“Expand the list.” Star demanded, staring at Salem’s affinity selection screen.
Please choose three [3] affinities.
* Air
* Chrono
* Contract
* Death
* Earth
* Fire
* Gravity
* Healing
* Mind
* Spacial
* Summoning
* Water
“Oh those look really good.” Star muttered.
Salem nodded in agreeance, “My top are Chrono, spacial, gravity, healing, summoning, and contract.”
“And you can only pick three, huh?” Star sighed heavily. “Hmmm, well with my alchemist abilities I should be able to cover healing.”
Salem nodded, “Alright that one can be off the list, what else.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Well, summoning and contract are kinda similar? Summoning should work by making a contract between me and what I summon.”
“So take contract off the list?”
“Yeah, which mean I just need to cross one more off my list.”
“I feel spacial is an obvious take, you could make bags of holding or portals with that!”
“You right, you right.” Salem agreed, “So its just between gravity and chrono then.” Salem tapped her foot as she thought, “Gravity will let me move things by making them lighter or floating them. Time might let me see into the future or even the pass…”
“Chrono might also allow us to grow plant quicker by speed up time in a relative area.”
Salem nodded, “And I might be able to summon animals to help us move things around…” She trailed of, “Alright I’ve made my decision.” Salem tapped the screen.
Congratulations! You have gain Chrono Affinity. You’ve gained +5 mana.
Congratulations! You have gain Spacial Affinity. You’ve gained +5 mana.
Congratulations! You have gain Summoning Affinity. You’ve gained +5 mana.
Current Skill:
* Mana manipulation [1]
* Mana: 0/20
* Mana regeneration [1]
* Mana regeneration: 10% per hour.
* Affinities [3]
* Chrono [1]
* Spacial [1]
* Summoning [1]
Star squealed, “This is so exciting! You have to try these abilities out!”
Salem chuckled, “I’d love to, but I currently don’t have any mana to use.”
Star deflated, “Dang it. I suppose we should take a look around then. Take stock of what we all have available.”
Salem cringed, “Not much,” She muttered to herself, “Let’s check out the farm house first, hopefully its not in to bad of shape.” She turned, beginning the short trek to the little house, Star following close behind.
The duo drew closer to the farm house. Close enough to see it slightly leaning with vines twisting around it. Close enough to see the rotting planks of wood and busted windows. They pause before the door, noting the missing handle and the way it slumped to the side, leaving a wide gap at the top.
Star took a deep breath, reaching her hand out. She pressed her hand against the rough, splintering surface of the door. She pushed hard. It gave way to the a shove, creaking and crackling beneath the force of her hand, for a moment she feared it would crumble beneath her palm. Yet before it could the door scrapped against the ground, getting stuck no more then a few inches away from where it’d previously rested.
Star found herself attempting to squeeze pass the door, turning her body sideways. She shuffled through the narrow passageway, finally entering the abandoned building. Once she’d passed through the entrance she breathed again, sucking in a lung full of air.
“It smells like something died in here.” Star placed a hand over her nose.
Salem huffed, shuffling in behind her, “Well, it is our only shelter at the moment, so I think we’re just gonna have to deal.”
Star huffed, “Let’s just take a look around.” She took a step forward only for her foot to brake through the rotting floor. “Shit!” Star barley managed to catch herself, placing her hand on either side of the newly formed hole.
“Are you alright?” Salem rushed to Star, kneeling down beside her.
Star hissed as she removed her leg from the hole. All up and down her leg lay scratches, a few deep enough to draw blood. “Ow ow ow,” She hissed, “Ok, alright, this is fine.”
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Salem gently wrapped her hand on her upper arm, tugging up gently on it, “Come on, lets get you out of here and see how bad it is.”
Star nodded, getting her feet back under her. She limped slightly as she began to walking back to the creak between the door and the wall. Salem walked just ahead of her, pausing for a moment to shove the door farther open. It scratch the wood beneath it as it shuddered open creating a truly awful sound that grated on the duos ears.
Salem shuffled out first looking over here shoulder repeatedly, checking on Star. Once Salem made it out Star took a deep breath turning her body sideways with her good leg in front. She slowly shuffled through looking down at her leg to make sure it wouldn’t scrap up against anything.
“Well it doesn’t look to bad.” Salem muttered as she looked down at Star’s leg, inspecting it for splinters and dirt. “I’ll go look for some bandages in the house you stay here alright?”
“Test the floor boards before you step on them,” Star advised leaning up against a tree.
“I will.” Salem headed back into the house.
Star’s mind wondered to her skills, didn’t she choose lucky? What about having her foot go though a floor board was lucky? She huffed. Board already she look back to the little old farm house. Maybe Salem could use some help?
