Fleeing and avoiding monsters was easy business.
One time Fredrick had to dodge an particular sneaky shadowstalker. It had reached within two armlengths of him, and the only reason he noticed it was due to the intervention of Raven, who had promptly marked the monster several times over. "Close, Danger, Stronger, Flee" The marks said. Fredrick supposed that, in some sense, it was Raven saying that.
He wondered exactly how the bird had determined the strength of it. The only difference to him was that this one apparently was good at sneaking. He wasn't about to ignore the clearly panicked bird though, and thus he promptly fled with all he had.
Luckily, the shadowstalker wasn't nearly as good at running as it was at sneaking.
When fleeing its best to make haste:
+1 Agility +100 exp!
+1 Adrenalin +10 exp!
This one scenario was the closest thing he came to being caught, so far, all the other times Raven managed to warn him by sound whenever he was about to approach one unknowingly.
It always sounded so accusatory towards him whenever it did.
'Man, this is one angry bird' he thought to himself as he adjusted his course to avoid another one.
His situation was stressing, scary, but ultimately he would qualify it as "easy" in some way. It wasn't exactly difficult to do. He could outpace them and run away. The one thing he couldn't do was hide.
It was only when his stamina began running low, and all his adrenalin running out, that he started to fully realize the "game" he was playing. When one had to move for a prolonged amount of time stamina was king. He was starting to lose his breath.
'I better use my points while I can'
You've increased your Stamina by 7!
Stamina 5/88 → 9/95
Unspent Resource Points 7 → 0
You've increased your Agility by 3!
Agility 11 → 14
Unspent Empowerment Points: 4 → 1
You've increased your Self-determination by 1!
Self-determination 6 → 7
Unspent Empowerment Points: 1 → 0
Higher Agility allowed him to be faster when using the same amount of effort as before. Reframing that, he realized it also meant he could keep running with the same velocity using less effort to do so.
Relived he took another step, enjoying how much easier it become for him to do so.
'I Should had thought of this so much sooner'
The only reason he didn't use all his points on Agility was because he, at one point, realized he was running straight towards his Spawn-point, next to the lake. This had happened organically by him continuously adjusting his course to avoid any shadowstalker in front of him.
Of course he didn't believe it was coincidence he was moving towards the place the lotus wanted him to. Thus the last point was spent on his self-determination.
'I think I can run a little while longer like this, exhausting but I just have to pace myself'
But a night was a very long time when you were being hunted, and to Fredrick, it started to feel endless.
It was as if time had decided to stretch out without limit.
Soon his Stamina hit zero.
He was out of breath, his lungs felt like they were burning, and his legs were shaky. It had already been difficult for him to press on with support from his stats, now it became hellish.
Heaving he collapsed on his arms and knees, desperately gasping for air.
Raven, of course, began making him a ton of noises in protest of this, but It didn't really help make him less exhausted.
The monsters had to be a few minutes behind him, given how he had outpaced them before. He needed the time to catch up his breath. He checked his marked status, although he could already feel it in a more non-numerical sense:
Status conditions:
Marked (decaying): 43 → 11
Your spirit is marked. broadcasting to the world around you: Here is prey.
'so close, yet so far' He could see the end of the road, the only problem being that it was the hardest part left.
He laid there until raven became more insistent, telling him to get a move on.
For a moment Fredrick wondered if laying down had been a mistake, getting into motion was a lot harder than maintaining it, and his body did not want to move.
He mustered all of his willpower, and then some, trying to get his legs beneath him. They felt weak and heavy.
A single point of recovered Stamina, and a fraction of some recovered Adrenalin, made up for the rest. With a single push from his hands he got up on his feet again.
The Cursed Lotus might had supported his mental efforts in that moment, he couldn't tell. Either it was incredible subtle, or he was getting paranoid.
'or it makes me think I'm paranoid when its, in fact, subtle'
Eminent death continued to be an effective motivator regardless, at least now that he was decidedly alive again.
Raven sent out another "Caw", and Fredrick felt a mark flare up in his conscious nearby him. 'Here' It said.
With heavy steps he started to move away once again, barely staying ahead.
His eyes were on the ground, and his mind had narrowed down to the singular task of continuously putting one leg in front of the other. Every now and then, fractions of Stamina and Adrenalin, gained or recovered, would give him a slight boost ahead. It wasn't much, but it was enough.
Perhaps it was sheer dumb luck, or perhaps it was meant to be, but he didn't run into any more monsters after that point. If he had done so, he likely wouldn't have had the energy left to perform the necessary evasive maneuvers and adjustments needed to avoid being caught. Later he would rationalize it as being due to the mark being nearly gone, weakening its effect.
