Nick expected using his free point to be sensationless, as he hadn’t felt anything special when his Toughness had improved through conditioning. But that was not what happened.
Two seconds after the display confirmed his choice, he felt something squirming in the pit of his stomach—a writhing warmth that blossomed into electric heat, spreading from his core out toward his extremities. As the energy flowed throughout his body, his tissue and organs—muscles and bones—shifted before snapping into a new configuration.
It was the strangest experience of his life. Like lightning was surging through his veins, sculpting his body into a new, more efficient alignment.
Five minutes later, the current gathered at his fingertips and then dispersed. Although his muscles still twitched, Nick was back in control of his body. He turned his awareness inward and realized that he felt… great. In that moment, he didn’t even miss his morning cup of coffee.
He had more energy than he knew what to do with and his frame felt more solid than before. Like he had leapt between the before and after pictures from an exercise advertisement, without having to go through any of the work in the middle.
Laughing in wonder at the strangeness of it all, he turned away from the screen, eager to find out what his upgraded body could do.
With his points spent, it was time to secure his next meal before he started losing the light. He walked north for about twenty minutes, heading over to where the lemur tribe was gathered along the rise leading from the beach to the forest.
There was no way that Nick was going to step below the canopy just yet, even though he hadn’t seen any tracks except the lemurs’ along this sunny stretch of shoreline. He was hoping that he could find something to eat while walking along the border separating the biomes. He had a hunch that this was where the berries that Bandit had gifted him had come from. While the fruits were sour, they had also been surprisingly nutritious.
Hefting a stick in one hand and a rock in the other, he carefully crept his way up the sandy rise. He lowered his profile before reaching the top so that he wouldn’t reveal his position to anything waiting on the other side. After studying his surroundings, he hadn’t spotted anything that made him want to turn back.
He could see dozens of lemurs further in, scouring clusters of dense bushes with blue green leaves that were scattered throughout the area. Nick waved hello to Bandit when his new friend scampered past. The little lemur chittered a greeting before going about his business.
Along this edge of the woods, the trees were sparse, and the visibility was adequate. He decided to go just a little further and get a better look at what the tribe was up to. It felt good to stride out of the sunlight and into the shadows. As he waited for his eyes to adjust, he took a long look around before committing to a plan of action.
He could hear the tribe calling to one another a few dozen yards further in, accompanied by the cries of gulls and the chirping of insects. The woods looked more like paradise than a region more dangerous than the beach. But Nick had seen the lurk emerge from the trees and the doglike tracks near the stream. He knew that the serenity was fleeting at best and an illusion at worst.
Trusting the lemurs to alert him to anything dangerous coming from their direction, his first order of business was to examine the ground for any sign of predators living in the area. But he couldn’t spot any tracks or droppings that didn’t belong to the furry primates. He tried using his Size Up skill on the woods themselves, scanning the area while trying to determine if anything felt threatening. But either the skill didn’t work without a specific target, or the coast was clear.
If Nick didn’t already know that he was exploring a hostile alien world, he would have been convinced that he was standing in a national park back home on Earth. It was a beautiful, peaceful scene. The wind ruffled the treetops. The air was warm and clear. Bees and butterflies danced between the blossoms.
The System must have chosen a planet analogous to my own for my tutorial, he mused, gazing at flora and fauna that were surprisingly similar to the world of his birth. There were details, although subtle, such as the red diamonds emblazoned on the bees’ abdomens, that revealed the limitations of the illusion. I wonder how many planets the System encompasses. While he was still nervous, the serene atmosphere boosted his confidence enough to explore a little further.
He followed the chitters of the tribe until he arrived in a clearing filled with more of the teal bushes. Scores of lemurs were going through the branches, picking hundreds of the fat purple berries he had been hoping to find. He noticed that the tribe never left sight of the shoreline. Nick resolved to trust their judgment and not delve any deeper into this biome.
The beasts had done a thorough job of harvesting the bushes’ exteriors. But due to the presence of dense, thorny vines, they had left a handful of fruits unplucked. He eventually discovered a pair of berries lodged inside the brush, too deep for the lemurs to reach without getting poked. Luckily, his arms were longer.
He wound up covered in scratches and was pricked several times. But five minutes and some colorful cursing later, he came out with his prize in hand. He found a few more berries along the way, but his instincts told him they were still unripe, and that eating them would upset his stomach. He would have to come back later if he wanted to claim them.
By now, the shadows were beginning to grow long. The tribe was getting ready to leave the area, so he decided to follow them back to the beach.
Once he was out of the woods, Nick stopped to eat dinner. To his delight, the fruits he had picked were fully ripe and sweeter than he was expecting—although they were still sour enough to make his lips pucker. They tasted like lemons and cantaloupes, along with hints of spices he had no words to describe. The pair of plum-sized berries weren’t much of a meal. But combined with the last pieces of coconut digesting in his stomach, they should get him through the rest of the day.
