"I need.. to get away." I tried to push away the dead shadow fox lying on top of me.

I didn't know when other Shadow foxes would come here. I needed to get away from this cliff as soon as possible.

My injuries were severe, making me unable to put strength in my arms. And the fact that the shadow fox was heavy didn't help.

My constant attempts only proved futile.

'Ah, right.'

I stopped trying to push the corpse away when I remembered the dimensional ring.

VUPP-!

Finally, the load over my body receded as the corpse moved inside my ring.

"Haah…Haah...Status."

Taking deep breaths to suppress the burning pain, I called the status.

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I remembered the receiving notification that I have leveled up. But due to the pain, I was not able to see how many stat points I received.

======

Name: Nathan Hunt

Rank: Meta

Level: 4

Exp: 75/600

Remaining SP – 02

-->Stats:

Strength – 09

Agility – 14

Stamina – 11

Constitution – 09

Aura – 10

Intelligence – 11

Luck – 07

-->Skills:

[Pierce [Common-Rank]]

Extend the tip of your weapon by 5 feet.

=========

Strength stat increases muscle mass and density.

Agility increases movement speed. It also affects cognitive processing speed. Nathan's high agility was the reason he was able to react to the shadow fox's attack previously.

Stamina increases endurance to withstand prolonged physical activities.

Constitution increases the ability to tank damage and the recovery speed.

Aura or Mana, for magicians, was the total capacity of the awakener to store it.

Intelligence was the degree of fine control over one's energy.

Luck was the only stat that still hadn't been defined properly. It was an invariable stat, this meant that it couldn't be increased with stat points. The only way for it to increase was by using artifacts or increasing your rank.

In his current state, Nathan didn't need to think twice before choosing which stat to increase.

[Constitution – 09 --> Constitution – 11]

With the increase in the constitution stat, I felt a surge of warmth enveloping my body. As the warmth traveled from one part to another, the pain subsidized a little, leaving a soothing feeling.

Feeling the comfortable warmth, I continued lying for a few minutes before springing back to my feet.

"Ouch."

The soothing feeling had reduced the pain considerably, but my injuries were still there. Increasing the Constitution did increase the recovery rate, but 11 points were nothing much. It would take a while for me to heal.

Nevertheless, I knew time was running out. Disregarding the discomfort I was feeling, I began running towards the edge of the forest.

But my injuries weren't my only source of the problem.

My head was spinning while I was having trouble running on my wobbly legs. Constant headaches attacked my mind, along with the feeling of dizziness and confusion.

"Dammit, using the skill three times was too much."

My speed was slow, and I was feeling light-headed. These were the signs of Aura exhaustion.

Earlier I hadn't been able to distinguish Aura exhaustion due to the pain. But even if I had, I still would have used the stat points similarly.

Without reducing the pain, I wouldn't have been able to even move. At least in this state I could run, albeit slowly.

"I need to get off this cliff before other shadow foxes come."

Now I was only a few minutes away from the edge.

After reaching the edge, I looked below and skimmed the edge to find the nearest chain.

"Huh?"

My eyes widened from the shock of what I was seeing.

"Where are the chains?!"

I madly dashed along the edge. But even after running for a minute, I didn't find a single chain.

By now, the fatigue from the entire day had begun catching up to me. Even moving a single step was exhausting.

RUSTLE-! RUSTLE-!

But before I could move further, I heard rustling of bushes from the forest.

Turning around and I cautiously looked at the forest, as I held my spear in both hands. Its condition was now much worse, and it looked like it would break at any moment.

RUSTLE-! RUSTLE-!

Before I could examine it more I heard another sound from the forest.

Squinting my eyes, I tried to peer through the thicket. But I still couldn't find anything amiss.

"Forget defeating a shadow fox. In this state, I can't even defeat a Greenhorn rabbit."

This was the conclusion anyone would reach after looking at my current condition.

