As starlight filtered through the dense canopy, casting dappled shadows onto the forest floor, Vex nimbly stepped over a gnarled root. He moved with an ease and confidence that belied his former clumsiness, his eyes scanning the foliage for any sign of sustenance. While his eyes couldn't fully see in the dark, Vex could still pick out the vague outlines of the surrounding foliage in the dark.
Having already experienced the painful joy of finding himself amid a few briar patches, Vex was quickly learning to listen to the intuitive nudges from his darkness navigation skill. In doing so, he found that he utilized his other senses more than he remembered being accustomed to. Having become far more aware of his feet, Vex would carefully feel the ground with his feet, taking more tentative steps. He also became extremely cautious in areas with pungent, earthy aromas with hints of spice, as they were associated with the thorny plants.
After barely avoiding a gnarled root, Vex paused and plucked a handful of ripe nuts from his personal storage, popping one into his mouth and savoring its bitter tang. As he chewed, he couldn't help but marvel at how far he'd come in just a few short months. What had once been an unfamiliar, treacherous landscape was now a moderately familiar, treacherous landscape.
While Vex knew he was far from fully exploring this new world, he had pushed his darkness navigation, foraging, hiking, and survival skills above level five without using his growing hoard of skill points. Each newly acquired skill rank made it easier to begin thriving in the untamed wilderness of never-ending nights. Each point in a skill represented a stronger, more intuitive nudge over a larger breadth of tasks related to the skill. So, as Vex's mastery of the survival skill grew, he found himself better able to forage for food, to start fires, and to build a shelter.
As he continued to explore this strange new world, Vex found himself practicing his perception and identification skills by mentally cataloging every plant, creature, and hidden nook he encountered. With the dedicated focus, each attempt brought new discoveries and small victories that slowly built up his confidence and expertise.
When he sat down to recover, Vex ran through the system prompts and menus, attempting to improve his reading skills. He would also challenge himself with basic math problems that he would write out in the dirt by the flickering light of his campfire. His efforts inadvertently unlocked the writing skill. During these quiet moments, he could truly appreciate justhow much he had given up and how much potential lay before him.
While reflecting, Vex often contemplated how he felt that he was stagnant in his scant memories of his previous world. While the details remained hazy, he couldn't remember having goals or motivation. He was content just working at the hardware store and spending his free time playing games. He didn't have any ambitions of attending college, starting a family, or building his career. Being complacent was a luxury that he found himself desperately missing. Even with the system and his new abilities, his old life was far superior to his current existence in its simplicity. Now, he was constantly dirty and hoping he would be able to get enough calories from the edible plants around him to survive.
The moments when Vex didn't take every opportunity to occupy his time were the worst. In his first few days, he scrambled to survive and was forced to focus on finding food and water. After meeting those needs and regaining the luxury of rest, he noticed the eerie silence in the world around him. The moment that Vex wasn't actively moving or working, the world around him went so incredibly still that he could hear his own heartbeat thumping loudly in his chest. The lack of sound slowly ate away at his sanity and cast doubts upon his reality, forcing him to either occupy every last ounce of his time or descend into madness.
Despite the landscape and the lush vegetation, this world didn't feel entirely real to Vex because of its inhabitants. The majority of the denizens were literal shadows. Vex could verify they were there with the system, but neither he nor the Shadowlings could interact with them. Knowing that a hoard of insects wouldn't bombard him at night was nice. However, he desperately missed real food. And while the new vegetation had its unique blend of exotic flavors, they lacked substance.
As he ventured further, it became increasingly apparent to Vex that the world was shaped like a gargantuan bowl. The outer ring was composed of sheer, unyielding stone, far beyond his current climbing ability. Recognizing his limitations, he was forced to explore the vast biome within the stone walls, teeming with dense forests and murky bogs. The entire valley felt designed to funnel everything away from the outer ring and towards the central plateau.
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Despite his relatively desperate situation, Vex held out hope that he would find the reason for his solitary exploration of the strange world. While he was fairly certain the answer was somewhere near the distant plateau, he assumed there would be an additional challenge within the valley's center that he wasn't comfortable facing. Anxiety and instinct gnawed at Vex, keeping him in a perpetual state of avoidance.
