He took a deep breath and calmed himself. As his clarity slowly returned, the events of the previous night replayed in his mind, and he remembered everything that had happened.

"Ah, damn that snake." His confusion disappeared, and his pain eased, he let out a very long sigh, and lay down in a more comfortable position.

’What a wild night. I never want to go through anything like that again. Full Moon Frenzy? Bullshit. I nearly died.’ He clicked his tongue, and felt sorry for his weakness. He wished he could get a little rest, for he was tired of staying on edge all the time.

The thing that bothered him more was that the Primal Predator bloodline, which was supposed to help him, was the main reason behind his suffering this time.

Yes, it had saved him at the last moment from turning into snake waste, but had it not doubled the frenzy’s effects from the start, he would not have fallen into this deadly situation.

"This life truly does not suit me." He could only sigh. A hint of sadness appeared on his face, and he felt nostalgic for his boring routine life on Earth — he even found himself missing his aunt a little, the same aunt he genuinely couldn’t stand.

Arthur had lost his parents when he was eleven years old, and because of that he spent quite some time moving between the homes of his few relatives, before ending up in an orphanage.

Like many children in his situation, he did not live a stable childhood, in fact he did not live his childhood at all, for he bore burdens far beyond his age, and his mind was occupied with matters that children should not think about.

All of this affected his psyche and social life greatly, for he did not form long lasting friendships, and did not have any romantic relationships. He became isolated and lonely, silent, with no real presence among those around him.

Human emotions overwhelmed him, and for no clear reason he became more emotional than usual.

’This place is absolutely insane. There’s no point fighting it. Why am I scared? Actually — why am I even bothering to care this much? I’m not going to break that easily.’

A serious look settled over his face. He realized that, strange as the thought was, it was true. There was no point living a life ruled by anxiety and hesitation.

’I will survive, I will restore my humanity, and I will tame this cursed forest. Whatever horrors lurk within it, I will not let anything stand in my way.’

This ambition of his was a kind of madness, and who could truly blame him? For as they say, the difference between genius and madness is very small, and this decision he had made now might either lead him to the heights and open new horizons before him, or send him plummeting toward death.

In any case, he did not have many choices, and he was aware that courage and intelligence alone were not enough to keep him alive.

His blue eyes filled with confidence, and excitement surged through him. He forgot all about the pain and felt an overwhelming urge to hunt and earn XP so he could grow stronger as quickly as possible.

Of course, there were no gains to be had from laziness, but rushing was not a good thing either. And also he was not able to do much in his current condition.

He took a deep breath, and examined his body. The injuries he had received last night were many, but to his astonishment he found that most of his injuries had already healed, even the fracture in his leg had fully mended.

’How is this possible? Since when do I have such a fast recovery ability?’

He felt greatly confused, and did not understand exactly how he had done it, for normally injuries like these required days of rest.

’Wait, I was semi-unconscious, yet I am certain, I saw a message from the system telling me that I had obtained the skill of the snake I killed.’

His memories regarding killing the snake were somewhat hazy, so he did not realize it at first. Without any hesitation, he brought up his status screen, and examined his current progress.

[ — Status — ]

[ XP: 313/300? ] [ HP: 115/200 ]

[ Mana: 0/0 ] [ EP: 1 ]

Name: Arthur Grafton

Race: Wolf

Rank: F?

[ — Attributes — ]

Strength: 29

Endurance: 17

Speed: 14

Agility: 10

Vitality: 20

Perception: 34

Mana Control: 2

[ — Skills — ]

Dimensional Storage (D) – Evaluation (D) – Enhanced Senses (F) – Iron Will (F) – Tracking (F) – Regeneration (F)

[ — Bloodline — ]

Primal Predator (SSS)]

His lips twisted into a small smile, and he was convinced that he had not taken a beating in vain, for the gains he had obtained were very satisfying.

’I’ve finally hit the requirements to rank up, as for this "Regeneration" skill, it seems to be the reason behind my fast recovery.’

To completely remove his doubts, and confirm the effectiveness of the new skill, he brought up the information related to it.

[ Regeneration (F): An uncommon skill that enables you to accelerate the healing of your internal and external injuries by consuming your Vitality or Mana energy.

— Effects —

– Healing of wounds and bones

– Restoration of injured organs

– Pain reduction

– Purification of weak poisons from the blood

— Usage —

– Active duration: one hour

– Cooldown: two hours

– Excessive use causes dizziness, exhaustion, and occasionally heart pain.

Note: The current skill Rank does not allow for the regeneration of severed limbs ]

His smile widened, and he felt relieved, for injuries had been a major problem for him, and even a threat to his life, as they greatly weakened his abilities.

Unfortunately, in his current form he had lost one of the useful human advantages, which was the ability to treat himself with herbs, and also he was alone, with no one to take care of him in case something bad happened to him.

In any case, all such concerns had now become a thing of the past, and he immediately moved on to the most important matter currently, which was ranking up to E-Rank.

’System, I’ve gathered all the required XP, why haven’t I ranked up yet? Is there some kind of condition I need to meet? Or is something wrong?’

Based on his humble knowledge from novels of course, ranking up wasn’t supposed to be a difficult or complicated process, so he felt a little suspicious, and did not hide that from the system.

[ The rank-up process is temporarily on hold. Your physical condition does not meet the required threshold. HP must be above 75%.]

[Note: You may bypass this hold and rank up now, but the rank-up will not be optimal.]

’I see. So I was worrying over nothing. Either way, I’ll wait until conditions are ideal.’

It had taken him a full month to reach this point, and it would truly be foolish not to wait a few more hours or even a day or two.

It made sense to assume that an imperfect rank-up could create problems down the line, maybe even cap his growth at some later stage. He wasn’t about to gamble his future just to satisfy a bit of momentary curiosity and excitement.