Jeff’s Navigation ability was incredibly helpful while walking through the dense forest trees. When he tried to recall where he had been, his mind was filled with exact distances between trees and gave him an exact location of where the System Pillar was. One of the main reasons he hadn’t gone deeper into the woods yet was fear of getting lost. As long as he stayed close to the cliffs edge he was able to make a quick jaunt over to regain his bearings. Now, he didn’t have that fear.

Kazi told him that it could create a screen for all the detailed info coming in through the Navigation ability. The Spore had him walking around in a few circles to make sure the algorithm or something worked and then he soon had a mini map in one portion of his vision.

The mini map showed his location amongst the trees and had an arrow showing where the Pillar was. It was a bit redundant because all of this was already in his head, but it also helped to have the visual occasionally. He asked Kazi to have it remain transparent until he went to look for it. That took a bit more configuring, but soon they had a working system and he was off hunting monsters.

The most surprising thing that came from the Navigation ability was a semi-mathematical understanding of the Sun’s position. With Kazi’s help he learned that the rotation of Tutorial Planet gave him just shy of a 20 hour day instead of the normal 24 hour days on Earth. That meant he had even less sunlight to work with. He was going to have to hustle if he wanted to kill seven more monsters before it was time to turn in.

He decided to utilize his improved stats and move a little quicker through the forest. Navigation helped him as he could choose the fastest route through the trees with a simple glance at what was ahead. His improved physical stats also helped as he hurried along. Vitality helped his endurance so he could maintain a fast pace for much longer and Dexterity helped him with his footing and balance. He didn’t realize how much time he had spent stumbling or even slightly off balance until now when everything flowed smoothly.

He reached out with his sense field. The relaxed probing of his surroundings was becoming second nature to him now. Suddenly a flood of unique feelings came in this time. Jeff stopped in his tracks wondering what was going on.

It took him almost a minute to realized what he was feeling was all the trees spirits. He had always felt them a little bit. They were dormant, but they still held a little something in them. He just thought that was how they always were. Now their spirits felt the furthest thing from dormant.

“Uh, what’s going on here?” Jeff asked his companion.

“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Kazi replied with a twinge of trepidation in his voice. “Try focusing your senses so we can get a better feel of what’s going on.”

Jeff flexed his senses toward the tree right next to him. He placed a hand on the tall purple leafed tree. He felt a new sensation as his spirit touched upon the plants spirit. His spirit lighted on the other and he quickly noticed the budding of a new spirit within the tree’s branches. Jeff looked up and, felt more than saw, an acorn high in the tree’s canopy.

“Oh I have read about this!” Kazi exclaimed. “I believe the trees are getting ready to give birth to new saplings.”

“Do trees give birth?”

“Well, no, but the actual word for dispersing their seeds is ‘autochory’. I could tell you would understand better by saying birth.” Jeff didn’t argue against that. He was no tree expert. “Also, if you spread your senses around I bet you’ll only find one or two seeds for each of the trees.” He followed the spores' advice and gave a directed scan into the canopy of the surrounding trees. Kazi continued, “It seems a bit more like birth to me when it’s one seed rather than the dozens of seeds you typically saw on your Myst devoid planet.”

Sure enough each of the trees had one or two seeds that he could find with a few seconds of searching. He had the thought to try foraging some of the seeds. He activated his skill and placed his hand on the tree next to him hoping that it would present him with treasures like the red Mighty Flower Pod tree had. The tree didn’t respond in the same way the other one had. It was still dormant, but he did feel a mild rejection in his mind.

He searched around the area a moment to find a seed that was within reach and used his ability again. As he grabbed on to the seed he felt a distinct resistance in his own spirit. He removed his hand and backed away.

He wished his Sense points were higher. He could feel understanding at the edges of his limits now. There were feelings and senses that he just hadn’t encountered before and his spiritual touch just wasn’t developed enough yet to garner much information.

Jeff was really curious about why all of the forest around him seemed to be giving ‘birth’ to new trees all at the same time. He remembered learning that some corals released their eggs and sperm all on the same day regardless of where they were around the world. Maybe the trees on this planet were doing something similar. They were probably getting ready to drop their seeds and release their pollen all at one time to ensure the seeds geminate.

All of this was assuming that these trees followed any of the same laws of nature that he was accustomed to on Earth.

Jeff caught some movement behind him with is 360 Vision. He turned just in time to see a charging beetle just 10 yards away from him. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest and he reacted as quickly as he could.

