*Crunch*

I was sitting atop my little skull home as I opened my mouth and took a huge bite out of a palm-sized nut that I held with my right hand since my other hand was too busy trying to keep the rest of the nuts from falling off the skull and being tainted with the germs and impurities of the ground.

“I can’t even imagine how many creatures have stepped on the surface of these lands, let alone that one that might have committed unspeakable acts on this soil.” A shiver went down my spine as I said those words as I imagined it.

“At least a few million, right? But I mean, technically us humans have always been drinking dinosaur pee, so why does it matter if one of the nuts fall down there? Its not like a creature could have done anything to it in the last few weeks, right?” I asked myself, nuts and saliva flying out of my mouth as I spoke.

It had been around 4 and a half weeks ever since I’d died for the second time, and nothing of real significance had happened in that time other than the mission I got exactly 4 weeks ago.

I’d say I’ve become mildly sleep-deprived in the last few weeks, sleeping for god knows how many hours, yet staying awake for far more than 24 hours at a time.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sleep, it was just that every time I would close my eyes to fall into a peaceful slumber, I would either jolt up in a panic after hearing a loud noise which in reality was just me shifting my body a little, or I would wake up after a few hours in a cold sweat from the nightmares that forced me to watch the scene of Crystal dying over and over again.

Another thing I seemed to have forgotten about was my hygiene. Yes, I looked physically healthy since I for some reason could not lose muscle no matter what I did, but I still looked like a ruffled mess of a human who lay in the tatters of his clothes.

My body was covered in dried sweat, dried blood, and many bodily fluids that I could not differentiate at this point due to each creature having a different tint or color for their blood, and a crap-ton of mud that stained my skin all over and made me look exceptionally dirty.

“I’d love to argue that maybe not having a shower for such a long time is the reason for how miserable I’ve become, but I’m pretty sure it’s the sleep-deprivation. Hahahaha…” I began laughing hysterically to myself, not caring about the manners that had been ingrained into me from infancy.

Why would anyone follow the rules when there is no one to enforce them?

Morals you say? We are humans, not animals you say? Well, you are partially correct. We aren’t animals and morals drive many if not all our actions throughout our lives. But why would I want to follow something as unnecessary as etiquette when there is no one around to judge me?

Why would I care about closing my mouth while eating if there is no one to be disgusted by my action._-.

After laughing at my own joke for a few minutes, I randomly kicked up, landing on my feet merely seconds later. With the grace of a butterfly as well as a spring in my step, I found myself standing on the edge of the skull looking into the distance, reminiscing on what had happened over the last 5 weeks.

“To think I suffered more in the first week than I had suffered throughout the last 4 and a half weeks. If I think about it, I’ve fought at least 3 times more life or death battles in the first week than I had after my last death.” I muttered to myself, my eyes still lingering in the distance as if I was looking for something that simply was not there.

I had spent much of the last four weeks this way, looking into the sky and the forests, observing and waiting for something to happen. I knew that I had a mission to complete and I was still only on the first part of the three-part mission, yet even then I did not know where to start.

What was I supposed to do? Leave the comfort of the home that I created just to walk in a random direction to find some kind of civilization

“Ugh.” Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I quickly jumped down the skull before swinging myself into it and through the eye hole.

Sliding to a stop, my eyes darted around before finally finding what they had been searching for.

Walking up to one of the nearest rocks, I lifted it up and took a peek inside before closing the lid and moving back to check the fire.

After seeing that the fire had extinguished at this point, I swiftly moved across the room and rummaged through the countless items I had collected, trying to find the bow drill mechanism that I had crafted for myself to make fire-making easier and faster.

Moving countless bones, skulls, unfinished weapons, and even some molds to the side, I grabbed the bow as well as the wooden state that I had chosen would become the drill for today.

I carried out all the needed mechanisms and finally created a fire, leaving a satisfied smile on my face as I walked back to the stone, lifting it and taking out two leg pieces of an unknown species that I can’t recall killing.

Everything went as normal, allowing me to feast one more time before having to go out to get more food and supplies such as water and even plant fibers so I can make more rope.

