I awoke in the morning to the sound of clicks and squeaks.
The Rested symbol flash in front of my eyes. I pulled out my Pocket Book and finally read the description.
Basic Rested.
Efficiency: Max Duration: 3:59:59 seconds remaining.
Earn Stat increases 1% faster. The duration of this buff is determined by satiation upon resting. Any time you take damage or suffer a harmful effect, there is a possibility this Buff will end preemptively.
I closed my Pocket Book and looked around for Riffy. I had expected to find him chatting away, but I could only hear the delicate sounds of nature: the light wind rolling through the grass, the dry rustle of leaves, the squeaks and clicks of a nearby squirrel.
“Riffy?” I asked.
He chirped at me and turned his head to the side. We can’t understand each other anymore. I slapped my head in frustration at myself.
I had been too tired to think last night. The Ether Blend must have been translating for both of us. Whatever language Riffy was speaking was being translated into Ether Language, just like mine was. No wonder I couldn’t understand Noring. She must not have eaten any of the Ether Blend mushrooms.
Riffy’s big eyes blinked from the middle of his small red face. He looked like he was about to cry. Ah, damn it. Why do I feel so guilty? I’m no more responsible for this mix up than he is.
I could try miming to him, but my movements probably looked like a sloth to him. The only way we would be able to communicate was if we both ate another one of those Ether Blends, but that would put us to sleep.
I searched the pile of nuts and mushrooms for another Ether Blend. It seems Riffy’s collection was quite diverse with different types of Fungi, because I was struggling to find the right ones. They were white, I recalled. A little grey too, and they had blue bulbs dangling from the edges.
“That looks like one.” I held it up and tried to remember if this was the right kind of mushroom.
Riffy was zipping around me. I wasn’t sure how much he understood. But he hadn’t abandoned me. I felt fairly sure that he wouldn’t abandon the pile of ‘nuts’ beside me if a fire sneezing dragon took up residence on top of it.
The Ether Blend had looked pretty unique when I stumbled upon them last night, but now that I had a bunch of mushrooms to compare, I really struggled to tell them apart.
I gave it a sniff. It smelled like feet, and something else too.
That’s got to be it. Ether Blend.
Stat Increase: Perception +1.
You recognised a rare material.
New Skill unlocked: Basic Identify.
I read the description for Basic Identify and immediately set it as a Chosen Skill.
Basic Identify (Perception).
To identify an item or entity, it must first be registered by 4 of your 5 primary senses: Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, or Taste. Once these criteria have been fulfilled: Race, Class, Name, and Description may be provided.
I focused on the mushroom and it shimmered slightly. I felt the urge to tighten my eyes and the moment I did, a single bit of Mana depleted from my bar.
Race: Mushroom Class: Ether
Magical. Fungi. Rare. Undomesticated.
This class of mushroom grows between this world and the Ether realm.
Ingestion provides:
Temporary Buff: Ether Blend. Duration: 4 hours.
I glanced again at the pile of Riffy’s ‘nuts’. If I could meet the criteria, then I could identify any number of them. The problem was none of them made any sound. With sound ruled out, that meant I would have to taste them to meet the fourth Sense criteria for Basic Identify. Sight, Smell, and Touch were easy, but if I Tasted any of them, I could become affected by a Buff, Curse, or fuck knows what.
Still, it might be an easy way to level up my Perception and some of these nuts or mushrooms might have useful Buffs.
It was risky, but I set about trying to pick out a safe-looking nut. The mushrooms were too risky, they could be lethally poisonous for all I knew. If I hadn’t been starving last night, I never would have eaten the Ether Blend stuff. I got lucky, plain and simple.
After sorting through the pile for a while, I came across a small bulbous nut, that looked somewhat like a chestnut. Of all the nuts so far, this one looked the most innocuous.
I sniffed it and it smelled like any other nut really. Kind of woody, I guess.
I noticed Riffy shift closer. He moved so fast it was tricky to catch but, I think I saw him lick his lips. That had to be a good sign. I raised the nut to my lips, then hesitated. I just had an idea.
I held the pose with the nut inches from my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Riffy inch forward. I held still and his little feet twitched closer and closer. The anticipation was evident on his face. He looked as though he might explode.
Once he was in range, I turned to smile at him and offered the nut. He reached for it and as his little claw hands came together on each side of the nut, I let go and grabbed him by the leg.
