“Well now that we’ve decided on an end goal what do you think our first step to survive in the woods be?” Valoria ask.
“Well most heroes seem to kill bears as a first step to becoming heroes. Let’s go hunt one of those.” Oriana answers.
“Right as I was saying we should first gather wood for a fire.”
“Aww, what about the bear~” Oriana says following after Valoria.
Valoria looks at a tree. Then she looks at her fist. Then back at the tree. Nah she thinks. This might be a video game like dream but punching trees for wood doesn’t seem like a viable solution. She instead gathers various twigs and branches that litter the forest floor. She also gathers many river stones from the nearby brook.
As Valoria is gathering the most basic of raw materials “My skills in survival indicates that we need fire, water, shelter and food to survive out in the woods. With weapons to fight various animals and monsters also a good idea to have.”
“Sadly it also indicates the best way to survive is to be well prepared and wait for rescue in one spot. It might not be entirely useful in this situation. ” After picking up several twigs and stones she notices a problem. “I really don’t have anything to carry all of this in.”
“Just use your inventory screen.” Oriana replies.
Valoria thinks [Inventory] and a screen with 10 slots appears. She pushes in the gathered twigs and stones. They disappear when she touches the screen and appear with an icon and a number in the inventory screen.
“Now that is handy, not really realistic but very handy.”
“Everyone gets access to the inventory screen after they get their first Overpower. Leveling the porter skill, certain jobs or wearing backpacks and bags will increase its slots and stack size as well. What do you mean unrealistic? This world just has different basic rules then the one you were originally from. It’s totally realistic.” Oriana explains.
Valoria shrugs and continues to gather materials. She finds she can stack the items up to 10 on each slot. So after gathering a 100 sticks and stones she drops them off at a clearing she decided to make her base camp then continues to gather more.
“So how do I go about leveling a job, or even acquiring a job in the first place? I don’t need a resume do I?”
“Just open up the job menu. All the jobs you’ve met the requirements for will be listed. Just select one as the active job. Doing job related activities will gain job exp and once you’ve gained enough your job level will advance.”
“What happens when I switch jobs?” Valoria asks.
“You keep all the skills and abilities gained but lose job specific bonuses. As your total job level increases you’ll also unlock additional secondary job slots you can level. The first active job will always get 50% of the exp and the additional job slots will gain the other 50% divided among them. So if you had three jobs active then the first would gain 50% and the other two gain 25% of the experience. However you can gain experience by doing activities from any of the three active jobs. Of course if you have only one job active it gains 100% of the exp.”
“So can I just set the active job to whatever activity I’m doing at the time and level it?”
“Basically yes. You have to wait one minute after your last skill usage but then you can change the active job. Technically you could change jobs in combat if you did nothing for a minute but practically you can only change jobs out of combat and while not in a stressful situation.” Oriana continues the explanation.
Valoria waits a minute then thinks [Job menu]. A screen appears with active job: New born. And a selection list of jobs to change too with only one listing: Villager.
“I don’t really have a lot of job listings. Only new born and villager are listed.”
“That’s normal. When a person is first born they get the new born job. Basically the system automatically levels skills, stats, abilities and traits for them. Once the system judges the person to have enough self-awareness it switches their job to villager, peasant, slave, noble or merchant depending on the family that person was born into. Usually the switch happens around age of 4 or 5 for most people.”
“Any reason to stay as a new born then?”
“Nope leveling is at one tenth speed and you can only level certain skills. Like walking, talking, how to go to the bathroom and so on.”
“No comment about my childhood skills?”
“Insulting people is beneath a goddess such as I. Although I do find it interesting the system hasn’t switched your job to Villager yet.”
Valoria does a quick check of her childhood skills. They are all at 100 percent complete except common sense and culture role(female) which are both at 0%. Also the activities to level new born job are pretty basic. Not soiling yourself, putting on your own cloths, walking for 100 steps without falling over, ect. She selects switch to villager and a prompt pops up.
Are you sure you wish to switch jobs? You will not be able to switch back to new born and level basic skills. She selects yes.
*Flicker* *bzzt* *Flicker*
“Umm is the job screen supposed to flicker when you switch jobs?”
“Obviously not. What did you break now?”
They both watch the screen as it flickers for a bit. Finally a ding is heard and the screen now displays active job: Villager+ with several greyed out jobs Page+, Immaculate+, Volunteer+, Jinxed+, and Traveler+
“What’s with the disabled job list and plus sign next to the jobs?” Valoria questions Oriana.
“I don’t know. Normally jobs are either listed or not if you don’t meet the requirements. I have no idea about the + by the job either. Can you look at description of any of them?”
Valoria tries to look at the greyed out jobs but is unable to select them. Looking into the Villager job she sees the following information.
