You have defeated:

(3) Forest Caterpillars - Level 1

(1) Forest Caterpillar - Level 2

(1) Horn Crowned Beetle - Level 2

You have defeated:

Crawling Vines - Level 4

Abilities:

Shade Cloaking

Tangle

Strangle

Myst Rewards Accepted

Jeff extricated himself from the vines that had held him down on the forest floor. They quickly began to dissolve and that made his job easier. He breathed heavily as the constriction around his lungs had finally released.

He had thrown a disc and dissected a Level 1 Forest Caterpillar he had been tracking. Then he tripped as he went to go fetch the reward. The Crawling Vines wrapped around his feet and soon his whole body. He summoned a shield and had it roll on the ground in a circle around him, that severed the vines, but they didn’t dissolve till he killed the creature. He had to create a disc near his hand and use Disc Manipulation to send it hacking at the vines anywhere he could see. Luckily, the damage must have added up and the monster died.

Taking another deep breath he went looking around curious to see what a vine monster would drop for its Myst reward. He reached out with his senses and felt something in the ground near his right side. He grabbed hold of a viny protrusion and tugged something strange out of the ground.

He held up a weirdly shaped bundle of vines with one large flat leaf on one side. They looked like they were loot of some kind. Probably designed for someone who wasn’t a human.

He held the vines in his arm and went after the Caterpillar head that was left on the forest floor from before. Suddenly, the vines started wrapping around his left arm. He quickly grabbed the dagger from his right leg and got ready to cut the thing off. The vines stopped moving and stayed with a snug, but comfortable fit around his left forearm. Now that it was around his arm he recognized it as a vambrace of some kind.

“Kazi, do you know what that is?”

“You’re guess is as good as mine. We really don’t have a way to identify anything without taking it to the Pillar.” It said.

Jeff felt disappointed at that. That was one game element that was always available no matter what type of game you played. Although, he guessed that made the System he was now a part of feel even more like reality. You didn’t have a screen popping up telling you that you had shoes on your feet, you just knew that. The fact that he had a Pillar to go identify things was still a step above what he had always had to deal with.

He tried to use his senses to see if the vambrace would cause any issues. It didn’t feel like a monster, so he continued on. The caterpillar's head brought his backpack near to bursting, so he turned back toward the Pillar and began the journey back.

He had swept in an arc near the edge of the forest so it shouldn’t be a terribly long trekk back.

On his way Jeff had a questions for his companion. “Why couldn’t I sense the Crawling Vines back there? I had my senses active and felt nothing from the thing.”

"Oh, it had an ability that blocked it. Let me see what it was… 'Shade Cloaking'. It's like a lot of other cloaking abilities. Your Sense attribute has to be two to three times higher than the monster’s Might attribute for you to sense it."

"So my sense field doesn't pick up everything. Good to know," Jeff said with a little bit of accusation sent Kazi's way.

"That's one I should have prepared you for. I think you might have ADHD, because I've never felt so scatterbrained before sharing your brain."

Jeff had been diagnosed ADHD, so that made sense. He was not as severe a case as some others, but it had always caused him problems. "What did you use before you had my brain?"

"My spirit has a body of sorts." The Spore said. Jeff quirked his eyebrow at that and Kazi continued on. "This is getting into deep spore theory, by the way, so I won't be able to answer all your questions. But, here are the basics. Our spirits have bodies that our physical bodies shape to. The spirit body doesn't change everything to do with biology, but it does guide biology a certain way. As our spirits get stronger it guides that biology even more than before."

"Wait, so as I strengthen my spirit will I become more like your spirit body?" Jeff asked, feeling alarmed.

Kazi continued on in a calm teaching tone. "As you strengthen our spirit our body will change to match our combined spirit body better. That's the thing that makes Spores able to fuse with other living beings. We have incomplete spirit bodies so they attach onto and combine with other spirits. Don't worry though, my Boschyan spirit body basically pushes creatures toward what you would call 'humanoid' features. Two arms, two legs, head, shoulders, knees, toes…"

"Eyes, ears, mouth, and nose?" Jeff finished with a roll of his eyes.

"Now you're getting it." Kazi said with a joking tone.

"So was that why Hrashtel from the vision had a very human face despite being a Sapient tree?"

"Yes, exactly. Hrashtel also had a Boschyan spore. Not all spore spirits pushed toward a more humanoid type of body though." Kazi became serious once again. "And that's the same reason some monsters become abominations. They fuse together with wild Spores that lead their bodies in those directions.

"Anyway, to answer your first question, I could use my spiritual brain before we fused. My spirit brain moved much slower than yours does. It also stayed focused muched longer than yours does. That's okay though, increasing your Cognition attribute should help that. Improving your Imagination will help a bit as well."

Jeff thought about that. Was the clarity he had gained when he added his last attributes from increasing Cognition and Imagination? He always felt slightly crippled by his ADHD. Finding out it was fixable made him hopeful for something he hadn't hoped for before.

Kazi must have read his thoughts, because it continued on, "increasing attributes doesn't necessarily fix the problem. Imagine a person with only one arm. They could have insane levels of strength, but still run into problems where those with two arms wouldn't. If they have high enough strength and dexterity they will be able to solve more of those problems, but the disadvantage will remain.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"With the System that person could eventually find an ability or raise their vitality enough that they could regrow their limb. I'm hoping you find the same kind of fix for your ADHD. There are plenty of Mind related abilities and raising your Imagination may solve the problem for you. I'm just not sure how high it would need to go to cure it fully, or at least mitigate the effects enough that it’s not relevant."

