Jeff stuffed the oversized beetle head into his rucksack. He mused at how that one kill would provide four meals from the Pillar. That would mean only one picnic for his family of four. Bringing home the bacon seemed to take a lot more in this new world than it did before. He would have to go out and kill several level four monsters just to keep food on the table. That might seem easy, except this was the first level four monster he had faced and not come out injured in the end. That made things a bit more concerning.
Go with the flow, he stated his mantra. Flow with the go, he added with a smirk.
To him ‘flow with the go’ meant that he would find a way to surf this wave, not just get tumbled around underneath the surface. He had to move forward and it was up to him to find how to do so with a measure of grace.
“Let’s go do an honest days work of killing monsters and stuff."
Jeff utilized his tracking and sense field as he searched through the trees. It took him ten minutes of searching before he stumbled upon his next opponent. He dispatched the caterpillar quickly with a throw through a tunnel of trees.
You have defeated:
Forest Caterpillar - Level 1
Reward Accepted
The caterpillar quickly dissolved, Jeff grabbed the stinger that was left behind, and then he was off searching the forest for another monster. Ten or so minutes later, he saw the same message appear again.
You have defeated:
Forest Caterpillar - Level 1
Reward Accepted
“I’m going to start putting the low leveled monsters reward screens small and to the side. Then at the end of the day I can give you a recap of all that you killed.” Kazi spoke up as the monster dissolved.
“I was literally just thinking… that,” Jeff replied. “Oh. Right, you can read my thoughts.” He was still getting used to that. It was a bit annoying, because he couldn’t read Kazi’s thoughts. It felt a little unfair. Then he thought through what that would be like. He could barely focus with just his own thoughts sometimes. Then there was the fact that he got to be in the driver seat of his… their body. He was actually fine with his side of the deal.
He turned his thoughts back toward the monster hunt. Fifteen minutes later he was picking up another monster part. This time from a level two beetle.
He was surprised how efficient the process seemed. Seeing a monster every ten to fifteen minutes was alarmingly frequent. It wasn’t like some video games that he had played where literal hoards of monsters came at once. But ff he had run in to a bear every ten minutes in a forest back on Earth then he would leave that forest immediately and never return.
He realized then the bear sized beetles and cougar sized caterpillars weren’t bears though. They were just the insects of this planet. What would meeting the equivalent of a bear be like? That sent a shiver down his spine as he continued on.
He only needed to kill three monsters a day to meet the requirements of the quest to kill 30 monsters. That last beetle put him at 18 kills. It seemed he would complete that quest well before reaching level ten or staying for ten days. If he continued at this pace he could easily complete it today.
Just minutes later Jeff saw the notification of a kill pop up on the right side of his vision. He just killed a level 4 caterpillar with the same ease he had the lower level ones. Without a battle sense ability he really held the upper hand against these monsters. As long as he could sense them before they could ambush him he would stay safe and kill them with one to two throws. His flat energy projectiles were just a little bit absurd for this area.
He wondered if the other chosen had equally powerful abilities. He could see someone forming their first connection with something non-combat focused, like cooking or construction. He doubted he would have survived the encounters that he had with the abilities from those. His Throw Disc ability was really the main reason he felt comfortable hunting monsters so aggressively.
He realized that he had an opportunity to do more than just meet the requirements. The existence of the Title and Renown portions of his Character Screen made him think that shooting for the top position of all the Chosen would have some benefits. He wasn’t sure how titles would worked yet, but he knew that you could only get titles by doing noteworthy things. Maybe if he killed the most monsters or had the highest level by the end of the tutorial he would get a good reward for it. It was worth shooting for. He was well positioned and he was motivated to strive for it.
He quickly found a groove. He spent the rest of the morning hunting low level monsters. He still wanted to continue with his plan of getting the new weapon from the kill quest before he started hunting higher leveled monsters.
—-------
Jeff returned to the Pillar for lunch and to drop off all the monster parts. He killed another five monsters for a total of eight for the day. Three of them were pretty easy, but the last two had ambushed him.
He had made it to the edge of the forest where the sheer, large mountain side rose high above. He had the choice to dive deeper into the forest to his left or to turn right and head back toward the cliffs edge that overlooked the ocean and the forest below. Either way he would loop back around and head toward the pillar. He decided to turn to the right and scout along the cliffs edge. He would probably kill less monsters, but this was a good opportunity to scout the area below.
His hike along the cliff face ended up being a poor decision. He broke through the canopy of trees and got a good view of the beautiful ocean. The mountain wall he followed continued on a ways into the ocean below. He had hoped for a better view of his surroundings, but he didn’t gain much intel.
