Years of training and intense combat had ingrained Glade with the basics of survival. When facing a life-or-death situation, first seek safety, assess your situation, and plan. Unless you find yourself in a fire fight. Then you unleash hell on everyone, and everything considered a threat.
Glade sorely wished he were in a fire fight. It would have made things so much easier.
“…and that is how we should apply min-maxing strategies!” Kedryn proudly declared. “With the mechanic’s I’ve learned so far…”
“Corporal, stop,” Glade interrupted, internally kicking himself for what felt like the hundredth time after asking the kid for help. “Please, just… stop.”
It hadn’t come as a surprise that Kedryn took his request seriously. What Glade hadn’t accounted for was the depth and breadth of the Kid’s knowledge base. Nor had he been ready for the overly enthusiastic delivery.
That had been two hours ago. Two excruciating hours of Kedryn excitably lecturing him on everything from gaming theory to role playing mechanics and everything in between.
If he were being honest, the experience wouldn’t have been so bad if he had even a modicum of understanding about Kedryn’s favorite past time. But the fact was, he didn’t. And Glade’s patience was running thin.
It hadn’t helped that Glade was the unfortunate soul that had been forced to carry their one and only pack. A pack filled to the brim with the malodorous remains of their recent kills, including the large beetle’s metal carapace, an absurd amount of meat, a couple rocky shells from the smaller magma beetles, handfuls of glowing red moss, and whatever else Riya and Kedryn had deemed essential.
And why was he the one to carry the horribly smelling pack full of weird plants and animal parts? Simple. Glade had the highest strength stat among their small group. Granted, he had tried forcing Kedryn to carry the heavy pack, but the Corporal had folded like a wet noodle. While hilarious, Glade resolved that he would begin working with the weakened Corporal to toughen him up.
Which brought his errant thoughts back to the mind-bending reality of the present.
With a thought, Glade willed his status page to appear for what felt like the dozenth time.
Name: Glade (Enlightened Human) Level 2
Experience: 870 Next Level: 1000 Age 28
Health: 110 Stamina: 120 Mana: 110
Attributes
Strength: 12 Dexterity: 11 Constitution: 11
Endurance: 12 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 11 Chance: 10 Willpower: 11
Brands
Courage Honor Perseverance Creation
Intellect Sacrifice Passion Meekness
Titles: None
Languages
English
Skills
Meditation: Lvl 1 - +1% to mana regen/+1% to attunement absorption.
Reflection: Lvl 1 - +1 to Wisdom. +10% skill advancement.
Unknown
Unknown
Abilities
Unknown
Unknown
Specializations: None
Attunements:
Unknown
Surreal wasn’t a strong enough word to explain Glade’s current state of mind. Outlandish hallucination bordering on a nightmare seemed more appropriate.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
At least they were safe for the time being.
After departing the Magma Beetles lair, they had the fortune of stumbling across a small grotto just off the main path they were traveling. An oasis of calm that had everything they needed to survive. Not only did it have a single entrance, making the room easily defensible, but it came with a natural spring of fresh water that fed into a small pond that pooled against one of far corners.
The grotto even came with its own light source in the way of countless phosphorescent mushrooms growing out of the rich, loamy soil that encompassed the cave, each one emanating a soft blue light.
An oasis of calm in comparison to the hellish rush of danger they had experienced since coming to this godforsaken land. Even the light coming from the mushrooms was enough to let Riya to drop her light spell.
Glancing to his side, Glade checked on the girl curled up in the corner of the room. He had been more than impressed with the elf’s direct nature and endurance. And grateful. Her intrinsic knowledge and… other capabilities, dramatically increased their chances for survival. His only regret was he couldn’t understand her language.
It wasn’t like he didn’t trust the kid to be their one and only translator…
Glade snorted. Who was he kidding. He absolutely didn’t trust a hormonal kid to interact with a stunningly beautiful woman unchecked. Kedryn could be flirting with the poor girl and Glade would never know.
Resolving to keep a closer watch on his newest charge, Glade ran through his mental list of available items that could help them survive. They had shelter, water, Riya’s light and healing abilities, and his side arm for protection. Technically, he could count Kedryn’s ping-pong sized fire balls as a weapon, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
An image of Kedryn dancing around with a burned hand immediately came to mind.
At least he had the firearm.
That brought Glade back to the present, where both men were addressing the other critical component for survival. Namely, food.
Both men were cooking the foul-smelling beetle meat. More accurately, he was the one cooking the meat. Kedryn was, quite literally, responsible for the fire.
