{Gonna try something different}

Toby woke up and smelled the hypothetical roses, at least the forest wasn’t actively trying to kill him. One of the trees moved its roots and dumped a ton of soil on his fire. He managed to scavenge the dry wood for kindling for the next time he started a fire.

When Toby woke up he learned the trees glowed in the dark before the sun came up, then they opened holes in their foliage to let in sunlight. Eerily he noticed that there wasn’t a single animal this deep into the forest beside the white deer. That animal hasn’t been seen to be dangerous as it is herbivorous and doesn’t have any noticeable sharp teeth.

“Hey system how does everything work around here”

[Mana]

“Can you explain mana in a way I can understand”

[It is a type of energy that comes to be when realities superimpose on each other and dimensions clash, it can do almost anything but it has limitations. Theoretically, if you had infinite mana you could become omnipotent, and omnipresent]

[Mana is limited by the amount as it uses the energy inside it to do things, huge mana sources tend to attract mana]

“So basically like a litrpg novel”

[Yes]

With that question answered he grabbed his notebook and a pencil and climbed to the top of one of the particularly large trees. Time for some calculations he walked for 9 hours, and the average speed for someone his age is 3.0 miles per hour. Now since he is in rough terrain he should take around 70 percent more time to walk the same distance, So the school is roughly 8 miles from here to the southeast. He can’t currently take the trip as the last shockwave was kinda close and threw trees around, If he gets unlucky he gets pancaked.

“System what should I prioritize today,” Toby asked

[Making traps out further away from this deep in the forest and finding a water source, and while doing so gather string-like objects]

Okay-okay he grabbed his backpack and weapons and dug a hole in the ground and put his supplies in it before filling it with dirt.

“How long is the average day here and what season is it?”

[Average day is 36 hours with night and day being 18 hours each, and the season is spring]

“What are the highest temperatures during each season”

[During Summer it reaches 138.7 degrees Fahrenheit, during Spring the temperature is 101.3, Fall -10 and Winter -40]

“Hmm so nice, extra death, kinda nice, moderate death”

Time to get to work then, while making traps with sharp sticks and rocks also trying to make the traps as not noticeable as possible. Later I found a water source surrounded by corpses, so I went to look for another. He found lots of string-like material and used those to improve upon his traps.

Toby had placed 13 traps without string used in its construction and had 23 other improved traps. When he went back he managed to ambush 4 squirrels and one snake.

After he set up his fire further away from the trees and under some cover, he started smoking the meat after skinning and starting the process of tanning the skin far away from camp. And as any good camp or outpost needs a name he named it Deep forest camp or outpost Helio.

While snacking on a can of tomatoes, and some smoked squirrel meat. He watched the trees as the sun went down for his second day on this planet.

“System can you keep track of the days for me, and set reminders and alerts” he inquired

[Sure]

[Emergency announcement, time till system functions for Mp, Classes, Titles, and map features are restored:24 hours]

“Well when were you going to tell me that,” Toby asked

Well, he decided if it wasn’t going to answer he would do something productive, or also known as sharpening sticks. Long sticks are the type you would use in pitfall traps to make extra deadly.

While Toby was sharpening those aforementioned sticks, he noticed the tracks circling his camp outpost, now if these were the small animal kind he wouldn’t be worried but these were lizard tracks and they were kinda large.

Then the problems started coming out of the woodwork literally, lizard people his worst enemy.

Toby slowly started backpedaling towards his backpack of weapons. Hoped that his ranged bow would help against an unknown number of potential enemies, he didn’t know how to shoot a bow.

The lizardmen or women all started advancing semi-formation, hissing commands I wouldn’t understand or wanted to.

I managed to grab the bow and put the arrow in the shooty string, he pulled back, fired, and missed. When the lizard people started getting closer he did something he was more familiar with and started chucking his spears, he managed to get maybe five of them.

Toby tactically retreated again in the direction of his pitfall traps, using them as a last resort if it came down to it.

“Hssssss” one of the larger lizard people went, he ignored it and kept chucking his spears.

