hiding and creeping. 

Finn started to step slowly towards the stick, keeping his body as low as possible. One arm reached out for the stick, the other hand sat ready, the coloured fog of magic swirling around it erratically, ready to be used. He could see the thing moving closer, the contours becoming more apparent, more defined in the shrubs and bushes. Just as his fingertips touched the bark on the stick, the thing emerged from the bushes. Slowly but surely, as if it wasn't sneaking at all but instead knew that it had nothing to fear here and could take whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted. 

The thing was grotesque. Finn had never seen anything like it. Not outside of horror movies or games. Certainly not alive like this thing was. Its skin was moist and greasy, a pale grey with a tint of blue in it. Growing darker blue-grey on the inside of its paws and on its head. It moved hunched over on all fours like a dog, but it clearly had hands and feet. Human hands and feet, both fitted with inhuman claws. Like a humanoid forced to walk like a dog. Shoulder blades popped up under the greasy skin like two mountain peaks on its back, spires of bone jutting out through the skin in two rows of barbs. The bone looked a sickly grey as well. Another row of barbs ran along its spine, growing smaller as it reached its tail. The tail seemed to end in a tuft of hair, but Finn soon realised these were thin, long barbs instead. Its eyes were dark red with a glowing yellow-orange iris. Sickly green drool oozed from its maw, almost translucent.

"Jesus, what the fuck!" Finn screamed out loud, jumping back. His instincts forcing him to grab the stick as well. The creature seemingly grinned grotesquely. In a way, a dog shouldn't be able to, not with a maw like that. As it grinned, its eyes flashed with intellect as well. Something that scared Finn perhaps more than its appearance. A small popup came up in the bottom right corner of his vision.

You have met a Hellion. Hellions are highly aggressive and prone to attack without warning. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuuuck," Finn took another step back and then triggered the spell. Showering the monstrosity in flames while screaming at the top of his lungs. 

Fire scourged the beast's skin, turning it black and red, filling the air with a putrid smell and smoke. The beast wailed, a scream that seemed to resonate deep in Finn's bones. Yet no matter how much it seemed to hurt the beast, as soon as the flames stopped, the beast jumped towards Finn, seemingly unharmed. It leapt the entire distance between them, roughly seven meters, landing just in front of Finn. With a growl, the beats jumped again. Finn screamed as he ducked down, the claws and maw of the beast just barely missing him. The monster landed and turned around in half the time it took Finn to get up again. Finn's breathing was erratic, and his mind raced. He would die. Here. After discovering all of this, all this potential. He would die. He was losing his mind to fear.

But then, a sudden calmness waved over him. Coming from deep within himself. It felt as if a wave of comfort and calm coated his entire body, his entire being. What was this? No time to think about it! The beast was charging again. This time, Finn was ready, spraying it with the flames of the spell first. When it emerged from the fire, Finn stepped to the side and slammed the thick end of the stick down on the beast's back. Right in between two of the spinal horns. The impact made a disgusting, breaking and squishy sound. Finn was sure that did some damage to the beast. He could see and smell its burned skin as well. Staring it down, Finn could finally see a speck of worry in its eyes as well now. He felt hope now, felt he could win this. Survive this. With his newfound calmness, if he just managed to keep his head about, he would see this through. 

The beast looked and moved more cautious. It was clearly hurt. Or at least Finn had managed to hurt it more than what it had expected. Good, he thought, I am not the easy kill you were expecting. The beast charged again, and Finn used his spell. He could see his mana bar depleting far too fast. The beast emerged through the flames like before, but this time it quickly jumped to a side and then attacked Finn from his flank. Too late to evade, Finn dashed to a side while smashing the club and aiming for the gaping maw of the beast. It closed around the stick, rows of serrated teeth digging deep in the old wood. The stench of the beast was overwhelming so closeby, and Finn roared as he fired off the spell again. Aiming at the beast's belly as he pulled it high by lifting the stick higher. Hoping it would be a vulnerable spot. 

His gamble paid off as the beast wailed, let go of the stick and quickly jumped away from Finn. Its belly had caught fire, and the beast was frantically rolling around in the dirt to put the flames out. Finn didn't waste the opportunity and jumped towards the beast. Using the stick along with all of his strength to land several blows on the beast. The monster kept rolling, trying to put the flames out while wailing under the hits. Once it succeeded, it jumped back into the offence, biting and clawing at Finn. Jumping up and attacking swiftly, forcing Finn back on the defensive. After a short exchange of blows by stick and claw, the two broke off and stared each other down. 