Villager+ (Lv 0) – One of the basic jobs that most other jobs branch off from. To open most other jobs Villager level 5 and job specific skills leveled to at least Senior Apprentice required. Some special jobs require certain actions, traits or abilities to access. Finding a teacher can help you know the requirements to unlock specific jobs but this is not necessary to access new jobs.
Job bonuses: None - all skills grow at 100% base job effect and you gain 10% of base stats on level up.
Job Special Abilities: None
Job activities: Most activities that would benefit a small village count. Specifically farming, gathering, hunting, crafting, cooking, building, and so on. Activities that raise sub-skills do not count for job experience. Certain noble, merchant, or slave activities also do not count toward job experience.
“Well that is the basic villager job description. I don’t see anything different than normal.” Oriana says after looking at the description.
“Guess we’ll find out eventually. What job are you going to choose?”
“I’m a goddess I don’t need a job.”
“But without your divine grace does that still work?”
“Umm… Let me check.”
Status Window
Name:OrianaAlignment:NaiveLevel:01Class:Hero GuideRace:World GoddessGender:FemaleTitlesNoneFame:0Luck:5-Health:70 / 70Health Regen:.5 / hrsMana:120 / 120Mana Regen:12 / hrsStamina:95 / 95Stamina Regen:1.5 / Sec-Strength:5Grace:12Endurance:7Leadership:5Appearance:15Charisma:9Intelligence:12Perception:9Will:12-Special Modifiers
Divine overpower - 50% increase to stats (included above in stats)
Depowered Goddess – Most divine abilities are disabled. In many ways you are considered as a lesser demigoddess. Gather more worshipers to regain power
Tongues (Disabled) – able to speak and understand any language.
Disease immunity (Disabled) – immune to all normal diseases and extra 100% resistance to supernatural diseases.
Incorporeal – unable to be seen, heard or touched by mortals. Immune to most physical effects. No need to eat or drink.
Void Walker (Disabled) – Able to cross the void between dimensions
World Guide – Basic knowledge about the world. Able to guide others in the world rule system.
Afterlife Guide (Disabled) – Able to guide souls to their next destination, birth new souls, enter heaven and interact with souls.
Miracle (Disabled) – Able to cast most spells and special God only miracles. Will use up a great deal of worship points.
“Hero Guide? My class use to be Proto-Goddess.”
Hero Guide - You are the sidekick of your chosen hero. Guide and grow them will advance you in this job.
Job bonuses: Special – you gain the same skills and stats increase as the chosen hero gains.
Job Special Abilities: World Guide – Basic knowledge about the world. Able to guide others in the world rule system.
Job activities: Special – you gain the same amount of experience the chosen hero gains.
“I am not just your extension or a side kick! What other jobs can I change into.” Oriana starts to panic
Active Job: Hero guide, Selections: Proto-Goddess and Minion. With Proto-Goddess greyed out.
“NOOOOOO!”
“You could always choose minion.” Valoria points out.
“That’s even worse than hero guide. I want my old class back.”
“What’s the difference between class and jobs?” Valoria asks trying to distract Oriana from her impending meltdown.
“Class is normally the same as your primary job. But certain titles, high level skills or secondary jobs chosen can change what is displayed. Ack. I didn’t want to answer that. It’s like an overwhelming urge to explain things when you ask me questions.” Oriana wails falling to the ground in despair.
Seeing that she made things worse Valoria decides to continue gather materials and leave Oriana alone for a bit. She gathers dead branches, stones, leaf litter and anything else she comes across that seems interesting or useful.
She runs into another problem gathering resources. Her hair is too long. Every time she picks up something it gets in the way. Even the light breeze keeps blowing the butt length hair into her face. For a bit she holds it in a ponytail with one hand and gathers resources with the other but this is less than ideal.
Happily she discovers an interesting resource. Some of the trees have a fibrous bark that looks like stiff brown string. Trying it out she is able to use it as a hair tie. She decides to gather more of it on the hopes of being able to make some clothing for herself.
In her material gathering she also finds a few mushrooms, nuts, herb like plants, and several bugs of various types in a partial rotten downed tree. Occasionally she sees small furry critters run by as well. A few attempts at throwing stones at them has yet to yield any success.
Periodically she returns to the base camp to drop off another load of resources and check on Oriana. Mostly the glowing ball has been rolling back and forth on the ground feeling sorry for herself. Valoria thinks Oriana has finally fallen asleep as the ball is now slowly pulsating in a small leaf pile. Hopefully a nap will make her feel better.
As the forest starts to noticeably darken she decides this will be her last trip and it’s time to start a fire for the night. Although she could use her survival knowledge to start a fire without any tools this would be a time consuming task. Using her skill in life magic she should be able to start a fire easily enough.
