The stars were brighter here than they were just about anywhere, even with Cassie’s flickering fire on the other side of the clearing. It was a comfort to see them, as constant and unchanging as they always were. A cool breeze brushed over me, rocking my makeshift hammock and dragging a yawn from my lips. All I needed was a beer in one hand and maybe a spritz of tropical-strength bug repellent and this would be pure bliss. Even the humidity of this place was beginning to bother me less and less.

Stella let out a snorting snore and readjusted her place on my belly. Even her weight wasn’t enough to cause me any discomfort although it did make the hammock creak precariously. Boopzy, currently curled around my head with his tentacles tucked close against his body let out a series of happy sleepy chitters.

This was a little slice of paradise; a rarity in this new world and maybe in the old one as well. The gentle rocking of the hammock kept me in a lovely dozy state. I wish it would stay like this all the time. Here there were no monsters (Boopzy doesn’t count, fight me), and no need to worry about my levels or the amount of gold I had. There was no one here to ask me questions or scream at me or blast magic up my ass.

I sighed and contemplated digging out my stashed bottle of Bluedart Brew. Would it be wasteful to drink it for the taste alone and not the status boosts it offered? It probably would be.

Who would judge me though? Theo was happy sitting quietly by Cassie’s front door, weaving baskets from reeds with surprising dexterity. Nora and Gabby had taken Sob out of the swamp to go on what they’d called an ‘experience hunt’. They’d laughed at me when I’d passed on going with them in favor of a few blessed days of quiet. I still thought I’d made the correct decision. There was plenty of time to risk my life for a few measly experience points later.

“Are you going to lay there all night?”

I groaned and upset Stella and Boopzy by rolling away from the only annoyance left in the swamp that was not buzzing around my head. “Leave off, Cassie. I’m actually enjoying myself for once.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Mr. Joe,” Cassie sneered. “Let me just work my fine rear end off for you while you lay here basking in your laziness.”

“I delivered the ingredients, what more do you want from me?”

“Hmm, I don’t know, maybe a hand or two. What level is your Alchemy skill at now?”

“Nine, why?”

The witch sighed and turned away. “So little? I thought someone like you would be pumping that skill up the moment they received it. It’s an incredibly powerful ability.”

“Level nine is high, though. I have a seventy-five percent success rate on all my potions. That’s pretty damn good in my opinion,” I snapped, turning awkwardly in the confines of my makeshift hammock.

Cassie leaned in close and grabbed my face. Her long nails like five tiny daggers dug into my squashed skin. “I have a one-hundred percent success rate on legendary potions. That could be you if you just put in a little effort. You’re running out of time in this place. Can’t you feel Melumek’s power encasing the world? Trust me, the higher level potions you make the more experience points you will get the more levels you’ll gain.”

“Look, I have a plan. Once the safe house is finished I’ll put in an alchemy lab and I’ll work on my skills then,” I mumbled.

Cassie snorted and threw my face away before taking a few steps back. “Everything is always tomorrow's problem, isn’t it?”

The bubble of calm inside me fueled by my too-short moment of rest burst. Stella yelped as she was thrown from the hammock.

Screee!

The plop of Boopzy being slingshot against a heavy-bottomed tree made me flinch even as the molten rage slid through my veins. The Tentarat hissed and clambered up into the highest branches where it could seeth or cry in peace.

“You don’t know me, witch. Don’t pretend that you do,” I growled.

“But I do know you. I’ve met you a hundred times over. In different places, with different names and different looks but always the same. So much potential just squandered because of fear.”

“Okay, seriously, has brewing this potion messed with your brain? Where’s all this judgment and shit coming from?” I snapped.

The witch, teal sparks dancing from her fingertips to her shoulders, scoffed and stomped away. My fingers curled into fists, shaking at my sides as the need to hit something overcame me. I’d been so happy only moments before. Was relaxing for a brief moment such a terrible thing?

When this potion was made we either had to use it straight away or return to Stanthorpe where I’d have to face the army of strangers Nora had gathered for me. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for the help but being surrounded by people I didn’t know whose reason for being there at all was suspect made me very uncomfortable. I’d be constantly on edge just waiting for the next drama to unfold. If we chose to use the potion instead I’d be thrust into another world of danger inside this one, battling just to get through it in hopes it would give me something I could use to continue surviving. What kind of life did either option leave me with? Not one I wanted, that’s for sure.

And here she was, a witch who was probably one of those Forerunner things that Jitta had talked about, passing judgment on the tiniest fraction of my life that she’d seen. I had liked it far better when she’d been frightening me with her extremely potent seduction skills than this bullshit anger. Maybe the first description I’d ever read about the Witch of Evermore had been correct; I should have brought some chocolate or a small sacrificable child along with me.

