The path up the mountain was far more arduous than Devon's stroll through the plains the day prior. He was thankful the area around the base of the mountain was a light woodland, so the sparse trees still gave him some measure of cover by which to avoid detection from the viewpoint of the starting glade.
Even so, he was starting to really miss the comforts of home as he pulled his arm free from being impaled on the bone horn of his newest creature discovery. He screamed in pain at the feeling of the horn coming back out of the hole it had dug into his flesh. Once the horn was free a spurt of blood followed it, creating yet another crimson flow down his arm.
Kill - [Leafstag - Level 6] - 64 Talons
[Level up. Level 6 obtained.]
Devon leaned against a rock, breathing and bleeding heavily. He had wounds all over his body, both bruises and cuts. The trek had been a four hour long unrelenting cascade of bestial encounters, but finally, finally, it seemed like he could take a break.
Admittedly, it only seemed as though the beasts had been unrelenting because he'd simply chosen to run away from most of them. He knew if he stopped to fight every monster he would get bogged down by exhaustion and likely die from attrition. It also would have left a several mile long spree of bloody death, a rather clear and obvious sign of his passage to any potential pursuers.
He propped himself up, knowing he needed to get to the terminal before he got too comfortable. He knew if he lost much more blood he'd lose consciousness and die.
It wasn't the first terminal he'd come across. There had been two others closer to the starting point, but after that he hadn't seen another recently during his four hour trek. His guess was that the tutorial made them considerably more common closer to the overseer camp.
He interacted with the terminal as dawn broke over the horizon. Devon only took a moment to admire the sight of the first sun breaching over the skyline before he navigated through the terminal's menu and bought a healing pill.
He downed the pill immediately and felt blissful relief from the pain. The effect was so abrupt it caused him to almost lose his balance and fall on his ass. He hadn't realized how tense he'd been, but he wasn't really surprised. It had been a long four hours.
He sat down next to the terminal, glad to finally have a chance to go over the changes to his status page as his wounds knitted themselves back together. The system had bombarded him with messages in a moment when he hadn't had time to go over any of them, so he only had a vague idea of what had really changed. He tried to bring them back up, but the system refused to react to his bumbling commands.
Eventually, he just sighed and resigned himself to going through the changes manually.
[Status]
Name: Devon Wells
Race: [E-Grade Human]
Level: 6
Class: [Feature locked until level 10]
Profession available.
Mana: 75/75
Talents: None.
Skills: None.
Titles: Initiate, Cursed(2), Callous
Strength: 16
Dexterity: 17
Vitality: 14
Endurance: 13
Arcane: 14
Free Points: 25
Talons: 287
He grimaced at the amount of free points he'd accumulated. The leafstag had almost killed him. If he'd had those extra 25 points to distribute the fight wouldn't have been nearly as difficult.
Still, he had to admit even without the free points Devon could feel an improvement in his physique. He doubted he would have even been able to make the four hour trek before the initiation.
The second thing he noticed was that the Protected title was gone, which was understandable considering his actions. He opened the two new titles, intent on moving past the loss of his protected status.
[Cursed]
You have obtained 2 Marks of Karmic Disdain. Find a way to remove them or be culled.
??????
[Callous]
Awarded for executing a defenseless sentient creature. User may be more inclined to commit heinous acts in the future.
Strength, Dexterity, and Arcane +2.
Well I guess Callous explains the inconsistency in my stats. Cursed seems just as ambiguous as Despised was
He couldn't help but feel weirded out by the wording of Callous. Was the description meant to paint a picture of his current mentality, or was the system going to start messing with his mind, pushing him into becoming something he wasn't? He didn't have any answers. All he could do for now was be glad for the extra skill points.
Next on the list then. Let's see… Profession.
Profession available! Selection includes:
[Cursed Schemer] - Perhaps one of the most hated existences in the Infinite Realms, Cursed Schemers concoct plots and schemes to further their own agenda and power.
What the fuck.
