Energy Eater - Chapter 12 - Between a rock and a hard place (Patreon)

My heart was pounding like crazy. It was hard to tell if that was just the adrenaline or my Body level was actually making the organ beat faster. Glancing towards the foot of the mountain, a part of me was expecting an Eater to appear. My best option was to run away. But… this mutated boar could have a good skill for me. Maybe it would help me to get out of this place, and there was that feeling of particles getting back to my body.

But the Eater…

Shit, shit, shit. What do I do?

[Why user stopped moving? Readings indicate no wounds or anything that could explain this paralysis. Was user struck by a mental affliction?]

‘No. I’m trying to decide what to do! And I need to do that fast, so shut up!’

[User’s {Mind of Possibility} is completely charged. Using the skill can give user time to make a decision.]

I had tested that skill before, but not in a situation like this. Fuck it, it was better than nothing. Focusing on the {Mind of Possibility}, everything shifted. No, not really. Everything was the same, but the way I saw things was wildly different. The world was in slow motion, but my thoughts continued at full speed. Actually, no things were still moving at their regular pace, but my mind was so much faster, allowing me to notice the minor details of my surroundings and focus on them without missing something else that was also going on.

The mutated boar was dead, and there was a decent amount of blood coming out of its body. In order to bring it back safely, I would need to either exsanguinate it, or I would need to let it bleed out somewhere, or the smell would attract other predators. A sound of creaking wood pulled my attention. The tree that was damaged by the fight was starting to give in, and by the angle of the trunk, it would fall towards me. Not directly on top, but I would have to take a few steps to the right to be safe. Also, it would hit the body of the boar. If my intention was to keep that meat, leaving it there wasn’t an option.

Some flies were moving to my right, and there was a squirrel in a tree ahead. It had gathered 3 nuts in its mouth and was now heading back to its nest. When did I notice that? During the fight, it was something happening in the background even if I didn’t register that at the time. A soft sound of rushing wind warned me about something that was coming my way. It wasn’t big, but it would be annoying to get hit.

Shifting to the left took too long, and the acorn hit the back of my head.

Shifting to the right, the acorn hit my shoulder, then bounced to my temple. Annoying just the same.

Leaning back, the nut hit my knee. It didn’t hurt as much, but I can do better.

Moving forward, the acorn hit my butt, the soft tissue barely felt a thing and let the seed fall into the ground without a problem.

Moving forward, the acorn hit my butt, the soft tissue barely felt a thing and let the seed fall into the ground without a problem.

What? Why did that happen twice? Actually, no, it happened once, but at the same time it was the most realistic déjà vu. I ever had in my life. This was the skill, it allowed me to see a version of the future and how my actions would change that. Once I made my decision and moved, that path simply replayed as I pictured it.

Why am I wasting time with this? Focus Cassandra! The metal sound that came from far away. I heard it, and it should still be down the mountain. But I also heard it before. As a reply to each strike of the pole. At the time I didn’t register it, but now I could remember. And… the sound was at the same volume and intensity. Which meant… the Eater was at the same distance this entire time. It wasn’t coming after me. Maybe it couldn’t, for some reason, or it just didn’t want to. Maybe the noise was too similar to a mating call or something. I wasn’t sure. But I was positive the sound came from the same direction every time, and it wasn’t getting closer.

That could also be a trap, but then again, Eaters never made traps. They had no need to. Were they even smart enough to make them? I wasn’t sure. Again, this circle back to the lack of information. But in the end, it was enough. It seemed less likely that an Eater would come here. The sound wasn’t getting closer, even if the creature clearly was responding to it.

Taking the boar might be a risk, not just because of the Eater, but because of the number of carnivorous creatures that live in these woods. Despite that… considering the amount of food I’ve been eating the last few days, I doubt I could find enough berries for more than a single meal. Which means that I would have to come back up again. Now it was bright outside, but coming at a later time would be more dangerous. Without sunlight, I would have to count on the light of the stars, and the sky without clouds to even attempt to see anything. Simply putting, my options were to risk myself now for a longer period of safety, or have an unknown period of danger every time I came out for food.

