Alex sat cross-legged on a squeaky bamboo bed inside his modest hotel room, a boxy electric fan humming dully above his head. The television flickered in the corner, its screen a swirl of breaking headlines, panicked anchors, and shaky phone camera footage from across the globe. On any other day, it would have looked like the world was ending. But Alex knew better now.
It was his fourth day in Quezon. The world outside was spiraling, but in this sleepy town flanked by mountains and myths, he had found a different kind of awakening. Five days had passed since the celestial broadcast, and the Earth had not been the same since.
That night on the mountain… he could still hear the echo of that eerie whisper, the crunch of leaves under inhuman feet, and the stench of decay that clung to the night crawlers. But strangely enough, his companions—those bright-eyed students—remembered none of it. They'd all woken up at dawn, laughing about mosquito bites and ghost stories, blissfully unaware that a real monster had stalked them under a blood moon.
They had cheerily parted ways at the foot of the mountain, promising to keep in touch on social media. And Alex—smiling, polite—returned to his rented resort room… only to don the cloak of the hunter once again that very night.
This time, he was alone. And being alone meant freedom.
By midnight, he was gone from the hotel, swallowed by the jungle.
He moved like a ghost. No flashlight. No guide. He didn't need one.
He could feel the forest now—its breath, its heartbeat, its whispers.
The first thing he had discovered was the power in his legs. Jumping had become second nature, and each leap carried him meters high into the trees. The fusion of grasshopper DNA and his own evolving body allowed him to move in a way no human could. He bounded through branches with effortless grace, landing silently, always balanced, always aware.
His mind stretched beyond the physical. The sentient's 3D holographic map hovered like an overlay in his vision, painting a glowing grid across the landscape. Every life form shimmered in faint color signatures—green for prey, red for predators, gold for anomalies. Even the heartbeat of a rat in the underbrush pulsed like a strobe in his mind's eye.
In three nights, he had hunted down twenty-three night crawlers.
Monsters, ancient race that has evolve into more vicious and greedy for human flesh after thousands of years in seclusion. They were fast, brutal, and terrifying to most.
But not to him.
To him, they were practice.
Each fight taught him something. Every skill he tried—Fire ball, Stone Fist, Wind Blade—became stronger. He wasn't just surviving anymore. He was learning.
He had summoned his first beast that second night. A blinding pulse of energy erupted from his hands, and from the shimmering light stepped a wolf the size of a small horse, its fur silver-white and eyes like embers in snow. He named it Kael. Elegant. Deadly. Loyal.
Kael was more than a summon. He was a partner. They communicated without words, moved like twin shadows through the foliage. Kael could track what Alex couldn't see, pounce when Alex was outflanked, and warn of dangers he had yet to notice.
Through his Beast Tamer ability, Alex had also begun connecting with other forest creatures. A family of squirrels led him to a couple of dark creature resting in a big hollow tree. A curious carabao had once stood guard as he purified a poisoned stream with Water Control. Even a flock of swallows had once circled above, warning him of something large and fast moving through the northern trail.
But the most unexpected discovery of all came when he wasn't looking for anything.
The nymphs didn't walk. They whispered.
They shimmered in the corners of his vision, light-bending shapes that looked like part of the foliage—until they moved. Until they touched him.
The first one had brushed a fingertip across his cheek as he rested against a mossy rock. The leaf that followed felt warm in his hand, pulsing faintly with life. And then, they appeared.
Not fully.
Shaped from mist and memory, they hovered just outside the human eye's comfort zone. Beautiful. Alien. Eternal.
And they spoke—not in words, but in feelings. In breezes that meant caution. In raindrops that said welcome. In a rustle of leaves that hinted at laughter.
They tested him, not for power but for purpose. And when he passed, they opened paths even the sentients could not see.
They accepted him… not as one of them, but as something new. A friend.
His most powerful transformation came on the third night. The Shapeshifting ability had activated with a surge of pain and instinct. He remembered falling, crashing from a high cliff, and then—suddenly—he wasn't falling.
He was flying.
A hawk's wings beat where arms once were. Talons gripped wind currents. Eyes that could spot a mouse from a mile away now scanned the earth for danger.
The first time was disorienting. Vomit-inducing. He'd nearly flown straight into a tree.
But the second time? He flew like he'd been born in the sky.
Night after night, he took to the skies, patrolling the mountain, watching the treeline, listening for movement. The jungle below felt alive in a way he couldn't explain. And he, for the first time, felt like he truly belonged.
Now, here he sat, back in human form, barefoot and shirtless, watching chaos unfold across the planet from a tiny hotel room with peeling wallpaper and a cold Sprite in his hand.
"Multiple sightings of suspected empowered individuals continue across South America, Central Africa, and Eastern Europe…"
"In Tokyo, security cameras captured footage of a man leaping a six-storey building, pursued by law enforcement..."
