---James---
James started to run as soon as he left the confines of the city. No magic or aether or whatever, just his enhanced legs and feet pounding the earth.
Well…no skills at least – what did stats count as? Magic or Aether?
It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was speed.
Roughly a hundred meters out from the city there were long dead corpses of creatures – most too charred and decomposed to recognize what they might have been.
That line of corpses had been his starting line.
He had no finish line. Not yet.
Speeeeeeeed.
…
After almost an hour of running, a popup appeared to show off his progress.
👟 Achievement get: Endurance sprinter (rare)
Description: Run forty-four kilometers in under an hour using nothing but your body.
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Stat: +9 leg speed.
Stat: +3 lactic acid defense
The burn that had been building from running all out faded and James felt himself push forward even faster – he had definitely been slowing down that last bit. More! Faster! He wanted to be faster than a car! Not as fast as a car in a school zone.
James whooped as he ran, swerving off the path to jump over a log – for no reason other than to see if he could – laughing hysterically all the while. As he flew over the log he tapped it with one hand imagining it was a monster he tagged – can’t touch me-ehehehe.
He skidded for a sec – flashing haste to cheat his landing and return him to the path – then jumped over an even larger log feeling the wind flow across his body. He flew over the puny fallen trees. Graceful. Elegant – the jumping stats from the shark monster seemed especially potent doing far more for the smaller number than others. James needed more monstrous stats. More!
It had been hard to feel strong in the city – and hard to feel like his stats even mattered when people were walking around with laser pistols…
Actually just listening to the culture there it seemed like stats didn’t even matter at all.
Everyone was about skill this, aether tool that. Stats were just treated like a level indicator.
But this?
This reminded him of his original goal.
He wanted to be strong on his own.
He wanted powerful skills of course but above that, he wanted to turn his body into a weapon.
This right here, this was what he was pushing for.
His stat growth had slown' down – proof he wasn’t pushing himself as hard as he had been before.
Forwards! Forwards! Forwards!
…
Finally slowing down when the path began to break apart, James found himself at the edge of a large lake.
To his left far in the distance the barrier that was his guidepost cut through the water. To the right, he could see the distant shore wrapping around a muddy beach shown in his vision.
He should go around…but intrusive thoughts bulldozed into the front of his mind.
Go ‘through’ it.
Swim.
You can do it!
James…didn’t listen to the voice to its immense disappointment.
The water would feel good but it would also get in his backpack and soak his supplies.
It would be a stupid decision…a waste…
And yet why was he letting his boring common sense ruin his actual desires?
James stopped his path along the edge of the lake and stared about. The area he was in was tentatively a Coniferous forest – it looked a lot like forests back home in Canada. There were fir and spruce-like trees…nothing interesting. The weird part however was the fruit – most of the trees had different coloured pear-shaped balls making half the foliage look like Christmas trees.
All it needed was some snow and lights to finish the theme.
A Christmas forest…were there monsters about?
There had been a few small animals on his path and something large and furry had run from his charge earlier…
But for the most part the surroundings were empty.
A bird cawed in the distance... but for the most part it was silent.
James wanted to swim and so he did, stripping off his clothes and climbing a tree to keep his backpack of spices and pants and shirt safe.
A faint hint of him was uncomfortable showing so much of his body and yet…he was alone, he needed to be more confident.
Taking a running jump into a shallow dive James swam as fast as he could – the cold water washing off his sweat and soothing his well used muscles.
Swimming…swimming was easy. Almost boring with how simple it was.
James took a breath and dove down – pushing his body against the buoyancy – then opened his eyes.
The clear water was too deep to show much. The lake bed was dark and murky – long strands of green algae drifting about and wrapping around grassy weeds and fern-like aquatic bushes. A few seemed to have little berries, the small colourful dots shining out in what was otherwise darkness.
James swam down and grabbed a few – feeling his lungs begin to burn as he headed back up.
Swimming was…different than running. It used a lot of the same leg muscles but there were faint differences. His stats were optimized for running and while quite a lot of that transferred enough didn’t that it felt weird to kick about.
Swimming could be good training couldn’t it?
James swam back to shore and took a bite of one of the water berries. It was sharp, tart and sweetly acidic – like a cranberry mixed with a lemon. The texture left much to be desired but as far as a flavour went it was pretty nice.