Finn's breathing was heavy, and he ached all over his body. Aside from the pain in his muscles, he felt burning stings here and there as well. His health bar had dropped, meaning he definitely took some hits. He could feel the warm, slow trickle of blood here and there, tasted the metallic taste in his mouth as well. All minor wounds, as far as he could tell. The monster wasn't in great shape either. It looked worse off than Finn. Panting, purple ooze bleeding from various wounds. Drool dripping from its foaming maw. Still, it charged at Finn, faster than before. So fast that Finn had no time to ready his spell in time. Finn lashed out with the stick in hopes of pushing it back. Instead, the beast dashed to his open side and attacked him from there. It took all he had to evade the horns as the beast butted into Finn. As he fell to the ground, the beast stood atop him now. 

Rabid, the beats tried to gnaw at Finn. He was barely in time to get the stick in between them, making it bite down on it. Saving his own face as he pushed the beasts head back. Angry, the beast bit down, the razor-sharp teeth digging deep into the wood in front of Finn's eyes. Finn struggled as he fought the beast back while it kept gnawing frantically. It wasn't using its claws to stand firmer, but like this, it was only a matter of time before Finn would lose the tug. He looked around, desperate for anything that could help him out but found nothing. His muscles grew tired and heavy, his hope and morale dropping. 

No. Not like this. Not here. His resolve flare, his mind ironed itself in a sudden wave much like the calmness before. Groaning from exertion and pain, he pushed back the maw of the beast. He was better than some mongrel dog from Hell. He looked at it. It was rabid right now, enraged. It could only think about biting, about killing. It knew it would get through the stick eventually, which had already lost a lot of integrity. It knew it had the superior position. So it pushed on and on. Clouded by rage, and therefore dumb. Finn started to understand the rhythm in which the beast attacked, which was as fast as possible. But there was a certain cadence to it. The next time the beast bit down hard on the stick, Finn pulled it suddenly sideways. It surprised the beast, and Finn jammed his knees up, adding to the momentum. The beast flew to the side, rolling on its back, while Finn managed to get up in a smooth motion. 

On its back and with its belly exposed, Finn shot his spell at the beast again. Roasting it with fire. As soon as the flames subsided, he slammed the stick down hard on its belly as well. The stick shattered under the force of the attack, and the beast wailed. Loud, roaring. Turning more high pitched as it went on. Going softer until it stopped, and the beast lay finally dead and motionless. Just to be sure, Finn gave it some more kicks on the neck before he collapsed down on the floor as well. Taking in deep breaths to fight both his exhaustion as his panic. He heard a loud ding sound. The greyed out plus icon in the bottom right suddenly turned back to a blue hue. It had a small square border around it as well. Finn took another set of deep, ragged breaths before focussing on the plus. A popup filled his vision. 

You have gained a new level and have been given three talent points. Multiple skills have levelled up as well. 

Finn was in pain, his breathing laborious. He could see his health points being low. Finn quickly opened up his skill tree and looked it over. He assigned one of the new talent points to the Health skill, pushing it to level eleven. Immediately after doing so, his Health filled up entirely again, healing him. This also created a new popup. 

Your Health skill has reached Apprentice mastery. You now have a permanent health bonus. You have also unlocked some relevant skills. 

Finn felt instantly better. He was still exhausted, though and remained down on the ground as he took inventory on the rest of his skills. Strength, Agility and Arcane had levelled up as well. All of them were at nine now. How had they levelled up so quickly now when before he had gained so little experience? Was it because he fought a living thing? Or because it had been a monster, a Demonkin as the System had called it? Maybe it had to do with his life being on the line this time or the encounter's difficulty in general. His mind was racing again, racing to find possible answers. But he was too exhausted, too tired. Too much spent. As his mind raced around, his vision slowly started to get blurry until it darkened. 

When he woke up again, Finn was overwhelmed with throbbing pain in his head and aching throughout his body. He still felt exhausted and spent, but a bit less. What little had gone had been turned into pain. He pulled himself together and sat down on a rock, looking at his watch. It couldn't have been later than eleven in the morning when the beast had attacked him. But it was four in the afternoon now. So he had been out for quite some hours. Had it been exhaustion? Or perhaps a part of levelling up?