Eventually, the mark dissolved fully, although he didn't notice exactly when it happened. He just eventually noticed the effect of it.
Now no more monsters would come from afar. Individuals from the horde behind him slowly lost interest, or just got plain lost with there being no mark to guide them towards him. The oppressive darkness behind him scattered.
When the morning light started filtering in through the leaves, all he could do was collapse and fall asleep right then and there.
----------------------------------------
On the third day of genesis Fredrick slept.
For approximately 5 hours.
The sun shone perfectly trough a hole in the leaves above, hitting him right in the eye and waking him up.
Tired he turned around, trying to fall asleep again and give his tired body and mind some more rest, but by now the brightness of the day, and the chirping of the birds, had made that very difficult. Not to mention what he saw when he opened his eyes:
'The damm bird is eating my food!'
"Hey that's mine!"
Quickly he got up and shooed Raven away from his Half-eaten, now three-Quarters eaten, pheasant.
Disgruntled Raven hoped away, cawing and kraa'ing to let him know exactly what it thought about it.
"Don't complain, I'm hungry and I worked for it, what did you do?"
"Kraa! (warnings)"
Its speech had the mark-like quality of having imbued meanings within.
"its.. how did you know what I was saying?.. whatever, fine, fair point, you can have some, but I'm getting the rest"
He broke of a leg and tossed it to Raven, it promptly went down on it.
The Pheasant was dirty, cold, overcooked some places, other places slightly undercooked, and otherwise had many qualities that would cause it to fail any professional food-inspector. Still, he sat down, trying to make himself comfortable, and began eating his breakfast together with Raven. It was good food.
Tired, he turned to what many people did when getting up: Taking out their phone and checking their notifications. There was a lot of them. Slowly he scrolled through all of them, trying to process what had happened yesterday.
It wasn't easy, and he couldn't tell if his exhaustion helped or not. It numbed his mind, but at the same time his drowsiness conjured up dream-like impressions of a horde of monsters behind him. His body didn't help in that regard, with its near-pain soreness and utter lack energy left in it, it reminded him of how it got that way.
More worryingly, he could still feel the aftermath of the shadowstalker tearing up his spirit. His heart felt fine, although a bit indescribable strange once he focused on it. It was the other parts of him that lacked. Two of his left fingers, some of his face around his right eye, random surfaces of his skin, some of his stomach muscles, some parts of his pecks, a toe, all that and more felt at least partially numb. His eye sight had deteriorated on his right eye.
It had been close.
Thankfully his new stat should slowly regenerate all that. He could feel the edges of the numb areas tingly, as if he was slowly regaining his feelings there.
In that regard he supposed he was significantly better of than the bird next to him. It didn't show any signs of being able to use its wings yet, and he didn't know if the rules of the world allowed for it to ever regain control without some sort of magic. Like an entire stat geared towards doing exactly that.
The company of the bird and the warm sun calmed him. The notifications did help too, in some sense, although when he read trough all of them he had already forgotten most of it. Luckily, with their function being an pseudo-extension of his mind, he could simply command them to combine and give him the condensed version.
After you began running, but before you could rest, there was struggle. Like all struggles they reward, if nothing else, the strenght to make it easier next time.
+16 Stamina +160 exp!
+11 Adrenalin +110 exp!
That was huge, at least he thought so when comparing to his first run in this world.
'That was like..2-3, maybe 4, stamina I got from it? and I ran until I couldn't, or felt that I couldn't, at least!'
Of course he knew the difference: This time he had continued past that point. Comparatively it felt entirely fair to him, maybe even a little on the low end. Then again, he still needed to take the benefit of rest into account.
Although lacking in both quality and quantity, you still got rest, and in rest you grow.
+2 Mana +20 exp
+5 Adrenalin +50 exp
+9 Stamina + 90 exp
+1 Agility +100 exp!
+1 Heart of Doom and Bloom +100 exp
Although warmed by the sun, a shiver ran down his spine when he read the summary of his rest. It made him ask a rather existential question, given his circumstances.
Who was providing the flavor text for his notifications? and should he be worried that The Cursed Lotus had somehow infiltrated it?
'Its fine, Its fine, I already knew it could do things, like replacing my ghost heart and giving me a stat, but it couldn't do it without my permission, and it has only gotten easier for me to resist its influence with distance. its fine, I will just increase my Self-determination if it gains any ground'
With his internal pep-talk he quickly dealt with the rising worry in his chest. It wasn't something he wanted to deal with, not now at least.
He felt he had some good points anyways. No need to worry.