So it would still affect him for the foreseeable future. That was okay with him. He liked the way his brain worked. It didn't work the way that worked the best for modern society, but it seemed to help him quite a bit now that he was here in a survival situation.

Jeff broke through the foliage at the edge of the forest. He was still a slight walk away along the cliff wall before he got to the System Pillars rocky outcropping. He felt immediately safer as he exited the canopy of trees. He probably still needed to look out for swooping bird monsters, but he just felt more at peace knowing there were no trees for monsters to lurk behind. Maybe it was the rock he was walking on too. Rock couldn't be turned into monsters, only living organisms. The inorganic material under his feet provided a nice sense of comfort.

The sun was starting to set over the ocean. It was already lower than the peak of the massive mountains to the right of where the sun was setting. He was glad he was positioned so close to the ocean. Those things would have shortened his day by a few hours.

Jeff reached the golden Pillar and started to unload his haul for the Merit Points. First, the monster parts.

You have earned 45 merit points.

Jeff was happy with his work for the day. He had killed eight more monsters and doubled his earned merit points. Those 45 points also paid for the gear he had purchased before so he sat a bit above his starting 300. And he wasn't done yet. Next Jeff checked out the 15 red flower pods he had foraged.

He put one in and read the screen that popped up on the pillar.

Mighty Red Flower Pod

Can be brewed into a tea and drunk to permanently improve the Might attribute with exponentially diminishing gains.

Merit Value: 60 points

Jeff nearly jumped for joy at the description and then dropped his jaw at the Merit Value. 60 merit points each? He could finish his earning quest by selling just 7 of them. Was that better than getting the attribute points though? He just didn't know how many he would need before his gains would diminish.

Instead, he decided to spend 12 points on a pot, tea strainer, and a heat source. Luckily, water was free in the Pillar. He quickly started setting up water to boil while he checked his final reward. He shoved his left hand into the glowing goop up to his elbow.

Crawling Vine Vambrace of Cloaking

Provides minor sense cloaking for its wearer.

+1 Strength

Merit Value: 36 points

Jeff was surprised by how low the value was for the vambrace. The seed pod gave almost triple the points and it was pretty easy for him to get. Then he remembered it would have been impossible without his Foraging ability. How many people throughout the system would have that? Also, everyone would want to permanently improve attributes. He was already wondering if he could buy something like that from the shop. He would be willing to pay a lot more than 60 points for something that got him stronger in a safe way.

"What's up with the naming scheme? 'Mighty Red Flower Pod' and 'Vambraces of Cloaking'? A little too on the nose, aren't they?" Jeff asked.

"Well, the seed pods were originally named by a species without a tongue. Good luck with pronouncing that one. I usually just show you the name that makes the most sense. What you see is what I decide to show with all the information I have available to me. If you want it changed, then you will have to name them yourself."

Jeff smirked at that. He could name his own gear? Oh, what POWER! "I think I will rename them. My helmet is now renamed 'Spike of Intelligence' but just 'Spike' for short. The vambrace is now called 'Strong Avoider'. And… I'll name my halberd 'Horrace'."

If the Spore could have face palmed it would have. "Wow, at least my naming scheme wasn't that cheesy."

"Hey, cheesy is at least better than bland. From now on I want the names that you can control to be as cheesy as you can make it. That will make at least one part of this feel more fun rather than life threatening." Jeff looked down at that.

He wasn't used to killing 8 monsters in a day and nearly being suffocated by vines. He needed some sort of humor to make the rest of it feel less awful.

"I can do that," Kazi said sincerely.

Jeff returned to the boiling water and soon had a a canteen full of Mighty Flower Tea. He drank it and was surprised by the delightful flavor. He really wished he had sugar, but it was still good without it.

He felt the liquid release a spiritual essence. It coalesce into the weave of spirit that cycled around his body. It strengthened the cycle ever so slightly. A tiny screen appeared in the corner of his vision.

+1 Might

Jeff was extremely happy with the result. He wasn't sure how much the returns diminished. Just his first sip and he already increased his Might up to 3.

He downed the rest of the tea without any additional attributes. The tea still sent an essence that cycled through his spiritual body and strengthened the weave. It helped him pinpoint the part of his spirit that was linked to Might. That may help him improve his practice more than anything else.

Lots had happened and it was only his second day. He thought to pull up his character screen and his companion acquiesced.

Name: Jeff Kazi

Spore Suit: Chosen Trainee

Titles: Locked

Renown: Locked

Merit Points: 291

Myst Connections:

Disc - Low Mastery

Abilities:

Disc Throw - Low Mastery

Disc Manipulation - Low Mastery

Stats: Level 4

Body: Tier 1

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 2

Vitality: 4

Mind Tier 1

Cognition: 2

Processing: 3

Imagination: 2

Spirit Tier 1

Might: 3

Sense: 4

*Depth: 7

Available Points: 0

Jeff was happy with his progress. He hoped the rest of the chosen were faring well. He didn't know if he would end up running into them here on this planet. He hadn't even seen another System Pillar since he came here. Perhaps he would go exploring a little further tomorrow. At the very least looking for natural treasures like the flower pods made exploration worthwhile.

He was nervous to keep throwing himself into deadly situations, but he also felt a sense of excitement as well. This was a true adventure with game elements and magic. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't hoped for something like this to happen. He just hoped his kids would be okay. And, he hoped Emily would be able to survive the coming Apocalypse. She would soon be in the worst position of them all.

“Good luck, babe. I love you,” he said quietly. Hopefully she was outside the Pillar on Earth listening right then.