The sun was shining, trees and leaves in all shapes and sizes swayed in the soft breeze. One could hear the sounds of birds in the air. Over the hill, and the green lush grass, walked a young man.

He was entirely focused on the screen in front of him, of which only he could see.

Spirit: 6/7 Stats

+ Add stat

Available Stat Choices:

Resources:

Willpower:

Consume Willpower to more easily follow conscious decisions, and to not be swayed by instinctual, external, or addictive impulses than run contrary to what you set out to do.

Self-Determination will empower this resource to be specially effective against external influences.

Both from within, and from without, your mind has been tested many a times, yet here you still stand. With this you shall become sovereign.

Spirit Health:

Directly counteracts any damage to your spirit.

If your spirit is damaged Heart of Doom and Bloom will consume Spirit Health to hasten the repair of your spirit.

If you have a healthy spirit, and full Spirit Health, you will, exstremely slowly, increase the integrity of your spirit to be as if repaired by Heart of Doom and Bloom.

Monsters, from shadows dark and deep, has hurt you. Now you shield yourself from further harm, regrowing ever stronger

Empowerments:

Insight:

Increases spiritual perception. Its specially effective when observing own spirit and what may lay within.

You've seen yourself from beyond, and perceived the mystical. May your sight grow ever clearer, ever deeper.

Lotus Affinity:

Your mana gains the Lotus affinity.

Your sorcery shall become in the likeness of The Lotus.

Emotional Power:

Slightly increases your emotions. Majorly increases the effect of your emotions on your resources.

Adrenalin will be slightly empowered by Emotional power.

Excitement, Fear, Pride, Anger, Self-righteousness, all these, and more, have guided you in this world. Emotions fuel your choices, now let them fuel your actions in prober.

It was another moment to define his life, there had been a lot of those lately, and he had the feeling they wouldn't stop coming in the future. It was an important decision, not that he minded. Pick-your-superpower was an quite enjoyable pastime. He might as well just take his time with it.

'Lotus Affinity sounds pretty cool out of context, what a bummer, No "Petal Tornado of A Thousand Cut Death" spell for me, still 4 choices, time for some tier-listing!'

'From the top "we" have Willpower...'

On the surface it looked quite good for him, in his past there had been many times he had wished for that, and for the present, and future, the synergy with Self-Determination made The Cursed Lotus a near non-existent threat.

The aspect of it having a synergy pushed it up, then again, what did it accomplish? he thought deeper about it.

'Man, is it just me, or does it suck? am I missing something here? I don't like it'

It was a strange gut-feeling that it wouldn't be quite as nice as he imagined, not that the stat was "Corrupted", by the Lotus or something else, but more so... was it really a good idea to eventually be able to ignore all impulses? He couldn't tell, but it ran counter to something within him.

In the end he put it on hold, moving on to the next resource available to him: Spirit Health.

'Alright, Alright, its quite relevant, I'm likely going encounter foes who might hurt that part of me, and there is a lot of synergy here, Its a strong contender!"

It was concerning that the stat it synergized with also happened to be the one inhabited by the Lotus, but it was certainly possible that was inconsequential. All-in-all he cautionary put it above Willpower in his ranking.

Next were his Empowerments, his more passive choices of power.

Insight looked rather plain to him, with it being the only one with no synergies at all. It didn't really looked like it would grant him any discernable power. Not like Emotional Power who literally had Power in its name. Fiction had however told him that one shouldn't discredit the soft power of perceptive abilities.

A "kraa" from raven interrupted his thoughts, they had arrived at the oasis.

'Spirit health, Insight, or Emotional power', guess I'll take it up later'

----------------------------------------

The oasis was, much like the last one, the result of how one of the unique trees grew.

Some of the water came from the large leaves and strange guiding bark patterns that guided the water down and into the basins below, who were naturally shaped by roots. The roots flattened out and had sides reaching a bit up, this resulted in a useful water-holding concave shape to collect the water in.

Most of the water, however, came from three large gashes in the tree. From these water spurted out and onto the grounds and roots beneath them.

Fredrick was thirsty, but not so thirsty as to not notice the worrying part about this sight.

"Raven, you don't happen to notice any large animal, possible with deadly claws, do you?"