The beetle slammed into a quickly conjured Energy Shield and launched Jeff's body back into the tree behind him. The breath was knocked out of him and he felt a headache coming on from his head smacking into the tree trunk. Jeff felt a strange pressure coming from the force on the shield before him. It pushed him into the tree and he was worried that his body would be squished in to a shield and tree sandwich.

It lasted only a moment and then he saw the beetle give way against the shield. The beetle’s horned head smooshed against the mostly translucent energy shield. The massive body continued its forward momentum for moment before it came to a rest.

You have defeated:

Stolen story; please report.

Horn Crowned Beetle - Level 3

He got lucky. The Energy Shield spread the force all over his body while the beetle was putting all its force on that one spot. It’s own momentum killed it. He wasn’t out of the woods yet though.

Jeff was pinned against the tree two meters away from the massive beetles body. The weight of the carapase pressed against the shield still pinned him into the tree a foot off the ground. He tried to use Disc Manipulation to twist the shield to the side, but that just pried him a little further into the tree. His rib bones creaked with the pressure.

He finally thought to release the shield at the same time the beetle dissolved away. The pressure holding him up left instantly and he fell to his hands and knees. He tried to take a deep breath, but a sharp pain cut it short. He probably had a broken rib.

He arched his back in pain and came up to kneel high on his knees. What he saw in the distance made him tremble. Another beetle came around a tree and began charging toward him.

He scrambled to his feet and circled behind the tree. Then he wrapped his hands around the tree and held on tight. He had and idea and he really hoped it worked.

The moment the beetle came within range Jeff created another energy shield. He quickly manipulated it so that it’s sharp thin edge was facing toward the charging beetle. The monster ran right into the large energy disc and split itself in two.

When the monster first collided with the thin edge Jeff felt his body push backward, but his hand hold on the tree was enough to force the blade all the way through the charging body. Gross liquid splattered all over his arms. He really hoped it would all go away when the monster dissolved.

You have defeated:

Horn Crowned Beetle - Level 4

Jeff used his vision to check all around him for any more threats. After seeing none he slumped against the tree. His ribs hurt like a stubbed toe inside his chest. The pain was sharp and throbbing all at once.

Every time he thought he was getting a handle on his situation something like this would happen. If either of those monsters had been able to truly hit him even once, he likely wouldn’t survive. It was humbling to realized lower leveled monsters stil could one shot him. He supposed that he also one shotted most of his prey, but that didn’t make him feel safe. That just made him feel lucky. He hoped he could keep being the one to get the ‘one shot’ in before the monsters did.

The last trickle of monster Myst flew into him and he felt himself level up.

You have leveled up to Level 6!

He was relieved when he saw the last bit of monster blood dissolve away off his arms. He still felt he was desperately in need of a bath, but at least this was cleaner than he had expected. With a thought to Kazi he was soon looking at his character screen.

Name: Jeff Kazi

Titles: Locked

Renown: Locked

Merit Points: 354

Myst Connections:

Disc - Low Mastery

Survival - Low Mastery

Awareness - Low Mastery

Abilities:

Throw Disc - Middle Mastery

Disc Manipulation - Low Mastery

Energy Shield - Low Mastery

Foraging - Low Mastery

Tracking - Low Mastery

Split - (Rogue)

360 Vision - Low Mastery

Anticipate - Low Mastery

Navigation - Low Mastery

Stats: Level 6

Body: Tier 1

Strength: 4 Vambrace (+1)

Dexterity: 3

Vitality: 4

Mind Tier 1

Cognition: 3

Processing: 3 Helm (+1)

Imagination: 3

Spirit Tier 1

Might : 4 Tea (+2)

Sense: 4 Helm (+1)

*Depth: 9

Available Points: 3

Jeff didn’t need to think too hard before putting one point into Dexterity, Processing and Sense. The points hit and he felt the slight change come over his Body, Mind and Spirit. Those points would hopefully help him stay alive. As long as he could sense stuff coming and then react to it quick enough he liked his chances.

He just wished he could get more than 3 measly points each level. The growth was coming excruciatingly slowly for him. He probably just needed to find some higher leveled monsters to face. Deeper into the woods seemed like a good chance to find exactly that.

He still wanted to kill the final 5 monsters for his quest reward, and now, he also needed to let his rib heal. The pain made him angry. With a grimace he grabbed the monster loot and trudged onward in search of more prey. The day wasn’t over yet.