Kael could feel Yareeth's gaze on him as he wiped his club-hammer, the mud and blood leaving dark streaks against the worn wood. Her words, a simple question, a subtle command, echoing through the soft symphony of the marsh, “Everything alright?"
“Just a drakeling,” Kael said. But the bravado felt weak. “Nothing I can’t handle.” But his heart pounded as he spoke, and his gaze, scanning the dense reeds, couldn’t shake the sense that they were being watched, the memory of the Razorfang Brute’s intelligence lingered in the shadows. “Let's get you those Level One creatures. There are probably a few around here.”
“Now, I need to use my stat and skill points here.” Her statement, matter-of-fact. She was already learning, understanding the nuances. It both impressed him and triggered a wave of unease. His role in her life…
He cleared his throat. “Oh. Right. Of course. Should probably use those points before—“ Another rustle in the nearby bushes. "No time now.” It wasn't a lie. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, and this realm… it felt different. More alive. He wasn't eager to face whatever lurked in the darkness. He hadn't really shown her how to use the system screens. And something, in the shadows…
But before he could finish the thought, she was summoning her system interface. It flickered to life, and he could see the numbers dancing in front of her—stats, skills, a map of potential that was now as familiar to her as the scent of the swamp, as the memories she carried in her heart.
She was right. It wasn't about the fights, not always. They had time.
Yareeth glanced up at him. He saw a spark of urgency, and fear in her expression, but also that thirst for understanding that had bloomed, a quiet resilience blooming from the ashes of her grief. She pointed at the words and numbers with a hesitant claw. Her voice was a soft hiss, but her words clear, "I want to do it now. What’s the best one to… pick? Teach me, please?" The shadows of the realm shifted around her. It would be darker soon.
He took a step towards her. It was the word “Please” that did it, the way it seemed to catch, a tremor in her voice, the admission that she… needed his help. She trusted him now. This creature from a lost world, her home consumed, his fault. She trusted him.
"Well… ok," He said, pushing the anxiety aside, forcing a smile, but he was starting to understand that the real fight, the most important victory, wasn't in these realms. It was here. And this moment was their first shared triumph. "Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Wow,” She said, after glancing at the Status screen, then her Skill screens. “The system, it is… learning too.” They allocated the five stat points she had gained into Agility, Precision, Reasoning, Perception, and Vitality, her choices a blend of practicality, her tribe’s influence, and a new confidence. It was her body.
Then, came the skills. First, the skill points went into Defensive Tactics, Merchant, Negotiation, and two into Herbal Identification. Then she looked at her Skill Token. “What if… I learn this one?” She scrolled through her System menu, highlighting a skill. The numbers, once abstract and strange, held a familiarity to her now. They were the difference between survival, thriving even, or succumbing. She understood the game’s brutality. Kael could only nod, his anxiety fading as she scrolled.
New Skill Unlocked!
You Have Unlocked The Skill
Minor Heal
(Active): Basic ability to treat minor injuries.
Skill Type: Magic
Skill Rank: Novice
It was as if the System was acknowledging her lost tribe, her mother’s teachings. He imagined the girl back in her village, learning from her kin, mimicking their ways. It sent a sharp pang of grief, but then… her hands glowed. Her eyes widened. He smiled.
Yareeth let out a sigh of satisfaction. “It’s… gone, the tension. I feel… better.” It was her body, her skills. Her choices. Her victories, even.
But his gaze, his gratitude, their connection.
“Let’s see those Level One creatures, now.” It wasn’t a demand. Just… a shared excitement.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He pointed towards the denser, shadowy areas near the water’s edge, "There… They'll be there. I'll be right beside you, ok?" Her world. But he was starting to think… maybe this was their world now.
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The creature leapt from the mud with a startling croak, a flash of green against the reeds, its long, spindly limbs a blur of motion. She dodged, the dagger she'd acquired now familiar in her hand, but still heavy. He wanted to intervene, but her gaze stopped him.
Mud Hopper Level 1
The System announced. It was hers.
Her turn.
“This is a strange creature. Weak. Its defenses are... barely a challenge,” She’d said, after examining the creature. Kael, watching from a few paces away, nodded.
“It… well, I guess it hops a lot? And lives in the mud? Hence the name?” his attempts to describe the realm creatures, as always, met with bewilderment.
He stepped back as she raised her dagger, a thin, gleaming blade that had been forged by human hands but now belonged to a lizardfolk girl who was rapidly adapting to this chaotic world. He watched as she fought, her movements a mix of instinct and strategy. Each time the Mud Hopper attacked, its small body a blur, she met it with a swift, precise parry, the System's enhancements subtly enhancing her natural agility, reflexes honing with each attack. She seemed to be… dancing, her scaled body moving with a grace he envied. A deadly waltz against the backdrop of the sinking sun, its last rays painting the realm in hues of gold and amber. Her claws. She hadn’t used them to fight. Her choice, an attempt at integrating, into this human system?
He wanted to warn her about those claws, those natural weapons she possessed, their deadly potential. But something stopped him. This was her fight, her victory. And as he watched her, as he saw the confidence bloom in her eyes, as she finally dispatched the creature with a swift, clean thrust, a spark of admiration ignited within him. She was a natural.
Mud Hopper Killed
Grip Strength +1
She she took the backpack off of one shoulder and bent, carefully gathering the bright blue flowers. "I think this one might be useful,” she said, sniffing the air cautiously. “For healing burns. Yes, I remember... this is like…” She paused, her brow furrowed. A memory of a plant from her lost world, a connection, a thread weaving a pattern, a future. “It reminds me of something. I have to experiment when we get back.” She was smiling now.
And her smile was… everything.
“Ok,” he said. “It’s getting late, maybe we should—” But she didn’t answer.
He watched, concern overshadowing pride, as she continued. There were more flowers now, blue, yellow, a bright crimson red that looked poisonous. Her every touch was a careful consideration. An analysis, an understanding. Her tribe, their rituals. These new pronouncements were just an echo. A confirmation, of her worth.
This wasn’t just a realm, he realized as he watched her gathering the herbs, her movements careful but efficient. She was rebuilding her world here. Or maybe… maybe she was creating a new one?
Kael smiled, the warmth of it unexpected. This time, it wasn’t about survival, not exactly.
They continued on, moving slowly through the dense foliage, Yareeth's sharp eyes scanning the undergrowth for herbs. She was building a collection, he realized. A storehouse, a healer's bounty she hadn’t possessed in her village, her world.
“Where now?”
It was a question they were both learning to ask, a shared language emerging from the chaos of their journeys, the fragments of a future built on a foundation of trust and the quiet understanding that, for all their differences, they were in this together. It wasn't the life they'd envisioned for themselves, but it was theirs.
She met his gaze, her dark eyes shining with a strange, alien light that reminded him of the creature's poisonous glow, of the realms, and his heart twisted with a strange mix of fear and admiration. She was no longer just the girl who had lost her home, lost her world because of him.
She was something more.
"I don't know,” He gestured towards the last glimmer of the realm’s sun, the sky above a blazing tapestry of red and gold. “Which way would you go, if this was… your world?”
For a moment, Yareeth stood there. The shadows of the jungle realm played across her face. She looked at the sky, the way the sun dipped towards the horizon. Her hand, instinctively, went to her waist, touching the dagger he’d bought for her.
“This one… I trust you. We go this way.”
The ground beneath her feet, shifting sands, the roots, the mud— she was choosing. It was their path now. He’d gotten them this far. But his role, it was changing. This place. These rules. This fight for survival.
It wasn’t just his anymore.