"Caw ooOO chirp chraa? (death? claws? big... you? confusion)"

"Uhh... do you sense a potential threat nearby?"

"Keel spot krakra (I spot no danger)"

"Good, I'm gonna go the waters, it might be hiding, so be aware"

"SsssPot (I'll watch out)"

Moving slowly, they approach the Oasis, ready to dart in a moments notice.

A Family of deer's, one buck, one doe, and three fawns, startled him as they set of in flight away. A couple of birds were scared and flew away too. Otherwise there was nothing that would cause Fredrick to run away.

He circled the tree a few times, checking the perimeter to make sure, but it appeared to be safe. He could at least take a break here.

And take break he did, satiating his thirst, eating the rest of the pheasant, and resting.

The animal that had left the claw marks, possible a bear Fredrick concluded, never showed up. Because of this, the break slowly turned into a full blown camp as he prepared for nightfall.

A breakable tree turned into tinder for his fire. Some mushrooms, a rare but welcome sight, was collected for food. A rock, like that of flint, was turned into a crude tool for cutting.

On his search around the oasis he found a good tree with sturdy and straight wood. Using his new cutting tool he started creating a new and better spear.

Fredrick found it amazing how much he could do when there was literally nothing else to do, it just served to put the Willpower stat even lower on his list. He returned to his considerations. Having had time to think about it, he decided to cut of Spirit health from his options. It appeared way to situational and served mostly to hasten a process he was already undergoing. He was preparing himself already and likely didn't need it. In the future it might even end up a "dead" stat to him.

Not to mention the fact that In the end he didn't trust what The Cursed Lotus could, and would, do with it either.

Insight, the next stat on his list, continued to appear boring, so he skipped that one.

Perhaps Emotional Power would be the choice?

As he was creating a spear-head from stone, smashing the flint-like into sharp edges, he reflected on his emotions.

He had taken things well, all things considered. In retrospective, it kind of surprised him, he'd never seen himself as strong.. in any sort of way.

Yet when the wolves had come for him he held together, he was scared, sure, but when they had come for his life he didn't cover waiting for it to end, nor did he run in a senseless panic.

Although he couldn't deny the fact that he ran.

Many of his actions had the same..."feeling".. to them. It was the best way he could describe it.

His preparation for yesternight, his preparation for this night, his methodical evaluation of the first Shadowstalker, his ability to stay and fight, his ability to act in pressure.

It was a good feeling, knowing that he had a spine. Something within him that could stand when the world crashed down on him.

He had no confidence he could keep that up.

'People say bravery is when you act despite being scared, but lets not delude ourself here, it has been way to close. If I had been any more scared I think I would had caved in. If anything I might just have been stupid and delusional enough to not feel it.'

It was true he largely managed it by avoiding thinking about the stuff, like he did even now. He kept fearing the appearance of another shadowstalker, somehow in broad daylight, appearing from behind a tree. His mind was playing tricks on him, the sight of his own shadow had conjured an anxiety he had to quite deliberately ignore throughout his day.

If he took is strange burst of anger, his anxiety, and a general feeling that earlier encounters had pushed him to a limit something became clear to him.

He didn't want to increase his emotions, dealing with those he had was already a chore as it was.

'Picking it up and figuring out I suddenly have 20% more anxiety is NOT something I want to experience, that leaves me with...'

Insight.

He tied the spearhead tight to the spear, then he checked if it was securely fastened.

Deciding that what he had accomplished had to do, he leaned back, satisfied with the result of his preparation.

He had made an exstremely rough half-shelter for him the sleep in, his bed was a bunch of twigs and leaves. Surrounding this he had no less than two campfires ready to be lit, and a stockpile of wood that he hoped would last throughout the night. He had a pile of rocks, and a pile of pointy sticks that could double both as firewood and reserve spear, should he need it. The mushrooms for him, and the remnants of the pheasant for Raven, could work for food this evening, although that was one point he wouldn't mind improving. He would just have to wait for an opportunity.

It was getting late on the day, but that still left him an hour or two of daylight all to himself.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Raven was resting in the half-shelter.

'Fine, Insight, here I come!'

He spent his Empowerment point as soon as he picked the stat, might as well give the "newcomer" a welcome boost.

Insight: 2

Increases baseline spiritual perception. Its especially effective when observing own spirit and what may lay within.

