Emily used the familiar yearning to reach out to her bow. It was a fused weapon, meaning the spore of the monster it came from was still trapped in the weapon. Her yearning triggered the ability within the bow. Vine Grasp.

A vine shot out from the bow towards the leafy tree monster before her. The vine tangled itself into the leafy branches and then pulled into a taut line. Emily activated her Projectile Control ability. Luckily, the System seemed to register the Vine Grasp as a projectile. With the help of the ability and a bit more spiritual yearning sent to the bow the vine began to pull with great force.

Her opponent was far too large for her to pull toward herself, but that wasn’t what she was going for.

Emily was rocketed off her feet as she flew toward the tree monster. Using her abilities she slowed her approach just enough to not jar her on impact. Landing in the tree monster’s branches high off the ground Emily reached out a hand to the leafy abomination. Placing one hand on the top of the trunk she activated Induce Sleep.

The writhing monster underneath her resisted for a moment before it shuddered to a stop and quickly began to topple to the earth. Emily timed her jump out of the falling tree just right. She landed on the asphalt and rolled.

“Alright boys,” she said to her group. “It’s all yours.”

From her right Eduardo, Maverick and Velanid all ran in to attack the downed monster. Velanid was the tree that her group had almost destroyed on the day the Mysts came.

She was glad that Maverick had been there to stop them all from attacking him. The now sapient dog had proven to be the best source of telling friend from foe. Not that all sapient creatures were friends, but Velanid had proven to be quite friendly.

“Yeah, friendly,” Strai’Ze scoffed at her thoughts. “Do you see how fierce his attacks are?”

Emily watched as Velanid stomped hard on the fallen tree abomination. Then the roots on his feet began to wrap around and strangle the monster beneath it. The monster was truly an abomination. It’s bark had become gnarly and prickly. It also was completely deranged.

They had discovered that the creatures deemed as monsters by the System all seemed to be extremely aggressive. Some creatures had gained a measure of sentience higher than they previously had, like the tree monster before her. But sentience was not sapience. The monsters were driven by instinct to aggressively increase their Myst capacities at all costs.

Three days had passed since their encounter with Velanid. It still bothered her how easily she had attacked her tree friend then. He had done nothing to them except scare them. She had been the first to attack, the only one to do damage, and she had felt completely justified until Maverick started barking.

How easy it was to do wrong while believing you were doing right…

Maverick walked over to stand by her as Eduardo and Velanid finished dispatching the monstrous tree abomination. Eduardo used one of the axes they bought three days ago and Velanid continued choking the tree with his roots. Eventually the pop up came.

Your squad has defeated:

Cottonwood Abomination - Level 7

Photo Synth Waves

Razor Leaves

Dig

Rewards Accepted

Killing tree monsters was not pretty. Luckily, once she got them asleep it was usually up to Velanid and Eduardo to take care of them.

The first day after the Mysts arrived had been full of smaller monsters, like insects and the occasional pets. It wasn’t till day two that more of the tree monsters had begun attacking. The size of the monster seemed to affect how long it took for the Mysts to change their body and fuse to a spore.

Now their efforts were pretty systematic. They had dealt with the first waves of monsters with their group from the apartment. Then early that morning McLaughlin had sent out a couple squads to check on the surrounding areas and clear out threats before they could get stronger.

To an extent they were in an arms race with the surrounding monsters. They needed to level up faster than they did. Luckily, they had numbers on their side. Most monsters were hostile to each other just as much as they were to them. Strai’Ze said the only way monsters play nice is when they share a similar spore with those around them. The diversity of spores from the coming of the Mysts helped them as much as hurt them.

From the estimates she had heard over 20% of the human population left on Earth, the Stranded, had been turned into monsters. Then another 10-15% had died in the aftermath of the first day. There were also plenty of humans missing still so the death toll could and probably would rise higher. Still, many more humans had survived than had died so far. That at least gave Emily a bit of hope. Maybe half of the kids from Earth would be able to one day see their parents again. That wasn’t the best outcome, but it was much better than what the worst could have been.

The death toll was still apocalyptic, but she believed everything was up from then on. The Boschyan’s had already done what was necessary to save humanity from the utter destruction of the Mysts coming. Now it was all about the aftermath of that one singular blow.

