She moved one leg. Then the other. They responded. Barely, but they responded. She rolled onto her side and winced. Small cuts bled on her arms, her neck, and her left leg. Her clothes were in tatters, covered in dirt and blood.

"Nngh..."

She crawled toward a gnarled root and clung to it to pull herself up. Her muscles screamed. Her balance was shaky. She swayed but remained standing. The silence around her was heavy—almost supernatural. 

And yet, the forest felt alive. The trees, with twisted trunks, loomed like vengeful spirits. A foul stench hung in the air, and the roots beneath her hands shivered, shifting softly, as if trying to wrap around her.

Alice tried to take a few steps. Each movement awakened a new pain. Her right shoulder was useless. Her left leg was barely better. Her right cheek was swollen from an impact she didn’t even remember. She sat down against a trunk, panting.

The sky—or what little she could see through the foliage—was tinged with reddish hues, heralding dawn. It was cold. And damp. And it stank of rotting mushrooms.

A tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away angrily.

"Not now. You cry later. Right now, you survive."

---

Then came the mist. A grayish layer, crawling, rose from the ground. A branch snapped. Then another. Something was coming.

Alice tried to stand, but her legs buckled again. A massive silhouette took shape in the fog. Two glowing eyes pierced the darkness. A deep, guttural growl shook the air.

Ding

> [Quest: Survive the Mist Guardian]

Reward: Experience, Wind Magic +1 level, Passive Skill: “Survival Instinct”

Another window appeared, this time above the silhouette:

> [Mist Guardian]

Level: ??

"This is a joke, right? I just survived a deadly fall, and now there's a boss fight?!"

The creature stepped forward, revealed by a shaft of moonlight: a massive monster straight out of a nightmare. It was covered in black fur woven with mist. Two ivory fangs gleamed in the dark. Its empty eyes, lit by a reddish gleam, seemed to stare into her soul. And its claws... as long as the little girl’s arms.

Alice raised her only functional arm, a flash of defiance in her eyes despite the panic.

"You're about to taste my superpowers! ZEPHYRA!"

Silence. The creature stopped. They stared at each other, motionless. One was hoping for a miracle. The other, for an attack. A weak breeze lifted her hair. Alice stayed frozen, arm outstretched. The monster tilted its head slowly, almost intrigued.

"…Oh."

The creature let out a deep snarl and charged.

The Guardian leapt. She rolled to the side, just in time. Her breath came in ragged gasps, torn by pain. The monster growled, then stepped back slightly, its massive shape half-vanishing into the mist… only to reappear suddenly on her left.

It could have killed her a hundred times. But it didn’t. It was watching her. Playing. When she stumbled, it stopped cold. Tilted its head. A low, mocking growl rumbled from its throat. Alice stood again, swaying.

"You think this is funny?!"

She grabbed a thick branch from the ground and hurled it in front of her. The Guardian dodged effortlessly, as if the very idea of being struck was beneath it. It vanished again, hiding in the shadows of the trees, pretending to play once more. But it was a trap. 

Alice realized it a second too late. A claw slashed the air, aimed at her side—she dodged halfway, but the next blow hit her full in the back. The pain was blinding, searing.

She dropped to her knees, gasped for air, then stood again, staggering, and leapt to the side to avoid another claw strike.

"Think, Alice, think!"

A rotting, hollow trunk lay on the ground. Too small for the creature... but not for her.

She jumped, slipped inside the trunk like a mouse into its burrow. The monster skidded, tried to follow, but the wood splintered under its blows without opening wide enough for it to pass.

Alice crawled, her back on fire. The tunnel of wood led to a small slope. She jumped again, fell, rolled... and threw her hands back.

— ZEPHYRA!

This time, the wind responded. A gust exploded behind her, kicking up a storm of leaves, dirt, and mist that enveloped the beast, blinding it. She took the chance to run with all her strength.

A stream! Tiny, nearly dry, but enough. Alice threw herself in, soaking her already filthy clothes, and followed it upstream to mask her scent. The cold bit into her skin, chilled her to the bone. She slipped, nearly fell, but forced herself to keep going, teeth clenched.

A root, a rockslide. She nearly toppled over, caught herself just in time. Her breath was ragged, torn. Each inhale was a blade.

