Aster put the notifications to the side and went to Castle. “You doing okay?”
Castle was out of breath, her armor roughly bent back into shape, though Aster doubted it could hold up to much anymore. She gave a thumbs up as she approached. “Physically? Fine, yeah. Those potions are… something else.”
Aster could only nod in agreement. “This fight would have gone very, very differently if we hadn’t had them. I’ve got a feeling they’re going to be important going forward.”
“Magical shots that bring you back from the dead?” Castle joked. “Yeah, probably. How about you?”
“Hmm?” Aster looked up from the satchel of potions. “Oh, I’m fine.” And she was. Mostly. “We almost died,” she said.
Castle took a seat on the ground. “Yeah.”
Aster sat on a rock that faced both Castle and the corpse of the raptor. “I don’t like it.” She felt her blood heating.
“I don’t either,” Castle sighed, “but it could have been—”
“No buts.” Aster interrupted her. “That was absolutely unacceptable. We were fucking strapped over a barrel and the only reason we got out of it was because of those stupid potions.” She shook her head. “First moment I can, I’m getting rid of the damned things.”
Castle seemed like she wanted to argue, but shook her head instead. “You do you, Rose. But I’ll keep the magical one-ups for a rainy day.”
Aster stood, gritting her teeth. “You would be dead without them.”
“All the more reason to keep them. What if—”
“No!” Aster saw the shock on Castle’s face at her abrupt shout, but she didn’t let up. “They’re a crutch, Maria,” she used Castle’s first name. “Winners who get lucky aren’t remembered for their victory. They’re remembered because they got lucky. Because they stole a victory. And normally I don’t care— a win is a win— but in this new world?” She swung her spear, motioning toward the corpse and the surrounding walls of stone. “Here, you don’t get lucky more than once. And we can’t rely on chance, because that’ll get us killed.”
Castle only stared at her, mouth agape.
Aster shook her head and turned away. “I need to clean up.”
And so she did. She found a stone in the water and sat down, leaning on it and letting the current draw the blood away as she tamed her breathing and went through the System messages.
*Warrior (Medium) class skill selection available*
She took a few moments more to calm down. Aster knew she’d have to apologize for blowing up on Castle again, but all she could think about was how close she’d come to dying again. As far as she was concerned, she’d run out of second chances the second the System Initiation hit. Then to get lucky again, just a few days later? Whatever reservoir of luck existed, hers had to be bone dry.
Aster shook her head and tried focusing on the prompt, which allowed a number of options to appear before her. There were a surprising amount of weapon skills available. [Basic Shield Technique (Inferior)], [Basic Unarmed (Inferior)], [Basic Archery (Inferior)], and others in the same vein. There were options for magic, such as [Basic Mana Tool Proficiency (Inferior)], [Mana Bolt (Inferior)], and [Mana Barrier (Inferior)]. She decided these would be what she’d choose from—until she saw the last three.
[Basic Stealth (Inferior)] - The deadliest predator is the one not seen coming. Unlocks basic proficiency in the art of stealth, allowing you to remain undetected more easily and blend into the environment. Adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility and Perception when successfully remaining undetected.
[Basic Lunge (Inferior)] - The strike that hits doesn’t always come from the shadows— sometimes it comes head-on. Propel yourself forward, striking before your opponent can react. Adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength while Lunging.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
[Basic Reflexes (Inferior)] - There is a method to the madness of combat. Some can feel it, and some can’t— you can. Allows you to better anticipate the movements of others. Adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility and Perception while anticipating others.
Stealth wasn’t her thing, but the presence of the two final choices raised a suspicion in her. The other options presented seemed to be either the skills available to other starting classes or general needs, such as the Stealth skill, but had the System presented her with an option to choose a Lunge skill because of how she’d approached the fight with the raptor? Because of how she’d copied its technique?
And if that were the case, perhaps the skill that improved her reflexes was an option due to her general fighting style… She had always operated on muscle memory, after all. She’d find the rhythm in a battle and adapt to it— or subvert it with her own.