Finn was still fuzzy in the head, and his mind took a moment before fully grasping the gravity of what had happened. He had almost died to some demon beast. A Hellion. And it had been sent by the System. And if the System could send one after him, it could send more as well. He quickly stood up, focussing on his surroundings. He couldn't hear or sense anything out of the ordinary. And the expected sounds of a forest had come back as well. He looked at the stick he had used as a weapon before, but it was shattered now. Useless. 

Still wary, he shuffled slowly back to his stuff, quickly packing everything again and gathering it on his back. Moving with stealth at first, he headed home again. He moved from a slow walk into a jog and then ran as soon as he cleared the forest edge. He managed to get home in about forty-five minutes. Much faster than before, probably thanks to spending that talent point earlier. As he ran, he called up the Health stat again. Earlier it had said something about a permanent bonus. His health skill looked different now. It had a border while the others had none. It also had a small green dot underneath it. When Finn focussed on it, a popup opened up. 

Buffs: +10% to all health-related skills and effects. 

That was probably why he could run much faster now. His endurance had been improved by levelling up. And then even further by this permanent buff. 

Once home, he found his house to be empty. His parents had probably left for some friends since he had told them he wouldn't be home for a few days. Glad to not have to explain the state he was in, Finn quickly jumped into a hot shower, trying to let the water wash away the fear, stress and panic he had felt today. Finn panted and leaned against the shower wall, allowing all of the day's emotions to rush over him. He cried. He laughed. His body shook frantically as it caught up with all the repressed stress. He had almost died. He had survived. Fought a monster. A Demonkin, whatever that was. 

The Wiki!

Finn cursed himself for forgetting all about it again and immediately brought up the 'menu'. As he was looking for the Wiki, a new screen materialised in front of him. It was pretty bland, and simply read Wiki at the top. Underneath the title sat a row of tabs, some in colour, others had names. Others were dark black and had their text in an unreadable format. He quickly scanned the coloured tabs and found information on all of his basic skills. But when going through it, he found the info to be lacking. Basically, he could see the same information by focussing on the stats and skills in their own window. 

Strenght

This skill governs your base strength, power to move, lift and affect things by brute/ raw force. 

Nothing useful. Finn scrolled through the Wiki but couldn't find anything about Demonkin. He noticed another tab at the top called Bestiary. Thinking that was precisely what he needed, he was surprised to find it mostly empty once he opened it up. It had only two tabs inside of it. Mundane and Fantastical. In the Mundane tab, he found info dumbs about any species that existed in the world. Cats. Apes. Humans. Anything. The information about each of them was again minimal and basically useless. As if it was written by kids. 

The Fantastical tab held only one entry. Demonkin, as a genus. Once Finn opened up the folder, his view was filled with blacked oud records. Only one coloured record sat at the very top. It read 'Hellion'. Opening the Hellion record, Finn found another minimal info dump. But at least it was of some use this time. 

Hellion

Among the lowest-ranked Demonkin, this beast comes from the Demonic plane. It has low intellect compared to other Demonkin and is prone to act on emotion or instinct. While being among the weakest among the Demonkin, one Hellion can match between ten and twenty mundane humans. Many awakened Players expire in their first Hellion encounters. 

Awakened Player, is that what he was? Or at least what the System called him. There was no Wiki entry on Awakened Players or Players in general. Finn sighed. The Wiki was as good as useless. It told him only the obvious, the things you learn right away. Tired of the Wiki, Finn averted his focus to his skill and stats screen. His Health sat at eleven now, and he took a good look at it. The borders surrounding it shone in a golden tone. He remembered the popup, telling him that he had gained Apprentice mastery in the Health skill. Looking at his Health skill now, he could also see a dotted line at the bottom, just above the border. The line counted ten dots, and the first dot was a shiny gold while the others were a matted grey. 

Focussing on his Health skill now opened up a whole new skill tree. The skills folded out from underneath the Health stat, moving his focus away, made them fold in. He noticed that the skills under Arcane had also started doing this now. Finn assumed it was to save space on the screen. As the skills folded out from underneath the Health stat once more, Finn saw some text popping up at the top as well. 