Now he could use the time to explore the new stat.

The great part of meditation was that he could justify it as doubling both as rest, and being productive now.

'breath in, breath out, look within, or something'

He had already done this the day before, he knew where to start.

When he filtered out all the noise and thoughts he could sense it. Along the darkness behind his eyes, the feeling of his body, and heart pumping blood, just below his thoughts and emotions, there was a sensation of energies.

It was hard to make out, but he sensed that he could, to a degree, practice it even outside his scope of merely increasing his new stat.

Outside of the strange landscape, and the stats, this was perhaps the most intimate and personal change that this new world had brought.

There was his stamina, almost full, ready to spring into action.

Deep in his bones, exhausted and only half full, yet still ready to assist him should he need it, there was his Adrenalin.

Then there was his mana, the most responsive and multifaceted of the three energies he had. It was this quality that made it the easiest to recognize. The other energies still sat in sort of a "is this real, or am I mere imagining its there" limbo. Mana was directly controllable. After he got as decent of a grasp he could on his senses he starting moving his mana around.

He already knew how to push out the two aspects of his magic: Lightning and Thunder, and although subtle he started to feel the difference in the two, like twisting a piece of cloth in either direction, he could see that it was two side of the same.

'Actually, I know this already, lets try it out differently'

He started practicing with his spear. It was nothing strenuous, he still hadn't fully recovered from the day before, and he wanted to be ready should the need arise. Silently he lamented the fact that he couldn't reasonably practice his Exertion. Perhaps he had been too emotional when picking it, he was really glad he hadn't decided to pick emotional power as an stat. Pushing himself to his breaking point wasn't a smart thing to do.

Instead he moved slowly, slowly compared to what haste he could achieve by then at least, trying out different ways to move his spear. He had absolute zero formal training in the art of the spear, but he knew the basics that all who knew something about martial arts knew off. People always talked about things like "Footwork", "Putting your weight behind it", "Rotate your hips for more force", and "Don't leave yourself open" stuff like that.

It was honestly a lot to work with, especially when he had to figure out what that meant exactly and find a prober way to apply it in a way that felt correct.

Doubly so when he started using his mana in conjunction, although he deliberately used as little as possible to conserve. Exploring and refining all options, even on a basic level, would take more time than he had.

So he didn't, instead he focus on figuring out some exstremely simple stuff.

Stuff like:

Lunging forward and using his mana for maximum damage.

Swiping left and right, also using mana.

Taking a step back.

Stepping side to side without tripping over himself.

The last part turned out to be surprisingly difficult for him, he wasn't used to having a stick where he was about to place his legs. Somehow he had not encountered the need for figuring that out the first time. There was definitely some kinks to work out there. This was when he was thankful he got some supernatural help. Helping him learn to not trip fast.

Spearmanship 3 → 4

He believed he understood how it worked by now. Spearmanship wasn't a magical skill-download, suddenly letting him know how to move. Instead it saved what he considered to be correct, and worked on.

Repeating those movements had an increased ease, some extra oompff too them, as if he had done them 10 times as many, or any other arbitrary number of times, before. It truly felt like it helped him carve the art of Spearmanship into his body of mind.

----------------------------------------

Fredrick had the first watch, as such he simply continued his self-made spear kata when the sun finally settled, but not before he lit the two fireplaces he had build. It was an something made mercifully easy being able to conjure sparks from nothing.

It started to look as if no shadowstalker, or any other monster, would appear that night. In the end Fredrick just there, tiredly watching the night, waiting for he when arbitrarily felt that he had done his part of shift.

They hadn't established how that would work exactly.

He was spending the sliver of time remaining reading through the notifications of the day, catching up on his gains. Aside from his Insight, none of his empowerments had gained anything, but resources had grown slightly. His adrenalin appeared to mainly duo to it still recovering.

a third of a day for sleep, a third of a day for wander, another third to make camp:

+4 Adrenalin +40exp!

+2 Mana +20 exp!

+4 Stamina 40 exp!

+1 Insight +100exp

----------------------------------------

Eventually, and just before he decided to go to bed, a shadowstalker showed up, nightmarish as ever. It was another tall one, but this time with light skin and small beady eyes looking down on him. It was completely silent, its arrival so sudden as it appeared from behind a tree he could had sworn it wasn't there before.

