Before

The next thing I know, I hear birdsong. Why can I hear birdsong? We don’t get many birds in the city? And why can’t I recognise the calls? I realise that my eyes are closed. When did I do that? Opening them, I see the forest canopy above me and my recent memories come flooding back. I flush as I realise what happened: I fainted.

It’s understandable, I tell myself, nonetheless feeling a bit embarrassed. I lost a lot of blood, and had an adrenaline rush and crash. Not to mention being in another life-death situation for the second time in two days after having gone more than thirteen years since the last time. Then, to add to my woes, I also had a flashback which, again, I haven’t had that badly in at least six years. I look at my arm wondering if I’d dreamed the effect of the healing, but no, the wound is still there, though scabbed over. Fortunately, I didn’t land on the injured arm when I collapsed.

Now less gripped by fear or adrenaline, I find my brain starting to work again. I open my status screen.

Name: Markus Wolf

Race: Human

Class: Tamer

Level: 0

Energy to next level: 9%

Energy absorption rate: 5u/hr

Energy towards debt: 0%

Intelligence

6

Mana: 60/60

Wisdom

3

Mana regeneration rate: 75u/hr

Willpower

4

Health regeneration rate: 4u/hr

Constitution

4

Health: 22/40

Strength

5

Stamina: 17/20

Dexterity

3

Stamina regeneration rate: 30u/hr

Class skills

Dominate – Beginner 1

Tame – Beginner 1

Non-Class skills

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Lay-on-hands – Beginner 9

Only two things have changed. No, wait, three. I’ve gained Energy towards the next level, my health has dropped to twenty-two out of forty, and my stamina has dropped to seventeen out of twenty. I was expecting to see something different about my mana, but that’s full. Maybe Lay-on-hands doesn’t use mana? Or maybe my time unconscious was enough to allow it to recharge? Only one way to find out, I decide.

Once more casting Lay-on-hands, I’m glad to feel the cool energy again snaking its way through me to the wounds. This time, it makes my injury look several days old rather than just recently scabbed over. I look at my status screen again and grunt in satisfaction. Turns out this healing spell is just that – a spell. My mana has dropped by ten points, but because of my regeneration of seventy-five units per hour, it takes less than a minute before it’s already climbing. Plus, my health points have ticked up to twenty-seven. Not a bad trade when considering the vastly different regeneration rates: ten mana points for five health points.

I cast the healing spell again, this time deliberately not concentrating on my wounds. As a result, I feel a much more diluted coolness spread across my body. My arm injury improves a little, but it’s barely perceptible. However, the punctures in my leg and the aches in my rump – heck, all over my body, really – improve significantly. I check my status screen again and make a curious noise. Huh, that’s interesting.

Despite casting the same spell, I’ve got different results. The spell took the same amount of mana to cast, dropping my reserve by ten, but my health points only ticked up by three this time. Is that because the effect was more diluted by being spread across my body, or because I wasn’t focusing on the more serious wound?

I continue casting the spell until I bottom out my reserve. Then I bite my lip – maybe it’s not actually a good idea to empty my tank: clearly, I can’t know that another life or death fight isn’t around the corner. I make a mental note to keep at least ten points of mana available in reserve at all times. Unless, of course, that final cast means the difference between life and death immediately. I’m not going to intentionally sabotage my chances of survival just because I want to keep a mana reserve. That would be stupid.

By this point, the wound on my arm is just a red mark and the rest of my aches and pains are long gone. For a moment, my resentment at Nicholas’s high-handed treatment of me fades away and is replaced by gratitude. Even back on Earth I wouldn’t have had access to something such as this. Mind, apart from a few specific contexts, I’ve never needed it either, but I wouldn’t have turned down magical healing when I broke my arm falling off my bike or...No. I’m not going down that rabbit-hole again, not so close to a flashback.

I suddenly wonder what kind of world Nicholas lives in where he can so casually send me a stone which teaches something like this. Or maybe it’s not so casual; maybe this was an heirloom which he sent me. I shrug. No point wondering about it now: if I survive the year, I’ll be able to ask the guy myself.

For now, I have more important concerns like finishing up here and finding a decent place to shelter for the night before dark comes again. Opening my Inventory, I pull out the spear I made last night. Much good it did me sitting in some extra-dimensional space. I resolve to keep it closer to hand: apparently I’ll never know when I’m about to be attacked in this hellish place.

