Eryon lay lazily across one of the branches of the massive tree he had climbed.His back rested against the trunk, one leg dangling freely in the air. He yawned without bothering to hide it and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it even more disheveled than before.
"Now… what the hell do I do?" he murmured.
Below him, the swamp remained shrouded in mist and shadows. The serpent could still be there, lurking in silence, or it might have moved away only to return later. And that was without counting the other creatures he had already encountered since waking up in this place.
He lifted his gaze.
The sun was setting.
Muted colors spread across the sky as the light slowly faded. It struck him as strange. He hadn't thought about it before, but the tower clearly had day and night cycles. He didn't know whether that was normal or simply a detail he had overlooked until now.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
This was no time to get lost in useless reflections.
The problem remained the same: he was trapped in a hostile swamp, without supplies, without clear references, and without knowing exactly where in the tower he was.
He had to get out.
Find a base, a city, any kind of human settlement. Something that wouldn't try to kill him the moment he took a few steps.
From the top of the tree, he carefully surveyed the surroundings, trying to commit the landscape to memory.
Staying still was not an option.
He frowned as he considered possible courses of action.
None of them seemed convincing. After a while, he let out a long sigh and stood up on the branch. He stretched his arms, then his back, feeling a certain stiffness as his body responded. He had spent hours resting up there.
With a thought, he opened the status window.
HP: 1200 / 2500Mana: 400 / 400
His health was recovering at an exasperatingly slow pace. Without Transcendent Physique active, the regeneration was little more than symbolic. Compared to what he had felt before, it was like watching a turtle crawl.
Mana, on the other hand, was full. Rest had done its job on that front.
He closed the window and looked down at his bare torso. He placed a hand on his chest and touched the dark bruise that still stood out clearly. When he pressed it, a dull ache spread through the area.
That hit had been brutal.
"I earned that one…" he muttered.
He had underestimated the serpent. There was no other way to put it. If not for the skill, he would be dead.
He withdrew his hand and took a deep breath.
He couldn't afford another mistake like that.
He opened the status window again, this time calmly.
He scanned it from top to bottom, searching for something that might help. He wasn't sure what he expected to find, but doing nothing wasn't an option. That was when he noticed a detail he had previously overlooked. Maybe because of the rush. Maybe because his mind had been elsewhere.
Near the bottom of the physical attributes section, there was an additional line.
Current attribute points: 10
He stared at it for a few seconds.
"Ten…?" he murmured.
The memory surfaced immediately.
Sam, casually explaining that leveling up granted points that could be used to improve attributes. At the thought of him, Eryon's expression tightened. His jaw clenched, and anger crossed his face before he could stop it.
He closed his eyes for a second and refocused.
He tried first with the attributes that seemed most important. He attempted to assign points to Luck, then Mana, then Perception.
Nothing happened.
The window didn't react. There was no confirmation, no change at all. It was as if those sections simply didn't accept manual adjustments.
He frowned.
"So it's only for physical stats…" he said quietly.
He looked again at the available attributes, the ten unused points still there, trying to decide where they would make the most sense.
His attention stopped on the physical attributes section.
He read them carefully.
Physical Attributes
• Strength: Low (High)
• Endurance: Intermediate (Low)
• Agility: Low (High)
• Reflexes: Intermediate (High)
Seen that way, the overall set wasn't impressive. In general terms, he was still weak. Even now. The only thing that stood out was his reflexes—abnormally high for someone in his situation, or at least that was how it seemed to him.
He thought about it for a long while.
He remembered the escape, the serpent advancing without losing ground, his mana draining as he ran. If he had been faster, maybe he could have left it behind without needing to climb a giant tree. Maybe he would have had more room to react.
The decision became clear.
Agility was the priority.
He focused on that attribute and tried to increase its value, expecting some form of confirmation. However, nothing happened. No notification, no message, no visible response.
He frowned.
Then he noticed it.
The ten points were gone.
The window updated immediately, without asking for confirmation.
He read it again.
Physical Attributes
• Strength: Low (High)
• Endurance: Intermediate (Low)
• Agility: Intermediate (Low)
• Reflexes: Intermediate (High)
Eryon froze.
He hadn't explicitly selected anything. And yet, the change was there. Agility had increased—but not in the way he had expected. The base value had risen, while the potential shown in parentheses had dropped.
"What…?" he murmured.
He looked at the empty section where the attribute points had been.
There was no going back.
And clearly, the system didn't work the way Sam had explained it.
He closed the status window and lifted his gaze.
The swamp stretched in every direction as far as he could see. Rotten trees, dark water, low-hanging mist. There were no clear landmarks. The place he had been following earlier was no longer in sight.
The situation was bad.
If the monsters didn't kill him, thirst or hunger would. He had no supplies and no defined route. Staying put would only make things worse.
He narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze in a random direction.
"To luck, then…" he murmured.
He carefully slid down the tree trunk, descending without haste, alert to any strange movement. When his feet touched the ground, he stayed still for a few seconds, observing his surroundings. He saw nothing out of place. He heard no nearby sounds.
He didn't wait any longer.
He moved in the direction he had chosen. First a few steps—then he sped up. Instead of walking, he ran.
He wanted to test it.
His body responded immediately. His legs moved lightly, the ground passing quickly beneath his feet. There was no sense of excessive effort or clumsiness. His speed felt smooth, stable.
After a few seconds, he realized something.
He was just as fast as when Transcendent Physique had been active.
The surprise was brief, but unmistakable.
"…Interesting," he murmured, without slowing down.
He kept running, pushing deeper into the swamp, hoping that this random choice would finally lead him out of that place.
As he ran, a thought occurred to him.
The change in speed didn't feel like a simple numerical increase. Going from Low (High) to Intermediate (Low) hadn't just meant running a bit faster. The sensation was different—more stable, more integrated into his body.
It felt like a qualitative change, not a quantitative one.
Thinking about it more carefully, it began to make sense. The first value wasn't just a number, but a kind of physical state or realm. And the value in parentheses indicated the level within that state. Once the maximum was reached, you didn't keep climbing along the same line—you crossed into another level of operation.
Like crossing a threshold.
In that sense, entering the Intermediate stage didn't mean being only slightly better than Low; it meant operating under slightly different rules. The body responded in another way. More efficiently.
At least, that was how he understood it for now.
He didn't know whether he was right, or whether the system would ever confirm that interpretation. But the way his body moved supported the idea.
He stopped thinking about it.
The swamp still lay ahead of him—endless and hostile. His legs didn't falter, and his pace remained steady.
He kept running.