Throwing the rest of his wet handful into his mouth James puckered his lips at the sour tingle while searching about for a rock.
There…that seems like a good size.
Bending down to grab a stone the size of his head, James carried it confidently towards the lake once more pushing out into the water.
He walked until he couldn’t walk and then jumped treading water as hard as he could.
This was doable – he had picked too light of a rock for this to be a true challenge.
Despite it being ‘too easy’ his legs still quickly began to feel tired…despite not fully pushing himself as hard as he could or for as long as he could he still got an achievement
🌊 Achievement get: Take your pet for a swim. (rare)
Description: Carry your pet rock out into the lake – making up for the stone being unable to swim.
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Stat: +3 free body power
Continuing to drift towards the center of the lake James took a deep breath and then dropped – letting the rock pull him down towards the bottom once more.
Landing by some berry bushes, James sort of walked over and shifted his stone to one hand to grab more sour treats.
🐟 Achievement get: Lake walk (rare)
Description: Walk along the bottom of a lake.
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Stat: +1 lung defense
Out of the corner of his eye James spotted a drifting shape – a fish.
…understanding better the challenge that could give him achievements James took a metaphorical breath and then shoved the berries into his mouth. A small stream of lake water entered his mouth with the intake but he had gotten it.
💧 Achievement get: Submerged Snack. (Unique)
Description: So gluttonous for food you forgot you can’t breathe under water – wait till you get to shore to snack you sea-pig.
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Stat: +3 lung defense.
Stat: +3 stomach defense.
Dropping his rock James swam up towards the surface even as he felt a slight tug from his surroundings. His head broke the water with a gasp and cough as he breathed deeply then smashing down James returned just in time to see a strange fish barreling towards him.
Almost as long as his arm with powerful looking fins and intelligent looking eyes this fish was lacking a proper name something like a pike.
Lashing out James felt how his body moved under water – the fish flicked its tail and spun around his body much faster than he could follow.
The water was a good training tool now that he thought about it – it was an exaggerated view of the way air could push at him as he got faster.
Flailing and failing to punch the fish a few times seemed to embolden the creature – it dived forward toward him after ‘realizing’ how ‘weak’ James was.
Its relatively small mouth opened and the fish bit down hard on James’s arm.
…
James stared at the surprised fish. Its tiny mouth just barely punctured his enhanced skin. Something that wasn’t at all impressive considering how little James had focused on it.
More importantly, the fish was now still and within whacking range as it attempted and failed to rip out a relatively small chunk of James’s forearm.
Clenching his fist and raising it back James locked eyes with the fish before punching as hard as he could. He instinctively pushed all the retaliatory kinetic energy into his fist as he flung an underwater hook. His arm ripped through the water and smacked the creature sending it spinning away a faint impact ringing out through the water around him.
Angry now, the fish attacked again – dodging another of James’s strikes as it tried to aim for his face.
This time the fish bit down hard on James’s nose – the lunge for his face making him flinch even if the pain was barely there.
James pulled both arms back like a percussion player smashing cymbals together then turned on [haste] and double slapped the beast.
Instead of letting it get away once again, James wrestled the slippery aquatic, ignoring the chunk of his nose it had ripped out or the cloud of blood filling the water around him.
Holding onto a fish in water was hard – so much harder than it should be and James constantly felt like he was going to let go.
[Haste] was still active – probably the only reason he was able to keep up with the pike’s thrashing and James finally managed to get the creature under one arm.
His second fist began to beat the fish again and again and again even – James had to close his eyes as blood and bits of scales filled the water.
As if just realizing it had a method of attack left, the fish that was slowly being beat to death unleashed its final ability.
The water around James came to life and churned, unnaturally strange swirls and whirlpools brushed across James’s body.
He continued to punch.
The same tugging feeling he had felt when he swam towards the surface initially now amplified somehow as the magical creature brought the full force of its lesser water manipulation to bear.
The creature attempted to grab the surroundings and pull James down further into the lake and he felt himself dropping even as he felt the fish’s thrashes grow weaker.
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With a final crack James smashed something important inside the fish and it suddenly stopped as if whatever force had been animating it was snuffed out.
The tugging pull instantly stilled and James began to swim upwards his catch still held tightly under one arm.