He stood on the cliffs edge for all of two minutes before he was attacked by flying monsters. They were termite looking abominations that were the size and length of his arm. They were the smallest of the monsters he had faced, but that had showed him one of his main weaknesses. Small, mobile creatures were hard to throw discs at. He was able to use Disc Manipulation to chase a projectile after the terrifying bugs. He was able to knock one out of the air, but it quickly recovered.
His disc just couldn’t fly fast enough to do much damage to the bugs. They would fly away from the disc before impact and so when the disc hit, it did so with far less relative speed and force. Luckily, the bugs themselves could only do limited damage. They slammed spiky heads into his armor, but the damage done was superficial.
After ten minutes battle Jeff finally brought the halberd to both hands and used his energy shield to direct the attacking monsters. A lucky swing of the polearm sliced straight through one and downed the other. With a quick stab down he finished the fight.
You have defeated:
(2) Acrobat Ants - Level 3
Abilities:
Dodge
Build
Rewards Accepted
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The rest of his return to the Pillar was uneventful. He made it back and turned in all of his loot for ‘42 Merit Points’. He stuck his hands into the System Pillar and purchased lunch for 3 merit points.
He had a pleasant meal with some Mighty Tea. He was going to eat quick and head back to kill the final seven monsters needed for the tutorial quest when Kazi spoke up into the silence.
“I think it’s time we get you a new connection,” the Spore said.
“Oh yeah,” Jeff replied. “I kind of forget that we can just… do that.”
“Yeah, especially as a Chosen. You have much more life experience than most at your level. We should try get as many connections as your Depth stat can handle.”
Getting a new connection and abilities could really help him level up faster. “Alright, what kind of concept should I be going for this time?”
“You’ve already got a good range of abilities for offence, though I hope to increase that soon. You also have some decent utility with your Survival connection, at least for level five. The next thing we need to focus on is enhancement.”
“Enhancement?” He prodded the spore on.
“Yes, like that first crab you fought that had an ability that made it much larger, or that beetle with the battle awareness. We need to get something for you that can help Mystically enhance your capabilities.”
Jeff had thoughts running through his head since he got here, he was surprised he had never thought through the breadth of what he would eventually be able to do. He was so ecstatic about having energy discs that he didn’t think much about creating an arsenal of similar abilities.
In most games Jeff had played players had a set limit of abilities they could have, or they had a predetermined set of skills to unlock. Now, he felt like literally anything could become his new super powers. Okay… maybe not anything. He doubted he would get something like laser eyes or super speed. Actually, super speed might be possible…
Kazi interrupted that train of thought before he went too far. “Sorry, but super speed is probably the most unlikely ability.” Jeff wasn’t sure if the spore saw his confused expression or felt it itself, either way, Kazi quickly jumped to explain further. “Super speed is something you are kind of already connected to through your Dexterity attribute. Remember, the System automatically connects you to those nine attributes. So you can definitely be super fast, but you most likely won’t get a super speed ability.”
“Why did you say ‘most likely’ like that?” He questioned, waving his fork.
“Because there is no true absolutes with the System. Everything is still technically possible, and there are fringe abilities that some might argue fit in with one attribute or another.” Kazi said with his more scholarly voice.
“More System Theory?” Jeff assumed. He began to resign himself to not understanding yet and just being okay with that.
“Yes, but don’t worry, I can explain this rather quickly,” Kazi said bringing back Jeff’s interest. “Remember the Caterpillar that jumped on you and nearly ate your face off?”
“Yeah, a little hard to forget.”
“That monster had two abilities, Strong Bite and Lithe Body, both of those are good examples of attribute cross overs. First, Strong Bite is very closely related to the Strength attribute. Most abilities like that will provided an extra punch of strength above and beyond whatever their Strength stat is. That strength is added to the monsters bite and not to it’s whole body. The System seems to be more okay with abilities like that. So you could get an ability like Strong Swipe for your halberd attacks and that would be common while Super Speed is not.
“The caterpillar also had Lithe Body.” Kazi plowed right on. “Litheness is very similar to Dexterity and is likely an ability you will never get. Remember though, I’m just translating what the ability was in a way that you can best understand. The meaning was likely different for the caterpillar. I might have translated it to ‘Whipping Body’ or ‘Instant Flexibility’ and still produced the same result. The words chosen aren’t as important as the concept in your head.”