*****

About two hours later, I’m ready to go. The bird carcass has been butchered to the best of my ability – which is simultaneously a lot higher than I thought it was, and a lot lower than I’d hoped. I’ve cooked up some chunks which I’ve split into two unequal piles – one for my pocket to eat during the day and one for my Inventory. Through trial and error, I’ve realised that my Inventory isn’t as simple as ‘cooked meat stacks’ and ‘uncooked meat stacks’. Pieces that are too distinct from each other count separately, for example a slice of meat and a joint containing a bone. Interestingly, removing the bone worked to make the joint into a ‘slice’ of meat equivalent.

Equally, each of the organs counts as its own separate item. Not that this matters too much to me: I’d already decided not to bother with them for now as there’s no guarantee that the organs don’t contain concentrations of something which could make me ill, or even be lethal. Still, I experimented with them just to know. I’ve also decided not to take the bones with me since, although they could be useful for various crafts, I need to establish myself first and loading up my Inventory with things for ‘later’ seems like a stupid thing to do.

Actually, if my ex-girlfriend could see me now, she’d be amazed: I’ve always been the kind of person to keep things for ‘later’. I have – had – whole boxes full of things kept for years because they might come in handy ‘later’. And just to say, some of them did come in useful...just not the majority...by far. Anyway, clearly this new world and way of existence is having its effect on me already.

I also decide to leave the corpses of those nasty crocodile-things behind – again, although technically I could use their hides and their bones and their organs etc. it just isn’t worth the time or the effort. Everything I could harvest from them, I could harvest from other creatures. Right now, I have more important things to be doing.

So, already feeling like I’ve done a day’s work despite the sun only being halfway towards its zenith, I set off downstream.

*****

The forest is beautiful. I have to admit it. For a time, despite the difficult night I had and the attack that I barely lived through this morning, I can’t help but admire the natural beauty of my surroundings. The trees are bigger than those I’m used to, and the foliage is completely different, but there’s something about walking through a forest next to a babbling brook that touches a part within me.

I’m reminded of why I started bird-watching – at one point I used to work next to a forest and would take a walk through it during my break. One of my colleagues, a girl I kinda had a crush on at the time, accompanied me a couple of times and could identify every one of them. In order to seem smarter, I actually did some research and tried to surprise her with little facts. The crush never went anywhere, but it gave birth to an interest in the little flying creatures that share our world with us.

Anyway, that’s a long way of saying that I actually found myself enjoying the walk, surprisingly. Of course, given the fact that I’ve been attacked twice in two days, I don’t allow my new appreciation to stop me from keeping an eye on my surroundings. Fortunately for me, it seems like animals aren’t so thick in this neighbourhood that I’m tripping across them every hour.

The stream grows over time, deepening and widening as tributaries join it. Greenery starts appearing on its bed, protected from the strong currents by rocks that break up the flow. The land continues sloping downwards and the river starts to cut through parts of the earth rather than just flowing over it, having gained enough weight to actually start making a real difference to its environment.

I greet the new change with gladness as my survival knowledge tells me that this increases the chance of finding flint nodules, or potentially even other, rarer, metal deposits. Not that I really hope for that – even if I do find iron or something, I’m in no way equipped to do anything with it, and won’t be for a long time.

The stream cuts more and more into the land until it’s actually starting to drop as waterfalls at points. In one of the pools formed, I see the silver flash of fish and take a mental note of the area. Interestingly, when I check my Map afterwards, the stream has been added, and at the spot near where I’m standing, there’s a little symbol which looks like a fish.

Maybe I can add things to the Map intentionally? It’s worth experimenting with later, but since I don’t know if it’s possible to remove things once added, I’d rather wait until there’s something I genuinely want to add to it. Since I can’t see anything nearby which could be a particularly good shelter, I continue on for a while later until the sun is past its highest point and my stomach is rumbling.

I take a seat with my back against a rock near the stream. The rock has been sitting in the sun and feels very pleasant against my back. My Inventory newly replenished with food, I allow myself to eat my fill. Of course, the combination of the sun’s warmth, my full belly, and the poor night I had last night has a soporific effect and it doesn’t take long before my eyelids start drooping.

Just a few minutes, I tell myself, shifting into a lying-down position and closing my eyes. I’ll get moving soon, just five minutes to relax…