🐟 Achievement get: Underwater pugilist. (Unique)
Description: Deciding to play fisty cuffs in a new domain you have killed a creature using nothing but your body in domain that empowers it.
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Stat: +6 arm power.
A faint ringing was slowly filling his ears and a faint taste like antiseptic cream smelt filled his tongue. He had been underwater way too long – it had felt like moments, but he had been punching this creature for minutes.
His newest stats had probably just been enough to pull through – the creature had dragged him deeper than he had realized.
Breaking the surface, James breathed deeply – the edges of his eyes blurry and dark as he struggled to regain focus.
How far away was the shore? It looked like almost a kilometer away…where had he come from? Where was his stuff?
James blinked as he rapidly regained normalcy. There…that looks familiar?
Picking a direction – using the barrier as his biggest landmark – James began to swim to shore carrying his prize.
A few minutes into his one arm paddle he felt a tugging from the creature under his arm – was it still alive?
Ducking under water and opening his eyes he saw a smaller fish – this one shaped like a salmon with sharp teeth attempting to steal his prey.
Mine.
James kicked the fish away and grabbed his catch even more possessively.
He stared at the salmon eyes narrowed in a stalemate.
The two stood in a silent stalemate for almost a minute of silence – James would have to go up for air soon.
Finally the fish seemed to give up – diving and disappearing from James’s sight once more.
That’s what I thought.
Returning to his paddle James swam – flicking on [haste] whenever its cooldown disappeared until he finally reached the shore.
Dragging his catch up onto the ground he was able to look at it in all its detail.
The pike looked massive – over half a meter in length with another 20cm of fin trailing behind it.
This was a catch!
The entire front of it was nothing more than brutalized scales and ripped off skin. Fish bones poked out and it would have been covered in blood if that hadn’t been washed away in the lake.
Still James was happy. He had caught lunch.
…
The first thing James did was store his fish up the tree.
It wasn’t a very safe space – many creatures could climb trees – but it felt safer than leaving it on the ground for a few minutes and he had an idea.
Step one was to gather some lemon cranberries.
James decided to cave and get his shirt wet – bringing it down to act like a makeshift bag.
He could always dry it after all and he didn’t want to spend hours on this.
Next he gathered several rocks and placed them in a circle on the muddy ‘beach’.
He gathered several fallen pine branches as well as a few larger logs then pulled out his lighter and soon had a roaring blaze.
Next step was to pull out his saucepan – a thin metal frying pan that took up a lot of space in his bag but was paradoxically super small when he held it in his hands and wanted to cook with it.
Putting the gathered cran-lemons into the pan with some fresh lake water James sprinkled some sugary spice into the pan and held it out over the fire.
It very quickly began to boil, but his hand kept getting hot so James took a break to try and balance rocks better.
It was hard to re-arrange a fire once it was burning but James poked stuff around with a stick then made a ledge for his pan to balance.
Sprinkling some sprigs of herbs in, then stirring it till reduced, James stared at his supplies.
Dozens of spices to make his food better, water bottle, pan, lighter, Swiss army knife complete with fork and several knives...
It had seemed like luxuries when he was gathering them but now – the point was to make sure he didn’t have any belongings he’d be sad about losing…but now it felt incredibly bare bones.
Where was his plate? A pot? More utensils?
Finding a branch and quickly stripping it James sharpened the end and slowly skewered his beaten up fish.
The fish was almost bigger than his fire!
It bent the stick he found, forcing him to gather a second and stab it from the other end as well.
Salting the outside generously James placed it across the flames – his fire had dimmed slightly while he worked on setting up the fish and it was more embers than flame now but a few more branches flared it right back up.
Carefully James spun and tried to evenly cook his fish.
This was taking longer than he had imagined – the fire wasn’t hot enough but maybe that was for the best? He pressed it down into the hot coals – that didn’t sizzle it like he was imagining it just covered the fish in soot so he was forced to wait.
...
Finally it reached a point James was happy with and he flopped it out onto one of the stones. Pulling out his knife James carefully cut off a strip then drizzled it lightly with his lumpy sauce.
Using his knife to try and scrape the burnt scales and skin off James switched to a fork and took a bite.
It tasted…it was strong. A strong fishy taste – tougher than James had been hoping but smoky and almost tasty paired with his sauce. All around the late lunch was something he could be happy with.
