> “That said, do not wrongly assume that our Forefathers had everything going their way. As they discovered the hard way, they were not the only ones in this new world. There was also a great evil, the very same one that we are fighting today. If our Forefathers had been created with the rest of the world rather than copied from elsewhere, things would have been very different in ways that we can barely even begin to speculate. One thing that all of our Forefathers agree on is that they would have been far more likely to give in to the evil.”
>
> Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.
Christopher Leroy Knightsen
“Hey Chris,” said Pamela a hour or so later, “since we’re in a LitRPG world, shouldn’t we have a character sheet or something?” At this point, we’d eaten breakfast, packed up, and had just started walking towards the crystal mountain thing that we’d decided to check out.
Character Sheet Functions currently inactive. Activation will be concurrent with Leveling System.
“Oh. They really weren’t kidding when they said we were dumped into a completely new world were they?”
“Nope,” I replied. “However, I find it interesting how often the World System jumps in and answers our questions.”
Automated Answering subsystem is active.
Current authorized users: 2.
Current Sub-system Capacity: 1000 users
“So, the computer is bored,” I paraphrased. “Well, it will be useful while it lasts.”
User possesses Adam & Eve level priority override.
Minimum System load threshold for response lag: 125%
“Well then. That’s not ominous at all!” said Pamela.
“Given the way things have gone so far, I think we’ll just have to get used to it.”
“True. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes us to cover the intervening 120-ish miles on foot.”
“I miss my car,” I sighed. “I may not have used it much since it was only a ten-minute walk to work, but having to walk for several days straight is rather annoying.”
“I’m thinking we should see how far we can get on the first day and then plan from there. Worse comes to worse, I can shift and fly us the rest of the way there.”
“Sounds like a plan. For now, though, why not try running for a little bit? You know, take advantage of the fact that we’re not in our fifties anymore.”
“Huh?” she said, looking down at herself. “Wow. You’re right, we look like we’re somewhere in our mid-twenties!
“Last one to the edge of the forest is a rotten egg!” she finished, sprinting ahead.
“Hey, no fair!” I yelled, running after her.
“Nana-Nana-Boo-Boo!” she yelled back without slowing down.
Oh, is that how we’re doing this is it? Alright then, time to use a little magic. I thought to myself as I equipped my Quarterstaff and used its air magic for a speed boost to race past her.
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Then we both slowed down to a fast jog and dropped our respective speed-boosts to avoid faceplanting into a tree.
“Well darn. Now we’re both rotten eggs,” I said.
“At least we don’t smell like one.”
“Are you- drat.”
“What?”
“I had the perfect comeback, but I’d rather not start a forest fire accidentally-on-purpose.”
“That’s fair. Besides, I’ve clearly been sweating all night without deodorant or a bath. I have no illusions about how I smell at the moment.”
“On a different note, neither of us are out of breath or anything, and there didn’t seem to be a noticeable price for the speed boost.”
“Huh, you’re right. Shouldn’t there be a price for that kind of magic beyond just the mana required for the spell?”
Price temporarily negated due to dormant leveling system. Normally, the price is
[(1 + 0.01 * boost-factor) * (1 -- spell-level * spell-mastery) / (agility-stat / 10)] * default-stamina-drain.
“Thanks!” Pamela said.
User status: Welcome!
“Anyway, I’ve seen what’s in the Camping Gear Set we got, but what’s in the Founder’s Set?” she continued.
“I don’t know, let’s see.”
Civilization Founder’s Set (Dual-Soulbound)
The set includes:
10 x Settlement Founder’s Stone
10 x Settlement Upgrade Stones
10 x Villiage Upgrade Stones
10 x Town Upgrade Stones
01 x Capitol Upgrade Stone.
01 x Palace Foundation Stone (requires at least 9 x Settlements, 1 x City)
02 x How to Found a Civilizations for Ignoramuses - A Beginner’s Guide
“I guess that means that it’s Soulbound to both of us?”
“Probably. At least it includes a Beginner’s Guide.”
“True. So what did you learn about the inventory system while I was sleeping?”
“Not all that much really, it won’t take me too long to explain. The most obvious thing is that it’s divided into three sections…”
*****
Pamela Josephine Daniels
Most of the rest of the day was nothing special, we just kept traveling through the coniferous forest in more or less a straight line. We did encounter a few creatures, most notably a monkey/squirrel hybrid that kept trying to steal something from our bags until we started killing them when they got too close. They were kinda cute the first two or three times, but after that they got rather annoying in a hurry. We tried to discourage them without killing them, but then they started throwing pinecones at us and suddenly they weren’t so cute anymore.
On the plus side, they do explode nicely when lit on fire. We’re not entirely sure why, but they do.
There was also a couple of carnivorous plants, all of which seemed to prefer me over Chris for some reason, so mostly I’d lit them on fire before I’d understood what was happening. Several of them tried to use some sort of sleeping gas or contact sedative or something on me, but they didn’t seem to work very well, probably because of my elemental affinities.
About an hour before the sun started to go down and we started looking for a campsite for the night, I decided to climb a rather large tree to see where we were. As we’d gotten closer to the mountain, the trees had gotten much thicker and we’d lost all sight of the mountain about an hour before. If it hadn’t been for what little sunlight that did make it through the branches we would have been completely lost.
“Hey Chris! Only two more miles to the mountain thing! Let’s keep going and see if we can find a cave or something!”
“Aright! I thought you said it look like it was at least one hundred and twenty miles from the clearing/frozen lake thing where we started?”
“Well, we’ve been jogging all day and we were able to use our speed boosts from time to time. It may not be too much of a difference at once, but it all adds up over the course of a day.”
“True. Oh hey! Check out this hole under this tree over here! It looks like the perfect place to camp for the night. It’s just big enough for the two of us, it’s sheltered from the elements, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything living in it at the moment. I say we camp here and then finish the journey in the morning when we have sunlight to actually see what we’re looking at.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said as I finished climbing down the tree, before we worked together to set up camp. “Wait, why do you have two blankets but I don’t have any?”
“Because you’re an anti-cover hog now.”
“Huh?”
“Remember how I said that every time I tried to put a blanket on you it ended up in the shared section of our inventory?”
“Yes…”
“Well, when I came back to check on you an hour or two later, I discovered that you’d somehow managed to shove all of the blankets out of our shared inventory and into my own.”
“So you’re saying that instead of stealing your covers, I was giving you mine.”
“Pretty much.”
“I guess I’ll get used to my new body temperature eventually. Anyway, let’s eat and then sleep. It’s been a long day.”
“Yes it has. Here’s some leftover stew from yesterday. I’m going to go off that way to dig a latrine. Just in case you’re asleep by the time I get back, Have a nice night!”
“You too! Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”
“I won’t! I’m not biting them back if they bite me first though.”
“Why would you do that?”
“It’s what Grandma always said when putting us to bed at night.”
“Huh. Well, good night Pamela!”
“Good night Chris.”