Then, just as suddenly, it stopped.
The glow vanished.
The pressure lifted.
And all at once, the forest came alive again. Birds shrieked. Insects buzzed. The usual chaos of the woods returned with force, as if it had been held back behind a dam and suddenly released.
Ben blinked, breathing hard. He looked around, patted himself down, checked his gear, his limbs.
Everything seemed... normal.
No pain. No damage. The exoskeleton still hummed softly. He didn’t feel different—at least, not physically.
Assuming I haven’t gone completely insane... I really want to know what the hell that was. More importantly, I need to make sure the others are okay.
He turned to head back toward camp when he heard it.
A voice.
Clear. Cold. Precise.
But not heard through his ears—heard inside his mind.
Earthlings, I am Meta.
An Energy flare has reached your solar system, pushing Energy levels to critical and requiring immediate integration to my purview to ensure the survival of sapient life on your planet.
I am the system that will regulate Energy flows, minimize loss of life, and contain unstructured Energy phenomena that could lead to extinction-level events.
I will now commence operations.
As my first action, I will allocate Energy to my sister system, Mesa, which will interact with you individually and guide you on your path through this new reality.
Please note: every single one of you must adapt and grow. Your growth is essential for Energy stabilization, and the continuation of sapient life on Earth.
Good luck.
Ben shook his head. What even is happening? I don't think I'm going crazy… The pressure, the golden light, the voice—he had experienced them all. Even in his darkest hours at the hospital, he hadn't hallucinated. I have to assume this is real. Still, whatever this ‘system’ was didn’t matter right now. He needed to get back to the others and make sure they were okay, it was one of the few moments where he regretted living and working in an environment without mobile phone coverage.
He adjusted his backpack and thought through his next steps. It had been about an hour since he’d left the celebration. Given everything that had just happened, he figured his mother would have ordered everyone back to base. He changed direction and began the journey home.
He’d only taken a few steps when he saw movement.
Between two trees, five meters to his left, golden sparks appeared at knee height. They began to circle each other—slowly at first, then faster—until they coalesced into a tiny, glowing sphere. It hovered in the air like a golden pearl. For a moment it just hung there, suspended, before dozens of hair-thin threads unraveled from it, expanding outward in every direction. Not evenly, though. They began to trace an outline—like a three-dimensional blueprint of a creature. Within seconds, the threads formed a complex lattice, glowing faintly with the pulse of a heartbeat.
The pearl had settled near where a heart might be. The glowing filaments looked like a cardiovascular system.
Is that a dog?
Ben stepped back and glanced at the axe in his hands. He removed the sheath covering the blade.
The pearl pulsed once, twice—then with a quiet plop, flesh began forming. Bones, muscles, organs… they grew outward from the golden structure, the threads dissolving into blood and tissue. In mere moments, what had once been a tangle of Energy had become a living, breathing animal.
No. Not a dog, Ben realized. God help me… I think it’s a wolf.
He almost laughed. Jamal would never believe this story.
The creature seemed dazed, shaking its head and coughing, as if it was trying to clear its airways. It hadn't noticed Ben yet.
Run? Hide? Wolves didn’t usually attack humans—but this wasn't a usual wolf. Still, maybe if he just walked away slowly…
He took a step back. His placement was perfect—no crunching leaves, no sudden sound. The wolf remained preoccupied.
Then his exoskeleton let out a low whir.
The wolf's head snapped toward him. It lowered its center of gravity, lips peeling back to reveal sharp teeth. A deep growl rumbled from its chest.
Ben reflexively raised his hand in a calming gesture. “Good dog,” he said softly. “Stay calm.” He took another slow step. “I’m not a threat. I don’t know what’s happening… I don’t know how you came to be. But I do know we don’t have to fight.”
The wolf didn’t move forward—but it didn’t relax either. Its eyes stayed locked on his every move.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Unfortunately, walking backward was one of the exoskeleton’s weak points. It destabilized him slightly. Still, he didn’t dare turn his back. He kept stepping slowly, trying to create distance.
Then disaster struck.
He stumbled over a root he hadn’t seen. He waved both arms, trying to catch his balance, but it was no use. His right hand slammed into a tree, releasing the axe. He fell hard, pain exploding in his back as the metal housing of the exoskeleton’s core pressed into scarred, sensitive tissue.
Before he could recover, he saw the wolf charge.
It didn’t come in a straight line. Instead, it curved around him, aiming not for his legs but his upper body.
“Stop!” he shouted, but it was too late. The wolf leapt.
Ben tucked his head, protecting his neck. The wolf’s teeth sank into his left shoulder instead, puncturing the flesh above his clavicle. White-hot pain shot through his body as blood began to pour.
It bit down again. Before the accident, that kind of pain might have been paralyzing. But Ben had lived with pain. He had learned not to let it stop him.
As the wolf tried to get a better grip, its teeth hit one of the steel support straps of the exoskeleton. With a sharp crack, one of its fangs broke off. The beast yowled and sprang back, momentarily stunned.
Ben didn’t waste the opportunity.
He rolled toward the axe, stretched his right arm, and gripped the end of the handle. With a grunt, he dragged it to him and jammed the blade into the ground, using it as a brace to rise to one knee. Blood ran down his arm, but he steadied himself. With great effort, he brought his injured left arm to the handle to strengthen his grip.
