Eren was running through the dense forest far from anything he recognized.

And he was abducted!

Probably...

Eren wasn’t sure of anything nowadays. The only thing he knew was this forest was fuc*ed up and it was magical!

Magical Forest! HOW OR WHY..?

He didn’t know the reason but there were all kinds of monsters and weird things around. Even the moon was different. And it was hard to believe but he had to be brutal and strong to survive here.

Magic...What a joke.

He hated magic. And nobody in his place would love it too.

Like when some little bunny like creature throw ice or water based spikes to your head and burry itself under the dirt to escape.

Or what about some magical flying snake in the skies hunting birds spesificly for some reason. Eren didn’t even want to think about that abomination more than necessary or what would happen if it targeted him.

But he was definitely opened his eyes in this forest while the last thing he did was taking a shower in his family house. And now he was running in insane speeds.

..

The cold morning air hit his bare chest but his stats turned the freezing wind into nothing more than a mild annoyance. Every step felt heavier and more precise than it had a month ago.

I used to get winded running for a bus back in Istanbul. Now I’m sprinting through a magical forest like it’s my backyard.

He dodged a low-hanging branch without looking. His feet found the firm soil between the roots as if the ground itself was guiding him. He wasn’t just moving. He was testing the limits of his Agility stat which he had stopped putting points into two weeks ago after realizing it didn’t actually make him faster.

It improved his balance and reflexes and footwork but raw speed came from Strength and Endurance. He’d figured that out the hard way after dumping six stat points into Agility and wondering why the wolves still caught up to him.

Every new stat point went into Strength now. No exceptions.

The air in front of him shimmered with a familiar blue light.

[Congratulations! Your "Basic Running" skill is ready to evolve to Evolution Level 2]

[Please select one of the following evolution paths to upgrade your skill]

Eren slowed to a jog and then stopped. He wiped sweat from his forehead and watched three screens materialize in his vision.

Come on System Lady. Give me something that doesn’t make me look like a lamb running from a wolf.

[Option 1: Steady Marathoner - Quality: Basic - Second Evolution League] [Reduces stamina consumption by 15% during long-distance runs. Increases recovery rate while moving at a slow pace]

[Option 2: Wild Sprinter - Quality: Basic - Second Evolution League] [Increases maximum burst speed by 20% for 10 seconds. Short cooldown. Ideal for escaping or closing distances rapidly]

[Option 3: Kinetic Flux Runner (Uncommon) - Second Evolution League

*Requirement Met: Consistent High-Speed Maneuvering & Combat Skill Integration

-Basic skill will be upgraded to Uncommon Quality.

-Grants absolute control over running velocity allowing instant acceleration or deceleration without losing balance. Allows the activation and use of all other active skills while maintaining maximum running speed. Retains all original Basic Running benefits

WARNING: Unlocks "Synergy Compatibility" allowing this skill to act as a BASE for future physical or magical skill combinations with MULTIPLIER effects]

Eren stared at the third option.

Speed control and skill-casting while moving? That’s not a running upgrade. That’s a combat mechanic.

He thought about the Synergy Compatibility line. If he could combine this with his Strength and something like that useless Mana Powered Stab or his spear thrusts later he wouldn’t just be a moving target. He would be an unstoppable charging bull with a pointy stick.

If I can trigger skills while sprinting at full speed I won’t have to stop for anything. Ever.

He didn’t look at the first two options again. They looked like garbage compared to the third one.

"I’ll take the third one System Lady."

The skill merged into his legs like warm water soaking into dry cloth. His stride immediately felt different. Smoother. Like his body finally understood what running was actually supposed to feel like.

But he didn’t have time to admire it because the giant black leopard that had been chasing him for the last twenty minutes was still coming.

He screamed over his shoulder without slowing down. "STOP YOU IDIOT!"

The massive cat definitely heard him. Whether it understood was a different question. Eren still couldn’t believe there was no skill or language pack in his system that let him talk to animals. He had a divine beast language called Beastin sitting in his skill list but it only worked on creatures intelligent enough to form sentences. This leopard was running on pure murder instinct and didn’t qualify.