Blood seeped through my clothes, turning my pale red jacket into dark crimson. My limbs felt heavy like lead and refused to move.

Just reaching the periphery of the cliff had taken my all.

As a shadow fox came into the light, my face hardened. Unlike the previous one, it was even bigger.

Looking at me, it growled and began moving forward. For every step, the shadow fox moved I moved two steps behind.

CLANK-!

Hearing the voice, I looked behind. Now I was standing on the edge of the cliff.

Looking at the pieces of rocks that fell over, I gulped. A single step and I could become a human ketc- no, let's not think that.

But the shadow fox didn't give me any time. It kept moving towards me.

I looked towards the bottom of the cliff and then back at the shadow fox with a helpless smile.

"Leap of faith it is."

I again looked towards the shadow fox but this time I was holding the spear towards the fox in a provocative manner.

"Did you think of me as a weak game? Come here, you wild mutt. I'll show you today who is your dad!"

Did it understand that I was insulting it or did it feel offended that the weak prey was trying to fight back?

It bared its teeth and began running towards me. The distance between us rapidly closed.

It quickly reached near me and jumped while raising its claws. Similarly, I also raised my spear to intercept it.

The moment we were about to clash, the spear vanished from my hands and I rolled under the shadow fox.

"AAHHHH!!!"

Just as the shadow fox landed and about to turned around, I rammed into it from behind!

Not giving it any moment to rest, I exerted as much strength as possible to push it down the cliff.

Since I wasn't sure about surviving the fall even now, I was going to make the shadow fox jump first.

I was a firm believer in team spirit. So if I was going to fall, I would make sure you fall before me.

"Kuyi!!!"

'What are you doing, bastard? We'll both fall at this rate.'

The shadow fox's shrill cry roughly sounded like this to me. But of course, I wasn't planning to go down with it.

It kept trying to resist the push, but since my actions were abrupt. It hadn't been able to get a proper foothold.

In the state of panic, it raised its paws to claw me and get away. Yet it was a mistake!

Strong as the shadow fox was, it was still a wild beast with undeveloped intelligence. It had only been moving on its instincts till now.

Raising its paw when it was trying to get a proper foothold only crumbled its posture.

In that state, it could no longer resist my push.

I smirked as it tried to hold empty air and fell. Almost reaching my goal made me relax.

That is why I didn't notice its tail wrapped around my ankle.

***

Darkness

Darkness was the only thing I could see. I couldn't tell for much time I had been trapped in this state.

I couldn't feel my limbs, nor could I see my surroundings.

The last thing I remembered was the winds hitting me and the shadow fox that trying to chew my leg while we were falling.

Couldn't it have fallen alone? Why did I meet such a crazy fox?

My thoughts began wandering as I drifted in the endless void.

'Did it not cushion my fall at all? Sigh….I didn't even get to live a single day in my new life.'

I felt saddened that I could not enjoy my new life at all.

'Well, it wasn't that bad, though. At least I didn't have a weak body that couldn't even walk for a few hours.'

As I was thinking, I noticed three white dots covered by mist in the distance.

The dots slowly became discernable as the mist shifted away.

"Is that moo- Gurgle! Blub! "

Suddenly, my lungs felt like they were on fire as something flowed into my mouth. My vision began decreasing rapidly and I could now feel my limbs.

I quickly realized my current predicament. I was drowning!

I quickly began swimming towards the white dots. I could only hope I wasn't hallucinating from lack of oxygen.

"Pwah…"

Coming above the water surface of the lake, I gulped a mouthful of air.

"Haah…haah... I survived."

Stabilizing my breathing, I joyfully shouted.

As I glanced around, I noticed the homogenous thing in front, no, above me.

"It was a floating cliff."

GRRR-! GRRR-!

While I was gaping at the sight in front of me, several voices reached my ears.

The voices bought an ominous premonition, but suppressing it I looked around.

"…..Out of the frying pan into the fire."

Standing at the edge of the lake were dozens or so shadow foxes.

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