I think people really understate the importance of water. Water is life. Water is good. A person needs water to survive. And right at this moment, I would give all my silver for just a sip of water.
The road was dusty, every footfall causing a small cloud of dirt. Seemed that it was the dry season, and I had underestimated how much water a human needs.
My lips were chapped, and my tongue felt foreign in my mouth, all sticky and big. Ok, eww. That’s not good imagery.
Anyway, the surroundings were not the quaint forest I had expected. The road quickly turned from dense forest to scrubland. Nothing but grass, bushes, shrubs, dirt, and rock. The landscape was mildly hilly, with no rivers or streams to be found. The sun was also being an asshole, drilling into me like an electric drill on cocaine!
If I had known the landscape would change so quickly, I would have brought a lot more water. But, it is what it is.
Thankfully there was another town up ahead. A town right out of a Western cowboy movie. There were steer skulls decorating the buildings, as well as a multitude of other such animals, their skulls sunbleached white.
At the gate entrance, I was thankfully not accosted. Not suspicious enough I suppose. Just a little girl who’s thirsty.
Using my newfound silver wealth, I went straight to the only inn and got a room. Then I asked for directions to the well and proceeded to lug a metal bucket full of that sweet, succulent liquid known as H2O, up from the hole.
After having my fill, and spilling a good amount on my leather robe in my haste, I filled my waterskin and dropped the bucket back in the well.
“Fuckin delicious!”
I trotted back to my room, a couple of people giving me side looks as I passed. I don’t know who pissed in their cereal, but I was feeling hydrated and didn’t care one bit… Ok, maybe I cared a little. Who the fuck do they think they are?!
I went back to the inn and went up to my room. I sunk the key into the lock and opened the door. The room was… Fine. Not to the standard of a regular hotel on Earth, but there weren’t shit stains on the floor, so that’s a plus. The bed sheets on the other hand… Yeah, they should burn those.
But I didn’t spend too much time inspecting the room. I now had enough water in me, that I wasn’t afraid of fainting from blood loss while doing the system ritual.
I had been walking for eight days, trying to conserve my food and water. Much to my frustration, I couldn’t do the system ritual to get some juicy skills and distribute my points. A wolf would have smelled the blood and eaten me, maybe. Probably.
Taking a knife, I slit my palm, and let the blood flow into a bowl. Then I repeated the system ritual circle and chant once again.
//
Name: Gladgleer
Age: 9
Tier: lll (1/20)
Resource Pool(s): (27)
* Mana (0/0)
* Mind: (0/0)
* Vitality (0/0)
Skills: [Flesh Cauldron l]
//
Wow. That’s a lot of points! So, four more points from tier one, that must mean I got twenty points from tier-two and three points from tier-three. Looks like the tier determines the amount of points a person gets. And my skill is still tier-one.
First off, let’s add some points to mana and see what skills that unlocks.
I willed five points to move to mana, but nothing happened. Arching an eyebrow, I willed one point into vitality so that I would at least be able to use the flesh cauldron skill. The blood moved according to my will, making vitality 1/1.
Well… This was odd.
Trying again to move some points into mana proved fruitless, the blood remaining still.
“...Fuck!”
It seemed that… It seemed that mana was a no-go, for some fucking reason! How would I do alchemy without mana?! This was absurd. I have the resource pool but can’t add to it!
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down. Instead, I focused on the new feeling inside of me. I had the innate feeling that this was the flesh cauldron skill. With a vitality point now, I could actually use the skill. I could feel the pool strain inside me, separated into its own little pocket.
Deciding to fuck it, I activated the skill. I felt the pocket surrounding the pool strain break, letting the alchemic concoction seep into me.
//
Congratulations! You have gained the (Deftness) resource pool!
//
I tried to hold onto a bit of the pool compound so that I could potentially replicate it, but it slipped from my grasp when my vitality fell to 0/1.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
…Well, fuck. Looked like the pool compound was gone. Nine generations of work flushed down the toilet. That was a pretty huge negative, but! I do have the deftness resource pool now soooo. Yeah…
Anyway, time to check out some skills! But before that, I entered one resource point into each pool, just so that I could browse skills in those sections.
My sight rapidly narrowed, and I was left staring at a blue screen.