Now that most areas had been secured of immediate threats the death tolls were dropping significantly. Most people having access to Pillars was a huge help. Food, water and shelter were all provided so long as a few merit points could be earned. With a group of her size they were able to gather plenty of Myst Rewards to feed their whole group with some to spare.

She just wished Watkins hadn’t spent ALL 100 credits on axes before they discovered Velanid wasn’t a threat. The axes had still been handy. Getting into locked doors and such was still needed, but she wouldn’t have minded prioritizing some armor or healing pills first.

The Myst Reward finished dissolving the creature before her and they were left with an interesting looking knot of tree stuff as a reward. Velanid picked it up and they started heading back to the church Pillar.

“Good work everybody,” she said to the team. “Did anyone level up?”

Maverick barked in confirmation.

“Sweet,” Eduardo said, giving the Golden Retriever a head rub. “Up to level 7 right?”

The dog barked again.

“Good job,” Emily congratulated him.

There was a groaning from Velanid which Emily understood as “good growing”. Emily wasn’t sure if the tree had intended on making a pun or if that was just a function of her new Interpret ability. She had gotten it from a Quest Reward after reaching level 10. With a thought Strai’Ze brought the description up.

New Sleep Ability:

Interpret

You can interpret the meanings of anything you experience.

The limits of the ability seemed to be determined by her Imagination attribute. Luckily that was her highest stat, so she was able to put the ability to use right away. She was sure that the ability would get better over time, and with increased attributes. For now, she was able to use it to understand Velanid and Maverick.

She didn’t get exact “word for word” interpretations from them, but the meaning of their words and body language was clear as day to her.

“Did anyone accomplish any quests?” Eduardo asked, “You were close to getting yours weren’t you Emily?”

“Oh, I totally forgot!” she exclaimed. Strai’Ze let out a burst of excitement as it opened up her Quest screen.

Quests

Complete all Trainee Quests: (4/5)

Reward: Upgrade Spore Suit to Recruit

Trainee Quests

Kill 15 Monsters from Range: (Complete)

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Reward: New Equipment (Received)

Reach Level 10: (Complete)

Reward: New Ability (Received)

Put 15 Monsters to Sleep: (Completed)

Reward: Access to Shared Pillar Room (Available)

Earn 500 Merit Points: (327/500)

Reward: Spore Suit Attachment

Improve Depth to 5: (Completed)

Reward: New Myst Connection (Available)

She had just put her fifteenth monster to sleep and had the Shared Pillar Room reward available to her now. A few others from her group had similar rewards for their quests. She was the first to complete it though.

Maverick barked in excited anticipation. Interpret translated it to, “You tell me right now! I can’t take it any more!”

Emily smiled. Despite having sapience, Maverick was still a dog.

“What do you guys say? Want to go see what a Shared Pillar Room is?”

Maverick bolted off toward the Pillar before realizing he had to wait for Emily. He ran back and then ran forward again, unable to contain his excitement.

Next to her Velanid rustled his branches. Emily interpreted that as laughter for the tree. Velanid had gained Sapience, but it was, just like the dog, very far from human. Emily still had a hard time fully understanding how his brain… or mind worked. The System was definitely playing a role in improving his intelligence as attributes were distributed, but the way it thought was still very different from herself.

For instance, she had asked it to check for monsters behind them once. It had suddenly run off waving its roots and branches around wildly. After a while she realized that the Velanid didn’t have any eyes. It completely relied on touch and sense. That was probably why its sense field was so powerful already. But it also misinterpreted the word “check” for “go try to touch everything you possibly can in that direction”.

Velanid had also gotten an ability from the System called Grasp which was somewhat similar to her Interpret ability. That helped them be able to communicate, but that didn’t mean they always understood each other. Improving attributes and increasing mastery on the abilities would probably help, but the main thing needed was probably time.

It had only been three days and Emily was in a squad with another human, a dog and a walking tree. There was a lot she needed to get used to. She couldn’t imagine how strange everything was for Maverick and Velanid. It probably helped that each of them had fused with a spore that was actively trying to help them gain a better understanding of the world around them.

However, not all spores were created equally. Even sapient spores. Spores had limited memory of previous hosts they had been with. Emily was lucky to be with Strai’Ze who had been with a number of other creatures before her.

Eduardo on the other hand had a very confused spore stuck in his head. The spore had only been in an offspring of some other creature that then died soon after birth. His spore, Hoxta, had very limited time being connected at all to a System. It was undergoing a basic training course set up by the Boschyan Army teaching it how to do things like create connections, make screens, or understand communications from the System.

Seeing Eduardo have to deal with an inexperienced spore made her ever more grateful for Strai’Ze. Strai’Ze on the other hand had never been with someone quite as intelligent as Emily. She was getting used to having increased natural brain capacity and a depth of life experience.

Hey Strai’Ze, Emily asked her companion, mind bringing up my ID Screen?

Name: Royal Group Leader, Emily Strai'Ze, Sensational Dream Crusher and Punching Bag

Spore Suit: Sleep Sniper Trainee

Titles: Dream Crusher, Punching Bag, Royal Slayer, Sensation, Group Leader

Renown: Tier 5 - (17M/24M)

Spore Suit: Trainee Sleep Sniper

Merit Points: 48

Myst Connections:

Sleep Low Mastery

Control Middle Mastery

Archery Low Mastery

Abilities:

Induce Sleep Low Mastery

Light Sleeper Low Mastery

Perfect Shot Middle Mastery

Control Projectile Middle Mastery

Create Arrow Low Mastery

Interpret Low Mastery

Skills:

Highlight Imagination

Light Step Dexterity

Deep Sleeper Vitality

Stats: Level 12

Body: Tier 2

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 10 (+2 Bow) (+2 Boots)

Vitality: 10 (+2 Bow)

Mind Tier 2

Cognition: 5

Processing: 6

Imagination: 10

Spirit Tier 1

Might: 10 (+1 Boots)

Sense: 10

*Depth: 9

Available Points: 0

A lot had changed on the screen since the fight with Velanid. First she had gotten the new title Group Leader.

You have earned a New Title!

Group Leader - Common

Lead a group of 10 or more.

Effects when active:

+1 to Cognition, Processing & Might

That had come after the fight with Velanid. She had yelled at everyone to stop attacking. When they had all listened to her, despite McLaughlin wanting to keep attacking, it had awarded her the title.

Finally, after the battle she had decided to bring her mind up to Tier 2. That turned out to be a mistake. She didn’t know that tiering up would give a skill for each attribute at 10. Most of the Chosen hadn’t gotten to that point by the time the Mysts arrived.

New Imagination Skill!

Highlight

Once spotted, targets will remain highlighted until defeated.

After another day of battling she had accomplished her Ranged Kills quest. That had awarded her with new equipment. The new boots she wore were truly amazing and clearly made for her Suit Class.

Silver Sniper Boots

Stand steady while shooting.

+2 to Dexterity

+2 to Processing

+1 to Might

The boost in attributes from the boots and the levels she gained from battling helped her get her Dexterity and Vitality up to 10 each. She wasn’t interested in strengthening Strength at the same level as those, so she settled with getting only the two skills as she brought her Body up to Tier 2.

New Dexterity Skill

Light Step

Your steps make half the sound they normally would.

New Vitality Skill

Deep Sleeper

Your sleep has double the effects.

She was surprised that Vitality was linked to sleep instead of Imagination, but she guessed it was her body that slept and not her mind. Her mind was definitely still active while she slept.

Emily learned that the Deep Sleeper Skill doubled the healing effect of her Light Sleeper ability. She hadn’t had the chance to use it much, but it had helped heal a bad wound she got on the second day while fighting a feline abomination.

It had carved a large gash on her calf that would have needed weeks to heal naturally. Instead, she had fallen asleep in Velanid’s branches where beams of sunlight poked through while he carried her back to safety. When she woke up a couple hours later the wound was basically healed. Since then she took a little cat nap whenever she could. It still felt like it was never enough.

It seemed like things had been non-stop since the Mysts came. She didn’t even have time to process everything that had happened. She hadn’t accepted the rewards for a new Myst Connection due to how busy things were. Passing out and having a strained spirit for a day just never seemed convenient during a survival situation.

All in all, Emily was quite pleased with her growth. She only needed one more point in Depth before she accepted the tier up to Tier 2 in Spirit. That should give her three more skills and help her be even more prepared for the monsters they would face.

Maverick’s incessant barking brought her out of her musings. They had made it back to the Pillar and the church that had become their camp.

“Alright, alright,” she placated Maverick. “Let’s see what this Shared Pillar Room is all about.”