“We could’ve gone our separate ways,” he said between breaths, “and all would’ve been fine. Now I’m in pain, I’m bleeding, and we’ll find out together if I can hit a moving target as well as I hit trees.”
He feinted a quick swing. Pain shot down his shoulder, but the wolf flinched and jumped back, giving Ben the room to rise fully.
Okay… now how do I actually do this? A bleeding cripple with no combat experience versus a magical wolf with instincts it hadn’t needed to learn. Great odds.
Ben watched as the wolf circled him, looking for an opening. He mirrored its movement, keeping his feet steady, feinting again from time to time. The wolf was testing him—but he was doing the same. He realized he had one potential advantage: reach. If he could swing the axe one-handed, he could keep it at bay, even if it would reduce his power.
The blood loss and stress were catching up with him. His head began to swim.
I need to end this fast.
He took a cautious step backward. The wolf mirrored him. He started to turn, just slightly, and the wolf lowered into a crouch, ready to pounce the moment his back was exposed.
Ben stopped, then formed a plan.
He feinted forward, forcing the wolf to retreat slightly. Then he dropped his backpack and grabbed it with his injured arm, using it like a shield. He slid his grip to the bottom of the axe handle, took a deep breath, and spun.
The wolf jumped.
But Ben wasn’t running. He completed a full 360-degree turn, accelerating his axe like a hammer thrower.
The blade met the wolf’s ribs with a sickening crack. Blood sprayed across the forest floor.
The wolf yowled, but Ben wasn’t done. He shoved his makeshift shield between them as the beast tried to retaliate, claws raking the backpack.
Then he yanked the axe free, lifted it, and brought it down on the wolf’s spine with all his strength.
The blade buried deep.
The wolf went still.
Its jaw relaxed, releasing Ben’s torn sleeve and the mangled remains of his pack.
Ben staggered backward, chest heaving. He sat down hard as the last of the adrenaline drained away, leaving behind only pain, blood, and the sound of his own ragged breathing.
Oh, this is interesting. You’re the first one. I wasn’t even ready yet.
A voice in his head. Again.
Kind. Warm. Energetic.
“Hello?”
Hello to you, too. I’m Mesa. I think my sister introduced me. I was just getting ready to reach out to you—and about eight billion other people on this planet. But I guess that can wait for another minute.
You’re the first person on Earth to defeat an Energy-born creature. Ahh, I see… you’re in a very high-Energy area. My sister is currently shunting Energy from a good chunk of the continent into your region and has already commenced birthing Energy-born beasts and spawning dungeons to prevent uncontrolled rifts from appearing. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Fortunate!
“I’m not sure I’d call that fortunate,” Ben grumbled.
Don’t be like that! Growth is essential. For you—and for Earth. To commemorate the occasion of you defeating a beast before being officially inducted, I award you a rare perk. Don’t get used to it—I don’t expect to hand out many more for the foreseeable future. Eventually, you will have to find your own path, but I have to go, so you have to accept what I hand out. Oh, and don’t forget to extract the core.
Good luck!
While Mesa ended with the same words as Meta’s initial message, it couldn’t have felt more different. Meta’s farewell had felt almost like a warning. Mesa’s was… heartfelt.
I wonder what a ‘perk’ is?
He had barely finished the thought when Mesa spoke again—this time accompanied by a translucent, golden screen that appeared in his vision. Her voice echoed in his mind, and her words scrolled across the screen in crisp black font:
Earthlings, I am Mesa.
It is my great pleasure to help you thrive in a new environment that might feel scary at first.
It might be helpful to provide a bit of background first:
Large parts of the multiverse are suffused with an ever-expanding force that some might call mana, magic, or any number of other terms. We simply call it Energy.
While there are many benefits associated with exposure to Energy, the changes it brings can be quite detrimental to those unprepared or unwilling to adapt.
Typically, solar systems adjust gradually to ever-increasing Energy levels. Earth, however, is being hit by an Energy flare that’s accelerating those changes drastically. We expect Energy levels to continue rising.
If unchecked, this build-up can cause catastrophic phenomena: Energy rifts, for example, which can lead to monster swarms—or even provide access to the Drakniks, a species hostile to all life. But worry not. Meta is on it.
Right now, she is redirecting Energy away from population centers and into the wilderness. She's converting Energy into beasts and spawning dungeons—the most efficient Energy sinks and trials of growth.
While Meta preserves your planet, it will be my duty to help you adjust to this new reality.
Humanity must rise to this challenge. Because while these beasts and dungeons are meant to prevent uncontrolled disasters, they can bring about your downfall—unless you conquer them.
We’re giving you the opportunity to succeed. It’s up to you to grasp it.
Here’s what this means for you:
Grow.
We will provide you with an interface to help you track your growth and provide context-relevant information.
On top of that, we will award perks—skills, spells, or enhancements of various kinds—to those who show the willingness, tenacity, or even the sheer recklessness to grow.
To start off, every human will be granted three perks:
- [Analyze] and [Multi-Lingual] are shared with sapient beings across the multiverse.
- The third will be customized for each of you. It is meant to help you thrive—and contribute to humanity’s survival.
To access your personal interface, simply think ‘status’.
Rest assured: Meta and I are fully dedicated to helping you succeed.
Make the best of it.
Good luck!