“So not a dream huh.” Muttered Sophia as she pulled herself together and stood up yet again.
Looking around revealed that she was in exactly the same place and it was still lit overhead. Assumedly she had not been out for long. Taking a few moments to calm herself and centre her mind Sophia she shook off any unimportant thoughts and focused on the matter of hand.
‘So to recap, I'm alone and away from civilization and have a game HUD shoved into my skull. It’s looking like I really am losing it. Might be best to survey my surroundings and decide how to proceed from there. Sophia laid out the facts to herself.
Giving herself a shallow nod for her immense intellect she set off to one of the nearby berry bushes and picked off a funky looking violet berry and smelled it. The aroma was rich and beyond anything she had previously experimented with. The fact that it had a sense of smell was a telltale sign she was certainly not in any twisted Virtual Reality experiment as it was a well known limitation of the technology.
[Beropillia] Gives a 5% boost to mana recovery for 30 minutes
[Inspect] Has been learned!
[Inspect] Reaches level one!
[Inspect] Huh? It really does seem like I have a game hud! So many possibilities! Might as well entertain the idea and say some keywords.
“Stats.” She spoke out loud in an apprehensive voice.
Nothing happened. A small sense of disappointment made itself known before motivation returned.
‘Stats.’ She focused on the word in her mind and brought it to the forefront of her mind.
[Sophia Whitemare’s Stats]
Titles: [One from beyond]
[Class: None] [HP: 50/50]
[Level: 1 (0%)]
[Tier: 0]
[Strength: 4]
[Constitution: 5]
[Dexterity: 5]
[Wisdom: 6]
[Charisma: ?]
[Intelect: 8]
[Luck: 5]
Magic known: None
Skills known: [Inspect]
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Seeing strength as her lowest stats was depressing but lingering on that would cause an argument. With herself. So she was level one? Considering she had not played whatever this was before she could accept that. But what was that title [One from beyond]? She thought about it and immediately was given an answer.
[One from beyond] The owner of this title has entered this realm from another, the title holder gains a bonus 10% EXP even when unequipped.
So they wanted her to believe this was another world? For now she will play along. Ten percent Experience points was a huge boon in any game. Hopefully it will be a great help to her while she is wherever this is. The berry from before had said that it gave mana regeneration but there was nothing about it on her character sheet. She tried thinking about it hard but nothing popped into mind.
It would be hard for her to carry many berries without a bag but she grabbed a few for now just in case. Popping one into her mouth she immediately felt the rush of flavour before she got another message in front of her.
You have unlocked [Mana] that was latent in your soul. It has been awakened and is ready to be used at your disposal, the raw energy of creation and destruction.
Mana regeneration has been increased by 5% for 30 minutes.
There it was. Magic! Giving out a small squeal at the thought of being able to cast spells she immediately began screaming our random spell names and performing moves she had seen on TV and popular games.
Realising her efforts were causing nothing but a feeling of immense embarrassment she immediately looked around to confirm no one was watching and went around inspecting everything. It did not take long for her efforts to gain fruit.
[Inspect] Has advanced to Tier 0 Level 1
“Inspecting fruit bearing fruit! Oh the irony.” Sophia laughed out loud.
A rustling from a nearby bush Sophia went on guard and turned to face the incoming threat only to find some sort of bunny creature. Black and yellow fur covered it all over shining the light of the sun to the area around it. Sophia inspected the bunny-like creature.
[Tier 0 Level 1] Forest Bunny.
So it was just some regular bunny? Well considering the evidence presented about this game like world killing it should provide her some experience points. Making a break for it she ran towards the bunny while pulling back her first. Once in range she let loose the hardest punch she has ever unleashed.
You have killed [Forest Bunny]
You have reached Level 2! You are slightly less completely useless! One stat point has been awarded.
“Level two! Truly an impressive benchmark for all penguin-kind!” Sophia yelled, basking in the achievement.
She invested her stat point into strength, bringing it up to five which she assumed to be the baseline. Sparing one last look at the small area she awoke in she began walking through the forest in order to find civilization or shelter. If there were weak bunnies like that then what manner of monstrous beings might lurk around?
Keeping her guard up and trying to be as stealthy as possible she waded through the forest keeping a lookout for any weak animals or monsters she could kill and harvest. She forgot to harvest that rabbit, didn't she!
“Damn it!” She muttered at her rookie mistake.
“Not like I have anything to carry it in anyway.” She added.
[Stealth] Has advanced to Tier 0 Level 1
After a few hours she had encountered and ambushed only one more rabbit, and it only gave her 60% experience to level up. She had located a tree that had a small alcove-like area at the base that she could use as shelter for the light above had begun to wane signaling the dark approach of night.
Sophia rested the killed Forest Rabbit carcass below a bush not too far away from her makeshift sleeping area so that it would not attract any predators to her sleeping area. Sophia used an array of broken branches and loose bushes to cover her alcove for some measure of stealth and safety from whatever could be lurking around she fidgets around until she finally got comfortable.
“What a fucking day.” She stated before closing her eyes.
Her exhaustion catching up with her now that she had stopped her traveling she went into a dreamless sleep at the end of the first day.