“Hisss!! Chuk-Chuk”

Surprisingly they all started leaving Toby breathed a sigh of relief, though he wondered why they were all retreating didn’t they have a numbers advantage.

Pov shift :)

Jungle spearer Archiv wasn’t in a good mood, sure he went into the woods of death expecting some of his troops to die, but this was terrifying and not in the way he expected.

Before going into the Deep Jungle he and his troops rubbed themselves in special ritualistic water that would keep the mana coming off them to a minimum. While walking through the jungle they encountered strange tracks that didn’t belong there.

The occasional squirrel wasn’t a problem nor the forest guardian, but this was new they didn’t know anything about it. He didn’t know anything about it. Some of the troops voiced their thoughts.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” a random soldier asked

“I am very sure, the needle points this way” he droned

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Then Archiv’s scouts reported to him there was something strange up ahead. A weird pale creature, from the scout's description nothing that should live this deep. They said it had no scales, stood upright, had something on its head and that it was making wooden spears.

The soldiers under him made it clear that he as the hunt leader should make a decision. He decided to try to capture it and bring it back to the village.

“Capture it!”

They charged towards it and grabbed a bow. It was very different from the bows his tribe made, as they couldn’t usually scavenge wood.

The pale creature tried to fire an arrow but failed. Archiv was gleeful; maybe this hunt wouldn’t be so hard after all. Then it threw the wooden spears, the spears weren’t meant to be thrown as they were too thick and didn’t have a metal tip.

The spears killed three of them on impact and the other two were severely injured, the creature didn’t stop there, of course, no it kept throwing. Out of forty members of the hunt eighteen had died and eight others were injured

“Retreat!, fall back into the forest, and don’t let those spears hit you!”

We grabbed the injured and ran, two more fell but they managed to escape. This was the worst hunt in four summers, almost as bad as when they were ambushed by a horde of dire titan wolves.

“Jungle spear, what was that thing?” one of the injured whispered

“Well whatever it is doesn’t show up on mana detection, life detection, we wouldn’t know if it was right behind us” the hunter mage spoke

“Well we need to keep going then” Archiv exclaimed, sometimes he felt like his tribe of lizard people wasn’t quite as intelligent as him. It took him three years to learn to hunt but the others took seven.

“We need to watch it, we can’t find it easily but the same is true for it” the hunter mage vocalized

“Why would we watch something we can’t beat,” a soldier asked

“To study it, of course, learn its hunting patterns, weaknesses and if possible find out how the forest can’t see it” the hunter mage bubbled with glee

“Well if you want to you can, the rest of the hunt will leave-taking the injured with us two will stay” Archiv decided

Final pov shift

“Hey system what were those things,” Toby asked

[Natives]

“Okay cool, why didn’t they keep attacking me” he questioned

[They decided the amount of dead just to kill or capture you wasn’t worth it]

“Okay that's nice,” he thought, wait doesn’t that mean if they deem me a threat they will try to exterminate me with all their might. That's not nice, that is a very bad caveman Toby thought.

Toby started setting up more traps, dangerous traps, tree traps, poison traps. If they were to deem him as a threat at any point in the future he would set up traps, he also ate some of the nonpoisonous fruits. Man, they were good, they tasted like a well-done steak and chips sandwich mixed with sunshine and rainbows.

After setting up all the traps and grabbing some weapons he went to check for a clean water source. He eventually found one way deeper in the forest near the center. It was foggy and looked like a piece of art more than something real.

Well, now he had water so that was all well and good, with his start on the newly made traps and managed to catch some kind of bear and a couple birds and squirrels and smoked the meat heavily.

