A grin stretched across Max’s face as he read through the change in his equipment.
> Equipment Mastery:
>
> Standard Human Workman Attire (Common) – An attire common for the humans. Slightly more resistant to damage. Equipment Mastery Bonus: A slight bonus to the effects of Endurance.
>
> -> Swift Strider (Uncommon) – Formerly a part of the Standard Human Workman Attire the workman boots have now become their own piece of equipment. Borrowing the zoomies which constantly affects most of the swift claws, the boots can amplify directional movement abilities.
> Attributes: Agility + 1
> Ability: Zoomies – Changes a directional speed ability into a Haste like spell. You may not stop moving for 10 seconds. All movements are significantly enhanced.
> Cooldown: 12 Hours
> Equipment Mastery: As they were once part of a set, the other parts of the set can only be enhanced with similar cores. Equipment Mastery Bonus suspended until set completion (1/3).
He was positively surprised. The division of his workman attire into three separate pieces was bound to gain him even more versatility. Maybe not the three abilities that he could have gained if he hadn’t used his overall to bind Jamie’s wound. But that was a decision he certainly didn’t regret.
It did make him wonder, could have upgraded his entire set with a single shard. It had always looked that way on the interface before. It might have only been presented in that way to indicate that he would from then on need to develop the entire set into a specific direction.
He gave his status a once over, confirming that his kill of the aberrant monster hadn’t counted as a boss kill. He didn’t know yet how that specific statistic mattered, but if it was mentioned, it probably had a purpose.
> Status:
>
> Max 57341 of Earth
> The Crawl – 1
> Dungeons – 0/1
> Boss – 1/?
>
> Stats:
>
> Might – 4
> Endurance – 3
> Agility – 4
> Soul – 4
> Perception – 3
>
> Traits:
>
> Primal
> Equipment Mastery (Beginner)
>
> Skills:
>
> Pitchfork Wielding (Novice)
> Running (Novice)
> Academics (Novice)
> - Biology (Beginner)
> Climbing (Beginner)
> Pattern Recognition (Beginner)
>
> Abilities:
>
> Analyze (Beginner)
> Sprint (Beginner)
> Hurl (Beginner)
>
> Items:
>
> Standard Human Workman Attire (Common) (1/3)
> - Work Pants
> Expedite Workman Attire (Uncommon) (1/3)
> - Swift Striders – Level 0
> Dung Sweeper (Salient) – Level 0
> Fearful Silver Ring (Uncommon) – Level 0
>
> Quests:
>
> Floor Advancement – Reach a pathway to the second floor.
> Eradication – Clear 2/5 monster nests permanently.
> Trophy Hunter – Defeat 2/1 aberrant Monster. 1/1 mini-boss. 0/1 local boss. 0/1 regional boss.
Right now, he felt rather tired, but with the wood here and light dwindling, he had his work cut out for him. Getting firewood to Jamie, so she could try making a fire and preparing some food was a priority. He’d been feeling hunger for a good while now, and with wood at hand they should be halfway there – he hoped.
Eradication of further monster camps could wait until a later time. The pangolins specifically seemed like an easy encounter if you had sufficient blunt damage of could overwhelm their brittle aspect.
He threw a glance at Dung Sweeper, still impaled in a monster. He had no clue how they’d cook their food though. The pitchfork was straight-up not an option.
Issues for later.
Max grabbed the next best piece of lumber that made up the nest construction and tried to dislodge it. It barely moved. Walking around it a few times he determined which of the larger pieces he had to move first to retrieve any of the larger pieces at all.
It ended up being smaller pieces, one’s not worth carrying back.
Halfway through the dismantling of the hovel his trait informed him that his pitchfork would decay unless he picked it up soon. The solution Max came up with made him less than happy. He’d have to find a solution to prevent Dung Sweeper from dripping all the time.
The construction was quite impressive, even by primitive human standards it would have been an arduous process to build such a sturdy building without tools.
Instead of spending a good while trying to break the structure apart he crouched down and pulled on some of the smaller branches that made up the main part of the nest. They’d be easier to carry anyway.
Two hours later he’d made three trips and brought a decent amount of wood back to where Jamie was still sleeping.
Max, fully aware of being as close to a perfect mirror of the typical New Yorker as possible, he knew that the odds of him making a fire from logs and sticks were nil. Carefully, he touched Jamie on her arm.
She woke up as though he’d scared her. For a brief moment, she looked around.