The blame for his emotional state was almost squarely on the gremlins in Vex's mind. He felt like they constantly surrounded him despite how many the Shadowlings had dispatched. While he wasn't certain of the exact number and didn't care to see if he could force the system to answer, he estimated that nearly 200 of the white-furred monstrosities had been culled, bringing Vex up to level 11. And while those numbers, which were entirely credited to his little lawn-gnome-sized guardians, should have felt inspiring, they instead instilled trepidation.
As the weeks passed, the fluffy little gremlins had grown in level, even as they seemed to become skinnier and move more sluggishly. Observing the evil creatures led Vex to believe they were slowly starving, yet he felt like the furry little demons were somehow more organized despite clearly marching to their deaths.
Stooping down amid a starlight-dappled glade, Vex furrowed his brow and traced a series of lines in the dirt with a twig, attmpting got sketch a crude map. The lines and shapes he traced mirrored the twisting paths and landmarks he had encountered during his journey. He knew he was close to where he had met the original gremlin and wanted to avoid that particular location. Rather than dwelling on his anxiety about returning to the starting point of his entry into this world or facing the plateau, Vex instead forced his thoughts to focus on adding details to his crude drawing.
Thick lines outlined the outside of the valley and the plateau, indicating known areas of impassible elevation. The bog was drawn out using little squiggles, and thinner lines were used to indicate relatively low levels of elevation, which coverage at the center of the muddy drawing. As the map slowly came together, Vex was greeted with an unexpected system prompt.
> Your mapping skill has reached level 1.
Setting his drawing twig down momentarily, Vex read over and then re-read the system prompt. "My mapping skill?" Vex muttered, confusion seeping into his voice. "Shouldn't that read map making?
A small icon in his peripheral vision immediately appeared, blinking as if responding to his thoughts. With a sense of tentative hesitation, Vex prompted the system to open the new icon, bringing forth a new top-down map of the territory that filled his vision. At least, he assumed it was a map. The window was mostly black, except for a broad white line that zigged around a circular area.
"Of course, there's a mapping system!" Vex exclaimed, smacking himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I think to check for the function earlier? I could have been training the skill the entire time!"
The Shadowlings that had been close enough to hear what was being said looked at Vex, the dirt where Vex had been drawing, and then back at each. While Vex stared into space obliviously, Sir Sneaks tapped their head against his fist while their mouth hung open. Strikesies glanced back and forth between the map and Vex one last time before nodding in resignation. The two then split up, patrolling the immediate area to avoid the summoner, who appeared to suffer from delusions.
As Vex slowly let his curiosity win, he mentally closed the window and willed the system to add another point to the mapping skill.
> Your mapping skill has reached level 2.
Opening the map back up, Vex now saw a compass in the corner of the map and the vague hits of color that appeared to be highlighting the water and the forests. A closer examination of the two-dimensional map revealed that he had been traveling in a rough circle around the outer perimeter of the bowl-shaped terrain. Many spots were left to explore, and Vex felt a twinge of irritation at how inefficient his original route had been. To fully explore the world, he would have to trek across his previous route continuously.
The leaves above Vex's head slowly rustled despite the lack of a breeze as he sat in indecision. As the starlight shone through the trees, casting dappled shadows across the forest floor, his gaze drifted across the unexplored expanses of the map. Uncertain of what he was avoiding, Vex's anxiety bubbled, leaving him content to hold off a bit longer before exploring the central region of his new world.
"Alright then, let's fill in the blanks!" Vex declared with newfound resolve, tapping the edges of the ring-shaped area around the bowl. Looking around to grin at the Shadowlings, Vex realized that he had been abandoned a bit ago during his musings. Assuming he had begun to sound a bit crazy to them, he couldn't blame his summons for stepping away.
Unfortunately, the language barrier was still one-sided, but Vex wasn't ready to learn their particular language when he knew they could understand him. For the moment, he was keeping as many skill points banked as he could. The forty points he was hoarding weren't needed anywhere crucial and gave Vex a sense of control. Not spending all his earnings from leveling up allowed him a precious commodity - options.
With a tired sigh, Vex slowly obscured his makeshift map in the dirt and stood. After a brief stretch, he checked the system map while walking towards one of the larger areas he had missed on his first pass through this strange world.