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When she picked the life magic skill she thought it might be resurrection magic or maybe a holy based magic. But it’s named life as in magic that is useful for everyday living. So sure she could start a fire with fire magic but life magic does that and so much more.
Most of the life magic spells she knows are ritual magic. It requires drawing circles, runes, and sometimes special focuses such as crystals to cast. Also the spells take long chants and require anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes to complete.
Lucky the focuses are easily gathered and she has found most of them. The chants themselves are usually just a few words repeated over and over. She clears an area down to bare ground and sets up a circle of stones to contain the fire. Then puts in a few twigs in a pyramid shape. Finally she draws a circle around it and then writes the word ignition.
Casting the Tinder spell just requires her looking at a spot for ten seconds. Ten seconds later that part of the twig pile ignites and quickly spreads to the rest of the wood. Easy enough to do. As she is a Senior Apprentice skill level she can even use wet wood without drying it first. However she has no need of this today as the twigs she found were fairly dry.
With the nearby brook she has been drinking from and the fire 2 out of her four needs are met. Even better she has no concerns drinking unfiltered water as she is immune to normal diseases.
For shelter she could build a lean-to but with magic available she is not going to do it the mundane boring way. Another life spell will allow the ambient temperature around her to stay at a nice room temperature by up to 5 degrees per level for 24 hours. At level four in the skill means the temperature will adjust by up to +/- 20 degrees different from the air. Even without clothes she should be fine with a fire and leaf blanket.
An additional life spell will keep water from her skin. First level is just keeping fog away, 2nd level morning dew, But at level four she can even keep dry in an average rain storm. Both spells take 10 minutes to cast.
Instead of casting each one individual she decides to try casting both at the same time as 20 minutes of chanting sounds dull. Drawing all the shapes required on the ground and then setting up all the spell focuses for both spells she starts to cast both spells at the same time. At the end of ten minutes both spells take effect and the following appears.
New Skills Gained
combination casting (Layman 0%) – Able to combine spells into a new spell. Usually used in ritual group casts for powerful spell casting. Dual-casting is a related skill but it casts two separate spells while this skill combines the spell effects into one spell with extra effects
concentration (Layman 0%) – Better able to maintain mental focus or spell casting even in difficult situations
She did notice that casting both spells took more mana and was much more difficult than tinder to cast. Tinder just took 1 MP to cast and hardly any effort. The other two listed as taking 24 MP each to cast but at the end of casting she used 96 MP to cast. Also the mental effort was much more than she was expecting. However the new spell has the temperature, hydrophobic and a new anti-dust effect that keeps away small dust particles. She decides to name the new spell Environmental Control Shield.
Well time to raise her cooking skill and get some food to eat. She first tries to determine what is edible by appraising it. Although she does gain skill raises in the appraise skill she still has no idea what any of the items she has are. Apparently she still needs to learn about items from somewhere else first.
Instead she again relies on forage to determine what is likely poisonous. Mushrooms and brightly colored bugs are out as food; some are edible but many are poisonous. The nuts, other bugs and herbs should be fine to eat though.
She tosses the hopefully edible bugs on the fire then uses two pieces of wood as a combination tong and chop stick to eat the crunchy delicacies. Not the worst food she has had. Still she hopes to be able to hunt tomorrow and get meat instead. A couple rocks and a few tries with her new body strength yields some very munch-able nuts as well. The first few attempts are still edible but the crushed nut and shell bits are not as tasty to eat.
With her base needs satisfied she starts the process of crafting raw resources into useful tools and items. Hundreds of various stones, sticks and bark fiber will be her primary crafting materials. The starting area has lived up to its name. This area seems devoid of any dangerous animals and monsters. Along with an abundant supply of easily gathered starting resources this spot seems ideal for someone who literally started with nothing.
Weapons are first to craft she thinks. Although the area seems safe there may still be monsters about. Also weapons should making hunting easier as well. Bows, spears and nets seem the best bet for good hunting tools. Also a knife for skinning and crafting would be useful. The only problem is she has no idea how to craft any of them. Well a sharp stone and using it to sharpen a stick should be easy enough.
She remembers seeing a documentary once on how to craft stone tools. Gathering two rocks she bangs them together. With her greater than average strength both rocks shatter. This may be harder than it looks she thinks.
Several attempts later she wonders if she’ll ever be able to craft a knife this way. Controlling her strength more after the first attempt she no longer shatters the rocks but she still cracks most of them. At least this is all a dream so the rock shards and missed rock hits don’t hurt. In reality her demi-goddess body and high pain tolerance both lessen the pain and increase the force needed to cut her skin is all.
