With his bb gun fully loaded, Kyle walked to the edge of his cave and looked for a way down. The cliff angled at almost 80 degrees, which meant it wouldn’t be impossible to climb, but it would be hard. Especially when considering that Kyle had never even attempted to scale a rock face in his entire life.
He started by putting his bottle of bbs into his pocket and holding his bb gun by its center of gravity with his left hand, then slowly crawling down the cliff. He kept as much weight as possible against the rock wall and tested footholds several times before committing his full weight to them. Inside grooves and on small ledges, Kyle found places to stabilize himself, and he eventually reached the foot of the cliff.
Kyle's heart raced faster than he ever felt it race before. Not only was he afraid he would fall off at any second, but it was quite a workout. Admittedly, Kyle was not a healthy young man, and he needed many seconds of rest before continuing.
He sat against the cliff and put his bottle of bbs on the ground, but kept his bb gun in his hand. He knew, at any moment, he might need to use the bb gun to defend himself, so he shifted it back into his right hand while he rested.
After several minutes of heavy breathing, Kyle stood up and scanned the forest. The plants coming from the forest declined in height as they neared the cliff, but the ones five feet away were ten feet tall. They made it almost impossible to see more than a hundred yards out. Darkness covered the foliage, brought on by the thick canopy above them and their own mass.
Kyle turned left and followed the cliff, leaving his bottle of bbs behind. If he needed to, he could just turn around and keep walking until he found his bottle of bbs again, so he wouldn’t lose his cave. Whatever he did, Kyle didn’t want to lose his cave, else he'd be stuck in the wilderness with nothing to call shelter.
While he walked, Kyle cocked his bb gun and fired it into the forest. He didn’t have any particular target, but it was satisfying to see the bb shoot from the barrel and pierce leaves. Kyle made sure not to hit a tree - where the bb could bounce back and hit him - but, otherwise, shot randomly.
A few minutes later, after walking a fair distance from his cave and bottle of bbs, Kyle saw a new box of text flash in front of him.
You have learned the passive skill Shooting.
Kyle stopped walking, intrigued by the apparent skill he had learned. The dream-like state he found himself in already felt like a videogame, but having skills made it much more apparent. He shot his bb gun at a random leaf, even aiming it before pulling the trigger, but he didn’t feel anything different about the action.
Stubbornly, determined to find out more information about the skill, Kyle shot his bb gun into the forest several dozen times, waiting for another notification.
Your skill, Shooting, has leveled up! Current level: 1.
+1
In addition to the skill leveling up, Kyle checked the Temporal Shop to confirm he had gained a Credit. He shot his bb gun into the forest, again, but still didn’t feel anything different.
As it stood, Kyle’s only method of obtaining more Credits would be leveling his Shooting skill, but his mind worked rapidly to formulate a plan on how to earn more skills and more Credits. He walked back to his bottle of bbs and continued to shoot into the forest, but applied extra focus to the cocking maneuver he used on the bb gun lever.
The hard plastic began hurting Kyle’s hand as he surpassed a hundred shots fired, but two level-ups in Shooting and the gaining of a new skill was enough for Kyle to disregard the irritation.
You have learned the active skill Cock.
Kyle expected to earn another passive skill, but an active one was still welcome. He now had 75 Credits, and the second skill would help increase the rate he earned them. However, the skill was active, and he’d first need to know how to use it before he could level it up.
Though Shooting was passive, Kyle had a feeling he needed to use a skill to level it up. That worked easily with Shooting, simply because it was a passive skill, but Cock wouldn’t work like that. Somehow, Kyle needed to find out how to activate the skill.
“Cock,” He spoke and felt his hands urging him to complete the movements even before he finished speaking. Feeling foolish, Kyle shot the bb gun and thought the word ‘cock’, which made his hands tingle, wanting him to follow through with the cocking motion.
Kyle let his hands move with the pressure his active skill put on them. He repeated it several times and found himself able to concentrate more on the aiming portion of shooting and less on the now-painful action of cocking the bb gun.
You have learned the active skill Aim.
Really, Kyle wondered, what couldn’t be made into a skill? He finally pressed in on the bb gun trigger, focusing heavily on the action his finger performed, overemphasizing it in his mind.
You have learned the active skill Shoot.
Kyle turned around and looked at the rock wall between him and his cave, and began climbing it. The entire time, Kyle focused his mind on the creation of a skill called Climb, which would allow him to let his body automatically climb the wall.
Sure enough, once Kyle reached the top, a box of text flashed in front of his vision.
You have learned the active skill Climb.
He was ecstatic. Kyle had always liked videogames, and the mysterious world he found himself in was telling him to gamify his life by converting his actions into skills, which the leveling of was the only way to earn Credits. Kyle didn’t have any problem with this, and quickly made himself a plethora of skills from basic actions.
As the forest turned dark for night, Kyle retreated into his cave and brought his bb gun and bottle of bbs with him. He discovered the System that governed the boxes of text worked on simple impulses from the brain, and just thinking something like ‘Show all skills,’ created a list of Kyle’s skills in front of him.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Skills
* Shooting (P) - The action or practice of shooting. Level 6.
* Cock (A) - Raise the cock of a gun in order to make it ready for firing. Level 11.
* Aim (A) - Point or direct a weapon at a target. Level 11.
* Shoot (A) - Kill or wound with a bullet or arrow. Level 11.
* Ascend (A) - Go upward. Level 2.
* Descend (A) - Go downward. Level 2.
* Jump (A) - Push oneself off a surface and into the air by using the muscles in one's legs and feet. Level 16.