At last, she found a hollow in the terrain, a kind of depression covered in ferns and fallen branches. There, she crouched down, forced herself to stay still, to not whimper. Her heart pounded like a war drum.

The Guardian arrived seconds later.

She saw it from afar, silhouette warped by the mist, sniffing the ground, the trunks, the leaves. It passed right above her hiding spot, growled, turned around… and went in the wrong direction.

Alice waited long minutes before moving. Then she stood, slowly. And resumed her run, staggering.

When she finally stopped, panting, the silence had returned. The Mist Guardian had moved on. For now. She let herself cry at last, soundlessly, curled behind a rock. She had never been in so much pain.

Ding

A new bluish window opened.

> [Success]

You gained 195 experience points!

You gained 1 level!

Wind Element +1

Passive Skill: Survival Instinct

Please allocate your stat points.

She barely glanced at it. The Guardian’s howls, enraged at having lost its prey, echoed in the distance. Somehow, she forced herself to run again.

Her steps wavered between roots and rocks; her short breaths caught in the damp undergrowth. The air was heavy, thick with mist and wet soil.

Pain pulsed through her entire body. Her arm, hanging limply at her side, was probably broken. The bruises on her hip and leg slowed her down. But the worst was her back: a burning sting, a searing blade. The Guardian’s claws had done more than scratch. The wound was oozing, and every movement sent waves of agony through her.

But she had escaped the creature. She had survived. And now… nothing. No bluish light. No crystalline sound announcing a new quest. Just the forest. Cold. Alive. Silent. Alice walked without purpose nor direction.

The Zephyra spell had saved her from the fall, but left her drained. Magic still hummed faintly in her fingers, however her consciousness was fraying.

She heard noises... rustling, snapping... growls. Twice, she had to hide: a pack of abyss hounds, level 35, their mouths twisted by hunger; then a slithering worm, level 40, with a black, gleaming body, sliding through the ferns, its fangs clicking in the air. She could see their levels, meaning the Guardian must have been much stronger.

She crawled under roots, buried herself under a carpet of dead leaves, heart pounding in her chest.

How much time passed like that? Hours? A day? Little by little, her mind drifted.

"This world... this forest... it's not real. I'm going to wake up soon, I’m sure of it."

She tried to put the pieces back together. Her last day... she remembered it. She'd been at the lab since dawn. A long day, but productive. They had been working for months on a difficult hypothesis, and that day, the results finally came in. The kind of data that validates years of research.

They had celebrated with a drink in town. Nothing fancy. Just a moment of relaxation with the team. Someone had offered to walk her home. She refused, as always. Too proud. Too independent.

The handsome and kind Dwayne had insisted. He’d been courting her for a while, but she always pretended not to notice. It wasn’t like she was prudish—she’d had her share of one-night stands. But with him, it was different. She was afraid to grow attached, only to lose him. She had already lost too many loved ones.

She remembered the dimly lit street, her hesitant steps on the sidewalk... then headlights. Far too close. Far too fast. A split second. Screeching brakes. Then darkness.

Was that when everything changed? What if this world was just a coma? An illusion born of a dying brain? A mental space stitched together from survival instinct and scattered memories?

She didn’t know anymore. Nothing made sense. Alice staggered, her child’s body at its limit. Her fever was rising.

The mist grew thicker. The world rippled around her.

A soft, distant voice called her name. She turned but saw no one.

Blurry faces danced in her memory. Among them, her brother’s. The one steady presence in her life after their parents died. She remembered his tired smile, his way of hiding worry behind terrible jokes.

A last phone call from the hospital. He had tried to stay strong, as always. But she had heard the fear in his voice.

Then the ICU. The white walls. The sharp, overwhelming smell of disinfectant. The silence. The absence. And finaly the loneliness, once more.

Suddenly, she found herself in a clearing. A perfect circle, bathed in moonlight. The grass grew taller, greener. The trees formed a protective dome.

There, in the center, she fell to her knees, trembling hands, wide eyes. She tried to stand. Failed. Her vision blurred.

"Why am I here...?"

One final breath. And darkness. She didn’t see the massive silhouette slowly approaching between the trees. Nor the stone hand reaching out to her with a soft, creaking sound.