Covered in sweat, shaking from excitement, exhaustion, and the shock of surviving his closest call yet, Nick staggered his way across the forest floor.
He laughed all the while, dragging his bruised and battered body south along the coastline. He could still hear the lurk’s furious screams and the unearthly roar of the gigantic sleepshroom, although they were gradually fading into the distance. They were sounds that he would never forget. He was certain that they would haunt his dreams for months to come.
Nick had decided to head for the obelisk. He was too worn down to hike all the way back to his cave, and he needed to get as far away as possible from the war between monsters raging behind his back. Climbing into the branches of the great tree or ducking behind the barrier in his cave would have been safer places to recover. But he simply didn’t have the energy to walk that far.
It was hard enough hiking to the obelisk a bit further down the coast. He was still fatigued and dazed, oversaturated with stress to the point that he wasn’t thinking clearly. Now that the adrenaline was beginning to fade, his body felt like it was wrapped in bands of thorn-studded lead. It took all his willpower not to collapse and pass out where he stood.
Despite his distraction, every part of Nick’s brain was crowing in triumph, alight with visceral satisfaction. After all, he had faced down the two greatest predators on the island at once and had walked away from the encounter—well, limped away at least.
He realized that he was more satisfied at this moment than he had been at any other point in his life. In the end, his plans had been sufficient to not only endure the lurk’s wrath but to come out the other side of the gauntlet with his prize in hand. He was happy that he had been able to save the lemur tribe as well, rewarding the goodwill they had shown him since he had woken up on the beach, which already felt like a lifetime ago.
Nick was lucky not to run into any komos on this trip. Right now, he had no reserves left with which to fight and no charges in his wand. He would be next to helpless if he were forced into another battle before he had time to recover from his ordeal—another reason why he needed to get out of the forest as quickly as he could.
He did eventually spot a pair of lizards in the distance, fighting over the remains of a well-chewed swordclaw. As the komos were busy resolving their dispute and not looking his way, he avoided them by taking the long way around.
Eventually, the top of the obelisk came into view. Ten minutes later, he made his way across the sandbar, climbed the rise, and then set his back against the sun-warmed stone, savoring the sensations of his body. Despite the pain and exhaustion, Nick was still in one piece, still alive, and still able to continue his journey.
He wanted to find out what he had won; to check out the notifications waiting on the display. But right now, Nick was too tired to rise to his feet once more. He barely had enough energy to pop the top off his canteen, drain it dry, and scarf down a few rations from his pack before a black wave of enervation carried him away.
When he woke up, the sun hung low in the sky, the horizon bleeding with the end of day. It seemed that he would be camping here tonight, like he had during his first few days on the Searing Isle. Nick didn’t mind. Now that he was aware enough to process what had happened, he was ready for the big reveal. He laughed when he realized that he had been clutching the golden box the entire time he was asleep, guarding his hard-won prize even while dreaming.
“You did it, Nick.” He took a moment to savor the delicious tingle of anticipation dancing throughout his body. Then he raised the box in front of his eyes and cracked open the lid. “Fuck!” he cried out as the stiff sea breeze caught the slip of paper, carrying it out over the ocean before he was able to snatch it out of the air. But then he remembered that System-granted items were listed in his profile. While he might have lost a bit of detail on the full description, he should still be able to figure out what he had won.
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I’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Nick shrugged philosophically, then looked inside the golden container to examine the jewel nestled within. The multifaceted gem was the size of a robin’s egg—a glittering ruby with flawless depths the color of freshly spilled blood. Every speck of its surface was covered in intricate sigils, which looked to be the same language used by the System.
Or maybe it’s some kind of code rather than a dialect, he mused, for the interlocking symbols formed geometries that looked like some kind of formula rather than words. Not that he was an expert on xenolinguistics or the mathematics of magic.
Nick didn’t know much about gems either. Calling it a ruby was just a hunch. But he was certain that the beautifully cut stone would be worth a fortune back on Earth—if anyone was still alive to buy it. He would have been frustrated if the gem was merely a precious jewel, worth no more to him on the island than any random rock that crossed his path. But if finding the gemstone inside a gold reward box and the presence of System writing weren’t clear enough clues that the jewel was special, it glowed softly with a steady inner light. A phenomenon suggesting magic at work or some other technology beyond his understanding.
Staring into those ruddy depths, he felt hope rising within his breast. The promise of power that would soon be his to command. It was a most welcome development since, as his latest escapade had highlighted in excruciating detail, Nick desperately needed to find a way to increase his odds of survival. Something that would grant him the power to deal with threats like the lurk and the pack, or at least begin to close the gap.
As he rolled the gem between his fingertips, Nick was certain that the jewel would offer him such a chance, and he believed that he would unlock its mystery sooner rather than later. It made no sense that the best reward he had found in the tutorial would be useless during its final phase.
Hoping that the description in his inventory would be sufficient to unravel the mystery of the gem’s power, he rose to his feet with a groan. He walked over to the display mounted on the obelisk while there was still enough light to read. The moment that the display activated, he realized that all his worries had been for nothing. In addition to a thick pile of notifications, a second window opened without need of his prompting, and the words on the screen made the gem’s nature crystal clear.
Nick’s face broke into a broad grin as he read the prompt. Not only was his reward worth the risk entailed in acquiring it, but it was exactly what he had been hoping for.
An ability stone (Active, Offensive) has been detected in your inventory.
Would you like to activate the stone and learn a new ability?
Available ability slots: 2 active, 1 passive, 1 free.
“Fucking awesome.” Nick danced in circles while whooping with delight. At long last, almost a month into his survival tutorial, he was about to acquire his first ability.
Thanks to Taltos’s interference, he had been forced to take a basic class, the lowest of the rarities. And though it offered him a decent trait and a pair of useful skills, Survivor had provided him with zero abilities. Pax had implied that acquiring abilities early on was critical to his growth. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to obtain one until he changed his class, as Nick had absolutely no idea when such an opportunity might come along.
Although it seemed like they were divided into categories, he didn’t know if there were different rarities of ability stones; if the powers they granted were random, based on his choices, or followed some other criteria beyond his understanding. Even if such stones did come in different qualities or rarities, something that Nick had found inside a golden reward box, obtained at incredible risk to his life, had to land somewhere on the decent side of the scale.
He took out the gem and held it before his eyes, savoring the moment. Nick was about to take his first big step down the myriad paths of power. Now it was time to find out what form that power would take.