He took another bite and another, ripping large strips out of his tough fish and happily saucing each bite.
The inside of the fish reminded him of things – his monster knowledge resurfacing to point out what strange-looking sacks might be. He felt like a gourmet biting into each part –
That was a swim bladder…that was a skill heart…that was a bit of intestine…that was something that might be a liver or might be an effect accumulator. Most of the insides were supposedly toxic…but stomach defense ignored that and he was only taking small bites.
After eating a large amount of the meal there was the barest hint of something that built and faded…it felt like he was being mocked – it felt like if his newest ability was fully setup with mana and aether he would have just gotten a stat point or two.
It felt like a waste…but was a meal ever really a waste?
Besides the sad lack of a permanent boost a different sort of feeling grew as he ate more of the probably an effect accumulator – something that sometimes stored an ability letting creatures charge or pre prepare their skills.
The barest hint of a churning feeling seemed to build and fill his stomach.
Knowing it would have been more potent had he eaten it right away and knowing the feeling would fade soon, James walked over to the water and dipped his hands into the pond.
He focused and attempted to feel…something.
People didn’t usually eat monster meat and the system knowledge he was given only gave him a general sort of knowledge.
There.
With a flex of his insides, James pulled and pushed the churning feeling out of his hands, a faint ripple floating away from him in all directions.
It was hard to explain, feel, imagine, even describe how it felt. The manipulation was definitely kinetic based so that helped – the tiniest of overlap in how the skill functioned and his own skill functioned.
The churning feeling was completely spent after only creating a ripple or two.
A second waste…but he hadn’t eaten the creature to gain a skill he had eaten it because he beat it and wanted to…plus he had been getting hungry.
It felt like a good experience either way.
Grabbing the remains of dinner – a mess of inedible bits and leftovers – James carried it to the lake and threw it into the water.
Seconds later the salmon from earlier poked its head out as if thanking him then attacked the remains just out of sight.
You’re welcome.
…
After his meal James spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the entire outer edge of the lake. He ended up at the far shore just as it was beginning to grow dark and decided to climb a tree to fall asleep out of reach of wild animals and monsters.
Picking a particularly tall one James scrambled up it then got comfortable – using his backpack as a pillow.
It took a while to release his restless energy but he slowly fell asleep watching the sunrise ripple across the lake.
…
The night was uneventful but James did find a line of scratch marks across the bottom of his tree.
It looked like a seven clawed creature had angrily ripped apart the trunk unable to reach him…if it had truly been a threat however James would have been woken up by his minor ability.
Taking a deep drink of the lake's water – he had no desire to repeat his dehydration fiasco – James set out once more.
He spent the majority of the day hiking. Partway through he spent some time trying to hike blindfolded again – this was a different sort of challenge to before. He kept hitting trees till he got it right.
He spent some time carrying as heavy a rock as he could lift – spent some time trying to run once more the largest difficulty being in dodging the trees – but for the most part his trip was entirely uneventful.
The day ended around when James exited the Christmas forest and he continued walking into the night.
Monsters come out at night.
Usually that meant one needed to be careful but James was looking forward to it.
He wanted some action – something to spice up his trip.
Sadly outside of the badlands – or a monster nest – the increase in monsters was barely noticeable.
James walked across a grassy plain feeling like the only person in the world. A slinking mass of fur stalked him – it looked like a furry slinky with dozens of tiny legs and it was a coward.
James had punched it once when it had gotten close and now it ran whenever he got close, moving like a jumping caterpillar that flipped ends repeatedly as it dodged and flung itself about.
Sure, he could hunt it down with haste…it wasn’t ‘that’ fast…
But that didn’t seem like a challenge.
That didn’t seem like it would even warrant an achievement – James had killed plenty of monsters and gotten nothing. It felt like he only gained achievements when the monster was stronger than him or he fought it in a unique way or was hindered somewhat like when he fought underwater.
…maybe he could setup that situation artificially?
Should he fight this blindfolded? It was already pretty dark so it wouldn’t change things too much…
Yeah that seemed like a plan.
Tossing off his tutorial sneakers, James flipped up his shirt to cover his head squeezing out of the sleeves and using them to tie a wrap around his eyes.
A series of increasing vibrations announced the monster's charge – it seemed to understand that James had blinded himself and thought him an easier target now.
Left.
James dodged – right into a furry body.