It was weird to consider that, thanks to his Survivor trait, he only needed three-quarters of the food and water that he was used to. But he was glad for every advantage he could get. Needing two hours less sleep each night was even better, as it would give him more time each day to plot and plan. He was curious about the diminished need for oxygen, so he tried holding his breath as he made his way along the beach.
It was impossible to be certain without prior benchmarks and a timer, but it took several seconds longer than he expected before the discomfort became too great. He wasn’t taking everything that the System told him at face value. Although so far, everything seemed legit. It made him yearn for a towering pile of knowledge points. Nick couldn’t truly plan out the course of his advancement until he understood the rules of the game.
This meant that it was time for him to seek out more reward chests. To explore the island, locating as many threats and resources as he could without getting in over his head. His first goal was to circle the shoreline and see what he could discover along the beach.
In addition to being home to what were presumably the weakest beasts on the island, the coast provided the best visibility. It would be impossible to get lost if he only had to follow the water to make it back to where he’d started.
With only a few hours left until he started losing the light, Nick decided to head north and get a better feel for the terrain along that side of the tribe’s territory. He had no intention of getting anywhere close to where the lurk had ambushed the lemurs. But he wanted to make sure there weren’t any resources close to the obelisk that he had missed earlier, when he had been distracted by his dire situation. His destination decided, he started walking north, staying as far away from the tree line as possible.
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He waved a greeting to the tribe, walking beside them as they hunted for crabs hiding between rocks scattered by the surf. After a few embarrassing failures, he managed to capture a pair of the bird-sized crustaceans, just to see if he could.
As he had no desire to eat uncooked shellfish or a way to light a fire, he tossed his crabs over to the lemurs to help ensure that their goodwill toward him endured. They chittered what sounded like thanks, and Nick was glad for their company. It made being stranded on the island just a little less lonely.
Twenty minutes later, he had ventured as far north as he was willing for the time being. Although he found nothing else to eat, his efforts weren’t a total waste of time. In addition to fleshing out his mental map of the shoreline, he spotted a handful of unripe coconuts that he could harvest later unless the tribe beat him to it.
By now, the sun hung low above the horizon, and his shadow stretched across the dunes. He was in the middle of working out a few contingency plans while watching the waves roll in when his gaze ran across the neighboring island once again. He had forgotten about it after nearly losing his life twice in the same day, and seeing another landmass made him realize that he hadn’t fully considered his options.
The quest said that I could either survive for thirty-one days or escape the island. I wonder what conditions must be met for an attempt to count as a successful escape. I probably need to make it somewhere that I can survive, like that island or a proper seafaring vessel. I doubt that letting the current carry me out into the ocean would work, and I can’t experiment when failure would result in certain death.
Recalling the ferocity of the lurk’s attack, it was tempting to think that there might be a way to complete the tutorial early. It would increase his odds of surviving, although it would likely cost him something too. He rubbed his chin while considering whether reaching the far shore represented a genuine opportunity or was merely a distraction.
Since there appeared to be two viable paths he could walk, Nick decided that it was worth mulling his options over. He had plenty of time to sit down and think the matter through. By now, he was confident that he knew the beach well enough to make his way back to the obelisk, using the light of the stars to guide him.
The other isle was too distant to swim to, but floating was another story. Supposing that I can find a boat or build a raft, could I really make it over there if my life depended on it? He ran his gaze across the island in question, a hazy green mound along the skyline.
I know nothing about the tides, currents, or wind here. I would risk getting dragged out to sea or smashed against a reef. Still, it’s only a few miles away, and traveling in a straight line will get me to the far shore. If I can fashion a makeshift sail and carve an oar, then wait until the breeze is blowing the right way, I think my odds are decent.
His train of thought trailed off when something pink leapt out of the water in a prismatic spray of droplets. The creature soared through the air in a graceful arc, the last rays of sunlight glistening off its graceful curves. It’s a dolphin. Nick smiled at the unexpected flash of beauty as the dolphin dove and then breached again. Or the local equivalent. I wonder if it’s friendly.
He knew that back on Earth, dolphins were a natural enemy of sharks and were known to carry drowning sailors to the safety of the shore. Seeing a dolphin while thinking about sailing is a good omen. Maybe I should leave the lurk behind and get started on building a raft…
His thought died as swiftly as it had been born when a second, much larger emergence erupted beneath the airborne dolphin. A violent motion, as something massive tore itself free from the sea, rather than gliding out of the waves. His eyes widened in shock as a gigantic shark rose from the depths. Great jaws spread wide like a living avatar of savagery.
The dolphin was helpless, unable to alter its trajectory mid-flight. It let out a terrified shriek as gravity carried it back toward the predator rising from below.
