I woke up warm. That was a funny thought, given the make of my bed. The make of the whole room, really. Snow. Just snow. It was a room large enough for me to stand upright in. I didn't expect John to have an extra room, but apparently, his whole hideout was quite extensive. I was pressed against the bed - which amounted to a pile of snow sprinkled with softer powder, blinking blearily at the ceiling made of even more packed snow and tree branch. After a moment, I forced myself up.
I shifted my [Cloak of the Frozen Icicle], realizing I wasn't the slightest bit thirsty or hungry.
I stretched and tried to remember my way back. John had given me a few pointers, mainly a single reference point. The middle room he called it. Where most of his tunnels branched from. There was an exit that way if I could remember the tunnels back.
I walked, ducked, and crawled in some of the tunnels. The sequence of crouching and standing vaguely familiar. I felt I was on the right path. It was truly impressive how large the place was.
I mentally willed [Lottery] and [Cheat].
Shamrock mist surrounded me, pulsing outward. Something spun within me, of chance and fate, but almost as suddenly it dissipated. I blinked in confusion, having felt it surge through me, having felt the effects of the [Powers]. Nothing had happened and I could only account it to one thing.
"Damn, I lost." I shook my head, not too put out.
Habitually, I used the rest of my [Powers].
Armor: [Scholar's Robes]
A smooth set of robes that breathe easily and rest comfortably. Comfortable attire meant to be worn in the comfort of one's own study. Slight increase to knowledge retention.
Weapon: [Sandborne Nunchucks]
Crafted of enchanted sand these nunchucks function similar to any other make save for their effectiveness towards water-based entities.
Buff: [Enchantable]
During the period of this buff your body is able to hold enchantments normally applied to inanimate objects. Enchantments placed on living beings are more effective on you. Beware, this includes hexes, charms, and other ill-willed magical enchantments.
The smooth robes must have been made of silk. They felt fine against my neck, the only exposed portion of my skin it rested against thanks to my jacket. They settled over my jacket but below my cloak. The extra warmth was negligible as something about the [Cloak of the Frozen Icicle] regulated my temperature. I paused for a moment, but couldn't perceive any changes to my retention of knowledge. Admittedly, I doubted I would.
Meanwhile, the nunchucks appeared in my right hand, bundled together. The grainy weapon, made of sand, didn't crumble at all as I handled it. I knocked one end of the weapon on the wall of the tunnel and watched bemusedly as it made a dent larger than the force I applied warranted. "Strong against water." I said idly, examining the weapon. I placed it in my jacket pocket, which involved pulling my arm through my robes to get to.
Next was the buff. "[Enchantable], huh?" I said, mildly interested. Examining my body I seemed completely normal, unlike some of the past changes. "Nothing for it." I shrugged.
I reached the middle room right after my things disappeared. They did little for me but expand my imagination to what I might get next time. A minute or two of walking or crawling might not seem like much, but it was a testament to the expanse that John's tunnels covered.
Surprisingly, John was already there. His eyes were closed and aside from Gibber observing me I had the time to take a good look at his face. He rested lightly against a piece of furniture that was made of snow. The table, if I dared call it that, was a concavely sunken dome of snow. In its center, lay a small blazing fire, the smoke funneling up into a hole above.
Facial hair dominated his face, brown and full. It wasn't a choice I would've made, but I suppose he didn't have the luxury. Behind all that hair lay a rather young face, not too unlike mine. I found that that surprised me, to have someone survive out here for a whole month and not look at all that much older.
I wasn't sure I could've done the same.
He seemed to be silently soaking in the heat from the fire. It wasn't until a minute after Gibber chittered into his ear that he opened his eyes. I didn't know exactly what I expected, but it wasn't the almost too regular gaze that met my own.
"Your armguards." He initiated, examining them still. "I feel better, good. I appreciate, I really do. Gibber made a good choice with you." He began to untie them.
