Ander opened his eyes. He had read books as a kid, watched movies, even played a bit of VR, but nothing was as immersive as that. Damn, he WAS Scori. That day with his father, Scori’s father, was clear as his own memories. Ander sat back against a rock in his little shelter. Judging from the light streaming through the rocks he had been there for only about an hour. That was good, it meant that he could do a lot of learning for very little time investment. Ander was a little disappointed however. Father, Scori’s father, had not gone over any herbs that could be used for healing other than the magical variety. Ander knew he did not have the proper situation needed to process magical herbs, making them useless. Ander carefully went over what he had learned in the memory, remembering each herb one by one. He was pleased when after only a few minutes of this a notification popped up.
Congratulations! You have gained Skill: Herbalism.
Skill: Herbalism is level 1.
Skill: Herbalism
Uncommon
Allows you to gain greater insight into plants and herbs. Herbalism is a knowledge skill. Herbalism allows you to consult The Grand Archive to learn more about plants and herbs. Connecting to The Great Archive requires an ongoing mana cost that decreases with a higher level. Herbalism also allows any identification skill to glean more information when identifying plants and herbs. Recall of information relating to plants and herbs is slightly increased.
Ander grinned. This skill was going to be awesome. He wondered if he could teach himself to fight using Walker of Memories. He could think of a number of good uses for the skill. That time dilation. In any case he was getting distracted. Ander focused on herbalism, sending his intent to find mundane healing herbs. All at once, impressions bombarded his mind, and Ander realized that he was going to have to reduce his criteria a bit. He focused on his wound, thinking about antiseptic, and only a few herbs came to mind. He looked through them and found one that grew in damp environments that he would likely be able to find. That done, he decided to look for a plant that he could use for bandages. He was able to find one of those as well. Finally he started to look for an herb that might cause the wound to heal faster when suddenly it felt like a train smashed into his head.
Herbalism, it turned out, requires a lot of mana to use the consult The Grand Archive feature. A flashing bar in Ander’s vision told him that he was out of mana. It also turned out that running out of mana really sucked. Ander had the mother of all migraines, and it felt like every bit of light was going to puncture straight through his head. Not to mention the fact he could feel every little pebble like a knife against his skin. He also noticed that an animal was snuffling around outside. Each sound sent pain through his ears. Ander stayed in his world of agony for a half an hour before his mana started to regenerate. It took a full hour for enough mana to regenerate for the pain to fully subside however, and Ander realized that his arm was bleeding again. He needed to see to his wound.
Ander peered out between the rocks to find that the animal had left, and that over a dozen ravens were feasting on the remains of the boar carcass. Ander shuddered. Something big had torn apart the boar after Ander went to sleep that night. He couldn’t leave bodies out like that in the future. There were obviously bears or mountain lions or something down here. He supposed he was lucky that he hadn’t run into one while making his shelter.
Ander pulled over his bag and started to eat breakfast. It was a slow and painful affair, and he realized he was halfway through his food supply already. He looked ruefully out the rocks at the now bare carcass of the boar. That would have made good eating. He supposed the animal from before agreed.
After Ander had sated his appetite, he pushed the wood blocking his shelter aside and crawled out the entrance. He pulled out his shortsword and his shield, though his bandages kinda got in the way. He still put the broken shield on and started to inspect the surrounding area. He looked carefully at each plant, letting herbalism tell him details he didn’t know before.
Congratulations! Skill: Herbalism has leveled up!
Skill: Herbalism is level 2.
Congratulations! You have gained Skill: Inspect.
Skill: Inspect is level 1.
Skill: Inspect
Common
Looking at an object and activating Inspect will cause a prompt to appear with certain vital information.
This skill is modified by your herbalism skill. Continue using them together to upgrade your skill.
With that, the job got far easier. It turned out that with the herbalism skill, inspect pointed out a lot of plant characteristics that he would never have noticed on his own. Ander ventured out farther into the chasm inspecting every plant he saw. Eventually he found what he was looking for. Seri’s ivy, and below it, comor’s moss. Ander carefully harvested both, getting long strands of the ivy and taking large sections of the moss. He took them back to his camp, and grabbed one of his smaller bags, the one he hadn’t ripped apart for bandages. He took it into the cavern and swiped up a bag of water. It worked as he had hoped, the waterproof cloth allowing him to take his bag full of water back out to his campsite.
He hung the bag on a stumpy tree growing at the edge of his campsite and started to peel away the old bandage. After some time he was able to mine away the bandage and get to the wound. It smelled horrible, and the skin was puckered and red even after cleaning it out. Definitely infected. Ander really hoped that the moss would do the trick.
After carefully washing all the dirt out of the moss, Ander put it in his mouth and carefully chewed it. Normally it would be crushed into a paste with a mortar and pestle, but as he didn’t have one he had to chew instead. After a minute or so, he spat out the wad of masticated moss onto the wound in his arm. He then carefully washed several of the ivy leaves, and laid them over the wound, pressing them in tight before wrapping them in the stem of the ivy. It wasn't the best solution, but it should do the trick.
Surprisingly, Ander already felt better. It almost felt like a low grade fever had broken, and his mind was clearer. Ander inspected the wound.
Treated wound.
This wound has been treated by someone without any skill in healing. It has been treated using seri’s ivy and comor’s moss. Bleed effect stopped. Infection stopped. This attempt was a critical success.
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Congratulations! You have learned Skill: Healing (Mundane)
Skill: Healing (Mundane) is level 1.
Skill: Healing (Mundane)
Uncommon
Attempts to treat wounds and conditions have a greater chance to succeed.
Ander smiled. He wouldn’t unwrap the bandage now, but it seemed that healing worked far faster in this world than on earth. That was a good thing. His arm felt as good as new, and now he had to think about the rest of him. Carefully Ander peeled off his clothes and dropped them to the ground. He didn’t have any soap, but the water should do.