"The Vatican has declared a global spiritual emergency…"
"New York: Police are searching for a suspect in the Bronx massacre. Authorities now confirm he may not be entirely human…"
Alex's brow furrowed.
The chosen… they were being hunted.
Governments were labeling them as threats. Rogue agents. Dangerous anomalies. Biological risks. A few had gone rogue, sure—but most were like him: newly born into a strange and dangerous world, just trying to make sense of what they'd become.
And now they were being chased like animals.
"More reason to stay invisible," Alex muttered.
He look at the hologram data in his mind.
Name: Alexandre Cortero
Race: Human (Evolved)
Age: 30
Class: Druid
Title: Night Slayer (20% Addition to Strength, Perception and Agility at night)
Health : 300/300
Energy : 200/200
STATS:
Strength : 18 (x5) = 90
Wisdom : 15 (x3) = 45
Agility : 12 (x3) = 36
Constitution : 12 (x5) = 60
Intelligence : 15 (x2) = 30
Perception : 10 (x5) = 40
Vitality : 12 (x3) = 36
Stamina : 14 (x5) = 70
His Strength, Stamina, Perception, Vitality and Agility have all increased. As well as his Health and Energy. Maybe it's the result of him pushing them to the limit. The Night Slayer title is new, because of his fighting habit during the night for the past four days. It gave him additional advantage during night time
Acquired Abilities through DNA Integration:
Extreme Durability
Reflex Vision
Strength Ratio
Acute Vibration Sensitivity
Jumping Power
Aerial Agility
Photosynthesis
Regeneration
Ancestor's Blessing : Pure Luck
Bloodline Legacy : ???
The Abilities he got from the creatures DNA are very useful and so powerful, but they did not level up even if he use them all the time. Maybe because they are all Passive skills
Druid Class Skills:
Elemental Control - Level 2 (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Wood)
Wind Blade, Stone Fist, Bullet rock, Fire Ball, Entangling Vines
Forest Whisper (Passive)
Beast/Animal Taming - Level 2 (Wild Animals)
Summoning (Beast) - Level 2 (Wolf companion)
Healing - Level 2 (Heal Wounds)
Shapeshifting - level 2 (Hawk, Raven)Shadow Strike – Level 1
Combat skill : Shadow Strike
His command over the elements had sharpened over the past few nights. What started as raw instinct and guesswork was now becoming something else—something refined. After hours of silent practice deep in the jungle, he had discovered how to shape and control elemental energy with more precision. Fire came easiest—his favorite, too. A small flame the size of a pingpong ball now danced confidently in his palm, flickering like it had a will of its own.
"Not bad," he muttered the first time he conjured it without burning his eyebrows off. "Still not enough for barbecue, though."
Wood, on the other hand, gave him s additional strength. He learned how to summon vines—thick and fast, like green serpents slithering up from the ground. They responded to his thoughts in bursts, snaking around tree trunks and wrapping around imaginary enemies with crushing force. Perfect for trapping. Perfect for control. And most of all—perfect for stealth kills.
His Shapeshifting skills had also leveled up, quite literally. After mastering the hawk form, he'd unlocked a second bird: a sleek, jet-black raven. It felt different—smarter, sharper. While the hawk was built for speed and strength, the raven was cunning, subtle. It could slip through narrow windows, perch unnoticed on lampposts, and observe without drawing attention. A spy's eyes in a world that was rapidly turning hostile.
But with every transformation came the same annoying problem: his clothes.
"Seriously," he groaned, folding his shirt and jeans behind a tree trunk for the third time that week, "is it too much to ask for a magic pocket dimension? Or at least pants that shapeshift with me?"
He'd even begun stashing spare clothes in high-up branches and hollow tree trunks, just in case something went wrong. The last thing he needed was to land naked in the middle of a crowded barangay. Again.
A new combat skill had emerged from his system menu just two nights ago—Shadow Strike. He discovered it by accident, while dodging a night crawler's claw swipe. His body had flickered—literally blinked—across a shadowed spot beneath the tree canopy, allowing him to strike from behind before the creature even realized he'd moved.
The attack came swift and silent, like a whisper in the dark. Combined with his old martial arts techniques, it made him twice as dangerous. The creatures barely had time to scream.
"Guess I'm a ninja now," he quipped once, wiping ichor off his elbow.
A sudden chime echoed in his head. His vision blurred slightly as the data interface appeared in his mind in glowing letters, like it is in front of him.
New Mission:
Survive. Discover the other Chosen.
He stared at it for a long moment, heart beating slower, heavier.
"Other Chosen…" he whispered.
He knows that there were others out there, just like him. Others with powers. Others hunted.
And now, the mission wasn't just survival—it was connection. Discovery.
He leaned back against the bamboo wall, fingers tapping absently against the cold can of Sprite still half-full beside him.
This changed everything.
And somewhere far away, someone else might have just received the same mission.