"STUPID CAT. I HATE YOU. FU*K OFF!"

The words came out easy and natural.

Screaming insults while running for his life had become a daily routine these last days after his confidence of running away improved. And it reminded of his old bull*hit struggles of like how he used to argue with Rosa on the phone while walking to home.

Rosa.

The name hit him in the chest and his head pounded for a second. She was his Half-Bulgarian girlfriend that met in the last year of their university.

She was way too pretty and above his league and she had a temper that could melt steel.

Andthe important part she was almost his fiancée and the last day he remembered, they had a more serious that usual fight!

He remembered shouting to each other with her on the phone that last noon.

He remembered the rest of that afternoon too. The bank had called about an rejected loan application that he was waiting for a week with hopefully would be enough to cover all his marriage issues. His boss had sent him a passive-aggressive message then called him and he had a fight with her for some stupid reason. He’d come home exhausted, probably fired and pissed off of everything and...

And then what?

That was the part his memories became unreliable.

He was in his bedroom then took a bath after eating a short meal. And Eren was sure of looking for keys of the old door of the bedroom-bathroom wall. The one that had been locked since before he was born but not important in this context..

Then nothing!

It was like a scene from a sci-fi novel but he seriously couldn’t remember after that! And he was sceptic about memory losses all his life.

What a joke that it happened to him.

Next thing he remembered was waking up face-down in the dirt wearing nothing but shorts with no shoes, no phone, no wallet and a blue screen floating in front of his eyes saying [Welcome to the Evon Universe].

That was twenty-three days ago damn it!!!

Eren didn’t change his comfortable new pacing after the skill evolution.

The leopard was losing ground already because that’s how big cats worked in this forest. Amazing reflexes and terrifying burst speed for about thirty seconds but after that their stamina dropped off a cliff.

Wolves were the opposite. Slower but they could chase you for an hour without getting tired. Their weakness was that they couldn’t maneuver around tight trees and they stumbled on the high branches when they tried to climb.

Eren had learned all of this by almost dying. Multiple times. In his first week he had been Level 0 with zero combat experience and zero survival skills. A human body with average stats of 5 to 10 in everything. He couldn’t outrun a slime.

By the end of that first week he had killed enough small creatures to hit Level 5 and his stats had already jumped to a point where he could at least run from the medium-sized predators. By the second week he was hunting on purpose. Sharpened sticks. Rocks. Crude traps made from vines. Whatever worked.

At Level 15 he’d been excited because the system had told him he qualified for a class for his choosing in different names. He remembered the exact moment because he’d been sitting in a cave eating raw mushrooms and that notification had felt like Christmas morning for him.

Finally, class!

Maybe I’ll get something useful like a Warrior or a Ranger or literally anything that helps me kill things faster.

But there was no selection screen. No options too. The system just assigned him one with one message:

[Congratulations! You have become the "Magician of Love"]

He’d stared at those words that day for a full minute waiting for the punchline of the joke. He didn’t understand why the system first said, he would choose a class then give him a bullcr*p class without letting him choose..

Magician of Love. In a forest full of things that want to eat me. Thanks Evon. Really appreciate it! Stupid...

The class came with skills that sounded like they belonged in a dating sim. Love Love Love was a passive that dumped 99 extra points into his Charisma stat. Lovely Eyes could charm a target for two seconds. Love Shot added charm effects to ranged attacks. Charming Voice made his words hit harder emotionally.

Ninety-nine extra Charisma, in a forest where the prettiest and calmest creature was a bird that shot fireballs from its mouth.

He had tried using Lovely Eyes on a wolf once out of desperation. It didn’t work and made the stupid creature wilder than before after it shook it off and tried to bit his legs.

Also another stupid skill named Charming Voice had accidentally activated on a group of small birds once and they followed him for an entire day dropping small mushrooms on his head and screaming until he wanted to punch himself from frustration.

In some parallel universe there’s a version of me using these skills in a club or in a house full of magical women.

F*ck my life..

The real skills that kept him alive were the boring physical ones.