It was to his horror when he finally got all his clothes off that he truly inspected himself for the first time since arriving to the new world. Nominally male my ass.
For the record, Ander looked like a guy. He was well built, had hair in all the right places, but when he checked the spot between his legs, there was nothing there. Despair filled Ander for several minutes as he stared at his lost manhood. There was a small hole from which he assumed he could urinate as soon as that rapid growth condition ended, but nothing else. He wasn’t female, just a eunuch. Ander got himself under control, and quickly washed his entire body before doing the same with his clothes. Still naked, he gathered some wood that had washed into a cave where they had dried and made a fire. And with that he laid his clothes out near the fire for them to dry.
Ander sat by his drying clothes wrapped in his cloak, and pulled up his status sheet.
Ander
Level 2
Race: Exodari
Subrace: Oritol
HP: 180
MP: 280
SP: 180
Strength 20
Dexterity 10
Agility 25
Toughness 10
Constitution 18
Intelligence 10
Memory 10
Conductivity 14
Wisdom 14
Regeneration 14
Beauty 12
Presence 14
You have fourty free stat points, would you like to distribute them now?
Yes/No
Ander ignored the stat allocation for a moment and focused on the race, causing the description to pop up again.
Exodar
The Exodari are a diverse race with many subspecies. They appear mostly human, with only minor features that would make them seem different to the outside observer. Each subspecies has a singular talent that allows it to flourish amongst the other Exodari. You have discovered 0 subspecies. If you choose Exodar, a subspecies will be chosen at random. The Exodari are interesting due to the fact that they have a built in class system. They produce a class of sterile workers, called commoners in their tongue, that appear mostly human but are most similar in function to honey bee workers. However where honeybees are nominally female, Exodar commoners are nominally male.
However, there is also a class of Nobles consisting of the females of the species, as well as a select group of male commoners that have undergone metamorphosis. This metamorphosis gives them both greater height than the commoners (7-8 feet tall) as well as impressive psionic abilities. Females generally range from 5-6 feet tall.
Exodari breed at a rate of approximately 30 Commoners to 5 Females to 1 Male capable of undergoing metamorphosis. Like in bees, the commoners do most of the work needed to keep the species alive. Females spend most of their time pregnant, tending to their eggs, or tending to their husband. The Nobles spend their time leading and organizing the commoners.
Starting Stats
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Agility 10
Toughness 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Memory 10
Conductivity10
Wisdom 10
Regeneration 10
Beauty 12
Presence 11
Additionally, Exodari start with an additional 20 free points that they can spend as they wish, with six more points being added based on their subspecies.
Additionally, Exodari gain these following traits;
Human appearance
This race is indistinguishable from humans under normal circumstances.
Egg layers
This race lays clutches of eggs rather than bearing live young.
Psionics
This race has a natural bent towards psionics which manifests in a small portion of the population.
UI access
This race is from a world with sufficient density of mana, and thus have been given access to the Universal UI.
Malignant UI
ERR 36214: a local patch has caused adverse effects. Please contact a local System administrator to rectify this problem.
Bioengineered
This race was created by mortal hands to fulfill an agenda. There are no natural races like it.
Adolescent Birth
The young hatches in late adolescence, seeming aged in human terms to the age of 16.
Ancestral Memory
This race bears the memories of their forefathers, allowing quick learning and growth.
That wasn’t helpful. Ander tried to focus more closely on the description of the commoners, but could clearly sense that there was nothing there for him to find. Nominally male my ass. He supposed that when it said commoners were sterile this is what it meant. He then honed in on the bioengineered trait. Clinically speaking, a man’s manhood could be seen as a weakness, giving a vulnerable area to strike. In reality, Ander couldn’t comprehend the evil that could make a man create a species like this. That said, there was hope. Metamorphosis.
The process didn't seem particularly pleasant, but if it could turn him into a noble, he might just regain his manhood again. A plan in place, Ander turned toward his free stats. He wondered if forty was a lot. Maybe it wasn’t to other Exodari, but he already knew that he had hit the boar far harder than he had any right to be able to. He wasn’t superhuman by any stretch, but his strength was more like that of a professional weightlifter than his old self.
Standing up ander was momentarily reminded of all he had lost. But with an effort of will, Ander shoved away his internal distress and picked up his shortsword. He chopped the blade at a piece of wood he had set aside. It thunked satisfyingly where it got stuck momentarily. Ander had aimed for a knot in the wood, but the shortsword was a bit off, hitting about two inches to the right of where he had aimed. Ander then added a single point to dexterity.
He chopped at the wood several more times. The effect was subtle and difficult to detect, but he was more accurate. That said, what did agility do? Make him faster? An experimental sprint across the chasm with his cloak flying behind him indicated that he was indeed more than twice as fast as he was in his previous life. Based on his health total, he assumed that constitution was responsible, so maybe toughness made it harder to damage him?
Ander picked up his hunting knife and placed the tip against the back of his wrist. It only took a small amount of pressure to puncture his skin, his mind being the greater impediment to this self harm. He then put ten points into toughness. He wasn’t going to do this test again for only a minor effect. He placed the tip of his knife against his skin again, and indeed, it was significantly harder to break through. In fact, he couldn’t bring himself to press hard enough. Even grabbing the blade of the knife he couldn’t cut himself. That was useful. Didn’t mean he couldn’t get hurt, but it did mean he couldn’t get hurt from stupid accidents.
With that new information, Ander placed twenty points into strength and another nine into dexterity. It felt amazing. Ander could see his muscle growing and toning before his eyes. He looked incredible. Still wasn’t worth what he had lost in terms of body parts, but he would take what he could get.