//
Skills Available:
* [Blood Bag]
* [Alchemic Eye]
* [Alchemic Identify]
* [Extravagant Curves]
* [Nightly Rat Scout Sneaking]
* [Investigative Eye]
* …
//
Well. The skills varied quite a bit this time. There were some familiar vitality skills, but also mind and deftness skills. The mind skills were pretty straight forwards, [Alchemic Eye], [Alchemic Identify], etc. The deftness skills on the other hand were weird! [Nightly Rat Scout Sneaking]? What the fuck was that?
Although I did find a deftness skill that was pretty interesting. [Planar Alchemic Resonance]. It also had some insane requirements, one of which was to experience different planes. Which, I suppose I did. Although just living life, shitting, and eating sandwiches doesn’t sound as grand as ‘experiencing different planes’.
There was also another skill, this one vitality-based. [Concocted Body]. It required the [Flesh Cauldron] skill, surprisingly. It would essentially let me juice myself like a high voice, small balls, muscle man. Like, get really juiced, in more ways than just muscle. It looked like a fantastic skill for alchemists who wanted to kill stuff.
Which includes me! Because levelling stones are too fucking expensive! And I also don’t want to die like Gladgleer.
That’s another thing to worry about. Could I change my name somehow? Because Gladgleer was assassinated, a man with a very unique name, which I also share. Not a very good look. I will want to separate myself from that name.
Choosing the two skills, I came back to myself in the subpar inn room.
//
You have obtained [Planar Alchemic Resonance] Tier l Toll skill.
You have obtained [Concocted Body] Tier l Passive skill.
Name: Gladgleer
Age: 9
Tier: lll (1/20)
Resource Pool(s): (24)
* Mana (0/0)
* Mind: (1/1)
* Vitality (0/0)
* Deftness: (1/1)
Skills: [Flesh Cauldron l] - [Planar Alchemic Resonance l] - [Concocted Body l]
//
Hmm. My vitality is back to 0/0 because of the new passive skill. Booh!
Now, how do I tier up a skill? I don’t know exactly what a tier-up does to a skill, but it's gotta make it better, right?
//
Tier up [Planar Alchemic Resonance] Tier 1→2 for 2 points?
//
Well, yes please!
And while I’m at it, let me just tier up the concocted body as well. Hmm. It requires more points in vitality, so let me add a few more, and there. Now let’s tier that up. Good! Now I’ll distribute my points. Nice!
Now, how do I change my name?
“My name is now Rebbeca.”
I waited for the blood to change, but nothing happened. Perhaps I just need to think really hard?
Rebbeca! Rebbeca! Rebbeca! Rebbeca!
No. It doesn’t seem to be doing anything.
Hmm. Maybe something similar to Gladgleer? Like a nickname? How about Glad? Oh! It worked.
//
Name: Glad
Age: 9
Tier: lll (1/20)
Resource Pool(s): (0)
* Mana (0/0)
* Mind: (1/1)
* Vitality (1/1)
* Deftness: (9/9)
Skills: [Flesh Cauldron l] - [Planar Alchemic Resonance ll] - [Concocted Body ll]
//
There, now everything is sorted. I’ve got a bit of vitality to activate the [Flesh Cauldron] skill if need be. Some points in Deftness for this ‘toll’, and one point in mind that is wasted. The rest of the points are in the passive skills.
I stood up as the bloody circle began to evaporate. So weird.
The first thing I wanted to try was my new mana replacement alchemy skill with super hard requirements which I kinda cheesed. The skill using the deftness pool. The very odd skill.
… I don’t really know how to use the skill. Oh! Wait. I think I’m getting something. Runes. No! Glyphs? Yes, glyphs. Nonsense symbols that aren’t runes.
Yes. Yes! It's coming to me now! The knowledge, it’s flowing through my brain! YES!
…
When I came to, I was lying on the floor.
“Ugh. What the fuck happened?”
I pushed myself up and opened my eyes. My eyebrow rose by a considerable margin when I saw what was below me. Spanning the entire room, and crawling up the walls for a meter, were large squiggles. Or as my skill called them, glyphs. In my hand was a ground-down piece of chalk from my backpack. Also on the floor, were small piles of herbs arranged haphazardly.
At first, my mind was only confusion. Then my skill kicked in, and it was suddenly a work of art. A work of art I couldn't understand, but one I knew how to activate.