It didn’t matter how much I argued with myself, the answer was pretty clear. Or at least, it became clear now that I recognized the Eater wasn’t moving towards me.

Once I reached that decision, {Mind of Possibility} stopped and everything returned to normal. For a brief moment, I felt like I was drunk, or blind. Going from being able to notice an acorn falling from above without even looking to not being able to see the squirrel that was directly in front of me, just far away and not where my eyes were focusing, felt jarring. A part of me wanted to use the skill again, just so I could see the world properly once more.

Shit, that’s addictive. Stop that, Cassandra. You are seeing the world properly. Nothing changed, not really. A creak from behind me snapped me out of those thoughts. The tree was starting to give in, and if that happened, I was fucked. Quickly grabbing the dead boar, I pulled it away from where the trunk would land. Even if I wasn’t using {Mind of Possibility} the toughs and decisions made while under the skill’s influence were still there, nothing was lost.

Without stopping, I continued pulling the boar away. It took me close to half an hour, but I managed to bring it back to where I climbed up from the cave. The plan to get the carcass down was simple. First, tie it with the rope I left at the top of the wall behind the terrace, the next step was to hoist it down, using a large rock as an anchor point. Once everything was ready, I kicked the corpse down, which fell only a couple of centimeters [inches] before the rope was taut. Now came what was supposed to be the hard part, but it was much easier than I expected. Lowering the boar.

My body wasn’t hurting and even if the monster should weight a lot, I could manage without much issue. But that was only at first. It didn’t take long for my hands to start to hurt, and my stomach to complain with the strain. Still, I had to be careful; it was one thing to make noise up there in the middle of the forest, another to let a large body drop 10 meters [32 ft] down to the place I’m using to sleep. I already had to worry about something coming after the smell of blood. There was no need to add to that.

Thankfully, nothing stopped me while I was lowering the boar and I quickly climbed down after it. Back on the terrace, I started to think about how to cut the meat. I didn’t have a knife, and the pole wasn’t exactly sharp. One idea was to chisel at a rock, but that would make a lot of noise. While looking over the body in front of me, I remember something from the time {Mind of Possibility} was active. The tusks of that creature were surprisingly sharp. On a closer inspection, yeah, the tip of those massive teeth should be able to cut its meat.

Ripping a small part of the back of my shirt, I used it to hold the tusk and yank it out of the boar’s mouth and after a quick test; I confirmed that my plan would work. I now had one, and possibly four brand new teeth knifes. Butchering was something that required attention, but also was very mechanic in a way. Which meant I had time to ask the System some questions about all of this.

“System, can you show me the {Mind of Possibility} description again? I want to see how much Energy I spent.”

[Acknowledged.]

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Mind of Possibility - Active - Human Exclusive

A human mind is always considering the various possibilities that lays before it. Once activated, this skill allows the user to take into consideration all outcomes of a situation.
By spending energy, this skill can increase the speed at which thoughts are processed.
Units of Energy stored: 8/24
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“So that was worth 16 Energy? Ok, and is it really just my mind playing events? It felt almost like time travel. I mean, I felt the acorn hit me several times.”

[While under the effect of {Mind of Possibility} user is able to simulate various courses of action to an extreme degree. However, the skill only takes into account data that user is able to receive. If user was unable to notice the acorn, or if a leaf intercepted the path, actual events would differ from what user experienced while under the effects of {Mind of Possibility}.]

“Ok… So I really am looking at possible futures and then, they happen when I pick one?”

[That is an adequate approximation. However, user is not looking at the future. Only predicting it by using available data.]

“Potato, potato,” I shrugged, as I managed to remove the skin from the side of the boar.

[Incorrect. Seeing the future and making a prediction using available data are two very different things.]