His happiness at getting the command right on the first attempt was quickly replaced with a feeling of shock. He rubbed his temples, desperately trying to remember what it was the system had said at the time.
Let's see… First it gave me the option of choosing the Schemer class, then after Despised became Cursed it revoked it and turned it into Cursed Schemer. Does that mean that Cursed forces me to choose from cursed versions of professions?
Devon groaned. The whole thing was too much to wrap his head around. He simply had too little information. He desperately wished his system would sometimes throw him a single bone, but no. It sat there like a damn rock while everyone else's played the helpful tutor.
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Still, despite the intimidating text he couldn't help but accept the offer of the profession. So far every new function he'd encountered came with bonuses, so he hoped that Cursed Schemer would come with some as well, even if the job was cursed.
User has accepted the profession [Cursed Schemer].
[Profession] function has been added.
At least it had the decency to tell me that time. Profession.
[Cursed Schemer] Level 1
1 Plot available for planning.
1 Scheme available for planning.
Great, more commands for me to figure out without any guidance whatsoever. I need to come back to this later.
The last thing that he had to check up on was his quest tab, which had received a major makeover since he'd last looked at it.
[Quests]
1. [Survive] (Variant): Survive to the end of tutorial block #247. Reward: Unique title based on performance.
2. [Rebellion] (Extreme): Defeat the ones who brought you into this world. Reward: Unique title, +10% all stats, +20 all stats.
3. [The Path of Retribution]: Cleanse yourself of a Mark of Karmic Disdain by surviving a Karmic Retribution. This quest chain has no time requirement and will only be resolved upon absolution or death.
4. [The Path of Repentance]: Cleanse yourself of a Mark of Karmic Disdain by offsetting it with a Mark of Karmic Affection. This quest chain has no time requirement and will only be resolved upon absolution or death.
The first new quest immediately caught Devon's attention for several reasons. It seemed like the first quest he'd received that had been activated in response to something he'd done in the world. There was also the Extreme next to the name of the quest. Devon had been wondering what the Variant next to the Survive quest was about, but now he had a pretty good idea.
It seemed to indicate the difficulty level of the quest. To succeed with their rebellion seemed nigh impossible while the overseers had level 60 monsters on their side. So it made perfect sense that the quest was listed as Extreme difficulty.
The Variant beside Survive was likely accounting for multiple factors. First, how hard the scenario in a specific tutorial was. Second, how the individual went about completing the tutorial. Even in this fucked up lizardman hunting ground the option remained to find a cave to hide in and wait out the storm. The idea likely wouldn't work for large groups, not with the overseers keeping tabs on them, but the option remained for Devon. Not that he'd actually take it.
Devon also couldn't help but drool at the rewards. He didn't know what the title would entail, but the stat rewards alone made his eyes pop. Even to someone who could distribute their free points, 100 stat points would be significant. The +10% bonus to all stats seemed amazing as well.
He sighed. There was no point fantasizing what could be when he wasn't even ready to get started on progressing that quest. He moved on to the next two, which were strange.
Path of Retribution and Path of Repentance seemed to be branching quests that both effectively said the same thing. Basically, the system wanted him to get rid of the Marks of Karmic Disdain. Funnily enough, gaining another Mark and failing Absolution to go further down the quest chain had actually given him more information on how he had been meant to complete Absolution in the first place.
He didn't have any idea how he was supposed to encounter a Karmic Retribution, let alone survive one. Repentance seemed much easier in comparison, assuming it was as simple as doing an action the system approved of. It seemed a logical inverse of getting Marks of Karmic Disdain.
Finished looking over his updated array of system upgrades and curses, Devon turned his attention toward the shop.
I know I told those two to get the messaging function as soon as possible, but I think I'm going to have to prioritize the essentials if I'm going to survive out here on my own.
The first thing Devon spent his talons on was the inventory function, followed by general survivalist supplies. Once he felt he had enough supplies to adequately camp out he found that he'd spent roughly 150 of his talons.
He examined the inventory function, sighing as he knew he'd once again have to figure out how to use its basic operations.
