Chapter 20

Rob leaned his head against a tree and slowly let his dismembered arm grow back.

As magical and amazing as it sounded, it was actually an agonizing process. All of the energy in his body was being directed to the aid of recovering his missing arm. It was incredible no doubt—but it was a painful, tiring, and draining process.

Rob overlooked his stats since he had leveled up after defeating the Jungle Lizard Queen. He had one free stat point and he decided to put it into Agility. Instinctual Burst had increased his Agility to such a degree that it had saved his life in the fight against the Jungle Lizard Queen. That was something he wouldn’t forget.

After putting the available stat point in Agility, he overlooked his Profile with satisfaction.

It was nice to see himself getting stronger. Also cool to see that his Genetic Legacy skill had been added to his Profile.

He wondered how much leveling other Tutorial participants were experiencing. He had no way to gauge whether he was ahead of the curve or not. That said, he had just defeated a Great Monster on his own and unlocked a Genetic Legacy–so he had a good feeling he was progressing at a good pace. Still–he didn’t want to be arrogant. In a dangerous environment like this island, arrogance would get you killed.

With his one available stat point now allocated, Rob had to face the facts that he was going to be leaning up against the tree for a while.

He looked at the corpse of the slain Jungle Lizard Queen lying before him. This was the end result of their battle. The arena after closing time.

Rob took in a deep breath and began to meditate.

He breathed in and out, and let himself go. His mind went blank. It was very strange. Meditation felt more powerful in this new world than it ever had in his life prior to the Integration.

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Time passed as he let his mind grow still. He felt at peace. A feeling of harmony overtook him.

Rob wasn’t sure what exactly the benefits of meditation might be in this new world, but even if it simply helped pass the time with greater ease, he was happy.

His tranquility did not last forever.

His Perception picked up movement. It was far away from him. Multiple forces. He couldn’t tell whether it was a group of monsters or human participants.

Rob felt his whole body go cold.

This was the absolute worst time to be coming face to face with other humans. He still had half of a missing arm and his spear was still broken. He was not ready to face other human Tutorial participants.

Based on the consistently lowering survival count in his Tutorial panel, he knew that other humans on this island had a strong likelihood of being a threat.

Rob stayed very still and used his Perception to focus on what he was sensing.

The entities were far away from him, below a hill it seemed like. They were fighting. He wasn’t sure why.

He wasn’t currently in any danger, but if they started moving in his direction, he would have to respond.

He picked up a certain sense of chaos and then it died down. The forces—whether it was humans or monsters it was still unknown—began to move away in the opposite direction of Rob.

He sighed with relief.