The water source June found is not what he expected it to be. At least, not the ‘lake’ he expected it to be. A marsh is totally acceptable. After a half hour of walking, the plants went from the terrestrial type to the semi-aquatic type, and the mud became too deep to walk in a good enough pace, so June has resorted to skirting the edges of the hill while occasionally checking for the aquatic plants until he found what he was looking for. At a lower elevation than even the mud plain, a sort of wooded marshland rests. The water goes up to his upper thigh, or at least, that’s as far as June was willing to test without risking his manhood to swamp funk.
Water accomplished, June sets his sights on step two: Fire. As long as he has fire, he reasons, he’ll have both a weapon and shelter, in a way. Most things in a forest don’t like being set on fire, after all. He might burn the forest down by accident if he’s not careful though, and finding dry enough material to start a fire could be an issue.
I should test if the water is potable or not. I suppose, I won’t know for sure until I either do or don’t die of horrible disease, but I think I have a better way to get my water. Examining the base of one of the more aquatic inclined plants, June checks for the signs he assumes will be there. Sure enough, around the base of the plant, algae and other little floaties contrast nicely against the yellowish white roots of the plant, whereas in the murky brown water it is hard to spot. That isn’t why he examined the plant, though.
With as mighty a yank as June can manage, he rips a large chunk of the plant out of the water, about one single individual water plant’s worth, minus however much root system was too entrenched to come out in such a fashion. The part he cares about is the thick white base of the plant, though he supposes the seemingly hydrophobic properties of the tuftlike massive leaf could be useful for something. After swallowing as hard as he thinks his body can, June lifts the base of the plant to his mouth, and bites.
It’s bitter, like a radish, but worse. Still, it’s as wet as I was expecting it to be. No matter what lives in the water here, however many diseases, algae, or whatever else is in the water, the only part the plants want is the raw water itself, the raw carbon, likely some nitrogen and a whole lot of other stuff that isn’t harmful to humans in the quantities plants have it in. Whether or not I can actually digest this thing has become the only issue. If I can stomach eating enough of these, I can offset how much water I actually need to drink from the ‘tainted’ swamp supply.
June stops as he runs through the full thought process again. Did he always know these things? No, no he did not. It doesn’t seem like the type of thing a random college student from… June frowns when he looks down at the water. Where was I from exactly? That feels like something I should know, if I know so many other things about earth. June frowns harder as he remembers the ‘locking into place’ sensation from hours ago in the cave.
With another bite of the plant, he looks at his status menu for what he assumes will be there, and is both disappointed by its presence and annoyed by his correct guess. Sure enough, the race section now reads “Human”, quotation marks and all, and his type reads “Humanoid Outsider”.
“I suppose… The abyss wouldn’t be scary to look at if it didn’t stare back.” June lets out with a sigh, staring at the ominous blue light behind his pupils in the reflection of his face on the water. “At least I’m 2 exp from leveling up. That’s cool.”
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After finishing off the majority of his plant, June spent the next twenty minutes attempting to find adequate material to start a fire with, to no luck. The dead branches and fallen sticks are all too moist to even use as viable clubs or anything, meaning he’s without a paddle in the ‘don’t get eaten’ department, and similarly unequipped in the ‘go eat something else’ department.
Fortunately, he’s exactly one exp away from his first level up. June suspects that the majority of his experience points came from running back in the cave, or from navigating the wilderness. Now that he’s staying in one relative spot, just in the bare minimum range to never lose track of his water source, exp is coming in slower. Or, perhaps, he’s gaining exp ridiculously quickly. He still has no idea how levels are supposed to scale, after all, or what having ‘1’ of a stat is.
Admittedly, anything he can think of to productively gain exp revolves around the traditional D&D style where exp is essentially just ‘murder points’ or video game logic where exp is determined primarily by whether or not the devs say so. He has no idea whether or not exp is meant to be his literal life experience or some other arbitrary metric, but irregardless, he stares at the number in the back of his brain as he finally sits down on top of a large, hosta-like plant on the hillside. Instantly, a mental ‘ding’ sounds in his head, and a pop-up blocks the view of his identity tab.
You have leveled up from action: Wilderness Survival. As most of your experience was gained through the following types of experience, Wilderness Survival, Feats of Mobility, Observation, you are eligible for the following classes.
Woodsman
[From Wilderness Survival]
(Common)
Primary Stat: Perception
Secondary Stat: Dexterity
Tertiary Stat: Agility
Lvl1 Traits: Lesser Nature’s Lore
Cultist
[From Observation]
(Unique)
Primary Stat: Attunement
Secondary Stat: Attunement
Tertiary Stat: Attunement
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Lvl1 Traits: Attunement Tilt
Fighter
[From Feats of Mobility]
(Common)
Primary Stat: Free Point
Secondary Stat: Free Point
Tertiary Stat: Free Point
Lvl1 Traits: Conditioning
Ow. Why is that so loud if it's inside my own head? That’s not fair! June mentally exclaims as he takes in the options presented. Woodsman sounds like ranger stuff. Maybe ‘Ranger’ isn’t a class? I don’t know what Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary stats are, but something offered by mr. abyss that only provides a single stat in 4 different ways is definitely either a red herring or a bad idea. Can I…
At the thought of checking to see what ‘Conditioning’ meant, another box pops up in his mind.