Nick shuddered as the shark caught the dolphin by the belly, maw snapping shut in a spectacular geyser of gore. As the colossal creature completed its own arc above the waves, its full form was revealed to his eyes. It must be at least twenty feet long. Just before the great shark completed its dive, the thing in the sea struck.
From six points around the shark, titanic tentacles burst forth from the brine. Each of the electric purple appendages was as thick as the predatory fish and at least twice as long. In less than the span of a heartbeat, each of the impossibly long limbs lashed out in unison. They wrapped tight around the shark’s torso, immobilizing what he had assumed was an apex hunter while binding its jaws, which still held the corpse of the dolphin.
That was when the head of the thing rose from the depths, revealing a face featuring a colossal yellow beak and far too many eyes. Its strike was so fast that its tentacles became a liquid blur before Nick’s disbelieving eyes. In a frenzy of motion, the thing unwrapped its limbs from the shark’s tail and took a bite. It devoured half of its body in a single chomp, like a hungry kid tearing into a fish stick.
After finishing the rest of the shark in two seconds flat, the thing turned to look straight at him. Its baleful gaze rooted him to the spot, frozen in terror, despite the distance and the solid stretch of shoreline standing between them.
He blinked. By the time his eyes reopened, the thing in the sea was gone. Only bloody froth riding the waves remained. He closed his slack jaw with a click, his plans to sail the seas as dead as the dolphin and shark. Right… survival challenge it is.
Shaken by another encounter with an impossibly powerful predator, he no longer felt confident enough to traverse the coastline in the dark. As he had yet to discover a suitable shelter, Nick decided to jog back to the obelisk and use the last of the light to improve his ramshackle refuge.
On his way, he picked up a stout branch that he could use as a walking stick as well as a deterrent if he ran into any beasts. Looking down at his crude weapon, he decided that he needed to find something that he could use as a cutting tool. It would greatly expand the range of what he could craft using natural materials.
A proper weapon would be even better. Given the game-like layout of the tutorial, Nick thought that he would come across one eventually, especially if he was able to get his hands on one of the higher-value reward chests.
Once he was back, he walked over to the obelisk to check the display, where a pleasant surprise was waiting for him.
Congratulations. You have accumulated enough experience to reach Level [2].
You have one free attribute point awaiting allocation at your discretion.
Killing that komo must have given me almost enough experience to level up twice, and exploring took care of the rest. After a long moment of deliberation spent staring into the sunset, he decided to put this free point into Toughness too.
Nick needed to be able to shrug off a few hits without taking a critical injury in the process. But the main reason for the investment was that he had noticed how much longer he was able to run and hike after raising Toughness the last time. The heat wasn’t bothering him as much now, either. Having another point would make a big difference, helping him to survey the island as efficiently as possible.
“I’ll take another point of Toughness.” He sat down to ride out the intense sensation of electric worms reconfiguring his tissue. While was still kind of creepy to have the System tinkering around with his insides, he knew that it was worth it. These changes were making his organs and bones—his muscles and skin—more resistant to wear and tear. Not to mention increasing his endurance along the way. When it was over, he decided that it was time to upgrade his sleeping arrangement.
He started gathering all the fallen fronds that he could find, then collected various pieces of driftwood. He arranged them in a half-circle around the back of the obelisk, where its broad base provided partial shelter from the perennial sea breeze. To top it off, Nick piled up several feet of sand to improve his windbreak, glad for the extra warmth provided by his new shirt and hat.
As the last sliver of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, he stepped back to consider his handiwork. Despite his best efforts, it was a crude and dilapidated shelter. A half measure not even worthy of calling a hovel, but still a marked improvement. He would sleep a bit more comfortably and be significantly warmer than he’d been last night.
Although he doubted that anywhere on the isle was safe, this location was more secure than anywhere else he’d found. It was further away from the spring than he liked. But the area around the obelisk was higher than the rest of the beach, offering him a clear view along the approach to his shelter. Better yet, it was as far away from the komos and the lurk as he could get, and the lemur tribe roving the surrounding sands was the closest thing that he had to a security system.
As conditioning his body was imperative to his survival, Nick watched the horizon fade to black while stretching and working out, careful not to aggravate his injuries. Going through a few sets of crunches, back lifts, squats, and sit-ups every day would help improve his Strength—maybe even bolster his Toughness and Dexterity to a lesser extent.
After eating his last sliver of coconut and drinking most of the water in his canteen, he pulled the blanket of fronds over himself. He contemplated his day while playing with the wand. Not that it did anything, as far as he could tell.
As the last bands of twilight vanished and the stars began to shine, he closed his eyes, intending to work out a few new plans in his mind before calling it a night. But he had underestimated how much the last two days had taken out of him.
Before long, Nick entered a deep and dreamless sleep.