Jake was both surprised and excited after reading the message, he could pick a trait? passive benefits were almost always useful so he was really looking forward to these choices.

Engraving basic trait information..

Along with that message he got hit by a small headache that only lasted for a little over 5 seconds. In which time he felt a rush of information enter his brain.

He took a few seconds to sort out all his thoughts after the rush of information had entered his mind. Now apparently traits worked in a way where if you made achievements the next time you,d be able to pick a trait you,d be able to get a trait related to your achievement. The bigger the achievement the higher leveled or the better the trait. And acquired traits could still go up to its higher level versions after being acquired if conditions were met. These level ups would only be available at the next trait selection.

The list itself was about 300 choices long with a-lot of generic traits. Such as some basic fast metabolism or shiny hair. So first he started scrolling through the list and removing any options he felt weren’t useful to him at the moment. Then from there on he went with those that were better or more useful than others. He repeated this selection process until he was left with about 7 choices.

Trait - Quick thinking (static)

This trait will allow the user to think at 1.5x the speed the user is normally able to

Trait - Builder ll

Anything the user builds will be 15% more durable

Trait - Skill proficient l

Every skill the user uses takes 5% less mana

Trait - Proficient hunter l

Deal 5% more damage

Trait - Survivalist l

This trait will allow the user to have 5% less need for all basic survival needs

Trait - Tech savvy ll

Any tech made by the user will have 10% greater efficiency and 5% greater effect

Trait - Resistant l

Take 5% less damage

He thought these were all pretty nice and useful traits. Now it was only a question of what fit him and his future the best. He had taken care of the immediate danger with weapon creation. Giving him some room to think about what he would always find a use for, even in the future.

Now it was a matter of what was the most useful for the future. And what would be most useful for his survival. Now the 4 traits out of the 7 that spoke to him the most were; Builder, Tech savvy, Proficient hunter and Resistant.

Now Builder and Tech savvy spoke to him the most out of those 4. Proficient hunter and Resistance were great traits with great generic use. But as his class was mostly tech related, enhancing his creations durability or efficiency and effectiveness would clearly give him more benefits. Not to mention the two traits he felt were related to his class were the highest level and were not only great long term but also more useful long term.

He was having a really hard time deciding between the two traits. But eventually he decided upon Builder. Cause a strong and sturdy shelter would clearly grant him a lot more safety not to mention peace of mind. Next to that it would also work on his drones. And if his drones became harder to destroy that directly related to him having stronger combat power as well. And if his equipment would be harder to destroy,it would also be more reliable, after all what would suck more than pulling out a created weapon only for it to malfunction or break in a critical situation.

Not that he knew if his summoned weapons could even break naturally or some magic shenanigans would help it stay complete. But a stronger sword or something didn't sound too bad either. He wondered if he could create a lightsaber eventually. A good thing to look forward to and think about.

Anyways with that decided he finalized Builder as his trait

Trait selection complete..

?̶̫͍͙̬̜͛̿?̵̡̩͖̩͍̓?̷̨̠͎͇͑̕͜ Detected...

Requirements not met…

?̶̫͍͙̬̜͛̿?̵̡̩͖̩͍̓?̷̨̠͎͇͑̕͜ will be unlocked at level 10…

Finalizing awakening proces…

Right as that final message hit he got hit with another headache, this one lasting for about 15 seconds and then, everything around him unfroze. He sat up straight right away. Ad he did this he noticed the distinct lack of pain all over his body. And as he checked out his arm he noticed all the wounds he had gotten before he had awakened were gone. He guessed it was a nice benefit of the system awakening.

Before doing anything else though. He just laid back down and looked at the blue sky up above. He was pretty sure he was supposed to be traumatized right now, but instead of breaking down mentally he felt perfectly fine. It felt kind of forced in a way. Like his worried thoughts for forcefully repressed. For now he just chalked it up to the system not wanting people to freak out as earth got initialized into this “System” and apparently in 5 years the multiverse. The least he could give himself though was a bit of rest.

So he laid there for about 20 minutes just staring up at the sky. Before deciding that was enough self pity, not to mention he did feel kind of uneasy now that he knew he could be attacked at any time while laying here by god knows what kind of crazy creatures.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

So he got to work, the first thing he did was open his status with that last headache from the system he had gotten some basic information about how the system worked.

Name: Jake miller

Age: 23

Class: Technomancer

Level: 1

Mana: 100/100

XP: 0/300

?̶̫͍͙̬̜͛̿?̵̡̩͖̩͍̓?̷̨̠͎͇͑̕͜ - Locked

Skills:

Create drone lv1

Construction lv1

Weapon creation lv1

Traits:

Builder ll

Overall a pretty nice status if he said so himself. He would go over the extra information his skills gave him now that he got them later. First he had to find or in his case really try to create a shelter. He decided that his original plan of camping near that huge rock which could basically be called a mountain by now. Would be a perfect place to set up his base for a while. It something you could see from far away so he would have less trouble getting lost if he had a landmark to lead him home.Coming to this decision he started moving towards the big rock.

As he started walking towards the mountain he decided he,d take a look at what kind of drones he could create and also what kind of weapons he could create.

Create drone [Info]

1. Scout - 100MP

As he saw the option for information pop up he immediately clicked on it. In front of him appeared a list that held information about the skill. After looking it through he found the drones specifications in the information. He would only be able to see the drones capabilities and statistics after he had at least summoned it once. As there was no time to waste he quickly activated his skill and started summoning the drone.

As he summoned the drone he felt a sense of energy leaving his body and gathering in the air in front of him. And in the air he basically saw the drone come into existence. The drone had the size and shape of a tennis ball except it was made out of some sort of metal with green neon lines running all over its body. With at what he assumed was the front of the drone, a big camera lens. The drone itself floated and made no noise. None that he could hear at least.