He screeched in fright and struggled for a moment, but I held on and after a few seconds, he stopped resisting. I hope you trust that I’m still your friend, Riffy.
I lifted him close to my face and sniffed. Criteria fulfilled.
His body shimmered and I activated Basic Identify.
Name: Riffy. Race: Red Squirrel. Class: Nutter. Lvl 4.
Mundane Creature. Herbivore. Highly Social. Insomniac.
Red Squirrels are engaged in an eternal war with their bitter rivals, the Grey Squirrels. Nutter is a unique variation of The Collector Class.
Buff: Choma Choma. Grade 5 Addicted.
Addicted, Grade 5, Insomniac, Choma Choma? Those sound related. Riffy squirmed in my hand, then began to lick the round nut he held between his tiny hands.
“Well that decides it,” I said.
I snatched the nut from his grasp.
“You’re poisoned, Riffy. One of the nuts you have been eating is poisoning you.” I said.
Riffy turned his head on its side. He couldn’t understand a word I said.
I sighed and put him down.
“DO NOT EAT THESE.” I gestured at my mouth, then made an X with my arms and pointed at the nuts.
Riffy vanished in a flash, then reappeared with a new nut. He held it up to me for inspection.
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“No, I don’t want it,” I grumbled.
There was only one thing for it. I would have to identify every single nut and possibly every mushroom in Riffy’s collection. Only then could I discover which were harmful and teach him to stop eating those. One of the nuts was causing him to become addicted and it was likely making him an insomniac. If my suspicions about the harshness of this game were accurate, then he wouldn’t have long before his addiction became a serious problem. That’s if his heart doesn’t give out in the meantime.
“Well, I guess I better get started.” I picked up the first kind of nut, stared at it, sniffed it, touched it, and finally licked it. Criteria fulfilled.
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I used up my Mana in the first few minutes. Then I had to wait a minute for a single blue segment to return to my bar before I could cast Basic Identify on a new nut. In between identifies, I tried miming to Riffy. I don’t think he understood any of it.
I picked up a nut, stared, sniffed, and licked. Yuck! Criteria fulfilled. This one tasted like candle wax.
Race: Nut. Class: Anjo.
Mundane. Flora. Common. Undomesticated.
This class of nut falls from the Anjohe Tree. If left in the ground it may grow to become an Anjohe Tree.
Provides no effect.
That was the average description. Most of the nuts simply grew to become another tree. They didn’t seem to be addictive, but maybe my Perception wasn’t high enough to see that yet. I added the Anjo nut to the pile of nuts that were safe.
Rather than mime to Riffy, I set about working on the next part of the plan I was developing. If I was going to help him cure his addiction, I needed to find a way to keep him still. It would be pointless to just tell him to stop eating the bad nuts. That wasn’t how addiction works. I could try to hide the bad ones —if I ever figure out which ones are bad— but Riffy would probably be able to sniff them out, or just find more.
I needed to make a cage…
There were plenty of sticks nearby. I started digging small holes in a circle. I didn’t have any tools, so I had to use my hands. It was slow work.
Riffy tried to help, but he kept digging holes in the wrong places. I think he thought I was trying to bury the nuts.
Whenever a point of magic restored, I cast Basic Identify on another nut.
Dig.
Identify.
Dig.
Identify.
Eventually, I had a nice ring of holes in the ground. I buried the bottom of a stick in each hole so that they were pointing towards the sky.
Occasionally, other squirrels would drop by for a visit with Riffy. He joined them on branches, clicking and squeaking. I’m not sure what he was telling them, but they seemed excited. I focused on another nut. Criteria fulfilled.
Race: Nut. Class: Reward.
Magical. Flora. Unique. Undomesticated.
This is an Initiation Zone reward granted to the Squirrel Riffy for completing Class Selection in the fastest recorded time: 0.04 seconds.
Provides:
+1 Mind.
+1 Constitution.
“This is a pretty great reward, Riffy,” I said. “Why haven’t you eaten this one?”
I held it up for him to see. He zipped down from the branches and sniffed it. His eyes widened in recognition and he reached for the nut.
Grudgingly, I let go. That reward would put my Mind up to 7 and my Constitution up to 3. The Constitution increase alone would be vital, but the Mind increase was a serious deal. I wondered how much an item like that would be worth to a merchant?