Your Health stat is now at Apprentice mastery rank one. You need to surpass Apprentice mastery rank ten to progress into Journeyman Mastery. This means reaching a Health stat of level twenty-one or higher. 

So every mastery counted exactly ten levels, and he only progressed once he reached the first level in the next tier. Following the usual apprentice, journeyman and master titles, could this mean that level forty would be the level cap for his primary stats? As he wondered, Finn took a better look at the two skills that folded out from underneath the Health stat. It looked like there were more skills underneath Health than just the two that he could see now, but they were so faint and dimmed that he could barely make out the shapes. The ones that Finn could see and read were called Brawn and Perception. He skimmed quickly over the small info boxes that he could conjure up by focussing on the skills, but they seemed to work as he expected. Perception would help him notice things, sense things. While Brawn would act as a sort of health-based modifier for his Strenght. Effectively turning his Health stat in a buff for his Strenght stat. 

Finn liked the sound of both of them but knowing he had only two talent points left, he chose to invest it in Perception for now. Being able to notice and catch on to things earlier would be helpful, especially in surviving. He couldn't help but feel that his Hellion encounter could have gone much worse if he hadn't noticed it so soon. 

Finn scanned over the other skills, but nothing had changed there, aside from the Arcane stat. Arcane had increased to a nine as well, and he saw that his Grammerie skill had levelled up as well. The skill box was blinking now. When Finn focussed on it, another popup came up. 

You have gained access to your personal Glyphorium. This is where your knowledge about Arcane Grammerie will be tracked and injected by the System. 

The message puzzled Finn for a bit as it showed him nothing else. He had no idea what a Glyphorium was or Arcane Grammerie, for that matter. When he thought about what the System injecting it meant, he suddenly realised that he knew things now. Things he had not known a moment earlier. How the strange symbols in the fog of his spell suddenly made sense. That he could recognise the shapes in it or at least some of them. And that he knew the meaning behind them. The use for the different symbols. Glyphs, as he knew now what their proper name was. He recognised some of his known Glyphs from his spell, but others had no use in his spell. So the System would inject knowledge into his mind as his Grammerie skills levelled up, giving him more of these Glyphs. Which were the components from which spells were made up. 

Higher Grammerie, more Glyphs, more spells? Finn assumed so. Thinking about the Glyphs, Finn believed he could make a new spell with them independently, not waiting for the System to grant him a new spell. Of course, he would have to find out how to use a spell he made on his own, but purely theoretically, he was confident that he could do it. He knew their meaning now, at least for a few, but still lacked the rules of the game. But he could find those out with experimenting. He could see which ones worked together and which didn't. When and how. Under what conditions. Finn grinned. This was the kind of thing that he loved doing. Solving puzzles. He was looking forward to that. 

Finn groaned and popped his neck and shoulders as he enjoyed the hot water from his shower. He still had to decide where to invest his last talent point. The new Brawn skill? One of his primary stats? Into Grammerie? They were all solid choices, but he wanted to know what was the best choice. The most efficient option. Pushing one of his Primary skills into Apprentice mastery came with extra benefits and skills. He sighed as he got out of the shower. He was still exhausted and longed for sleep. He would just go to sleep now and decide what to do in the morning. If he could still not decide, he could always invest the point into Wisdom. At least that could help him make better choices in the future. 

His excitement and vigour of the morning had gone now. Had made room for worry and a heavy burden on his shoulders. The System did not look like a blessing anymore. It started to look more and more like a curse. No, that wasn't fair. It still gave him amazing things. They just came with incredible risk and responsibility. Finn couldn't help worrying about the message earlier in the day either. The warning. Before the Hellion. 

Your acts of violence have attracted Demonkin. Be wary.

It hinted at something, at a system of morale. At arbiters guarding that morale, directly or indirectly. If the Demonkin were not arbiters, at the very least, they were hounds set free by them. Be it the System or other entities, there were things out there now that could see all he did. And measured, weighed and judged him for it. And that would punish him if they found him lacking. Or perhaps he was reading too much into all of this. Maybe he was just pushing the limits of the System. And the Hellions could be nothing more than automated guards that were deployed. Finn lay down in bed, thinking to meditate a bit more before sleeping. But sleep found him much sooner than he had expected.