Aster considered her choices and wondered if there wasn’t a right way to go about these sorts of decisions. Could her skills evolve? After all, they had a rarity tag associated with them, and even with all her new levels she hadn’t seen one change yet at all. But maybe that’s because she hadn’t spent much time really practicing with them? She’d used them, sure, but she didn’t think she’d consider her use practice yet.
So if she could do that, what might an attack skill like Lunge turn in to? Would it evolve to let her adjust her momentum or direction at all? Or simply become stronger? If that were the case, and if the System had indeed responded to her actions when it offered her the skill, then she wondered if she wouldn’t get a better option in the future by practicing what she already knew about the move in the meantime.
A skill that enhanced her reflexes, on the other hand, seemed like it had the potential to get overpowered really fast. She had thoughts of Spider-Man’s spider sense and grinned. Her attacks and reflexes would naturally get better as she leveled up, but she could train her attacks more easily than she could her reflexes.
In the end, she settled on the Basic Reflexes skill, and set her mind on figuring out how to upgrade her existing skills.
Now for what to do with my extra points… She had six of them, and was tempted to put them all into Agility. She wondered whether it would be smarter to shore up her weaknesses or add to her strengths. The Basic Reflexes skill scales with Perception, too, right? Por que no los dos?
She put four points into Perception, bringing it to 21. The last two she split between Strength and Agility. Now done with all her progress management, she turned to see if Castle was ready to get moving.
Instead, she found her companion standing at the water’s edge, glaring at her.
“What?” Aster asked.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Excuse me?” She rose to her feet.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Aster.” Castle towered over her, her already greater height emphasized by her standing atop the bank.
Heat rose in Aster core and she fought down the urge to bare her teeth. How dare she? “I saved your ass not ten minutes ago, you sack of—”
“Shut it!” Castle cut her off. “Listen to me, Aster. You’re competent, but you’re going to get us killed.”
Aster stopped, mouth agape. Castle took advantage of her startled state.
“This isn’t a game, dude. The point isn’t to be remembered. The point here is to survive. This System doesn’t give a shit about scores or what you earn— it erased hundreds of thousands of years of human history, seemingly on a whim. Everything anyone has ever accomplished now means jack shit. You’re on the bottom of the food chain, along with the rest of us, and we need every advantage we can get. So no, we’re not getting rid of our health potions. Have you even looked at the Tutorial page since yesterday? No? Nearly another sixty people died since last night.”
Aster pulled it up. Damn.
Total Survivors Remaining: 928/1200
“Those numbers aren’t sustainable,” she said to herself. Castle heard.
“Exactly, Aster. We can’t focus on being remembered when there’s not going to be anyone left to remember us. We need to survive.”
Aster didn’t like it. She didn’t agree with it, either. At least not entirely. This didn’t seem to be the kind of existence where you survived by flying under the radar. Her instincts told her this was the kind of situation where if you wanted to survive, you had to be at the top. She said as much, then said, “Fine, we can keep the potions. But I don’t think my mindset is wrong. If people are dropping like flies, we need to evolve. Get ahead of the curve. Whatever it is they’re doing, we can’t afford to do the same. We have to be better. Maybe this isn’t a game, but there are clear winners here. And I intend to be among them.”
They stayed there a while longer, their tempers cooling as they tried to figure out their approach. Not too long after, they received a System notification.
[Tutorial Panel] Duration: 62 days & 23:59:99
Congratulations on your continued survival. The alloted time has passed and the details of your first challenge are now available to you.
Challenge One: Gaining Levels
In 6 days & 23:59:59 the island with the fewest total levels gained will be eliminated. The two islands with the most levels gained will be rewarded, and the island with the most amount of levels gained will receive an advantage in the next challenge.
Levels will not be detracted from your score in the event of a death.
Current Standings:
Your Island: 982 Collective Levels Gained
Place: 4th