Forever

Salim ran through the woods, making sure to dodge roots and fallen debris that littered his impromptu path, looking for an area to hide. Despite the size of the trees, their leaves left spots where light filtered through the canopy and reached the ground, leaving him exposed to the mercy of the moon.

Fortunately, he was able to find an overgrown tree, whose branches extended to make a dome that choked the life out of all the underbrush beneath it. Crawling underneath and resting on a large root, Salim lay, making sure that he moonlight hadn’t touched him and occasionally using [Energy Sight] to look for any stray beams that may have snuck their way through.

Packing down some of the surrounding dirt, Salim tried to pack the ground in a way to make it softer, which didn’t help all that much, except for being slightly warmer as cool night air began to blow. The leaves rustled in the night air as Salim stared at the thick canopy, wishing that he could be home in a comfortable bed. Slowly closing his eyes, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning was uneventful as he began his routine: stand up, stretch, and begin walking through the lively forest. His days had devolved into a monotonous routine where he was becoming dangerously dehydrated and needed to find an actual source of water. It was boring work, and recently his thoughts had become quieter as he noticed his mind was slowly getting hazy.

He wasn’t sure if the constant hiking was having an effect on him, or he was just bored, but it was all he could fixate besides the homogenous scenery. His mind slowly began to empty, and he had to focus or risk forgetting the direction he came from. Almost like a fugue state, Salim continued his wanderings for the rest of the day.

It was on the third day of his wanderings that something changed, Salim wanted to experiment with his skills but was unable to since his core had finally run empty. The thought of getting more energy from the moon sent shivers down his spine, and for some reason the tree sap seemed to still be uncooperative.

While he was contemplating his current lack of energy, he was also being careful not to walk about in the open, although he was nowhere near as sneaky as he was with [Safe Travel]. So while he was bumbling around the forest, stepping on the occasional stick, a noise sounded that made him and everything else in the forest freeze up in trepidation.

“Creeeeeeak…”

A tree groaned off in the distance, like a heavy weight had caused the tree to lean under the pressure. Still frozen in hesitation, Salim slowly began to walk in the opposite direction to the noise, while keeping his head trained in the direction of the noise. It was unnerving, the rest of the forest agreeing with its silence, and he definitely wasn’t strong enough to deal with whatever predator was lurking nearby.

After sneaking almost a mile away, Salim finally began to walk normally again, speeding up his pace to put even more distance between him and whatever was in the tree. As he moved deeper into the forest, the leaves began to fully blot out the sun, turning midday into a strange twilight. Salim didn’t mind since it was much cooler in the shade but began to rethink as a stick snapped behind him.

“Crack!”

Spinning around, all he could catch sight of was a flash of white disappearing behind a tree.

What the hell was that? Salim began to sweat, backing up slowly, keeping his eyes on the direction of the flash. Once he broke line of sight with the tree, he turned and sprinted away as fast as he could.

Now that he knew something was stalking him he threw precautions to the wind, he wasn’t going to be able to hide from it, and he smelled bad enough that anything with a sense of nose could track him. Panting hard, he knew that while he had put space between him and the tree, the thing that was chasing him was a complete unknown. Unfortunately, while he was in better shape than ever, he also was subsisting off of morning dew and insects, so his stamina was struggling to keep him afloat after his dead sprint.

Having to take a breather by a tree, Salim crouched and tried to use some breath control exercises he had seen online to help his heavy breathing. They didn’t work, he felt like he was suffocating himself, trying to take smaller breaths. After standing and gasping to regain enough breath to keep moving, Salim pushed forward, deciding to speed walk instead of a full on run to conserve stamina.

The rest of his evening was spent glancing worriedly behind him and jumping at the slightest noise. He never spotted the thing again, but he couldn’t help but think that something was watching him, silently following him through the woods. Even setting up his sleeping arrangements was stressful, he found a tight thicket of trees and bushes that he had to squeeze to fit into.

While he was stuck if something blocked the exit, the tightness and small size of his temporary dwelling gave him some comfort. Surprisingly, he also found comfort in [Channelers Mind], the skill let him call upon several good memories from his childhood to calm himself down, even if the reality of his situation was completely contrary. It was probably the only reason he hadn’t had some sort of panic attack yet, even though he knew that death wasn’t the end.

But, even with the small comforts he was afforded, there was no way that he was getting a wink of sleep. His exhaustion grew as his body tensed and flinched at the slightest noise, even just a small whistle of the wind through leaves, sent his heart into an uncoordinated spasm. The small shafts of moonlight didn’t help either, as he had chosen his haven based on its surrounding coverage, and not the canopy, forcing him to adjust several times to avoid touching the beams.

The full moon was out that night and Salim could see it through his barely existent canopy, almost taunting him to use his skill to take a peak. Hissss. The moonlight slithered its way into his channels as he moved his body in the wrong direction, making its way to his core. Burning as it moved, the energy seemed different as the full moon made itself be known.

It felt alive.

Moving uncontrollably through his body, the energy made concentric patterns across his core, burning patterns into it as he tried not to double over in pain. Attempting to grasp the moonlight with [Energy Manipulation], Salim had partial success as it bucked and writhed in his grasp, causing a splitting headache and dots to appear along his vision.

