Novels2Search

2nd | Bearings

Day 1

A bright flash of glimmering light and suddenly, I'm not where I was before. In fact, I'm hovering about 4 feet over the ground right now, that didn't last long. I looked around and noticed I was not in fact on the ground but reached shoulder length with the lowest branches of the trees surrounding me. I fell.

“Oh fu-.”

SLAM

The ground appeared as a blanket of green while I was in midair. I thought my eyes were deceiving me as usual, but it turns out the floor was actually a carpet of thick moss with moist dirt underneath. There were a few collective strands of long grass poking out of gouges in the ground, but mostly, it seemed I was in a damp forest. Trees all around me were around 20 feet tall, large shrubs were scattered and clumped up everywhere, save for a few feet in front of me, which was a somewhat circular clearing. Moss transitioned into short grass then into sandstone like a large bald spot in the forest.

I sat there. The water in the moss I was crushing started leaching into my pants, so I scrambled up and dashed into the clearing. There were no trees in the clearing so I stared up into the pale orange sky, it was either turning night or it was early in the morning, I hoped it was the latter. I'm not prepared for night time at all, speaking of, what do I do now?

I spoke aloud to alleviate my ever rising sense of dread.

"... I've read books like this.”

I started pacing.

“ And in everyone of them, the main characters said one thing.."

“[Status]!”

Class - Survivor | lv 1/25 0/100 xp *

Race - Other World Human m

Name - Maximilian

SkP- 5 | StP- 20 | Souls- 0 0 0

Skills -

Stats-

Strength 13

Speed 7

Stamina 8

Dexterity 14

Intellect 22

Sense 9 ( Sight 1, Touch 2, Sound 2, Taste 2, Smell 2 )

Vitality 11

Charm 8 {locked}

I jumped.

“ Wow, I'm surprised that worked! man this is a ridiculous situation, it's like i'm in a video game or something! Heh heh.."

I laughed nervously at the end of my exclamation.

Looking at the gold trimmed purple screen, the words enter and save into my mind at a glance. Interestingly, my race has changed, despite me skipping over the race selection in the white void. Now there's a distinct right in front of human, so that's cool. Guess I'm really not on earth anymore huh?

A bullet of sweat drips off my nose onto the ground.

God it's humid. Actually, I wonder if there is a god in this world? knowing how this sort of thing goes, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more than one, if any at all.

“Ugh, did you have to put my full name in there? System, I'd like to change my name!"

“Well it was worth a shot, I suppose.”

I stood in the clearing, hand on my chin as I stared at the stats section. They were kinda vague, I wasn't sure exactly what each one really meant, it's best not to assume things in my current situation.

“So what does each stat do?”

I sit criss-cross applesauce on the dusty ground, taking in the stat descriptions. There's a lot to take in here, but I'm burning daylight. I need three things, food, water, and shelter. So it's time for my skill selections.

“... what does Skp and Stp mean?”

Well that's informative.

“Ok system, open [skill shop]!“

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Purchasable Skills -

Slashing resistance | Impact resistance | Piercing resistance | Swordsmanship | Archery

Spearmanship | Shieldmanship | Claymanship | Brawling | Smithing | Crafting | WoodWorking | Masonry | Pottery | Poison resistance | paralysis resistance | Pain tolerance | Pain resistance | Petrification resistance | Body strengthening | Mental Strengthening | Fear resistance | Stress resistance | Starvation resistance | Dehydration resistance | Asphyxiation resistance | Elemental resistances (13) | Mana Perception | Mana Manipulation | Mana Swell | Strengthen Stomach | Strengthen Skin | Strengthen Lungs | Power | Swift | Will | Endurance | Deft | Wisdom | Spirit | Glamour | Sense enhancement | Basic Elemental Magics (4) | Death resistance | Stealth | Steal | Leap | Power Shot | Dash | Mining | Lumbering | SIeving | Smelting | Tracking | Farming Dismantling | Butchery | Guard | (+)Appraisal | Leadership | Acrobatics | Feather Foot | Pierce | Cut | Smash | Weapon techniques (+) | Light Armor | Heavy Armor | Adaptation | camouflage | Grace | Balance | Regeneration | Instinct | Precision | Dodge | Longevity | AIm | Night Vision | Channeling | Swimming | Cartography | Terrain Sense |

“Oh wow, this is gonna take awhile.”

---

Approximately 30 mins of increasingly frantic reading later, I have my three skills selected. First of all, Provides knowledge of how to track prey and sources of sound. The user will be able to perceive the minute signs of animal tracks and natural formations. I'm sure this will help me find food, whether that's gathering or hunting, I'm unsure. I hope it will help me find water from that bit about natural formations.

Next skill, Provides knowledge of combining naturally occurring materials such as, wood, rocks, and Biome specific flora. I need to survive, I'll sike myself up for it later, for now, I need the skills to execute my plans. I'm hoping will let me assemble weapons to aid me in my survival, an axe for cutting trees, a multipurpose knife, a pick for cutting stone, or maybe a chisel. And some way to hunt, I'm thinking a bow, cause there's no way I'm gonna beat something to death with my hands or a rock.

Which leads into my next skill I've decided, I'll try to hunt, I can always go forage but I need meat to survive, though that sounds kinda weird..

Grants knowledge on how to use, maintain, and provides slight advice on the construction of a bow, provides knowledge of aiming and the way of the wind, helps in measuring distance and approximate arrow piercing ability.