Jeff was picking up what the Spore was laying down. “I think I’ve got it. So no super speed ability, but I might get something like Burst Speed or Soft Steps. Those are closely related to Dexterity, but the concept is different enough from the attribute that the ability can still be enhanced by… the Mysts?”
“More like enhanced by your Might,” Kazi corrected, “or even your Spirit in general. As in the three attributes, Might, Sense and Depth, that make up your Tier One Spirit.”
“Oh, so it has to be different enough from an attribute that I can actually activate it. That makes sense. It’s not like I can activate or deactivate my Vitality, I just have it on all the time.” Jeff puzzled out.
“Exactly! And if you had an ability like Regenerative Meditation you could activate that on an off.”
“Wait, but the crab couldn’t deactivate its Big Body.” Jeff said, but the conclusion was obvious enough that he gave a shot at it before the Spore could spoil it for him. “Maybe some ongoing or passive abilities work so long as they are different enough from any individual attribute? Big Body doesn’t really fit into Strength, Dexterity, or Vitality. At least not at the Mystical level the crab had enhanced itself to.”
“Yep, that’s basically it. There is also the debates between if the attribute concepts are based on the individuals understanding of them or the Systems understanding of them. I personally think its both, but that’s going beyond what matters now.” Kazi stated, bringing that lecture to an end. “Right now, we need to decide what enhancement type of abilities works best for you. What do you feel connected with?”
Jeff rocked back in contemplation. Enhancing his being was insanely exciting, but also a little bit alarming. If he connected to something like Big Body, that would completely alter him, permanently. He was already way past that, but he didn’t really want to be a giant if Emily stayed her at normal sized. Being taller sounded nice, but apparently that already happened. That was likely due to the first point in Vitality fixing his spine or Kazi’s fused spirit manipulating his biology. He didn’t know and right now that didn’t matter.
He thought about the Battle Awareness that the Level 5 Beetle had. That seemed incredibly useful. That was an ability though and he needed to establish a connection, which was more broad. Maybe just ‘Awareness’? Was that too close to Sense? It seemed like it was a combination of Sense and Processing which might be different enough.
He felt an emotional prodding from Kazi directing him to dive deeper along that train of thought. Awareness was something that had basically been beaten into him from a young age. Growing up as the youngest in a large family was tough. You didn’t just have parents telling you to “look where you’re going” or “be aware of those around you”, you had every older sibling telling you the same things constantly.
That constant berating had kind of paid off for him though. He hadn’t noticed it until he was older and dating. When walking hand in hand with someone you could tell quite clearly how aware they were of the world around them. He was baffled that a girlfriend wouldn’t notice someone approaching behind them and automatically move a bit to the side for them to pass. He was surprised when getting to a parking lot that they wouldn’t know exactly where the car was parked.
“Keep going, this is a good one” Kazi encouraged.
Where was he? Right, cars. He had many frustrating driving experiences with girlfriends while driving. Luckily, Emily was more aware than most, but some people just weren’t aware of the road enough for him to feel comfortable.
“Stop thinking about other people, what about yourself? What does it feel like to be aware for you?”
Jeff thought about being in the driver seat of his car. He loved driving. He drove from the White Mountains to the Phoenix area regularly. He felt like he could always tell where every car was around him. He constantly was looking at all mirrors making sure nothing would surprise him.
He felt something click there, and felt a burst of satisfaction from Kazi. He wasn’t done though, his mind shifted back towards sports and his awareness there. He didn’t believe he was some how more aware than anyone else in the world, but that didn’t change that he felt connected to his awareness. And that connection called out to him again.
His father was really big into racquetball. He also had a couple brothers that played racquetball for college teams. He had never gotten as serious as them, but simply by playing with extremely competitive players so often he had become a rather decent player.
A racquetball court was just like a big cement box where you would hit around a fist sized bouncy ball. The ball would zoom off the walls, bounce off the ceiling and skip suddenly. It was a game where the ball could fly right at you going ninety miles an hour and then smack you in the back of the head.
He had developed an awareness of the racquetball and the other players in the court. That awareness called out to him now. He remembered learning how to position himself so that the ball would bounce just past his foot, splat against the corner and lob itself over his shoulder where he would finally get a glance at it before striking for a kill shot. He wasn’t the best player, but he loved watching a ball bounce back and forth in the court and end up exactly where he had set up with his racquet prepped and ready to strike.
Jeff felt a prick of pain in his spirit. He brought himself out of his musings and opened his eyes. Not long after he saw a bunch of screens showing new connections and abilities appear.
Jeff got a big grin on his face and Kazi said, “that went better than expected.”