I halfway expected them to disappear in the night. It was my bet that they would, at least. "The fact they're still on your arms tells me they're yours now." I declined, raising my hand.
"These are enchanted, man. You don't know how valuable something like this is." He said flatly. "Especially with something like health." He grimaced. "What with everyone dying like flies."
"They're yours now. Soulbound even." I waved calmly. There was a lull in the conversation. "They're yours, man. I can't imagine the struggles you've been through this past month. It's about time luck swung your way, isn't it?"
John huffed, ceasing his motion to give them to me, but taking them off to stare at them.
He raised his eyebrows. "Soulbound." He said quietly, eyes widening. "Wow. Well, no wonder you've been politely declining, they're literally mine." He said to me.
"Yeah, I doubt they'd work well for anyone else." I said ruefully. It was a nugget of knowledge, a sureness of the workings of soulbound equipment, that came with [Gift]. Along with the fact that effects from my [Powers] were automatically soulbound to me.
It was a property of my [Armor Roll], [Buff Roll], and [Weapon Roll]. There wasn't any way that I could tell that they were soulbound until I came under the effects of [Gift]. My best guess was that I had to be aware of what could be given before I could actually gift it. Of note though, was that my [Cloak of the Frozen Icicle] was in fact not bound to me.
Health. I hadn't thought of the implications. Without civilization, the risk factor of every minor wound or injury shot up. If I believed John for even a fraction of second, then the monsters roaming around only exacerbated the risks. A piece of leather that not only protected but healed its wearer was likely invaluable.
"No, probably not." He looked up from the armguards to stare at me. For a moment, I stared back. "Have you figured out your Slate yet?"
"My Slate?" I shook my head even as I asked the question.
"You ever play any video games?" He asked. "Role-playing games? Fantasy stuff, sci-fi, etc?"
"Not video games. I used to read a lot of that stuff though. Back in high school, I'd read that stuff when I had free time." I replied, shrugging. "Why?"
"Our reality." He paused and exhaled. "Well, let's just say this: It might do you good to keep that fantasy stuff in mind when you're out and about. My life hasn't been too far from it these past weeks." He looked me in the eyes as he spoke as if checking to see if I believed him.
He nodded. "Your Slate. It shows you things about yourself and your stuff." His eyes went down as he tied his armguards back on. "Thanks for these by the way. I'll keep them on from now on." He glanced at Gibber who chittered at him before darting down one of the branching tunnels. He turned back to me, watching Gibber scurry away. "Laury, Halt and I all had something different. I have a clipboard, Laury had a diary, Halt had a notepad. You should be able to find it if you think about yourself, will your Slate to appear before you. I won't be able to see it, but you'll know it once it appears. I thought it was an undiscovered [Power] of mine the first time it happened." He chuckled.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I sat there focusing on myself. Feeling dumb, I sunk into meditation. The morning drowsiness got the best of me and I slowly drifted away. I thought about my [Powers] first and foremost. Naturally, my mind drifted to the random chance "Roll" [Powers] first before I wandered to [Cheat] and [Lottery]. That made me start thinking of my cloak.
The heat felt nice. I was beginning to associate the cold with isolation. But here? The fire was warm. It glowed across my face and I basked in the heat.
Vaguely, I was aware of John moving. He moved shortly into another tunnel only to return with a metal pot and metal pan. He didn't even speak to me, and I appreciated it. I suppose the sizzling meat was communication enough because the pleasant smell lifted me out of my meditation.
I stared at the item in my hand.
"You've found it then." John said from across the fire. "You're faster than I was when Laury told me." He said absently. "It should be much more convenient than [System Messages]."
It was a deck of transparent cards. They were reminiscent of the sleek digital poker tables I'd often admire when I'd watch professional poker. Only now they were cut rectangles that fit into my had. I looked up at John to respond but he was already spreading broken leaves over the meat.
I drew one from the deck holding it between my fingers. There was a bend to the card and a smooth texture that was just right for a deck of playing cards. Small writing seemed to scrawl itself across the card as I moved to view it. I held it up by my fingers, flipping it between them before reading the writing.