I'm already standing, so I unlock my knees and turn around a bit where I stand. I picked a direction, and started walking, robotically at first as my nerves got the best of me before I gave into my fate and started walking more liquidy.

[Status] I thought.

Class - Survivor | lv 1/25 0/100 xp *

Race - Other World Human m

Name - Maximilian

SkP- 2 Souls- 0 0 0

StP - 20

Skills -

Tracking | lv1/5

Primitive Crafting | lv1/5

Archery | lv1/5

Stats-

Strength 13

Speed 7

Stamina 8

Dexterity 14

Intellect 22

Sense 9 ( Sight 1, Touch 2, Sound 2, Taste 2, Smell 2 )

Vitality 11

Charm 8 {locked}

Good to know I don't have to say status out loud every time. It's crazy how much this system affects your mind. Back when I chose my class all that time ago (45 minutes) all I needed was to steal a glance and I could still remember all the cards I saw. Miraculous.

About three hours later, judging by the sun halfway between midday and the horizon, I trip on a rock and come out of my stupor, My palms landing on the soft dirt and a small pebble under my pinkie. I look up, and notice instead of the light forest, I'm now in a towering jungle. By towering I mean you could take an Earth jungle, and then upsize it by 10 times, and you'd get this. Although it seemed these trees were more alien than earth's common species. Some of the great woods were bluish gray with dark blue leaves. Then another type more maroon, with Status screen purple with golden veins in both the wood and leaves. Even two tree species with reversed black and white for the leaves and wood. The more normal brown wooded trees seemed massive even among its fellow living spires, its canopy Dark green and enormous, blotting out the sun with the exception of a few god rays. Further into the forest, the shrubbery thickened and consumed the space underneath the leaves, though my tracking skill told me small critters like rabbits and mice would hide within, an ideal hunting ground for a level 1 noob such as myself.

Speaking of my level, it's time I try to raise it. I shift my focus from watching my surroundings to my skill, I think of what I want to make, then use my skill to find the necessary components. As is not a gathering type skill, and geared towards hunting, it did jack shit.

After what felt like an aimless journey, I stumbled upon large palm fronds that pinged my skill, Looks like the rind is used for the bow string, I gathered about five, because they were massive, about 4 feet long 2 1/2 wide, and started dragging them on the ground alongside me.

An unknown amount of time passed but the sun was at its pinnacle, if that's any indication of how long i've spent wandering around. It was successful though. I now had a tough piece of wood I could whittle down into a proper shaft.

I Sat down and placed the Giant leaves across my lap, then i started peeling the fibers from the rind, Once I had multiple piles of fiber strands, ( the leaves had a web of strand between the 2 sides of the leaf, intersecting at the middle, it looked pretty gross. ) I started to weave the strands together into a tougher string, the name of the technique was lost on me, but the woven string couldn't unwind due to the way it was spooled together.

Once that was done, I remember I needed a knife to shape the wood. So I stuck a tall stick into the ground to mark the location, and then searched for adequate sized rocks within a small circle of the little clearing I used for crafting.

Eventually I stumbled upon a good size rock, and started the long, tedious, and arduous process of sharpening it.

About 10 mins later my fingers hurt, my palms hurt, and I was super tired of moving, it got a bit darker and the sky that could be seen through the canopy was multicolor gray, clouds covered the sun.

< survival xp gained: 41xp>

I got xp? Why?

You gain XP by surviving, crafting, finding, killing and consuming things that let you survive to live another day. Among other things.>

Class - Survivor | lv 1/25 88/100 xp

Well that's handy, but seeing this shortened prompt reminded me about my stat points. Maybe if I spend them I could gain an edge in combat, mostly to make the sharpening easter.

Stats-

Strength 13

Speed 7

Stamina 8

Dexterity 14

Intellect 22

Sense 9 ( Sight 1, Touch 2, Sound 2, Taste 2, Smell 2 )

Vitality 11

Charm 8 {locked}

Stp- 20

First, I'll round up in groups of fives.

Stats-

Strength 15

Speed 10

Stamina 10

Dexterity 15

Intellect 25

Sense 10 ( Sight 2, Touch 2, Sound 2, Taste 2, Smell 2 )

Vitality 15

Charm 8 {locked}

StP- 4

As soon as I touched the sense stat, increasing my sight by one, my vision instantly got blurry. I remembered I had my contacts in, and hesitated for a moment before taking them out. After all, there's no contact solution in this world, if i took them out, i could never put them back in again. But I committed. Once taken out, the darkening world seemed to brighten around me, everything was as clear as when I put on glasses for the first time. Despite my dire straits, I wanted to thank the system.

But! I have work to do. Besides my better sight, I could tell everything else I had, had increased by leaps and bounds, I felt stronger, faster. I shadow boxed, my mind was clearer and my fingers more flexible. Despite my unfit body, I felt way better, random places didn't hurt anymore, the dull ache in my back vanished. My vessel thrummed with power, I felt like I could run forever.

But… I have work to do.

Come sunset, my badly sharpened knife was completed, I whittled down the wood into the proper length, around 4 feet maybe? I wanted Power and range, although The draw speed suffered because of it, once my skill leveled up I would make a new one.

With both the wood and string completed, I hooked the string onto the bottom and wrapped it around the top, the bow was smooth yet asymmetrical, and the string had good power behind It.

The sun is going down and I'm starting to get hungry. It's time to begin the hunt.