Riffy cradled the unique golden nut in his hand as he dragged it back to the pile. He seemed slower than usual. I guessed the nut was kind of heavy for him. That, or he thought it was too precious to risk dropping. He carefully placed the reward back on top of his pile. Then, stood there admiring it for a few moments.
Well, if he isn’t going to eat… maybe I should?
I continued to poke the sticks into holes and bury them firmly in the ground. Once I had a full circle of sticks pointing towards the sky, I bent the tops of the sticks and bound the tips together with my tie. It was a pointless tie anyway. Now I had a small teepee structured cage that could comfortably house Riffy until we cured his addiction and amnesia.
Stat Increase: Tinker +1.
We are what we create.
New Skill unlocked: Basic Blueprint.
I still had 2 empty Chosen Skill slots, so I immediately selected Basic Blueprint and read its description.
Basic Blueprint (Tinker).
Create a blueprint of a single Mundane Item you have created. Requires one blank scroll.
It seemed like a pretty useless Skill for me right now, but I kept it selected as a Chosen Skill because I didn’t have an other available to replace it.
Now, I needed to convince Riffy to get inside the cage and stay there while I tightened up the entry points. There were still a few gaps large enough for him to squeeze through at the bottom. Riffy trusted me enough that I could probably just point to the cage and he would step inside, but that would feel wrong. I needed to explain the situation to him in terms he would understand and to do that… we were both going to need to eat another Ether Mushroom.
Last time I ate an Ether it put me to sleep pretty quickly. Although, I had been exhausted already. Even so, I should finish identifying the rest of Riffy’s stash before I tried to talk to him. I still needed to find the bad nuts… and decide what to do with that special reward he received. I guess AIAI likes it when we rush through the Class Selection process.
Maybe AIAI disliked that I asked so many questions? If so that situation would only get worse because I had a whole lot of questions coming their way. Starting with, how the hell do I find out who I really am? And how I got here?
Yesterday was a struggle to survive, but Riffy’s place in the woods had been pretty peaceful. I’d slept through the night without incident.
Maybe this world wasn’t as harsh as I originally thought? Now that I’d spent some time taking it easy, I realised there were some important questions that needed answers. I needed to find a town. Maybe there would be NPC’s or other people in my situation? It could be dangerous, but I had to try. The only logical conclusion was to get stronger.
Staying here, looking after a confused squirrel had almost entirely halted my progress. I thought identifying all of these nuts would up my Perception, but it hadn’t budged. If I was going to spend much more time here, maybe I deserved a reward of my own? I’m sure Riffy wouldn’t mind if I ate the unique reward… it’s not like he knows what it’s worth.
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Criteria fulfilled.
Race: Nut. Class: Choma Choma.
Magical. Flora. Uncommon. Domesticated.
Zoom. This stuff’s got a kick, but be careful… it can be addictive.
Provides:
Temporary Buff: Choma Choma. Duration: 4 hours.
Yes! I’d finally found it. But I still didn’t know what the Buff actually provided. That was the bad news… The good news:
Stat Increase: Perception +1.
What you see is what you get.
Stat Increase: Magic +1.
You spammed a Skill until you were blue in the face.
My Basic Vision increased in range, but otherwise things felt pretty much the same. I had no idea if these Stat increases were bringing me closer to another level up, but I knew they would eventually bring me more skills. If I could upgrade my Basic Identify, then I could probably find out more information about Riffy’s addiction. Knowing more about the situation would help me understand if I was doing the right thing. Right now, I was just operating on assumption. I could just be making things worse.
There was only one option available to me at this moment.
“Riffy, wish me luck buddy,” I said as I glowered at the unusual looking Choma Choma nut. Then, I shoved it into my mouth and swallowed it one gulp before I could change my mind. “Eww, it tastes like petrol and hot shit.”
Choma Choma.
Efficiency: 98% Duration: 3:59:59 seconds remaining.
Each time you eat it a Choma Choma nut it increases your likelihood of raising your addiction grade by 1%. For the duration of this buff, your Dexterity is increased by 10%.
Grants Insomniac. Current Addiction: Grade 0.
Warning: Grade 7 Addiction results in Choma Choma Eruption.
Choma Choma Eruption.
The Choma Choma life cycle features a unique gestation period with an explosive sprouting period. More information at higher levels.
Bad nut. Very bad nut. I had a strong feeling that if Riffy didn’t quit eating Choma Choma nuts, a tree was going to burst out of him.
It was time to talk with Riffy. That meant we would both need to eat an Ether mushroom.
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