Inventory.
A blank dialog appeared before him. His tile also appeared next to him, floating in the air. He'd seen Eve manipulate the floating plaque with nothing but a thought and wondered if he'd be able to do the same with a slight bit of apprehension. He sighed in relief when he realized he could at least move his tile around in the air at will like everybody else.
Storing items within the tile was another matter altogether. When he tried to shove his bundled up tent into the tile, he was met with an immovable barrier floating in the air.
Well, I suppose it had to have some way to screw with me. It's becoming such a common occurrence I'm starting to get used to the constant annoyance.
He ran through a list of likely commands until he thankfully stumbled upon one that worked.
Store.
A feeling of immense relief ran through him as the tile gave way to the tent and [Tent] was added to the otherwise blank display. If he'd been unable to use the inventory he may have just been utterly screwed.
He also realized the tent wasn't the only piece of text that had appeared in the dialogue. In the upper right corner were the words [78% Remaining]. When he shoved the rest of the camping essentials he'd purchased from the store the number went down to 50.
It's not exactly a huge amount of space to work with, is it?
Still, it was better than nothing. Devon shuddered at the thought of having to continue his trek while continually assailed by monsters and carrying a heavy pack. It would not be fun.
After some experimentation, he found that the command to remove objects from the inventory was retrieve followed by the name of the item. Interestingly, the system seemed to brick up at this stage if he tried doing anything other than retrieving the specified item from his tile. Even other functions like status simply didn't activate until he'd resolved the retrieval.
More little details to dance around, I suppose.
He looked over the contents of the shop for a few minutes, trying to decide what to spend his last 133 talons on. Eventually he picked two of the healing pills and a sword. The healing pills were a no-brainer. He had seen their miraculous power several times now, and to go forward without at least one would be sheer stupidity.
Devon had considered buying leather armor instead of the extra pill, but he felt as though he might be able to get by avoiding his opponents altogether better than letting himself get hit. He could feel himself growing stronger with his repeated fights, and his confidence was only growing.
He'd had to think about the sword for a bit. He was becoming used to using his spear, but just like the mawbirds in the plains, there had been several creatures he'd encountered on his hike that looked like they would be resistant to his stabs, or had appendages that looked flimsy enough to cut through with a bladed weapon.
He didn't have Trey to back him up anymore, so he needed to learn to be versatile and adapt to new threats as he came across them.
His stomach growled, and Devon felt a pang of regret he hadn't asked for some of the meat Eve had been cooking. There wasn't much in the way of berries or fruit trees on the mountain ascent, not that Devon would have known what was poisonous and what wasn't.
Thinking of the meat Eve had made him look over at the fallen leafstag. True to form, the system had named it after what Devon thought it looked like, a deer with some kind of plant-like thing growing over it. He was happy it still had a flesh and blood interior to puncture, otherwise he wasn't sure he would have survived the battle.
Devon walked over and flinched when he realized the vines on the leafstag's body were still moving. Interested, he moved closer.
After half an hour of messing with the corpse Devon had some fascinating insights into the creature. The vines and the stag were actually two separate entities. The plant seemed to be some kind of symbiote that lived off the stag. Devon couldn't tell if the plant had been part of a parasitic or mutualistic relationship, but after a minute of pondering the question he realized it didn't matter in the end. No matter how the plant and stag had lived together, that life was ended once Devon cut through the vines and ripped them off the flesh of the stag.
Once the leafstag had been 'skinned' Devon threw the entire carcass into his inventory. It was fascinating to watch the tile expand to fit the corpse, though Devon hoped it wouldn't come in contact with anything else in the inventory. It'd be pretty gross if his healing pills sat alongside a dead and skinned animal.
He topped off his inventory by shoving his new sword in there as well, bringing his available space down to just 3%.
Happy he'd managed to fit everything he needed into his new storage space, he continued on toward the heights of the mountain. He could still see the crags and ravines that littered the upper reaches, and he hoped that as he went further up there would be more places for him to hide out, at least for now.