“Hey system can you tell me how this whole world works, besides the obvious fantasy stuff” Toby blandly asked

{Info dump :)

[Well as you know mana is the driving force behind most things, fire mana vibrates a lot and generates heat from nothing. But all mana has a dissipation rate, say normal mana deteriorates at one per day fire would go down two a day]

[Mana in huge quantities also attracts other mana of the same type, how artifacts that replenish mana is they have a permanently stored amount of mana that attracts other mana for and enchanted weapons normal functions]

[Fun fact about gravity mana, and void mana. Gravity attracts more mana than other mana types and void mana doesn’t dissipate, but void mana is also highly destructive]

“So stay away from void mana, and use gravity mana in shield formations if I can make them?” Toby questioned

[Yes, but also beware mana affects the physical body slowly but surely. So stay away from mana that actively damages you as that can cause almost irreversible damage]

“What helps heal the body, also what do they eat as some of these animals should need to eat tons of pounds of food a day” he ventured

[Vital energy, keeps the body's energy cost manageable, as higher tier energy pulls stuff from a higher dimension. We are a 3d dimensional space, these high energies get limitless energy from 4d and potentially 5d spaces]

[And through this we have a self-perpetuating universe, that won’t destroy itself through the skyrocketing energy costs to maintain itself]

“Cool, so how long until I get some system functions”

[3…………2…………..1………Startup]

“That's nice and all but can you show them” he exclaimed

[Mp:120/120]

[Class choices: Genesis, Space explorer, Traveler]

[Subclass/fusion class choices: Evolution, Trap master]

[Choice made….. Fusing classes evolution and genesis]

“Yes!, finally i have a class, wait what does the class do since I don’t have stats,” Toby asked

[Nothing you just get some passive improvements and abilities]

“What about the map, does it automatically fill in” today wasn’t going to be a good one if it didn’t autofill..

[Yes]

“Alright what are my abilities, passives and titles”

[Processing…. abilities include, Evolution passive, Evolution active, Titles are Survivor, Trap maker, Giantkiller]

“What's the difference between active and passive Evolution”

[Active happens when you kill a creature through most means, and passive uses excess energy your body produces to also strengthen itself]

“Okay nice, nice now better get something done or the readers will get bored. Let's go check my traps and see if I can spear me some animal meat”

After checking his traps and grabbing the small animals that got caught in them, he searched for some of the native creatures, some were too small and fast to catch. He climbed a tree and found a python-like creature slithering across the ground ahead of him. He successfully managed to not startle it while creeping along with the trees in fact he didn’t think it even noticed him.

He threw two spears at it one hit, it was kinda far away.

After writhing around and slithering behind a tree it glared in his direction and started tasting the air.

He quickly lost track of it afterward, but he saw how some of the branches shifted in his direction and threw another spear. He missed again but managed to startle it enough that it couldn’t maintain whatever invisibility it was using.

After that as it seemed he couldn't use it again it was like shooting fish in a barrel, he managed to get it pinned to a tree. And finally killed it after using twenty of the thirty spears he had brought. With that, after skinning it and harvesting most of the meat, and burying the rest of the body he headed back.

He was quicker back as the walk was usually around twenty minutes, and left him mildly breathless. As was expected, he was carrying a couple of pounds of snake meat.

He noticed some more tracks around his camp and some a good distance off to the side following his path towards the python-like thing he had just hunted. From this he could assume they were watching him, they hid from his perception but they couldn’t or didn’t hide their physical traces.

They didn’t attack him and there weren’t that many, maybe six or seven, if more appeared he would attack before they had the numbers to fight him and inflict any kind of injury.

He checked his fire to see if it had been crushed again, it wasn’t so he started smoking the snake meat and had some of his water bottles and medicine. From what he could tell he was sick, his body ached occasionally and he had mild pain. The pain meds would help with the pain and keep him moving long enough till he could make time to be affected by whatever was affecting him.

One thing everyone should know is that in the face of certain death, future problems come later as if you don’t deal with the other you might just die.

“System am I doing well on the whole survival thing, just wanted to check as I wasn’t sure” Toby questioned

[You are doing fine, just make sure to take breaks and start worrying about future problems. You have already solved all the important immediate ones and sleep will clear up the last of them]

[After all, you are finally at least somewhat safe for now. Before you have to set up more camps so you can travel farther over long periods of time instead of limiting yourself to the immediate area]