Now that he had summoned the drone he quickly brought up its specifications. The the drone was able to fly at 100 kilometers per hour which was faster than Jake was expecting really. Now along with that the drone could record for up to about 1 minute of video. It could also just send live video to him but for that he would need a console or screen to receive the live feed. Since unlike the recorded video it couldn't be sent straight into his brain. For that he needed some sort of computer or other device that could connect to the drone.This wasn’t the case for the recording though, the recording could be sent straight into his mind as long as the scout drone was within 10 meters of him.

Now he could control the drone via both mental commands and digital commands. Not that he had any way of doing the second method right now. He broke his phone that had been in his pocket in the fight with the panther. It also turned out the drones were semi intelligent. They understood conditional commands like: if you see this then do this. They could also be given a basic command like: scout the area and if you see anything that could pose me danger return. The drone would then somehow understand what posed a danger and what wouldn’t. Now it could only work with what Jake already knew so if he classified an unknown animal as danger then the drone would also recognize it as such. But if he wouldn’t think of a unknown animal as dangerous then the drone wouldn’t care either. Which for a level one skill scout drone was a lot better than he was expecting.

Now he could summon up to 10 scout drones at a time. Also a rather generous number for a skill being at level one. Then again it wasn't like they had any combat potential. They were really only intended for the gathering of information. He was sure different drones would have different statistics and capabilities. Wait… an idea popped into jakes head. The drone scouts looked pretty sturdy and they could fly pretty fast as well.. Could they be used as rams? like what if he just made the things fly into stuff at a high speed, surely that would do some damage right? They were made from some sort of metal after all. And they could fly at high speeds.

Deciding to try this out he mentally commanded the drone to fly into a nearby tree at maximum speed. The drone quickly accelerated and shot into the tree making a dent into the bark. as he observed he felt pretty shocked. It had worked better than he had expected. I mean the damage was nothing mind shattering but enough to bust the skull of your average adult human.

As he finished playing around with the drone he focused back on his status. His Xp to be specific. Now along with the extremely basic information the system had given it at his awakening. He knew he would gain Xp from killing creatures. He wondered how a crafting class like a blacksmith would gain Xp without a combat focused class or combat focused skills. After thinking about possible answers for a while he set the problem aside and focused on his mana instead.

Mana 10/100

It had been about 30 minutes since he had summoned his scout drone.

All the while he had kept walking towards the mountain. He hS also sent the scout drone ahead a while ago to look for any dangers and if so record them for as long as necessary and then return to him to give him the recording. The recordings apparently able to be sent directly into his mind as opposed to the live feed option. As long as the drone was within 10 meters of him that is. There was a much bigger limit on this distance if he used a terminal though. He really had to get a terminal or atleast a working phone or something soon.

Anyways since about 30 minutes had passed and 10 mana had regenerated that meant he regenerated 20 mana per hour. And that meant for all his mana to regenerate he would have to wait for 4,5 more hours.

He quickly thought of ways to increase his mana regeneration since his mana would basically become his lifeline for a while. He was now in an earth that was going through some big changes. Clearly making things more dangerous on earth than they had ever been before.

After Jake was done contemplating if he would get any mana regeneration skills in the future he decided the rest of his time walking was better spent looking at his other skills. Deciding to wait with Construction until he reached the mountain he instead took a look at Weapon creation.

Weapon creation [Info]

1. Basic melee weapon creation

2. Basic gun creation

3. Basic explosives creation

4. Basic ammo creation

Huh. he hadn’t expected a selection out of 4 options. Deciding to just take a look at basic melee weapon creation he mentally selected the option. Then a catalog of melee weapons he could currently create and their costs of mana appeared in front of him. He had about 20 or so options each with distinct costs and also descriptions. After looking the weapons and their descriptions over for a bit he decided to just pick one he could afford at the moment.

Metal Bat - 15MP

An average Bat often used by gangsters or delinquents in movies and novels

Since he had gained enough MP to create the Metal Bat after he walked a little more he tried summoning it. And sure enough a metal Bat appeared right in his hand. He quickly looked it over and it really was just a normal Metal Bat. Except this one lacked any decoration it was basically just a metal stick with a thin grip. Except this metal stick had a balanced weight and was great for busting in skulls or hitting baseballs.

Having checked the skill worked as advertised. He focused on the mountain or big rock he was getting closer to, which made him feel very relieved. He didn’t want to walk through a potentially monster filled forest any longer than he had to. Without at least some more forms of protection.

After a few more hours of walking he finally reached the big rock or mountain. The big rock about 30 meters high and 50 meters wide was sitting upon a elevated piece of ground. Walking over and sitting down against the almost straight wall of rock and looking outward over the forest that he could now overlook from above. He let out a short sigh of relief and disbelief at the crazy day he had.

He was also half surprised his drone hadn’t seemed to have found any dangers on his way here. Then again this was the first day of system initialization. The panther he had encountered was probably just some incredibly unlucky encounter.Though the system had said that before the evolution of the earth had already been in progress before it initialized. He still felt it was incredibly unlucky to run into an awakened creature before the system had activated. Before anything else though he decided to take a small precaution.

He ordered his drone to fly in a kilometer perimeter around him and come warn him if it found anything dangerous.

Feeling a bit more secure now that he had the drone on lookout he slumped back down against the rock, considering what he should do next.

He was getting really tired but before he could go to sleep he should at least set up his tent. He blinked his eyes and then remembered he had forgotten his backpack in the clearing. Being so caught up in what had just happened with the panther and the system he had totally forgotten about it.

He slapped himself on the head, and then after he was done berating himself he just decided now was the perfect time to check out his construction skill. Since he needed a place to sleep for the night, why not create one himself?