* Sit (A) - Adopt or be in a position in which one's weight is supported by one's buttocks rather than one's feet and one's back is upright. Level 14.
* Stand (A) - Have or maintain an upright position, supported by one's feet. Level 14.
* Walk (A) - Move at a regular and fairly slow pace by lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once. Level 15.
* Run (A) - Move at a speed faster than a walk, never having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time. Level 9.
Those were the skills Kyle learned in the few hours before dusk, and they brought him to a total of 805 Credits.
Based on what the System told Kyle, he wouldn’t have access to the shop for seven days, which meant he needed whatever he spent those 805 Credits on to help him survive until then.
For those cold nights, Kyle bought a sleeping bag for 300 Credits, a 98-count box of granola bars for 210 Credits, 24 bottles of water for 95 Credits, and a chicken tender dinner basket for 130 Credits.
The chicken tender dinner basket came with seven succulent stripes of chicken stripes, a bowl of mash potatoes, a bowl of gravy, a side cup of ketchup, and a heaping pile of french fries.
After eating, Kyle slipped into his sleeping bag and placed his bb gun at his side, ready to grab it at a moment’s notice.
When morning arrived and Kyle woke up, he laid in the sleeping bag for almost another hour. Not only was it cold, but he had to shit. Only when he couldn’t resist the feeling any longer did get out of his sleeping bag and walk to the entrance of the cave, utilizing his skill to overpower his desire to turn around and go back to sleeping.
He took his bb gun with him and climbed down from the cave, and a sudden realization hit him: he had no toilet paper. It wouldn’t be the first time he shit in the woods without any toilet paper, but that didn’t make it any easier.
Kyle felt the direction of the wind - going from the right of his cave’s entrance to the left of it - and turned left and walked. Shitting downwind would lower the smell he had to endure to a minimal amount, if any reached him. Along the way, he used his shooting skills to shoot down large leaves from the canopy, which he could use as a replacement for toilet paper. A shitty replacement, metaphorical sense.
Several minutes later, Kyle returned to his cave with three skills, Shit, Piss, and Wipe, none of which gained a single level.
Surprisingly, after he climbed back into his cave, Kyle received a fourth skill, but not because of his own actions.
You have learned the auxiliary skill Cold Resistance.
Immediately after learning the skill, Kyle felt the air around him get less cold. His body became less susceptible to the lack of heat because of the skill, which was different from how any of his other skills worked.
So far, Kyle didn’t know how passive skills affected him, but he knew that active skills made it so he could complete a task without focusing on it.
To test the effects of passive skills, Kyle just needed to learn more of them, but he didn’t know where to begin. Active skills could be created simply by wishing to create the skill while doing an activity. His passive skill, however, was learned randomly, without any personal intervention.
If it had to do with how long he did it, Kyle would have already learned passive skills like Sleeping and Breathing. Kyle learned the Shooting skill after only a few minutes of shooting the bb gun. He had experience with it in the past, but he also had experience eating baskets of chicken, and he didn’t get a skill for that.
Kyle didn’t have anything he needed to spend the day on, so he decided to spend it exploring. It would be a good chance to see more of the world outside his cave and learn some new skills. He filled his bb gun back to full, put a bottle of water in one pocket, and put two granola bars in his other pocket. Then, he left the cave.
On the way down, Kyle’s Descend skill gained a level, and he used his Walk skill to walk left, into the wind and away from his earlier business. While walking, Kyle practiced Shooting and attempted to learn more about the System. He started by saying game-related keywords, trying to open new menus.
“Status,” He said for his first attempt.
Fenrir still patrols the Great Northern Forest. Treant still grows in the Midnight Jungle. Leviathan still swims in the Endless Ocean. Wyrm still flies above the God’s Finger Mountain. The world is 86% covered in Miasma.
The status screen wasn’t what Kyle expected, and he paused his shooting to carefully read over it. Four beasts were mentioned in the box of text: The giant wolf, Fenrir, the giant tree, Treat, the giant sea creature, Leviathan, and the dragon, Wyrm. Then, the box of text mentioned Miasma, and that the world was mostly covered in it. Kyle didn’t know much about Miasma, but he knew it was a bad thing.
The cold chill in the air made Kyle worry he was near the Great Northern Forest, and that Fenrir might also be nearby. If that was true, he’d have to leave quickly, before he came into contact with the godly creature.
“Map,” Kyle spoke, hoping a map of the area would appear.
Unfortunately, all he saw was a map of the area he had been to. It showed his cave, the place where he dumped a steaming load, and where he currently stood. The map didn’t have much detail to it, and the things were labeled as Kyle internally labeled them.
Interestingly, he could use the Walk skill on the map, and his body would begin walking to that location. He couldn’t Walk somewhere he hadn’t been, and the area beyond the edge of the forest was dark gray, as well as the area above the cave, and in front of Kyle.
He continued to walk forward, resuming his Shooting practice, and tried more System commands. The next keyword Kyle found was ‘Quests’.
Quests
* Kill a wandering Southern Grayridge. Reward: 500 Credits.
* Discover the abandoned Southern Grayridge den. Reward: 200 Credits.
* Save Laurel Tal from her captors. Reward: 1500 Credits.
The listed quests intrigued Kyle, but he didn’t stop to examine them further. He tried asking the System to explain the quests, but the System didn’t respond.
He paused his shooting to read the box of text and was about to resume it when he heard the sound of foliage rapidly being crushed, coming from somewhere inside the forest.
Whatever was causing the destruction, it was getting closer.