“Shit,” she grunted. “Of course, all of this really happened. Why don’t the good dreams ever turn out to be true.”
“It sucks, right?” both chuckled.
He sat down next to her, hoping that some companionable silence might do the trick and comfort Jamie a bit.
“So, you got some wood huh?” she asked after looking around for a while. “Not much in the fire-making department though? Did you come across any rocks or anything of that type? Anything we could use to ignite a fire? Also, would you mind putting your pitchfork somewhere else? It really smells.”
“Oh, about that…” he began to retell what he’d learned about his weapons. That he was able to somehow combine monster shards with his items, and how that might be a really good method to get her some better items as well – at least in the long run.
Jamie sighed when he told her that he’d have to keep the pitchfork close by for at least another day.
After a few minutes of retelling the past few hours, they moved on to the log. Without any further distractions, Max began trying to reduce the size of the firewood he had brought over previously. A job almost impossible, only made slightly easier by the dung-dripping pitchfork.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
They did end up developing a technique of slashing the dung off Dung Sweeper followed by quickly ramming the pitchfork into the wood. When it came to splitting the wood further into little strands, they had more success with just hitting the wood pieces with other pieces of log. It didn’t work well, but after an hour of sweat-inducing work, Max managed.
Jamie tried getting the wood to burn at first, but with her injury, it was basically impossible to sustain any amount of fast movement. Max took over and managed to ignite a fire, using twigs around one of the wood pieces to rotate them faster.
It just took literal ages and constant feedback from Jamie.
Who meanwhile began preparing some of the monster animals. And after the fire was burning, she had the audacity to ask him to gather more wood.
Admittedly her reasoning was solid. They didn’t know how long a night here was, how dangerous it would be, and how cold it might get. Max just hoped that he would get a hauling ability from his running skill soon. Because sprint wasn’t working while carrying significant amounts of wood and running itself proved difficult too.
After two runs Jamie stated that their food was ready. Even though it didn’t look the part. Max was not entirely convinced and would have preferred to do another run just to come to terms with not eating the industrially prepared meals he usually had access to. He told Jamie as much who chuckled and sent him off smiling.
He hadn’t come to terms with the arrangement after the third trip either. And given Jamie’s expression she expected as much. Max managed to swallow their prepared supper, under constant supervision and annoying commentary by Jamie.
Max learned that he didn’t quite like eating animals as much as he had thought. And that he preferred basically everything over going through the same experience again.
During their “meal” they considered options of what they could do. Max insisted heavily on finding some sort of human civilization, even if just to get someone to help Jamie recover. She was of a different mind.
“We can always just use the reconstitution token once we reach the tower,” she mused. “I’m almost sure that we can make it there tomorrow. I’ll be fine. Either way, I think you should take a break while I keep watch.”
Max wanted to argue and stay awake instead – given how bad it was looking for Jamie – but he felt the strain of the day already. The odds of him being able to stay awake right now were close to nil.
So, he closed his eyes on the soft moss and prepared himself for a night of shivering, half-sleeping, and half awake, smelly pitchfork in hand.
###
The darkness began creeping in as the day passed on. After hours of barely anything happening Jamie had taken to tend and poke the fire. Look into its depth and ponder. Her contemplations mostly consisted of despair and anger at herself. She knew that she could have avoided her injury. She’d just been too surprised when she’d slipped off, and the landing on her back had taken stunned her, unlike anything she’d experienced before.
Idly Jamie took another small piece of wood and let the fire ignite it. She pulled back, letting the flame slowly, ever so slowly etch closer. The heat
The pain distracted her. From the thoughts that were spiraling, from her family, her father who sat in a wheelchair, her mother who’d just broken her leg a week ago. From her grandparents, half of whom were already dead, the others were surely going to die within the day.
Tears had begun flowing long ago. Caking her face with salty streaks and crusting her eyes.
Sadness, anger, hopelessness, and sheer rage almost boiled over before she managed to pace herself.
Her hands grew warm by the fire kindling up towards her fingers. Each time she picked a new twig, or tinder the fire grew a little closer until she inevitably flicked it away.
She wanted to stoke the fire, let out her anger, stomp in rage. All those were things a grown-up wouldn’t do, she told herself. She needed to be one, now.
She reached for the next kindling. Hoping it would burn brighter than the previous one. She hated it. She hated everything about this place, and the most infuriating thing was, that she could just turn her hatred of now. She didn’t want to. She wanted more.