Star stood before the slightly opened door, staring it down. To go in or not to go in. Well there was nothing to do out here now was there. “Fuck it.” She whispered below her breath. She creeped into the house. “Ok now to just test these floorboards…” She placed one foot on a board slowly adding more of her weight. The board did not break. Star breathed, “Salem, I’ve come to help!”
“What, no! I told you to stay outside.” Salem’s voice echoed from nearby.
“Well that's to bad cause I’ve already decided.” Star tested another floorboard determining it was safe. She continued these movements taking slow cautious steps forward until she reached the center of the room.
The house seemed to be divided into three room, the one she stood in now was a kitchen area, outfitted with a counter, cabinets hanging off the wall, a creaked sink, and missing or broken drawers. “Have you check the kitchen?” Star called.
“Yes.” Salem answered, her voice coming from the left.
“Ok! I’m headed to the other room then.” Star turned, looking down to the floor once more. She took another step forward, testing the board.
Skill level up! Lucky [1] – Lucky [2]
“Eh?” Star stared in confusion. “What a minute does doing mildly dangerous things result in my skill leveling?” She took several steps inching her way to the new room.
Creeeaak SNAP!
Star barely managed to pull her foot back from rotting board as it snapped under her weight. “… that was close.” She stepped around the new hole in the floor. “Hold on a damn minute, can I use scan to see which boards are broken?” Star mentally focused on the skill, intent to scan the floor for broken floor boards. What she received back was… disappointing
Old floor boards
Chance of collapsing under enough weight.
“Oh gee really?” Star turned to the kitchen.
Run down kitchen
A place once used to make food, now broken down.
Level up! Scan [1] – Scan [2]
Star brightened up at the notification, using scan once more
Very run down kitchen
A place once used to make food, now broken down.
“Are you kidding me? That just added an adjective! This skill is useless.” Star complained, groaning loudly. Thoroughly disappointed by this point Star continued to her destination, shuffling forward.
------------------
An hour passed as Salem and Star searched high and low for bandages and other useful items. Only to find themselves empty hand. Together they sat outside of the farm house look off into the tree line.
“Well that was a bust.”
“No joke, the only good thing to come out of this was my skill leveled up some.”
“Really? How so.”
Star pulled up her skill screen with a wave.
Current skills:
* Deconstruct [1]
* Gacha gathering system [1]
* Lucky [5]
* Scan [6]
* Synthesis [1]
“Oh? How are they working out.”
“Scan’s been kind of useless, but it might be because I’m using it on a large area? Lucky's not really showed me any of its effects either, other then the fact I haven’t fell though any more floorboards.”
Salem hummed, “How about you try using that scan of yours on a plant, like this bush.” She pointed to a overgrown bush besides her.
Overgrown berry bush
This bush grows berries in the fall.
“Its a berry bush, grow fruit in the fall.”
“Well well well, that's not useless at all. Now we now we’ll have some berries to look forward to if we end up staying here.”
Star couldn’t help but smile, feeling a little bit better, “What about you, you should have gain some mana by now, are you gonna test it out?”
“Well, I suppose I could.” Salem seemed a little uncertain.
Star grinned, “Come on then! Lets go find something to test it on.” She bounced to her feet holding a hand out to Salem.
Salem sighed, reaching out and grasping Star’s hand, “Alright.”
Star beamed, pulling Salem to her feet, “This way,” she cheered, tugging Salem hand as she moved toward the woods.
“What are we even going to try it on anyway?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Salem gave Star an exasperated look, “Do you even know where were headed?”
“Not a clue.”
“What should I even use it on? I’ve got space, time, and a summoning affinity, not much I can really do with that at the moment.”
“Hmm, well maybe you could-- What is that?” Star slowed her pace, creeping to the edge of what seemed to be a cliff. She knelt down peering over the edge, only to find should couldn’t see any land below her, only a ever expanding gray color. “Where’s the rest of the cliff?”
“Not here?” Salem moved over, peering over the next part of land, “Are we floating?”
Star stood, shaking her head, “That shouldn’t be possible, lets circle the rest of land, see if its all like this.”
Salem nodded, “Alright, give me a second first.” She reached for a fallen tree limb, using it to create a identifying mark on the ground, “Ok, that should do it. If we make it back to this mark we reached our starting point, got it?”
“Got it.”
The two walked along the edge of the land for no more than a hour before finding there way back to the start, find no land beside the floating island they stood upon. Below them the scene stayed the same, an ever expanding sea of gray.
The duo look at the marking on the ground with a unease.
“We’re on a floating island.”
“With limited resources.”
“And it only takes an hour to walk around the entire island.”
Salem stood silent for a moment, “We need to find water.” She suddenly became aware of the dryness in her throat. She turned to her friend, who sucked in a breath between her teeth.
“Let’s walk back to the cabin, that can be are starting point.”