I let the anger and frustration out on a hard breath as I dropped my ass back into the hammock and sent it rocking. Stella dropped down on the ground beside me with a huff not bothering to climb back up into the long scrap of fabric suspended between two trees. Boopzy however had not forgiven me yet and remained up high in the tree somewhere making the leaves rustle.

I still had about two days of sitting here waiting for the potion to be completed. Maybe I should just pack up and go in search of Nora and Gabby. I guess getting a few more levels under my belt wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The weight of a heavy hand dropping on my shoulder made me jump. At first, I thought it was Frank but when my head swung up it was Theo’s face I saw. The man gave my shoulder an almost painful squeeze before he handed me one of the reed baskets he’d been working on.

“Ah, thanks, I guess,” I said.

Theo gave me a nod as he straightened, releasing me from his hold. “Stronger is better,” the man said before wandering back to his place by the hut's front door.

“I’m a thief, strong is not important,” I shouted after him only to be ignored.

I turned the basket over in my hands and inspected the even bends and twists that normally came with experience. It was an odd skill for such a dangerous man to be naturally adept at. The image of an old friend with many legs and fiery hair flashed in my mind's eye. Theo could probably sell these things to Red but I doubt the Arachnes would give him a fair price.

Finally forgiving me the Tentarat dropped from the branches above, landing with a heavy and ever so slightly slimy squelch in my lap. Boopzy’s little rat nose twitched as he reached for the basket, first folding his clawed forepaws over the rim before his tentacles came twining from around him to slide over the dried reeds. He chittered and squeaked his approval at the mid-sized basket.

“Glad you like it,” I mumbled.

Boopzy clambered full body into the thing as I leaned back, inspecting the three lines forever tattooed on my inner wrist. They felt natural now. Like I’d had them my whole life and not just for the short time the Crocs had burst from every place that could even remotely be called a toilet. I reached out and prodded them, leaning back even further and letting the hammock rock me as I looked at the screen that opened up in front of my eyes.

Race:

Human

Class:

Thief

Gold:

123,559

Humans remaining:

23,967

Health:

44/44 (13)

Magicka:

22/22

Fatigue:

40/40

Level:

34

Ability

Score

Agility:

17 (1)

Charisma:

10

Constitution:

14

Endurance:

11

Intelligence:

8

Perception:

16

Magic:

1

Strength:

7 (1)

Reading how few humans still existed as players made my stomach flip. There was a reason I rarely looked at the number and this was it. It was crazy to me that Nora had managed to gather a tavern's worth of players to assist with the safe house. In the entire country, there were fewer survivors than the population of my hometown had been before the Crocs came.

It was strange looking at a breakdown of what the game chose as your possible abilities. Every single one of them had numbers and yet unless I had a skill that was affected by that number, I wasn’t sure it made much of a difference. The longer I thought about it the more I realized how much had changed though.

I could run for longer periods without draining my Fatigue as quickly as I upped my Endurance. I could stand up right now and do a backflip right over my makeshift hammock if I wanted to because of my Agility. And even in the dark of night, I had been able to see Theo’s face even though his bulk blocked a lot of the light cast by the fire because of my high Perception. Before I’d have been lucky to make out blobs in the dark even with my eyes fully adjusted.

So yeah, maybe it did make a difference, it was just so damn slow it was barely noticeable. Everything I accomplished just felt natural the higher I progressed. I might get a little buzz of excitement when I achieved something new for the first time but the second or third time didn’t carry that same electricity.

Worse yet I enjoyed upping my skills rather than my baser stats. Focusing on developing a singular skill didn’t have much of an impact on anything outside of that skill. No, to up the base stuff you had to do what the game truly wanted; completing quests and killing monsters.

And yet, upping a singular skill was exactly what I wanted to do right now. That would show the grumpy witch that I wasn’t as useless as she seemed to think.

“Boopzy,” I barked, startling the little creature. “Take your new bowl and go out into the swamp. Collect as many different kinds of ingredients as you can carry, I don’t care what they are, just not all the same. Understand?”

Boopzy rose as high as his tentacles would allow, his enormous dewy eyes on level with mine. He chittered for a moment before slapping two slimy tentacles on either side of my face reminiscent of when Cassie had done the same thing but far less painful. His suckers gripped hard onto my skin in the worst possible way.

Screee!

“I know, I know,” I said. “Don’t worry, you’ll get a reward for all your fine work, I promise.”

Seemingly satisfied the Tentarat dropped to the ground, flipping over the basket and holding it against himself in a way that kind of made him look like a turtle. The bushes shook and rustled as he rushed into the darker depths. I should be worried about sending the small creature out in the swamp and yet I wasn’t. Whatever this place tried to throw at Boozy, he could take it. I was sure of it.