Conditioning
Go twice as long without food or water. Double carrying capacity. Martial Exercise provides greater experience. Max HP +10. Fighter is a permanent level up option until maxed.
Without hesitation, upon seeing the words ‘twice as long without food or water’, June selects Fighter as his first class. Instantly, the pop-up for class selection disappears without fanfare, and he flicks off of the identity tab to his ‘character sheet’.
Free point. Meaning I can assign it as I wish. Constitution would cover my physical strength, probably some of my physical durability/stamina… That. There’s no other choice until I have more info. I only got 1 free point from a single level of fighter, despite it listing three stats. If I had to guess… June tries to formulate a theory about gaining stats from levels, but stops himself once he remembers he can do the thing he did previously to check what Conditioning did.
Leveling Up
When you level up in a class, you gain its primary stat. When you reach a level multiple of 2 in a class, you get its secondary stat and its primary stat. When you reach a level multiple of 3 in a class, you get its tertiary and its primary stat. You gain class abilities whenever you gain the tertiary stat bonus of a class.
On reflection, the ability to look up information on his status screen appears to be the dedicated function of his fourth page in that very status screen. Out of curiosity, he tries to drag and drop the metaphorical search bar into the metaphorical search bar.
: (
Please don’t do that.
Understandable, have a nice day. June nods to himself as he reads the bolded letters. Somehow, I feel like the fact that the system frowned at me is a bad sign for my conformance with its design. Probably never expected someone with knowledge of what a search engine is to use it.
Still, the explanation on how stats are distributed by levels confirms June’s choice of picking fighter as his first class. His second level of fighter will offer two free points, so will his third and fourth, but his fifth will only provide one. What this means is that all class levels are nonlinear scaling, with levels that overlap multiples of three and multiples of two providing major power spikes, while prime numbers larger than 3 provide stable curves.
The least efficient levels from a stat perspective are all lower than 6, but the first 3 levels are the most impactful; they contain the greatest concentration of stats and abilities, with two abilities in three levels as opposed to one.
Multiclassing would therefore be a good idea for grabbing as many abilities as possible if all of them are as impactful as Conditioning, June reasons. On the other hand, the further he goes into a single class, the more likely it is that said class’s specific abilities become stronger than an ability granted at level 1 is. Level 9 fighter might grant the ability to block bullets with a sword, whereas having 9 level one classes might not be capable of much more than hiking forever.
Doesn’t matter either way, Conditioning is good enough *right now* that it’s worth taking a fighter level, plus it leaves all future fighter levels as permanent options if nothing better shows up. June nods to himself before he frowns at yet another realization, though this time the system answers him faster than he could do himself.
How old are you?
Early twenties. I was wondering that too, how does WOAH! June puts his arms around his body as an incredibly unpleasant tingling sensation creeps up his entire body and the numbers in his head whir like an electric motor spun up too quickly, before the feeling subsides.
All his stats went up by 10. 10. Except ∎, though he didn’t expect that one to behave normally. It also confirmed that the bolded system text is for when the system wants to actually communicate, rather than simply display information. Something to keep in mind.
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It doesn’t seem to get dark in the cavern. This observation June only made after feeling distinctly like he’d been awake for too long in his quest to find suitable firewood and a good place to build a makeshift shelter. The lightcrystal above, which he’s beginning to suspect might actually be something trapped inside a crystal, doesn’t dim or flicker at all, just statically pumping out light and presumably heat.
If he doesn’t sleep soon, he’ll probably be a veritable zombie on his feet until his body’s natural rhythm readjusts. Fortunately, his current venture isn’t nearly as pressing as the ‘find water’ part of the strategy was, because there doesn’t seem to be any insects or large predator tracks around to actually threaten his safety.
He did see a fish in some of the deeper water around the marsh, though. Something has to be eating the fish, probably the birds that occasionally swoop down to the water. The fish are something he could eat, if he could catch them.
Not that he can in his present state. Looking out at the marsh, he traces the water line out in the direction he’s walking before he spots something. A large body of water, no plants or anything growing in it, just water.
At a sprint, June launches himself through the trees and mud towards it, only slowing when he finally gets a glimpse of what exactly he has stumbled upon.
An underground lake. After about a hundred more feet of marsh, the plants are clearly two short to grow above the water, leaving it as just a standing, underground lake. Large enough that June could probably dive into it without hitting his head on the bottom, he bets. On the other side of the lake, the ‘wall’ of the cavern is clearly visible, a short wooded hill giving way to a near vertical sheer cliff face extending to the ceiling. At the base of that hill…
A settlement? Of what? Humans? I hope it's humans. Or elves. June excitedly tests the edges of the marsh for spots that are safe to walk on, intent on moving around the edge of the lake until he reaches the structure in the distance. Will we speak the same language? Will I even be considered a crazy naked man and killed on sight? Will I be called a chosen one? So many possibilities!