Erik boarded the train and took a seat next to the window. Looking at the scenery change was like watching one’s own life pass before his eyes—a curious experience.

The contrast between the farms and the city seemed almost incredible. Yet, it could be seen with perfect clarity and always left him in amazement.

It struck him as odd how much smaller the city appeared when viewed from afar. After a brief journey, Erik finally arrived at the train station.

From there, he headed out to go to Mister Fox’s farm; he had to walk beside huge wheat fields that stretched on into the horizon before arriving at Mister Fox’s farm.

He saw people working their crops on the way, but they paid no attention to him whatsoever. They were all too busy working for them to notice him.

As Erik walked through the dusty unpaved road, he thought about many things: how his life changed, how it would be once he went to the military school, how much he had to work during the summer break before enrolling, and many other things.

His life was full of uncertainties, but he was confident that, thanks to the system, his life was bound to change for the better.

Erik was near the end of the dirt path when he heard a noise coming from his right. The young man looked at the field in front of him and paid attention.

The noise continued, but Erik wasn’t able to understand where it came from.

“Is anybody here?” The young man shouted.

“Hello?”

It was then that a thaid came out of the field.

“Fuck!” Erik shouted once he saw the creature; he knew what it was since they had talked about it in school. It was a thaid named bush hedgehog.

[WARNING. HOSTILE DETECTED.]

—————————–

<Emergency quest: Survival>

-Rewards for completion: A hundred and fifty experience points for killing the creature; eighty experience points for escaping the creature. Sixty DNA points in either case.

-Failure Penalty: Death.

(Kill or escape the bush hedgehog.)

—————————–

“NOT AGAIN!” Erik shouted as the beast started approaching him, and his heart started pounding inside his chest like a sledgehammer.

“Analysis,” the young man said, and then the usual window appeared in front of his eyes.

————————————–

– Species: Bush hedgehog.

– Brain crystal power: Venomous mana spikes.

-Dimension: Approximately two and a half meters long and eighty centimeters tall.

-Description: The beast has a feline face and the body of a hedgehog. The host is advised not to be hit by the creature’s spikes.

-Approximate level: 3

Approximate Strength: 9

Approximate Intelligence: 1

Approximate Dexterity: 8

Approximate Energy : 16

…

…

————————————–

As Erik analyzed his status, he noticed that the beast wasn’t much stronger than him in terms of physical might. Its intelligence was low, and he already suspected that.

Though, the beast had more than twice his energy, meaning that his brain crystal had to be definitely stronger than his.

According to what he knew, and the system confirmed, the creature had venomous mana spikes, which the beast would surely try to use in order to kill him.

Now Erik had to find a solution to his current predicament. He had no seeds he could launch at the creature, and he wasn’t in no condition to kill it by throwing trees at it like last time.

Still, he had his sharpening power; the problem was that he couldn’t use anything to attack the creature, and he couldn’t use his body since it would mean risking being injured.

Erik then ran as fast as he could. Though, since the beast had much more strength than him, his muscles could make the thaid run at a faster speed than him, and Erik couldn’t get the beast off him.

“HELP ME!”

“HELP!” he shouted, hoping some adults would hear him and rush to his aid. Unfortunately there was no one in sight.

Erik thought about what to do, but no solution came to mind; the beast was almost on him when the young man reached the wheat field. Erik suddenly grabbed a handful of wheat stalks; he looked at the plant in his hands and had a crazy idea.

“It’s do or die.”

Erik channeled his mana that traveled from the brain crystal to the brain, from the brain to his heart, and from there to his hands.

Then Erik Injected all his available mana inside one single wheat stalk, making him suddenly feel like he was out of energy. Erik observed as the mana coated the stalk, and then after willing for it to be sharp, the mana thinned.

Erik suddenly turned on himself and faced the beast that was still running toward him at full speed.

As the two ran, the distance between them reduced until the thaid got close enough so that the young man’s arm would reach around its neck.

At this moment, Erik swung the wheat stalk at the creature’s neck; the plant was around a meter and twenty centimeters long, enough for Erik to be relatively safe from the creature.

As the highly sharpened stalk made contact with the creature, the spikes that covered its body got severed in half, and the stalk reached the base of the neck, leaving a grievous wound on the creature.

The stalk wasn’t able to travel further than that, though, because Erik’s mana wasn’t adequate to make the stalk sharp enough to sever the head from the neck.

If Erik had a weapon at his disposal, he would have been able to do the deed, but since the plant wasn’t rigid, the spikes stopped its momentum, stopping Erik from killing the beast.

“ARHGHHAHG,” the beast shrieked in agony and immediately jumped back, almost hitting Erik with its spike.

It then bristled, making his spiky fur point forward, and started channeling mana into them, producing a faintly bluish tint.

The beast was losing a copious amount of blood from its wound, but nonetheless, it tried to attack Erik. It charged at him, but the young man swung the stalk left and right, keeping the creature at bay.

Erik had no fighting knowledge basically and could only keep swinging his makeshift weapon to stop the thaid until it died of blood loss, that if it was foolish enough to keep attacking him.

He kept swinging the stalk, and the beast kept dodging, but soon enough, it became tired due to its injuries, its spikes turned backward, pointing at his behind, and then it started running toward the wheat field.

Erik had two choices here; fending off the thaid meant he successfully escaped. He would be able to gain eighty experience points and sixty DNA points.

However, if he killed it, he would earn much more experience, not only because of the quest but also because of the mana conversion.

Erik then did something that he deemed impossible for him two weeks prior; he started chasing the creature, intending to kill it.

If he did, he could also absorb its brain crystal power, allowing him to gain another neural link in the process, gaining a new mean to survive in the militaries.

Then, Erik started running, following the beast across the wheat field stretching in front of him.𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