Okay maybe he couldn’t make up for sight just through touch yet.
It's fine, that was part of the challenge.
James jabbed his hands about trying to shadow box the creature he couldn’t see.
An impact at his back nearly sent him sprawling – if I had a way to time it and a rock I could have transferred a lot of that force…
A second impact hit his side and he flicked on [haste] to grab the coil of flesh by him.
The start of a repeat of the fish beating took place, before, with a twist the flesh rod he was holding…sort of turned inside out? It happened just as haste deactivated indicating a level of intelligence and planning from the creature…one that didn’t seem like a good sign.
The creature that was beside him some how twisted around until its body had wrapped fully around James’s. It constricted slightly a lethargic feeling sinking into James’s bones. He felt…slow. The kinetic energy that every movement he took was increased…the force he used was sapped.
This…this isn’t good.
With a tightening twist the slinky began to squeeze.
So it's like a boa constrictor? Get a creature inside its body and squeeze it to death? I didn’t notice a mouth and I haven’t felt any bites or slashes so I guess this makes sense.
James flexed his body. It was uncomfortable but this much pressure couldn’t kill him. Haste was on cooldown but he should be able to use it in a few more seconds and then the counter attack would begin!
“Is that all you got?” James laughed his speech slurring slightly even as he struggled to rip the tightening coil apart.
The monster didn’t answer – James didn’t even know if it had a mouth – but after tightening the coil bent slightly.
A second before it happened James realized what the slinky was doing.
That’s…not ideal.
…
The slinky was not a boa constrictor.
Instead, it was a Supplex master – it jumped and smashed James’s head into the ground his face being shoved into grassy dirt while his neck was jerked so hard he thought it might break.
After throwing James head first into the dirt the creature’s tight hold on him loosened for a solid second.
He was still ‘slowed’ and trapped but he had a bewildered moment to reach an arm down and push his head up before the coil tightened once more.
Dammit!
James yelled as he tried to use something – his new skill, anything.
There was a slight weakening of the pressure as James picked points to impact each other – one side of the coil pushing back on the other.
Skill break?
Yes No
No.
James struggled to transfer force about – it kept almost working the coil loosening here and there each time he pushed his skill.
The main problem was in its domain…the skill worked off of momentum and kinetic energy not continuous squeezing. It was too limited in scope – too useless as it was.
James was flipped up – the slinky suplexing him backwards to the point he was standing up once again.
[Haste].
Cooldown over James found the slow feeling ripped out of him his body humming as his skill battled that of the monster.
It felt like haste wanted to fill him up with energy to a certain level – the monster was stealing that energy – and so the skill kept giving him more, the amount given raising higher and higher the more was stolen.
Skill break?
Yes No
“I’m not ready yet – no I said!” James yelled – he didn’t have time to be distracted by popups! James had nine seconds to escape this Chinese finger trap and beat it to death - zero to spend on this stupid announcement.
James twisted – uncoiling the slinky slightly and shoved his body out the creature's middle.
His arms failed around and found a rock.
Lucky.
Raising his favourite makeshift weapon, James bludgeoned the coil holding him till it grew mushy and weak.
It felt like the coil was full of nothing but liquid – the insides controlling the entire slinky with hydraulic pressure.
As soon as James broke a big enough section of the monster its insides poured out in a rush – coating his entire body in oily liquid that made his skin feel slippery. The hard coil seemed to deflate in his arms falling off him even as he rolled over and tried to stand up.
🤦 Achievement get: Blindfolded Beat down. (unique)
Description: Kill a monster using nothing but your body. The noteworthy part is purposefully removing your sight beforehand.
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Stat: +3 Ear power.
Stat: +3 Nose power.
Stat: +3 Nerve power.
Stat: +9 free body power.
Stat: +1 stomach skin bludgoning defense.
An addictive rush of stats – higher than anything since the dungeon filled James.
Affirming his decision to remove his sight as a good one.
...a dangerous rush that made him want to do it again.
Pulling off his blindfold James found himself covered in incredibly shiny blood.
It was a light red but glistened in the moonlight far more than it should have.
Licking some of the oily blood off his hand James grimaced.
It tasted like coppery gasoline.
It was a shame that most of the body seemed to have sunk into the ground but it’s not like James wanted to eat it…
He took a bite out of the ