They scoured the camp for edibles. It was starting to get dark, so they started a fire, and began to cook dinner.
"So, what kinds of things live around here? Is there anything that we should worry about?" Kyle asked, turning over a foil-wrapped potato.
"Um," Millie started. "I don't really know for sure, but I think there are some jackrabbits that live around here? Um, maybe some owls and wolves? The wolves probably won't bother us, they don't enter caves. Besides, you'd wake up immediately if you lost some HP."
Kyle nodded, then froze as he heard the last part. "HP? How does that work, anyway?"
"Wait, you don't know?" Millie asked. "How do you not know about HP shields? What else don't you know about?"
"I only got here yesterday," Kyle said irritably. "And the first people I met tried to kill me. It took far too much to kill them, too."
"Um," Millie said, shrinking back a bit. "What do you mean, got here yesterday? From where?"
"From Earth. I think I was shifted universes," Kyle began. "I and my car ended up stuck in a tree not too far from here, like three quarters of a days walk from here or something. The place I come from has no system, no stats, and no levels. We don't have an 'HP shield,' whatever that is. We solve our problems with technology. No magic, either."
Millie stared, shocked. "Y-you didn't have an HP shield? Didn't you get hurt a lot, then? How would you avoid injury when cooking or something?"
"You learn what hurts you. We used hot pads and oven mitts to grab things that were hot, had good knife control, things like that." Kyle explained. "Can we get back to what a HP shield is? I feel like that might be important. 'Shield' has some connotations that makes it important in combat. I can't imagine, in a world that has levels, that I'm done fighting things."
"Oh! Right," Millie said, embarrassed. "Um, so you havue a pool of HP, right? The normal stat and level multiplier thing. Anyway, you are completely protected from injury while you have some HP. Even 1 HP will shield you from an attack. After your shield is broken, until your HP recovers in full, you can be hurt. Um, I think that's everything about it?"
"OK," Kyle said. "That explains it. So an HP shield is why my gun has been significantly less useful. I was a pretty good shot on Earth, but it seems to matter less here." He thought a bit more. "Oh, that's why I thought their weaponry was dulled. My HP shield kept me from taking too much damage."
"Um, is the food done yet?" Millie interupted him.
"Gah!" Kyle quickly pulled the food out of the fire. "Yeah, they should be done. Some of them are probably burned, I'm sorry," Kyle said with a grimace.
They ate their meals in silence, and stared at the fire as it slowly burned down to coals.
"So," Kyle said, when the silence got too much for him. "Where do you live? What's it like there?"
"I come from a fairly small village, we are barely large enough for a Safe Zone and an Interface. The Interface is nice, but it doesn't get used a whole lot. Farmers don't often see events that cause them to level up, and so outside of grinding a dungeon to get to level 20, teenagers are the only ones who use it."
"Hold on, an interface?" Kyle interjected. "What's that?"
"You've leveled up, you must have used one. You mentioned stopping by your 'car' to do so, perhaps you have one there?" Millie asked, looking extremely confused.
"Oh, so my car is an interface now, I guess," Kyle said.
Millie nodded, looking much relieved. "So, we're mostly farmers, with a couple of guards to take care of monsters that get too close. I-I was tracking a monster to see if it would be close enough to cause trouble when I got kidnapped." She was starting to cry again. "I-I hope that th-they're alright," Millie sniffled.
"It's okay, we'll run to the car tomorrow morning, and then we'll head off to your hometown. Don't worry to much about it, let's just avoid running into trouble before then, I think I'm starting to run low on ammo, and my swordsmanship likely leaves much to be desired," Kyle said, then yawned. "We should get some sleep."
Kyle grabbed a bedroll from within a tent, then headed into the cave to settle in for the night.
----------------------------------------
The next morning, they got up, grabbed some trail rations they'd found from their sweep of the camp the night before, then set off towards the car. Kyle asked Millie to take the lead tracking to get them back to the spot that Kyle had fought the bandits, as he expected it would be faster. Once they got there, Kyle was much relieved that not only was his stick still there, but the line he had drawn had yet to vanish. After grabbing a knife and mostly clean cloak for Millie, they made good time as they followed the line in the dirt.
A couple of hours later, much faster than heading out had been, they stood below the car.
"You could come up too, if you want," Kyle offered as he climbed. "I could use your advice."
"N-no!" Millie said, appalled. "I would never dream of spying on a Champion's character sheet, let alone advising them on their build!"
"OK," Kyle sighed. "I just know I'm going to make some terrible mistakes."
He clambered in through the window. Perhaps for the last time, Kyle thought, and pressed the level up button.
Name: Kyle Montegomery
Level: 8
Strength
10
HP: 19/19
Dexterity
11
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Mana: 21/21
Constitution
11
Stamina: 19/19
Speed
11
VP: 2
Intelligence
12
Titles:
Creatively
18
Otherworlder
Charisma
10
Champion of Creativity
Available Stat points: 6
Available Skill Slots: 7
Available Classes: 1
Kyle loooked over it, then added two points to creativity, just to bring it up to an even 20, and then dumped the rest into constitution. If he was going to get in more fights, and without a gun, he was going to need that HP shield.
Name: Kyle Montegomery
Level: 8
Strength
10
HP: 27/27
Dexterity
11
Mana: 21/21
Constitution
15
Stamina: 27/27
Speed
11
VP: 2
Intelligence
12
Titles:
Creatively
20
Otherworlder
Charisma
10
Champion of Creativity
Available Stat points: 0
Available Skill Slots: 7
Available Classes: 1
Kyle frowned. Those numbers for his HP, they were much higher than he thought they should be. He poked his head out the window and shouted to Millie. "What is the rule for HP?"
"Constitution plus level times constitution divided by 10!" Millie shouted back.
"Thanks!" Kyle ducked back in. So that was it. He siped over to skills.
Skills Available Skills Anything you can do, I can do better (Unique) Aiming Tracking Tracking [Empty] Battle Focus [Empty] Sneaking [Empty] Cooking [Empty] [Empty] [Empty] [Empty]
Kyle added Battle Focus and Sneaking, then closed everything.
Are you sure you want these changes? Yes No
Kyle pressed yes, and another box appeared.
Congratulations!
You have completed the Quest: Tutorial
Reward: 10 VP
Quest: Building a Party (I)
You have befriended a friendly intelligent, and have participated in combat against intelligent adversaries. The power of group tactics has been impressed upon you by force. Recruit your friend and increase their prowess!
To complete this quest, add Millie to your party.
Offered by: Arcana
Rewards: 15 VP
Yes No
Quest: Safe and Sound
You have befriended a friendly intelligent by freeing them from bondage. I request that you take my follower back to her village, so she may once again enjoy peace.
To complete this quest, return Millie to her village safely.
Offered by: Light
Rewards: Identify, 5 VP
Yes No
Kyle smiled, pressed yes twice, and climbed down. "Alright," he said as he passed Millie. "Lets go to your town."