“What’s wrong?” Susan asked, noticing how Levi froze after removing the fish. “Is it not done? Some problem with it?”

“No,” Levi said, while checking out his status to figure out what changed. “It seems like something happened with one of my skills.”

Susan arched an eyebrow, urging him to continue.

“I have two skills. Survival I unlocked when I came here, but the other I got from, um, something. Anyway, it looks like it hit level five and something happened. I now have more stats.”

It only took a minute to figure out what happened. This System thing didn’t seem all that forthcoming about information it didn’t think you needed to know, but once you unlocked something you also unlocked the knowledge about how it worked. Or that’s what it felt like. Levi really couldn’t be positive about anything. Who knows, maybe he was still lying on his bathroom floor and this was some agony induced delusion?

“I think I got it,” he said, focusing his eyes back on Susan and his surroundings. “So you know how the skills have their associated stats thing?”

“Did you figure out what that means?”

“Yeah. So it looks like when a skill levels up to a multiple of five you get a bonus to your stats for every stat association.”

Susan mulled over what he said.

“So you’re saying that skills can have more than one stat association? And they then increase those stats? By how much?”

“The stats increase by one for each association.”

He hadn’t thought about the fact that his Concentrated Will skill had more than one associated stat while his Survival skill one had one, but Susan had picked it out of what he said. Maybe Survival was a lower tier skill or something?

“The skill I leveled up is called Concentrated Will,” he continued. “It allows me to focus more. It actually has three associations: Willpower twice, and a stat I unlocked called Concentration. So I got two Willpower points and one Concentration point.”

“You must be really hungry to focus so much on the fish that it leveled up your skill,” Susan said, chuckling.

She had said it in jest, but why did he level up the skill? He had clearly been using his Survival skill, but that was only at level three. And apparently skills leveling up didn’t give notifications. Even getting stats point from them didn’t give a proper notification like what he had before, only a vague feeling. Because he didn’t know exactly when the skill leveled up it was hard to say why it did. He was hungry though, so he put those thought on the back burner for now and moved to distribute the food.

The fish was delicious, and Levi caught and cooked three more before it became too dark to continue, netting him another level in his Survival skill and putting one level short of the stat point. Neither of them trusted what was in the forest, so they decided to always have someone on watch, with Susan taking the first shift and Levi the second. It also made the sleeping arrangements easier, since Levi was the only one with a tent and sleeping bag. Not that it was cold, but Levi didn’t fancy sleeping on the ground, and he would have felt guilty if Susan had to. This was much better.

The night was calm and passed uneventfully. Levi wasn’t sure if it was the keeping watch or the camping part, but while he was on lookout duty his Survival skill leveled up to five, netting him a point in Constitution. The increase filled him with vigor. He could feel the Constitution increase much more than the Willpower and Concentration one, even though that had been three points total. But then again, he wasn’t even sure exactly what Willpower did. He had noticed something, but how could you measure something intangible like that? In contrast, the Constitution had made a clear difference in his energy levels. He wasn’t sure if it made him tougher or anything, but he wasn’t about to try and break any bones to check.

Contrary to his expectations, Susan ended up sleeping in. Levi had been half wondering if she wasn’t some sort of super human even before the apocalypse and this System thing. She was suspiciously knowledgeable for a Pilates instructor. He was glad to know she had at least one weakness.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Did you manage to catch us more fish?” Susan said blearily as she emerged from the tent, finally waking up a good three hours after dawn.

“Yeah. There’s two next to the fire if you want to eat them.”

Levi had been a little restless when dawn hit, and fresh off his new point in Constitution decided to try and do some more fishing for that sweet, sweet experience. That, and they could also use the food. As he continued fishing Susan sat down on a rock by the fire to eat some fishy breakfast. She didn’t get very far, as Levi found her staring at a half-eaten fish when he came back with his latest catch.

“Is something wrong with it?” he asked. “I didn’t undercook it did I?”

