It took Robin a fair amount more tries to defeat the mental incarnation of the water elemental, as even if his initial guess had been right - the marble floating inside its body was in fact its core - he didn't really have the skillset required to scoop up a ball the size of a human testicle out of a liquid monster that was trying to kill him. What de did have was time and perseverance to develop it through trial and mostly error.

The crack, followed by the water becoming limp and dripping off him, which was then followed by the darkness fading and the light and nature returning around him was the single most satisfying series of events he'd ever experienced.

A soft breeze brought with it a distinct whiff of conifer sweetness, causing the grass to sway and leaves to shuffle all around. Short bouts of chirping would erupt every now and then from the surrounding canopy, causing everything to fluidly blend together and intimately replicate an Earthen forest landscape.

He was certain calm moments like this were going to be rare going forward - at least until he found civilization - so Robin just laid there for a bit and made the most out of the peace and beauty around him.

He remembered similar moments from back when he was a kid, when his parents used to bring him along on mountain hikes.

He remembered disliking how tired and sweaty he was when they were climbing up.

He'd complain and ask to go back home and his parents would slow the pace and remind him that home's not going anywhere, then they would encourage him to try and enjoy the experience.

"The air is clean and exercise is healthy for you. Besides, if it really becomes too hard, your dad can always carry you." his mom used to tell him with a smile and a quick wink at his father.

He really missed those times now. He wondered how they reacted when they found him, or if he'd even left a body-

Something shifted in a nearby bush, pulling Robin out of his trance and draining the color from his face. He was just crouching to pick up the nearest thing he could use to defend himself - this time a kind-of-sharp rock, when something similar to a squirrel came out of the shrubbery, saw him and immediately turned and ran away.

Were Robin in a more favorable situation, he would have probably attempted to follow and hunt the thing. But as of right now he had guaranteed, low-risk food a short walk away, no idea of the actual abilities of the creature, and no Mana to spare.

He would not get greedy for meat... for the time being.

With a fuller stomach, he opened up his Status Screen, ready to bask in his achievement.

Status Name: Robin Greystone Race: Human (Uncommon) Age: 20

Resources:

Health: 50/50

Stamina: 20/20

Mana: 10/40

(!) Influence: 1/100

Attributes:

Agility: 2

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: 4

Perception: 3

Resistance: 1

Strength: 2

Vitality: 4

(!) Willpower: 5

Skills:

Identify* (C)

Elemental Affinity* (S)

Spark (I)

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

(!) Meditation (C)

He was pleasantly surprised and more than a little intriegued by the amount of (!) markings peppered all over the screen, so he didn't waste time in getting their information.

(!) Influence

The entity is a result of the world, and the world is shaped by the actions of the entities nurtured within.

An entity influences the world by creating and destroying, and the world keeps track of and rewards all who leave their mark on Creation.

99 more Influence needed for next threshold.

"Ok, so this should basically be my EXP bar... I have no idea how I got any, but if unlocking multiple new Skills only got me 1 this is going to be harder than I initially thought. Then, I guess 'creating or destroying' translates to 'crafting or killing', so that's not really a surprise."

There was little more he could deduce from the information he got, so Robin moved on to the next marker.

"Next... an Attribute?"

Willpower

Attribute determines spell casting speed, mental resilience and Mana regeneration.

(!) Notice - Improvement detected. Attribute recalibrated. Rating increased by 1.

"First off, an Attribute has a description? Does this mean all of them do?" he wondered, raising his gaze one row higher.

Vitality

Attribute determines need for rest and sustenance, Health pool and Health regeneration.

That answered that question.

"I shouldn't really be surprised I guess. It looks like whatever this System is, at least it's fair from an information point of view."

It took Robin a second longer than he'd like to admit to process what the Notice meant.

"This means I can increase my Attributes by doing things other than leveling! I hope having low Stats - well 'Attributes' - means it takes less effort to improve them."

His fingers itched for a the familiarity of a grind, but he caught himself. There were still more things he needed to check beforehand.

Strength

Attribute determines muscle power, unarmed damage and melee weapon damage.

Resistance

Attribute determines damage reduction and status effect resistance.

Perception

Attribute determines receptivity and effective range of the senses.

Intelligence

Attribute determines cognitive ability, maximum magic potential and Mana pool.

Endurance

Attribute determines Stamina efficiency, Stamina pool and Stamina regeneration.

Agility

Attribute determines reaction speed, flexibility and control.

The Attributes were what he expected, although he'd hoped for something less general than the explanations he got.

Still, it meant Robin had 3 main ways to build himself.

He could go bulky, invest mainly in Vitality, Strength and Resistance, and hopefully bulldoze through whatever wanted to kill him. It seemed like the most basic option, but this kind of build was most useful when he wasn't certainly the lowest level creature in miles. And he wasn't sure how good Resistance even was - he could just be walking around, and some precision-specialized creature just throw a sharp rock at his neck, one-shotting him before he even understood he was under attack. This one seemed to be a good pick for a group, but pretty bad for solo stuff.

He could go speedy, invest in mainly Perception, Agility and Endurance, and detect anything that could kill him and run away before that was a possibility. One problem with these kinds of builds was that they relied on good gear for fighting - both sharp weapons for damage and strong leather in case anything would glance him if he wasn't fast enough. Another problem was that Agility didn't mention anything speed-related, and Robin was pretty sure this meant that someone needed both Strength for 'muscle power' and Agility for a proper speed build. He had no idea how easily he could increase his Attributes, so going on a path that would require him to invest in half of them didn't seem too great.

He could also go mage. While he could imagine how the other two would fail, he had no idea what the limits of a mage were. Obviously they were paper cannons when caught with their staff down, and without the Perception or Resistance that the other builds based their survivability on, it was even easier to just die to random elements with this one. Spells also seemed to cost a lot, but that was hopefully because his were only Inferior grade.

"My highest grade Skill is a passive that helps with Elemental damage and spells. I haven't seen anything else cast magic yet, but I don't see why there would be any limits to what it could do."

He sighed. Even picking a build was hard given his circumstances.

"And even if I plan everything out, there's always a chance of everything falling apart at first contact with danger. For all I know I could spec into full Physical, find a chest full of shiny gear in a hollow, and the first thing i come across afterwards would be some kind of Specter that would just slowly suck out my soul magically, while I try stabbing its ethereal body."

In the end, even if he had learned a bit more about his new world, there was so much information he was still missing.

So he went lower on his screen, hoping to learn more.

New Skill (!)

Meditation - Uncommon

Active skill - No Cost

Causes the caster to enter a hyper-focused state, enhancing comprehension and learning at the cost of sensory input. Forceful disruption can result in serious damage to the caster.

Even though it didn't seem to be something usable in a lot of situations, Robin was glad to have another tool at his disposal. Especially considering now was a perfect time to use it, since this was one of those moments in which he didn't have to move, run, forage or fight.

Robin read the description again. The skill seemed useful, but he was not a fan of how 'at the cost of sensory input' sounded.

Granted, right now - unarmed, with his low stats and weak skills - there was probably very little he could do to an attacker anyway.

"Though, I don't think I was aware of my surroundings while I was fighting that imaginary Elemental either."

That was a chilling thought.

"But this is probably what happened with Spark as well - I stumbled blindly until I did it the first time, then the System acknowledged it and gave me a Skill that does it."

He needed to power up a whole lot before he would feel even remotely safe, and this Skill would supposedly assist a great deal in achieving that.

"I didn't even know it was a Skill, I thought it was the same thing like the stupidly fast regeneration I have. But if this really increases the speed at which I can improve, it would be stupid of me not to use it as much as possible."