Eventually she is able to flake off a stone piece. A combination of finding the right type of stone and hitting it at an angle make the beginning of a nice sharpened edge. She still breaks the first stone she flaked but now that she has the right idea it’s only a matter of practice to get it to work.
Gathering together similar stones to the one that flaked she continues her crafting. The stones are perhaps flint? She is not sure but she seems to remember flint is good at making stone tools. Finally she produces a knife. The system pops up a message stating she crafted a shoddily crafting flint knife.
The system at least confirmed the stone was flint even if it didn’t like the quality of her work. Regardless of the quality the system thinks of her knife she is going to use it to make a spear. This goes much faster and she quickly produces 6 wooden spears. She decides to also get some good throwing stones. Sorting out the smaller and well balanced stones she finds 83 seem good for throwing
Items crafted
Shoddily crafted flint knife - dmg 0-1, durability 5, not very useful and likely to break at any time. Counts as a knife for crafting tools. +0% to crafting skill it’s used as a tool in
Shoddily crafted pointed stick x6 - dmg 0-1, durability 5, not very useful and likely to break at any time. Counts as a tool for hunting. +0% to hunting skill
Average throwing stone x83 - dmg 1-4, durability 30, stone ammo to be used directly or in a sling. Counts as a tool for hunting. +10% to hunting skill
Well it’s better than nothing. Opening up her inventory screen she puts them in. She finds that the pointed sticks only stack to 5 and the stones are all in one stack. Not sure on the logic behind this she chalks it up to one more bizarre rule of this world. Maybe it’s due to the type changing from material to thrown weapon or ammo she thinks.
For the rest of the night she tries to make the bark fiber into threads. After hours of trial and error she found pulling and twisting the bark fiber made a decently strong thread. After another hour she now has a couple feet of thread. This is slow work and to make a small bit of cloth she will need hundreds of feet. Maybe if she uses it to just stitch together and shape animal pelts she won’t need as much. She’ll have to try to hunt some animals tomorrow to try it out.
Feeling the effects of the day she piles up the forest leaf litter and snuggles beneath the makeshift blanket. During the day she was very aware of her own bodies extra jiggles and tonight she thinks about exploring them a bit more. Even with high endurance, strength and fitness she is still exhausted from today’s activities so decides to wait till another time. Survival first, fun time later. She falls asleep and during the night she has an odd dream.
Daily Summary
Daily/Weekly Tasks Completed
Gained at least 1000 skill points, + 5 exp
Use 10 different skills, + 5 exp
Completed at least five job related activities, + 5 exp
Chatted with others, +5 social skill points
(Weekly) Gained a skill level, + 20 exp
(Weekly) Gained a job level, + 1 Fame
Quests Completed
(Repeatable) Aided another. You found a lost soul in need and helped her feel better, + 20 Friendship with that person
Lifetime Achievements Awarded
Rapid Learner -10% require skill points for next skill level - Gained skill levels in 10 different skills in a single day
Lift Day One +10% strength gain - Gained more than 100 skill points in fitness on first day of life
Precocious Child +10% exp gain – Gained a job level in first year of life
Titles Gained
None
Skill Levels Increased
social (None->Layman->Novice) This is how social people think you are. Decreases over time. Current level: people think you’re a hermit.
combination casting (None->Layman) – Able to combine spells into a new spell. Usually used in ritual group casts for powerful spell casting. Dual-casting is a related skill but it casts two separate spells while this skill combines the spell effects into one spell with extra effects
concentration (None->Layman) – Better able to maintain mental focus or spell casting even in difficult situations
stone carving(sub-carving) (None->Layman) Skill at creating stone tools, objects and art
stone knapper(sub-stone carving) (None->Layman->Novice) Skill at creating stone tools via lithic reduction
wood carving(sub-carving) (None->Layman) Skill at creating wood tools, objects and art
cloth maker (None->Layman) Skill at creating cloth by weaving, tailoring, spinning or by any other means
spinning(sub-cloth maker) (None->Layman->Novice) Skill at creating threads from raw fibers
tracking (None->Layman) Finding animals, people and other things that move via tracks, spoor and other trail indicators
appraise (None->Layman->Novice) Understanding an item, it’s value, and how to use it. Similar to observe which is used for the same purpose on people and places.
Job Level Gained
Villager Lv +1
+10% base to modified stats
+1 ability pick
A list of available villager job abilities appears when she selects yes to level up. All seem useful such as Laborer +25% carry capacity, Strongwoman + 10% to strength gains, Green Thumb +15% cultivated plant growth and so on. After looking at them all she decides to go with one that will work for any job since abilities remain even if jobs are switched. She chooses Apt Pupil which gives a +10% to all skill gains.