BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

The bush hedgehog kept running across the field. Erik was on his tail, wondering where the hell the creature was heading.

It seemed to have no direction at all, just a random wander that might take it anywhere. Erik decided to kill the creature to get experience, but he was risking losing it since the wheat stalks were high enough to hide the creature from his sight.

Only the beast's trail allowed the young man to stay on his tail and keep him in view as long as there wasn't much undergrowth between them.

Then the vegetation ahead thickened, making it so that Erik had trouble following the creature. He could see nothing through the tall grain except what showed up clearly against the sky and the blood trail the creature left behind.

Then, the wheat field abruptly ended, making Erik find himself inside a forest. The trees were huge with twisted branches and leaves like those of an oak or beech, yet they stood close together, forming dense walls of green growth that shut off everything outside their sheltering bower save for the light filtering down from above.

As soon as he entered this new environment, Erik realized how far away from civilization he really was—he couldn't even hear any sound other than birdsong.

He suddenly heard something else moving about in the woods, too: a faint rustling that intermittently came and went. This made Erik think that the creature must have been close, probably hiding behind some bush or tree, waiting for its chance to attack or escape.

Erik walked cautiously among these strange woodland giants, hoping not to stumble into something that could put him in danger and that lay behind bushes whose foliage hid everything.

As the young man did so, he searched for the thaid's blood trails, and after a short search, he finally found them.

He grasped hard his sharpened wheat stalk and followed the trails; these led him toward a bush, as he thought.

With a stick, Erik cautiously approached the plant and moved the foliage, revealing the bush hedgehog in agony on the ground.

Its breathing was labored, and its eyes bulged wide open with terror. It tried desperately to crawl away but failed because of the pain which prevented the thaid from straightening itself up.

With each breath, the thing gave forth a low moan, and every time the monster turned over, it would whimper piteously.

Erik stared at the spiky creature lying helplessly before him, then quickly slashed at the creature. He cut two deep slashes along the side of the creature's abdomen, opening up a wound that poured forth a stream of dark red liquid.

A few seconds later, the thaid died, and the blood ceased flowing.

[QUEST COMPLETE.]

A notification rang inside Erik's mind.

[HOSTILE CREATURE KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]

[3...2...1...0]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. FIFTY EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]

-----------------------------

-Rewards for completion: A hundred and fifty experience points for killing the creature; eighty experience points for escaping the creature. Sixty DNA points in either case.

-Failure Penalty: Death.

(Kill or escape the bush hedgehog.)

-----------------------------

[LEVEL UP.]

[HOST IS ADVISED TO COLLECT THE CREATURE'S BRAIN CRYSTAL AND A SAMPLE OF BLOOD.]

"That's what you call a good harvest." Erik's heart was still pounding inside his chest from the excitement of having killed a dangerous predator without being hurt. "I guess I'll collect the blood and extract the brain crystal," said the youth, turning around and walking briskly toward the dead animal.

The thought of eating the brain crystal and licking the creature's blood made Erik's stomach churn, but he knew that it was either this or being weak.

How could he pass on the opportunity to gain another brain crystal power? He couldn't, so he steeled his resolve and put his finger inside the creature's wound,dipping it into the creature's blood and then licking it.

"This is awful," the young man said while tasting the crimson liquid. Then a notification rang inside his head.

[BUSH HEDGEHOG'S BLOOD ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]

[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]

[FIFTY DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE DNA.]

[A HUNDRED AND TWENTY DNA POINTS DETECTED. COMMENCING EXTRACTION?]

"No," the young man said. "I need to get home first."

Since he couldn't stay idle, the young man took the wheat stalk and started cutting the creature's head open. It didn't take much time for him to do the deed. The inside of the head was disgusting, filled with greenish-yellow fluid and white goo. Erik had no desire to touch any part of the head, but he had to do so in order to get the brain crystal.

He rolled up his sleeves and put his hands inside the squishy brain, starting to search for the brain crystal. It didn't take long before he found the tiny, translucent bead implanted deep into the brain and roughly the size of a quarter.

He rapidly took it out by grabbing it with his right hand. Erik then removed the blood and the last portion of the brain from the crystal using a white tissue from his backpack, then he swallowed the tiny crystal whole.

Another notification rang up inside his head.

[BUSH HEDGEHOG'S BRAIN CRYSTAL ACQUIRED. STARTING THE ANALYSIS.]

[ANALYSIS COMPLETE.]

[FIFTY DNA POINTS ARE REQUIRED TO EXTRACT THE POWER.]

[A HUNDRED AND TWENTY DNA POINTS DETECTED. EXTRACTION IS NOT ADVISED; THE HOST HAS INCOMPATIBLE DNA.]

[EXTRACTION ABORTED]

It was the same notification he got the last time when he absorbed the unknown thaid's brain crystal. As soon as he finished, Erik took his time to observe his surroundings better.

He was currently inside a forest, which was weird considering that, as much as he knew, there was no forest inside the barrier.

The trees were high and very thick, creating an almost impenetrable canopy above him. There wasn't anything else here except for bushes and small animals running. They seemed quite harmless, though; Erik slowly walked away from where the bush hedgehog's body lay and started heading back from where he came.

After about ten minutes of walking, the young man arrived in front of the wheat field, but it was there that he hit something invisible.

"What the hell? What is this?"

Erik prodded with his hands, touching the invisible wall that stopped him from going to Mister Fox's farm.

"Fuck... Fuck!"

Erik understood; he was outside of the barrier. That was the only logical explanation for the change of scenery and the invisible barrier that prevented him from returning. Erik panicked, thinking that he was bound to be eaten by thaids. His heart raced wildly.

But then another thought crossed his mind. Could it really be possible that someone could escape the barrier through some kind of trickery or magic? Wasn't it supposed to be impossible?

The young man started walking around the barrier, keeping his hands on the invisible wall, trying to find an explanation and a solution to his predicament.

It was only when the young man saw the blood trail that the bush hedgehog left that he started calming down. As the young man touched the barrier, at a certain point, he stopped feeling anything. Erik tried to put his hands inside the barrier, and probably thanks to a miracle, he did.

"What the...?"

Erik then tried to feel the barrier again, he moved his hand left and right, tapping his hand on the barrier.

"There is a hole here!" The young man said.