“No, you did a fine job. Fish just isn’t exactly my favorite breakfast food. I don’t suppose you have any coffee? Some tea would do in a pinch too.”

He shook his head.

Susan sighed, before fetching her pack and rummaging around in it before pulling out a container with celery and peanut butter. She started chomping down before wordlessly offering the container to Levi.

“Um, no thank you. I don’t really like celery.”

“Suit yourself. More for me then.”

Susan seemed much happier chomping on the peanut butter and celery, the fish now forgotten. Levi cooked his last fish while she ate. He wanted to somehow store it for later, but his skill didn’t seem to cover that.

“Why do you even have celery anyway?” Levi mumbled, unconsciously voicing his thoughts out loud.

“What’s that? I couldn’t hear you over the celery.” Perhaps because of the situation they were in Susan wasn’t making an effort to chew quietly.

“Sorry, I asked why do you even have celery in first place. It doesn’t seem like an obvious thing to pack for an apocalypse.”

“I didn’t pack it purposefully,” Susan said, storing the now empty container in her pack. “I was actually out on a picnic before my classes. So I only have my picnic things and whatever I had in my car.”

That actually made a lot of sense to Levi. Not everyone would be like him, conveniently at home with a prepared pack in case he needed to flee some unknown terror. He hadn’t really expected to find himself transported here, wherever here was, but having camping gear was infinitely better than not having it. He was lucky with his Survival skill, too. Susan may not like the fish, but he thought it was rather good, all things considered. Perhaps his luck stat wasn’t just for show. Maybe he could flip a coin and test it or something.

With the increase Levi’s Survival skill, he now had a rough idea of how to set up a camp and was able to help Susan with its deconstruction before they set out for the day. They continued the journey from where they had left off last night, plus one fishing spear and down some celery. After getting more comfortable using the spear, Levi thought he could probably construct a better one given some better materials, but in the meantime, this was what he had. He was using it as a walking stick currently, but it could also serve as a regular spear in a pinch.

Susan still led the way, but Levi now felt much more confident following her. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if they were currently walking in silence. It had been too long since he had talked to someone outside of his job and nosy cashiers at the grocery store. In a way, she reminded him of the mother he never had. His dad hadn’t talked much about it before he died, but Levi got the feeling his mom ran off shortly after he was born.

His musings were interrupted as Susan missed a step before stopping.

“Wha-“

“Shh”, Susan interrupted, whispering softly. “There’s something there.”

Levi slowly raised his makeshift spear while surveying the forest around him. His gut had been telling him it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The strange creatures and loud roars had helped too. The animal noises had been mostly silent during the night, but Susan had told him she’d heard howls that didn’t sound like they came from any normal wolves from Earth.

They both stood there, listening. One second, two seconds, three. Time drifted onwards, the tension building. Levi could feel it now too. They were being watched. They stood like that, for one of those immeasurable moments, somehow both objectively short yet subjectively long. Then it happened.

Levi heard it behind him. He spun, spear at the ready, dropping into a crouch. He only had time to see a moving blur before three short explosions rang out. The creature, he could now see it was some sort of four-armed monkey, skidded to a stop before him, three holes in its head.

He stared at the creature for a moment, confirming the danger had passed. He then paused for another moment for good measure, before getting out of his amateur combat position and turning around. There he saw Susan, standing in a wide legged shooting stance, gun cocked and ready.

She waited a bit longer than he did before relaxing and lowering her weapon. Her whole demeanor had shifted, no longer did Levi see the yoga mom. Now she appeared a combat veteran, poised, calm, and collected.

“I wasn’t always a Pilates teacher,” Susan said in response to the questioning look on Levi’s face. “I did six years with the Marines before settling down.”

Levi watched in silence as she calmly retrieved three bullets from her bag before reloading her gun and stashing it back in her shoulder holster. He had a million questions, but he doubted Susan wanted to talk about it. He felt she would have told him before otherwise. Instead, he moved over to get a better look at the creature that had attacked them.