[Vak Tychus]
[Class] : None
[Titles]
[Lottery Winner]
[Attributes]
[INT] : 7
[LUK] : 12
[WIS] : 5
[Powers]
[Lottery]
[Cheat]
[Buff Roll]
[Weapon Roll]
[Armor Roll]
The card summed me up. My name in stylized writing was larger than the rest of the writing, sitting at the very top of the card. I rose my eyebrows as a shift in my thinking showed it appearing on the back of the card instead. I silently read the contents of the card over again.
[Class] was understandably nothing. My [Powers] were listed out. The anomaly was that [Title], I had no idea what those were in this context but [Lottery Winner] definitely fit me. I won a slot machine lottery right before time froze and then lucked out with [Gamble] in the [System Shop]. I wondered exactly what the [Lottery Winner] was before I decided to just try something.
I pulled another card and stared at it.
[Lottery Winner]
A consolidation of [Titles] [Gambler] and [Lucky]. One whose luck and risktaking is unmatched and unparalleled. A winner who when faced with the world, bet his whole life against it and won. Allows for [Jackpots] for regular chance-based [Powers] when applicable. [LUK] increased by 10.
The word [Jackpot] lit a fire in my heart, despite the setting. Just like before with [Absorbent Efficiency] my heart raced. The possibility for a huge windfall like that captured my fantasy. The fact I had already encountered it changed nothing for me.
I tried pulling out two more cards but couldn't come up with anything on [Gambler] and [Lucky]. I could only guess what they were and appreciate what they've become.
A thought struck me. How had I been seeing these things before? That question resonated with something I'd just heard. I looked up at John. "[System Messages]? What do you mean?"
"Finally back, then?" He had a wooden plate and he slid a large piece of meat on it for himself, then handed one to me. "[System Messages]. They're what I called them. Those things that help you identify things. You might see words, or even hear them. Laury thought a blind person might've felt them. You know what I'm talking about. You would not have survived this long here without encountering it at least a once. Especially right when you arrive, there should've been a bunch of them."
I stumbled mentally, thinking back on all the times I used my [Powers]. At all those neat tidbits of information that allowed me to process exactly what it was that began to affect me, or form in my hand or on my arms. The information that let me know exactly what an [Exqusiste Ration] did or what my [Cloak of the Frozen Icicle] was. Even the time I arrived in my jacket to a frozen world. All my [Powers] were described to me, why and how I got them too.
"I-I think I do. I barely even thought about them in the moment. It was so natural. What the hell is that?" How did I know exactly the type of weapon that formed because of my [Power]?
"I call it the [System] and those little nuggets of information that pop into your mind? [System Messages]. A simple enough naming scheme. The [System Shop] prompted most of the names to be fair, however. I don't see them often, sometimes when I encounter something in the forest. A few other times too. Halt was the one who caught onto them first. After that, Laury found her Slate."
"I do remember the [System Shop]. But that information wasn't as subtle. You just bought what you bought, right?" I shook my head and bit into the piece of meat. It was good, if not a bit plain. The leaves had some flavor to them. "Damn, that's a lot to swallow, but given that we're even here I guess it isn't too farfetched either. Guaranteed, it probably would've been a few weeks before I figured any of this out."
John shook his head. "If anything Vak, I'm just glad I found you. You'll have a better chance at living than most who show up. That's saying something. Without that cloak of yours, you would've frozen your ass off."
I laughed. "I'm glad I found you too. You were on death's bed for a second there. Ah, but don't mention it, John, it was the right thing to do. Besides, I owed Gibber for saving my ass from that giant."
"I call them snowmen. Silent type, big and blue, razor-sharp teeth, yeah?"
"The very same." I shivered, despite the warm fire. My mind started to wander to the cold blue body, laying headless-
I stopped, idly noticing my Slate had disappeared.