He willfully ignored Raven, who gave him an indecipherable look at his change in demeanor, and stood up, taking a breather. There were still some important notifications left, and he would look at them later, but for now he had an overwhelming urge to get a move on.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He fashioned his stick-belt to go diagonally across one of his shoulder.
"I'm moving, are you coming with me?"
He asked for Raven to get on.
It picked up its pheasant leg and jumped on. It stuffed its meal securely away in the twigs for later.
Somewhat relieved that it wanted to stay with him, although he preferred not to admit that, Fredrick got moving.
Having an internal compass, telling him the exact way not to go, helped him pick a direction.
A short while later Fredrick was ready to continue reading his progress.
Your Stamina has exceeded a capacity of 100. Its first threshold!
You find that you not only increase your ability to contain Stamina in greater quantity, but in greater quality too.
'Nice, what's my stamina anyway?'
As soon as he thought of it, he found that he could mentally access that information.
Stamina: 98/120
'Neat'
Like last time, a new option was available to him, an option he immediately picked.
Stamina: 0/1 Traits
+ Add Trait
Available Stamina Trait choices:
Perseverance:
Increases efficiency of your stamina, making actions cost less for the same boost.
You've tried to stretch the use of your stamina, and make do with less. With this you'll find that you can reach further with the same amount.
Exertion:
Allows for increased expenditure of Stamina, giving you a greater boost, but efficiency falls heavily with the increase in expenditure.
You fought brawly and intensely, seeking not to outlast, but to outdo, your opponent. Stack your efforts and apply your stamina multiple times at once.
Recovery:
Increases the recovery rate of your Stamina.
They say one of humanities greatest strenght is their ability to recover stamina, you've relied on it and begged for even more, take this strenght and run with it.
Tenacity:
The less stamina you have left, the greater the recovery rate becomes.
The Tenacity of the wolf runs through you. you stood on the edge of collapse yet kept going. You'll find that the less you have, the more you gain.
Lake Bound:
Minorly decrease the efficiency of all stamina expenditure unless moving towards The Lotus Lake of Surrender.
Massively increase efficiency and effect of Stamina when moving towards The Lotus Lake of Surrender.
Come home. Here you can rest without worry, forever.
Momentum:
Repeating movements stacks up "momentum", allowing you to keep repeating the movements with increased efficiency and/or power. Stopping causes you to slowly lose built up momentum.
You kept taking another step, the repetition became expected. Like water swirling in a pot, your stamina will seek to repeat its movements.
Mindlessly Fredrick moved past yet another tree. He was deep in thought, contemplating his choices. Ranking them internally in sort of a tier-list.
Naturally, the one with the Lotus wasn't even considered for a moment, it didn't even make it to the bottom of his list. That still left him with 5 choices.
He figured 3 of them were largely the same, namely Perseverance, Recovery, and Tenacity.
'Tenacity of the wolf, huh, so that's what the notification meant by my stamina becoming slightly influenced?'
Thinking about it, Fredrick concluded that Perseverance functionally worked as an multiplier for his stamina, not only that, it also worked as an functional multiplier of his regeneration. If 1 stamina had the value of 2 stamina, that was simply how it was.
That immediately lowered the position of Recovery and Tenacity, as they "only" increased his recovery.
'of course, if these stats are somehow balanced against each other, Recovery should have a greater multiplier than Perseverance, and Tenacity should have an even greater multiplier at low amounts'
Fredrick couldn't determine his natural regeneration rate with any sort of confidence, but he could make a rough comparison.
On the first day he had emptied out his Stamina reserve, and it had taken him a good while to regenerate back to full. He estimated he regained 10 Stamina in roughly 1.5-3 hours. Now it took him longer than that to fully recover, seeing as one half of a full rest hadn't done it, but he still regained 10 Stamina much faster than that.
He estimated recovering 10 stamina took him about 30 to 60 minutes now. It was hard to tell with him moving and having no way to measure time.
It was, however, easy enough to tell that more Stamina meant a greater recovery of Stamina.
The three choices, nice as they were, did nothing that simply increasing his stats wouldn't do.
It was like getting another burger to go with the first one for free. It was more of the same.
Getting twice the burger was nice, but only really useful if he was hungry and lacked the money for another one.
Going by that analogy Exertion would be like being able to spend more money to get a greater quality burger. If he had the cash to spend, that would be the preferred choice.
Momentum would be like...being rewarded for being a repeat costumer? gaining an increasingly high discount the more burgers he ordered? But that would only really be useful if...
He took a moment to think out when that would be useful.