Giving up, Salim clutched his stomach as the pain got worse, like something was trying to burst out of his chest with violent glee. Rolling onto his back, he was stuck staring wide-eyed at the moon for several moments before he even realized what he was doing. A sort of compulsion was taking over as he couldn’t find the strength within him to look away, the moon seeming to grow bigger before his very eyes.

He was a prisoner in his own body, able to see what was happening, but was completely powerless in the face of what could only be a god. However, within the margins of being trapped he did have a choice, whether he wanted to try and brave the horrors, or to stay ignorant. He hated the thought of what he might see, but knew that living in ignorance was not an option.

Reaching inside himself to try and grab the writhing moonlight, Salim was surprised when it followed his directions, although maybe it understood what he was going to do. As he got ready to channel the energy, he paused, contemplating if it would really be worth it.

I need to do this. I just can’t let it go, it could kill me at any moment, so why not? I’m stuck here, no one's going to help me, not my dad, not my mom, not Nadalie… God this sucks.

Before channeling the moonlight towards his eye.

He saw.

The sky above was filled with indigo light, undulating across his vision like giant tentacles reaching out from the glowing light in the heavens. The moon stared directly at him, piercing him with its gaze, and overwhelming his senses. A heavy pressure wrapped around him now, holding tight as it refused to let him out of its grasp as its arms of purple light wrap enveloped his vision.

The pressure wasn’t in any way physical as the light pressed down on Salim’s body, just a mental block that seemed to twist his vision as the headaches erupted behind his eyes. It felt like his soul was being weighed against his crimes, judged by God for the misdeeds he committed. Oppression unlike anything he had ever felt before encapsulated his body, chaining his free body to the ground, where he had to force himself to breath.

Trying to stop his skill didn’t work, it felt like someone else was piloting his body and forcing him to look. His channels burned and balked from the amount of pure moonlight being sent through. Pressure also built up behind his eyes, extending the duration of his skill to far longer than he had ever attempted before, making his eyeballs feel like they were close to popping out of his skull.

The eye stared for what felt like hours as the moon slowly migrated across the sky, seemingly never breaking the line of sight even with the tree canopy. His eyes stung, bloodshot and teary as his ability to blink seemed to have been taken, forcing a demented staring contest.

It was awful, and finally after what felt like forever, the moon fell out of view as the sun retook its place in the sky, putting an end to the horrible waking nightmare. Finally able to move, Salim took a deep, shaky breath before curling up against a soft fallen tree.

Screw worrying about creatures from the forest, I’d rather die than experience that again.

Mind-addled from sleep deprivation and eyes still burning, Salim tried to look around to for a better hiding spot to sleep. Vision blurry, a text box popped to life in front of him, which he ignored, pushing it to the side. Finding a thicket that he could shove himself into, Salim passed out as soon as he managed to fit himself inside, and was mostly confident that he was obscured.

Salim woke up sore and disoriented, darkness filled his vision except for a few patches of moonlight that broke through the trees a mere feet away. His body did not appreciate the collection of sharp twigs and leaves he had left himself on, so his first waking moments were filled with groans of displeasure. Joints popping, Salim eventually oriented himself, taking a few moments to make sure he was fully out of the moonlight, taking stock of what had happened.

His memory was a solid blur of fear, panic, and horror. He intellectually understood what had happened, he had gotten caught out in the moonlight again, but any direct thoughts linked to the event came back blank or even started to hurt when he tried to remember. Some sort of mental block seemed to have formed around the memories, and Salim wasn’t in the position to go through therapy.

Pushing all the uncomfortable thoughts away, Salim brought up the boxes he had dismissed before he passed out from the mental duress he had been under.

You have received the full attention of the moon.

Major Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

You have gained a Level!

Energy Toleration has reached Max Level

Event has been Logged.

You have gained five stat points.

Energy Sight has reached Max Level

Event has been Logged.

You have gained five stat points.

A mighty haul that he might have been excited if it hadn’t come at the cost of feeling like he could never be safe again. Looking through his stats, Salim wasn’t sure what to assign, the mental stats now seemed incredibly helpful, although he should probably be thinking more long term with his stat spread. Feeling indecisive, Salim decided to raise all his physical stats to be more in line with his mental and would decide if he wanted to specialize later.

Lvl. 9

Stats

Confirm

Might: 15 (20)

-/+

Finesse: 15 (20)

-/+

Resilience: 25 [28]

-/+

Acuity: 20 [22]

-/+

Resolve: 20 [21]

-/+

Depth: 11 [15]

-/+

Feeling the pain of improvement wash over him, Salim sighed in relief. The physical sensation seemed to shock him out of the dissociation that he had been slowly losing himself to. Now grounded, Salim checked his menu again to see how much he had progressed in his newest skill.

Skills

Energy Manipulation (Class)

Lvl. Max

Allows a finer touch with contained energy.

Energy Sight (Class)

Lvl. Max

Lets you see the unseen world.

Energy Toleration (Class)

Lvl. Max

Tolerate the stress of the unseen world.

Channelers Mind (Class)

Lvl. 3

Feel all knowledge related to channeling.

While it would be nice to try and level up [Channelers Mind] to [Max], Salim wasn’t sure if it was possible. His level gain was at a slower rate than [Wanderer], they still came quick enough. He wasn’t sure how to level the skill in the first place.

Maybe playing memory games? He decided to revisit that idea at a later date when he wasn’t stuck in the woods. But other than guesses, he had zero clue. Feeling lost and unsatisfied, Salim waited until morning before heading out to try and find something to eat.