She wanted to hate the piece of wood in front of her, the stupid crawl, whatever had initiated this hellscape.
She wanted it all to burn.
And burn it did. Not quite reaching into the fire, the kindling lit up in flames, for just a moment before shrinking to the size of the previous flames. Leaving her empty, gasping for breath, and completely empty of rage. Empty of emotions.
> You have gained a new ability. Ignite (Beginner) is a subsidiary of your Bushcraft Skill and your Mood Manipulation Trait.
Jamie stared at the message in front of her not caring. She knew she should, but she couldn’t get herself to do so. Her emotions didn’t react, and she had no will to react as the fire grew closer to her fingers once more. Only once pain set in did she manage to drop it. It took longer for her to finally start considering what had just happened.
> Status:
>
> Jamie Eighty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty-six of Earth
>
> The Crawl – 1
>
> Dungeons – 0/1
>
> Boss – 1/?
>
> Stats:
>
> Might – 3
>
> Endurance – 3
>
> Agility – 4
>
> Soul – 3
>
> Perception – 3
>
> Traits:
>
> Primal - System Events do not discriminate by age. Increases starter skill amount by one.
>
> Mood Modulation – You can control your emotions instinctually and possess poise in almost all situations. Resistance to weak mental and emotional manipulation.
>
> Skills:
>
> Boxing (Beginner) – You have entered THE CRAWL only depending on the boxing classes you’ve taking during your first year in college. Well executed strikes have a harder punch and are less likely to hurt you.
>
> Running (Beginner) – The movement-type you have the most experience with. Reduces energy consumption of running.
>
> Academics (Novice) – You have learned many things in your life. Increases knowledge internalization.
>
> Environmentalism (Beginner) – Grasp the interactions of mundane actions on the environment.
>
> Navigation (Beginner) – You know where you started the day and how to get back there.
>
> Bushcraft (Beginner) – A recent skill you have picked up, that you’ve enjoyed and want to develop further in life. Helps determine whether something is digestible and allows for shoddy construction of tools.
>
> Abilities:
>
> Emotional Strength (Beginner) – Your inborn trait of Mood Modulation allows you to harness different strengths from your mental state.
>
> Sprint (Beginner) – Due to your minor skill in Running you have gained the ability to move faster than possible with your stats for a very short duration.
>
> Ignite (Beginner) – Experimentation and familiarity with the art of making fire with barely any tools has merged with your Bushcraft skill. Allowing you to summon a flame for a short duration. You may channel your emotions into flames created by yourself.
Why and how she had unlocked such an ability was questionable. Though through some of the flavor text the system awarded it wasn’t hard to come to a sensible conclusion. It was a freebie, basically. She’d done a bunch of things that could have awarded an ability or a skill. Instead, she’d now gained one for making fire. Something she was decent in before the system had arrived, neither terrible nor great. She’d played with it in a setting that was both related to a skill and a trait, rewarding her with an ability.
She would hold back from telling Max about it for the moment, as he would most certainly not stay asleep should she share this development. There was little doubt that he would spend the rest of the night trying to unlock an ability as well.
She reached inside herself, looking for something that was like Sprint or Mood Modulation, she was left empty. The trigger she had expected was not present. A bit distraught Jamie turned her attention towards the firewood a few meters away. The skill was called Ignite, which should require some sort of object – by common understanding.
She reached for one of the thinner branches, that had come with the logs Max had somehow dragged here and inspected both the stick in her hand and her mind.
Sure enough, a new trigger had appeared. Sort of.
It felt more like an empty bucket, something that needed to be filled before reaching a tipping point and activating.
She felt like she knew what was needed. It wasn’t hard to scrap up some rage, but as she figuratively filled the bucket by growing more angry, she realized, that it might take a bit more than what she had to give.
This could be tedious. I’ll take it though. Better than nothing. She grinned. It was in fact quite a bit better than nothing. Almost amazing.
She kept pushing, thinking of the times when she had been truly angry. And suddenly the bucket was no more. With a simple thought, she could ignite the stick.
She did smilingly and something drew out of her. Energy she didn’t know she had left her body through the switch in her mind, and her arm through a suction quite unlike anything she’d ever felt.
Then the stick burst out in flames.
In shock, she let go of it and tore her arm away. The kindled stick fell into the soft moss, rolled a few steps, and stopped. The fire slowly fizzled out in the cool damp moss.
Right along Jamie’s consciousness.