“Ok, ok,” I waved it off and cut a few strips of meat, placing them on top of a large flat rock that was already scalding hot due to the sun. Even if the Eater might not be able to reach the forest above, I wasn’t willing to light up a fire and attract more of them towards this place. Sun cooking was a bit dangerous, but it was better than not doing anything.

… I think.

Ah, what the hell. Worst-case scenario, I get sick and use the System to fix me up. Is it a bad idea to keep depending on something I don’t understand to save me? Probably, but eating it raw would be worse, and I don’t think I can survive for long here with just berries. It’s a fact that they are harder to find in the mountain.

“System, another thing. Why did you name the boar? Like, I stared at squirrels and other things, and that weird label never showed up.”

[Mutated Boar was a being with a high concentration of SP. Due said concentration, despite not being able to use System, Mutated Boar was able to benefit from enhanced abilities provided by particles.]

“So it has the system? Boars are one of the species that have access to the system?”

[Incorrect. Boar is able to benefit from SP without having access to System itself.]

I froze, “But how is that possible? Don’t you need the System for the particles to work?”

[Incorrect. Particles can perform their basic functions of improving user even without the interface provided by System. That includes enhancing the cells of the creature affected by them and allowing them to use skills. However, without System, particles cannot take input from user in order to improve. As a result, particles will follow a survival of the fittest logic to improve user]

“This boar could use skills? Like actively?” I stared back at the corpse. Why didn’t it use any skills when attacking me?

[That is possible. However, creatures that are incapable of conscient thought are much more likely to have passive skills instead of active ones.]

“Fuck… But how did that happen? I mean, how was a boar able to get SP?”

[The details are unknown. However, there are ways in which particles can be detached from their user. User’s death, lost of blood or limbs. These are the only confirmed scenarios in which SP can become detached from an user. It is possible that more situations exist.]

“And once those particles are free, they latch on to something else? Anything?”

[Correct. However, free particles will prioritize existences that can assist in generating more SP. The primary direction of the system particles is to enhance what the particles are affecting.]

“But what about what I felt when I killed it? It was like I had just finished using a skill,” I tried to go back to my work, but the speed was much slower now.

[The feeling user is describing happened as the SP present in the mutated board was transferred to user.]

“So… it’s basically like experience in games? If I kill something, I can get to the next level faster?”

[Incorrect. During the fight user was already acquiring SP while exchanging blows with mutated boar. However, mutated boar was also doing the same with user.]

“What? It was stealing my SP? Why?”

[Such situation happens due nature of unassigned SP.]

I rolled my eyes, “System, you gotta give me more than that.”

[Unassigned SP, or system particles that are being stored to the next level up, follow the basic idea of survival of the fittest. Once a clash between two being who possess SP happens, the particles involved in said clash be attracted to the stronger individual. Once SP is assigned to Body or Mind, they become an integral part of user and System. As a result, said situation no longer happens.]

“Hang on. Does that mean that if I have a free attribute point and someone attacks me, I can lose that?”

[No. Once user level up, the free attribute point also becomes an integral part of System. However, it is considered being in a fluid state where particles belong to both Body and Mind while not being a part of either.]

Hearing that I just shook my head, “Ok, I’m not going to even go there. Let me see the progression to the next level then. It was 28% when I woke up, right?”

[User’s level progression was at 29.4% when user woke up.]

In addition to the answer, the System also showed the window I asked.

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Current level - 6
Progression to next level: 86.7%
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Now those were some gains. Almost 60% by killing a single boar. If that’s how easy it was to level up by hunting, I could understand why people in stories would always go for that. And… if I can also practice using my skills, maybe I should continue using {Body Regeneration} to recover and still progress on my levels. Glancing back, I watched that patch of trees that was being pushed around as the Eater continued its patrol. If I was able to get strong enough, getting rid of that monster might be an option.

#### Author's Note ####
Hey everyone! What do you think about the stroy so far?
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