“Wow, Ezra! You’re super clever. To think you could make a water filtration system with a few skulls, Brazillian nuts shells and a bit of gravel and sand.” I suddenly exclaimed, looking at the air in front of me with a sense of awe.

“Oh please, it was nothing!” I quickly turned around and looked the other way, as if I was creating a conversation that only seemed to happen properly in my mind.

After feasting for a bit longer, I quickly put on some armor that I had created before placing 4 of the sharp steel feathers on my belt while wrapping a cloth around my torso so I wouldn’t need to carry my spear by hand.

Out of the bones that I had collected over the last few weeks, I had used the vast majority of them to create armor pieces using a skull to make headgear and using a wolf’s spine to protect my own spinal cord from any significant injury.

After a bit of trial and error, I finally found a way to safely take the wolf’s hide without damaging it in the process, allowing me to now have a fur coat that would not only protect me from incoming attacks but would also keep my warm and covered at the same time.

[Status

Name: Ezra —-

Level: 9

Progress: 935/25,600

Age: 19

Sex: Male

Immortality Tokens: 4

Affinities: None

Bloodline(s): Awakened Human

Unique Trait: Evolver

Title(s): Craftsmith (Lvl 4), Warrior (Lvl 5), Seeker of Death (Lvl 1), Lumberjack (Lvl 1), Humanity’s Endling, Transgressor of Time

Skill(s): Appraisal (Lvl 1)

Blessing(s): Chrono’s Blessing ]

[Stats-

HP:23

Strength: 23

Agility: 26

Intelligence: 26

Vitality: 23

Mana: 4

Defence: +6 ]

“Was the Endling title always there or am I just tripping?” I asked myself before quickly ignoring the possible change to my status, thinking nothing of it for the meantime.

I finally left my skull home and moved back into the forest to find something to hunt down and kill, yet it was then that I had received a message that would send a shiver down the spine of anyone in the same situation as me.

[Emergency Mission Received]

[Emergency Mission: Survive the incoming beast horde]

[Information: After a large-scale forest fire, many of the inhabitants had been forced to move away and migrate to other regions. This has created large-scale territorial battles as well as many small-scale ones which eventually caused many of the creatures to instinctively team up with one another to take over different regions.]

[Conditions: –

-You have 30 minutes to prepare]

[Reward:

-A Basic Dagger Art

-2 attribute points

-Storage/ Inventory]

“Damnit! Why now!?” I exclaimed while trying to control my anger.

“Now of all times?! Give me a few days to assimilate myself into this lifestyle before I have to leave it for good!” I complained again, yet now I knew it was not the time for me to do such a thing.

Complaining will not help me survive after all.

My angry expression dissipated as fast as it had come while my eyes went back to being sharp and cold.

I was creating the expression of a cold and calculating man who was ready to kill if the situation were to come to it.

I didn’t like killing, but these were just animals, right? They aren’t intelligent beings, or at least not as intelligent as the Elves and Humans. It takes all the guilt out of killing them and would allow a man to commit massacres without batting an eye.

We did the same thing back in my era anyway, so what was the difference if I were to do it again?

After thinking for a while with my hand to my chin, a few different situations came to mind with a couple of obvious solutions, and since the situation right now was severe, nothing crossed the line. This was life or death.

“I could just burn down the forest again but that might set off some alarms with any nearby civilizations. At the same time, I lose the closest and most efficient source of food as well as one of the only secure and safe homes one could find on the entire continent if not the planet.

“I wonder what Earth looks like right now-… This isn’t time for curiosity!” Smacking my cheeks to regain my cold and calculating mind, I went over my options once again and realized one thing.

“The best option is to run and hide from the monster horde. Yes, I might lose the home I lived in for the last few weeks but I should find something close to it somewhere else…” My eyes slowly drifted back towards the direction the horde was probably coming from before squinting.

“I’m about to make one of the worst decisions of my life…” I let out one last exasperated sigh before steeling my resolve and straightening my posture.

“I really hope I don’t come to regret this…”

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