The First One Of The Cosmos -OLD VERSION-

Chapter 2 - Lake of Stars

I opened my eyes drearily.

Huh? I thought I was dead. I can't see too well, though.

I attempted to rub the dirt out of my eyes but my arm didn't move. I blinked a couple times and took a look at my left arm.

Then it hit me.

The searing pain.

My left arm had completely shattered, pieces of bone were protruding from my mangled forearm. I lay in a pool of my own crimson blood.

Tears flooded out of my eyes, I had never cried this much before.

But I couldn't scream. I didn't have the energy to, I felt as if my life force was sucked straight out of my body. Miraculously, my bag of supplies was also in front of me. I stretched my other hand out and tugged on the strap. It scraped along the wet mud with every pull and with the last bit of my strength, I pulled out a piece of jerky rations. Without a second of hesitation, I stuffed the dried meat into my mouth.

Every piece I ate returned a portion of my energy and soon, my stomach was full. But my arm was still a wreck.

The only viable option I have is to cut my arm off. It'll never heal anyway.

With my next mission being to amputate my own left arm, I grabbed my shortsword and cut some pieces of cloth from my uniform. The formerly navy attire was now stained a dirty maroon colour. It may have been expensive, but my survival was on the line. I took the catgut string from my bag and wrapped it around my shoulder to stop the blood flow.

After I built up the courage, I breathed in and out.

I struck my upper arm with my sword and the pain amplified tenfold, overwhelming my already beaten mind. I gritted my teeth to try and null the pain, but it didn't work.

I grabbed my cloth and secured it around my shoulder. Blood kept flowing out of the stump so I bit the string and pulled it tight until the bleeding stopped. Exasperated, I fell onto my back and closed my eyes.

It doesn't look like I'm going to die just yet, but how am I going to get out of this place? This far into the jungle, those bears are probably the least of my worries.

After getting a short nap, the sun was right above me in the sky. I had about seven hours to search for food before nocturnal monsters started to come out.

I got up onto my feet and tried to stretch but not having one of my arms affected my movement quite a bit. I picked up my bag and walked through the brush to try and find a source of freshwater, but what awaited me was not a pleasant sight. The half-eaten remains of my classmates and teacher were scattered on the floor.

I wasn't particularly close to them, but seeing the dead bodies of people I knew was dispiriting. I'm lucky to have come out of it with only one of my limbs missing.

I didn't have time to bury them though, the smell of blood would attract monsters. With no time to waste, I continued walking further into the thicket.

I had been walking for about an hour now, my worries were building up.

Why aren't there any monsters?
Is there another bear?
Will I even be able to find water here?

Then I heard it, a dripping noise. Water! As fast as I could, I hobbled over to the source of the sound.

In front of me was a cave in a small hill, the mouth was covered in vines but I slashed through them with my sword and stepped down into the dark cave. I walked through the dark corridors, fearful of the fact that a monster could jump out and kill me. I may have walked into a trap, but I had to get to the water.

I started to jog, not knowing how long this corridor went on for, but my face met the cold hard mud of the cave wall. My nose was a little sore and I felt a little blood trickle out of my nostril.

I need to be more careful, I shouldn't damage my body any further.

I could hear the dripping to my right now. I kept following the monotonous sound until I came to a dimly lit room. In the center was a lake, but something was strange. The water looked as if it contained the night sky. The plants that grew around the glowing spring also emitted a soft light that made me feel at ease. The sharp pain of my severed arm, gradually dulled to a simple ache.

Despite the strange nature of the water, I cupped my hand and scooped the liquid into my mouth.

The moment I swallowed the water, my vision went black and sparkling lights appeared around me, dancing in the darkness.

When my vision returned, I checked my status for any strange effects.

Saarl Harticus
Job - Student
LVL - 7
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HP - 45/170
SP - 15/135
CP - 55/55
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STR - 15
DEX - 11
INT - 20
DEF - 5
Points Remaining - 2
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Titles - Cosmic Being

Hm, looks like my title has been replaced. Cosmic Being?! Did I get some kind of power from the water? What's CP? I've never seen this on my system before.

The system was kind enough to answer my queries with an overload of information.

CP
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Short for Cosmic Power
Allows you to harness the power of the cosmos.
Use your mind to change the world around you.
Scales with LVL and INT.

Use my mind? I'll have to experiment on how to use this.
I decided it would be best to stay here for the time being, there weren't any monsters around so this cave was the safest place I could be. I lay down on the verdant ground, the soft grass brushing up against my skin. I wanted to get some sleep but there was one problem, there aren't any sticks in this cave so I can't make a fire to keep myself warm.
Maybe I should test out this cosmic power. It says that I can change the world around me, maybe I can make a fire?

Skill learnt:
Flame
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A small fire with a controllable temperature.

As soon as I had that thought, a flame burst out of my hand. I leapt back in surprise, shaking my hand to put the flame out. It didn't burn me though, it felt warm as if linking to my mind.

I willed for the flame to snuffed out and it did. I gathered some grass from around the spring and bunched it up into a clump.

Sticking my finger into the pile of grass, I lit a flame in the grass; this time making the flame hot enough to burn. The grass caught fire and I took my finger out before it could burn too badly.

Sat next to the fire, I continued to experiment with my new power until I ran out of CP. Testing out everything I could think of, like water and wind.

It was a strange power, but maybe this was exactly the thing I was looking for, A way to save humanity.

For now, I'll call this new power 'Cosmius'. It doesn't mean anything, it just sounds cool. I'm the first person to discover it so of course I get the naming rights.

It says that my CP scales with my level and intelligence, so killing monsters will give me more CP to work with. And the more CP I have, the more powerful Cosmius I can conjure. I'll have to kill some weaker beasts first though, I doubt the monsters in this area would even be fazed by the feeble flames I can make right now.

Before heading to sleep, I scratched the date into the cave wall with my sword.

25.3.1467

I figured I'd be stuck in this jungle for quite a while so keeping track of the time would be convenient.

I will escape the Jungle of Wrath and save humanity with this power of mine, no matter how long it takes.

With a new burning passion in my heart, I slowly drifted into sleep by the warmth of the fire.