Kedryn sat across from him, cupping a ball sized flame under their improvised stove as Glade slapped another cut of beetle meat onto the metal carapace. The meat sizzled loudly, fat melting from the tender white fillet.
Surprisingly, the magical fire didn’t create any smoke or burn through any of their oxygen. Which Glade was doing his best to ignore as it defied everything he had ever been taught. Then again, he was in a world where their lunch was a magical bug that ate melted metal.
Taking a deep breath, Glade began to gather his courage to make yet another attempt at conversing with Kedryn.
Before he could act, another prompt appeared.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Cooking (Amateur). Masters of this skill transform the inedible into delectable works of art! Unfortunately, your aptitude is at the level of - burnt offering - may those you feed survive the night. +1% chance to enhance flavor. +2% chance of identifying edible foods.
Rolling his eyes at the poorly worded notification, Glade dismissed the message. He had no idea if this meant he was now a cook or if his potential had just grown. Which would be a surprise, as everyone he had ever known avoided his cooking at all costs.
So many questions, but he really didn’t want to ask Kedryn. The kid would likely regale him with cooking skill game theories or other, equally useless nonsense.
Curious, Glade pulled up his status screen and saw the cooking skill was now listed. There were still a few unknowns, which had been bothering him ever since he learned how to view his status page. He had even tried asking Kedryn in the hopes the gaming guru could help him figure out the dilemma. That had been a mistake.
A mistake he was knowingly about to make again.
Bracing himself for the inevitable mental anguish, Glade drew in a breath and asked.
“Corporal, could you go over the stats one more time?”
“Of course, sir!” Kedryn replied, a creepy grin crossing his face as he leaned forward, crossing the invisible boundary into Glades personal space.
Glade winced. The kid was far too enthusiastic.
“How about I try and start from the beginning? That should help give you the necessary context in understanding game mechanics and character building.”
Without waiting for a response, Kedryn launched into yet another lecture with an excitement that bordered on crazed zealot with severe ADHD issues.
“Since the creation of Role-Playing Games, or RPG’s for short, there have always been categories that describe a character’s capabilities. These first started with the old Dungeons and Dragons games, also known as D&D, and expanded into a variety of other games. Everything from RPG’s, to board games, regular video games and eventually to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs. The most popular MMORPG games include classics like World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Diablo…”
“Kid,” Glade quickly interrupted. He could have sworn that Kedryn hadn’t taken a single breath during that entire speech. “That’s not what I asked. How does that help me understand the status page?”
“I was getting to that,” Kedryn responded. “While there are minor differences between existing games, every system uses similar methods to track their characters skills, characteristics, and abilities. But instead of characteristics, this system calls them attributes. But that seems to be the only real difference. To be succinct, what you’re seeing on your status page is a visible representation of your current build!”
Kedryn gave him a triumphant look.
Glade stared back; his face devoid of any emotion as he struggled to hold himself back from throttling the kid.
An image of Wildfire smacking the kid around just hours before came to the fore front of his mind.
“God bless the Irish,” Glade muttered under his breath.
After a few awkward moments, Kedryn’s smile began to fade. “So, I guess that doesn’t answer your question?”
“No,” Glade responded bluntly.
“Oh. Let me try another way,” he said, leaving one hand to hold the flame steady while he sketched a diagram in the dirt with his free hand. “Have you ever heard of a character sheet? Maybe I can draw one on the ground so you can see a visible representation...”
“Kedryn,” Glade interrupted with patience he didn’t feel. “I’m not asking for what associations you’ve made between our worlds games and what we are experiencing in this world. I’m simply trying to understand the stats on my status page. You know, the nine attributes? Strength, dexterity, constitution, endurance, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, chance, and willpower. I get that it’s a measurement of some sort, but what exactly does that represent? Does the strength stat only dictate how much I can carry on my back? And how can anyone measure wisdom? That sounds utterly ridiculous.”
“Oh!” Kedryn perked up. “That’s easy! Those are the basic attributes of any character… Wait, did you say nine attributes?”
“Yes…” Glade replied hesitantly as he watched Kedryn’s features shift from overly expressive excitement to laser focused scrutiny. For some reason, that look put Glade on his guard.
“Strength, dexterity, constitution, endurance, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, chance, and willpower.” Glade repeated, reading each attribute from his status page with deliberate care. “I’m assuming you have the same?”
“No, I don’t,” Kedryn said, leaning forward to the point his robes were falling over the sizzling meat. “I mean, I have the first eight, but not the last one. What is willpower?”