'if...I had to repeatedly force myself to take another step trying to get away from a horde of monsters too big to fight, all while I'm being dragged down by the weight of the very same DAMM bird who LURED THEM TOWARDS ME! AND I'M STILL BEING DRAGGED DOWN BY IT'
Sparks of electricity briefly flew between his finger. His heartrate had increased and his body had tensed up in preparation of arbitrary lashing out at something.
The unexpected burst of anger took him out of the day-dreaming state he had been in, and into surreal awake state of aggressive clarity.
He realized that, come nightfall, he had to prepare for the possibility of the very same thing happening again. Almost, he had to assume Raven wouldn't do the same thing again, given what had happened to it the first time it did that. They were supposed to be a team, right? but they hadn't quite squared that off, he had just assumed that based on his own actions and the birds lack of choices.
Taking a deep breath he tried to get his heartrate, body and mind under control. Then he turned his attention towards Raven.
The bird in question was trying to make itself small in an effort to avoid his attention. It was an rather futile effort given his focus on it.
With its sorcery it radiated an cautious sort of confusion at his sudden change in demeanor.
It was his focus that made him realize something was forcefully trying to avoid his notice. He felt that whether or not he should take notice was a decision that was very much up to him.
Your Self-determination has increased! 7 → 8
It felt like the bird had done something to him again.
Status conditions:
Mark of communication (decaying): 3 → 2
You have been granted a mark, crudely portraying what you're trying to communicate. Regardless of whether you know its there or not.
'You're on thin ice buddy, but fair is fair, that's actually pretty good magic you got, must have been an upgrade'
Then began an rather long conversation of what to do next.
It didn't help that Raven was, in the end, just a really smart animal. Neither its magic, nor its brain, was designed for the high level communication that the average human employed. It could also just be because the mark of communication wasn't nearly as effective as hoped. Crude gestures, simplifications and several repetitions had to be employed to get any point across. To its credit Raven made an valiant effort to bridge the gap in understanding.
In the end a understanding was established.
Firstly Fredrick had to tell it it was very high up on his shit-list and if it ever tried leading monsters towards him again it wouldn't end well for it. It turned out to be a largely unnecessary point to make as Raven didn't plan to do that. If anything it only served to make Fredrick feel like an asshole. Voicing his dismay and making sure they knew exactly were they stood did, however, help him refocusing on his future plans.
The plan ended up being as followed:
Raven had to tell him if it spotted another "oasis" with food and drinking water.
There they would prepare for nightfall by setting up camp, hunt, and rest.
Raven would then function as an watchman and scout by warning him if anything should come for them. it couldn't really move ahead of him, but it had superior senses to work with.
In turn, Fredrick got the role of mover, builder and fighter. Everything else basically.
Having made plans made the choice of what Trait to pick much easier. The plan wasn't to run, it was to fight.
Seeing it through that lens one option stood out: Exertion.
The choice was about making sure he didn't have to flee again. It increased his odds of success, but left him doomed should it fail. Perhaps neglecting safety would prove a a foolish decision. It was a strange feeling to be about to pick something not knowing if it would result in his death. It was even stranger knowing he had already done that before and it had kind of resulted in that.
'I picked Spearmanship for a reason dammit, this is not going to be a repeat of last night'
He would not have it that way again. He would not even have it as an option.
He finalized his pick.
Stamina: 105/120
This Is consumed upon physical exertions, partly supports physical energy consumption and assists you according to associated Empowerments.
Agility empowers this resource.
- Exertion: 1
Allows for increased expenditure of Stamina, giving you a greater boost, but efficiency falls heavily with the increase.
A feeling of satisfaction ran through him as he locked it in.
Now he couldn't go back and pick the sensible choice. Now "The universe", or "The circumstances" couldn't force his hand towards something he didn't want to.
It could only punish him for it.
He just to make it work.
A short while later things developed.
"krraa brrrtt, Caw cuuuasis? (I hear animals in the forward-slightly-to-the-right direction, maybe its an oasis?)"
Raven told him.
Fredrick stopped up, trying to listen for the sounds, but nothing came up. He still moved in the pointed direction.
"Really? I can't hear it, how far away?"
"Farrgghh, caw'caw brtrtrt (Far, not too far, sun move some on sky)"
He understood that as being within reasonable, but not immediate distance.
'Now I just have to entertain myself until I come close...I still have a notification left?'
Level up! 7 → 8 (240/800 exp)
+10 mystical Resource points
+1 Empowerments Points
Although delayed your spirit has reached a threshold of power, you can gain a new stat.
'That will do!'
It looked like he wouldn't just upgrade his Stamina that day.
'I guess this means it was supposed to be at level 7 originally'