"Gibber and I can usually take one or two. But they're not the worst things out there by a longshot. I doubt I've even encountered most of the forest yet." John said frowning.
"You're not planning to stay here are you?" I blinked. "Here in the trees?"
"What else is there to do?" John shot back easily. "The people north of here are basically doing the same thing. Setting up shop. Making a home, carving out a place to stay."
"Shouldn't we be focusing on finding a way back?" As soon as the words left my mouth I became aware of their fault.
John looked at me. Really looked at me. And for a flicker of the flame, his gaze wasn't regular. "Wherever we are Vak no one's coming to get us. We very well might be far in the future, or on another planet or some alternate reality. But there is one thing. The buildings I saw, I recognized the franchise of the ice cream shop. Hail-ey's Icecream. You know it?"
I recognized the name.
"You do. Well, I thought so too." He explained. "We never mentioned it, but I know we noticed it. I've been in Hail-ey's a lot of times. I know how the places usually looked. It was rough and rundown, almost ruined, but the inside of that icecream shop looked a lot more updated than anything I'd ever seen in their shops before." He trailed off, letting me finish the thought myself.
"You think we were flung into the future?" I asked incredulously.
"I don't know what I think, Vak. All I know is that this is our reality now. Assuming we could go back would be assuming there was anything to return from or return to. We might already be home." He said the last line with a shivering finality.
"If this whole damn place is just future Earth, then that's that. We try to survive. If its an alternate reality I doubt we'll find a way back. Plan of action: survive. If we're on another planet, that doesn't explain all these ruins I've been seeing. Again: survive." John haphazardly laid out his theories in a way that made it apparent how much he had been thinking about it.
I opened my mouth before closing it, thinking on his words. I guess the question now was whether I even wanted to go home. Did I have anything to return to? My heart sped up. Was it terrible to say that I doubted my parents would miss me too much, or that I wouldn't miss them either? I loved them, but on a very real sense, we simply didn't rely on each other. Saying goodbye now, as in finally deciding to stay here, would be bittersweet and leave me homesick nonetheless. A proper goodbye, closure would be what I needed. Or I would... miss them. In truth, I had no idea if I could do it, just disappear on them knowing I would never see or talk to them again.
I had been going to college, learning game theory and psychology, and while it was interesting it wasn't as interesting as applying it. I used as I gambled many times, just the small things I've learned that helped. It was as if I was learning a whole new language, discovering and applying it. This place, it filled that aspect of human nature, to discover things, to be on the frontier and explore. I loved that but it was saying goodbye to my life as I knew it. Was I ready for that? To throw that away, to say goodbye to my parents, my friends?
I almost wanted to. I really did. But the thought twisted my heart.
"A problem for tomorrow," I answered him, coming back to myself.
"It has been for the past month." John chuckled.
The wooden plates went away, into whatever room that John had gotten the metal pot and pan from. Next was a hearty broth served in wooden bowls. It was much more tastier, nothing extravagant, but it was filling. I wondered, idly, how eating now would affect the length of the effect from the [Exquisite Ration] I ate.
If John was able to secure food regularly than my ration might not have been as needed as I thought it was.
I asked John about how easy it was to catch game.
"Every few days I'll be lucky if I even spot something I can kill and eat. Even then, I don't always catch the things even after tracking them for the day. The temperature here's probably the only reason my rate of hunting is sustainable. The meat won't spoil when frozen so cold."
"And today, what are you doing?" I wondered. "Do you hunt all day? Explore?"
"I make the place more comfortable. Hunt if I can. Speaking of which, food is getting low. The timing's perfect too. I'll take you with me, show you the surrounding area, and how much I've explored. We won't cover everything in a day, we won't even get close, but any familiarity can only help you." He bent forward, looking up through the hole that the cooking fire's smoke escaped to. He squinted. "Light snow, we should be fine. Are you ready right now?"
"I have the entirety of my possessions on me right now. So yeah, I'm ready." I fastened my cloak tighter.
John chuckled. "Good, follow me."