The sight of was so startling Fredrick literally jumped a meter into the air. For a split-moment he stalled his response, A strong current of panic threatened to wash over his mind. It was quickly washed away by an even greater feeling: anger

'This fucking thing is taking away my precious sleep!"

It took less than two seconds after seeing before he lashed it out at it. With a primal roar, mainly to psyche himself up, he strook out again the monster with leap.

He was using his lunge that he had practiced, cutting straight ahead, hitting it in the side as it tried to dodge his attack.

It reformed on his side, and started to scream like a banshee. Perhaps it was supposed to do something, but whatever the idea was, it was immediately disrupted by an aggressive sidewards swipe from Fredrick. Lightning sparked, causing the cut to be as if a hot knife through butter.

He idly thought how this one appeared to have more of physical body than the others.

That didn't stop it from being able to reform from its own "smoke". Grasping out with its reshaping hands it tried the old "hold him down " method that had worked on him before.

Recognizing the method Fredrick let one hand go of his spear and took hold of the monster hand, injecting it with lightning to ward it off.. Footwork ensured that he avoided the hands going for his legs.

Some quick repositioning later he once again had it on the correct end of his spear.

The fight continued. It was tricky waters he was in, and the lack of a mark from Raven only made it more so. He had to be very observant of its whereabouts and constantly reposition himself to not get pinned down. Whenever it got close he used some of his precious mana to get it away.

He thanked his lucky star these monsters didn't have better weapon than hands, and perhaps teeth. He couldn't take too many missteps before it would overwhelm with hands, but he could make more than one, something he wasn't so sure he could do if it carried something like a shadow dagger or other thing that could instantly end him.

Then again, it wasn't exactly possible to one-shot it either, it was annoyingly tedious work to wither its shadowflesh, as he decided to call it, down. He was glad there was only he had to cut down. A sense of urgency overcame him.

'I have to kill it before more arrives!'

His style became more aggressive, abusing the fact that it couldn't inflict fast damage on him.

A window in the fight opened up, a singular moment where he didn't have to address the hands, a singular moment in which it was perfectly positioned for him to strike like he had practiced. If he just moved a little faster.

'Now!'

He exerted himself, feeling how his Stamina overflowed, cascading over itself and mostly uselessly disperse just to get a little more power out of him.

The penalty was steep, it had to be about 5 times as much stamina used just to get 10% faster, but sometimes 10% more was what one needed.

Exertion 1 → 4

Spearmanship 4 → 5

Agility 15 → 16 +100 exp!

He struck true, hitting its core exactly in the middle, lighting it up with lightning. A swirl with his spear eliminated any last attempts of reshaping itself.

A notification made him sure he finally had eliminated it.

You have killed a Shadow-Stalker lvl 11. In death it admits defeat.

Its "Dark Sense" aligns with, and shares, similarities with your "insight"

Insight 3 → 4 +100 exp

Your Insight has become slightly influenced

Its "Physicalisation" aligns with, and shares, few similarities with your "Agility"

Agility 16 → 17 +100 exp

Your Agility and Spirit has become slightly influenced

Its "Persistence" aligns with, and share, similarities with both you "Stamina" and "Adrenalin"

Stamina 124 → 140 +160 exp

Adrenalin 91 → 96 +50 exp

Your resources have become slightly influenced.

The leftovers of its defeat wash over you, although not specific, you can make use of what remains:

+8 Resource Points +80 exp

+2 Empowerment Points +200 exp

Level up! 8 → 9 (330/800 exp)

+10 mystical Resource points

+1 Empowerments Points

'am I tripping or are these thing changing? anyway, F me, that was tiresome'

He closed the tab and walked back to his campfires, refilling them.

Calming down took some time, especially when he could hear something in the very distant distance.

'is that.. fighting? or just animal sounds?'

It wasn't getting any closer and eventually it quieted down only to be replaced by some nighttime songbird. Fredrick slowly started to accept that nature simply made weird sounds, even more so at night.

Sleep was also something he couldn't avoid forever.

'I got to get to the mountain, it has to be possible to find some people from there'

Soon after he finally fell asleep.

It would take him 7 more days to get to the mountain.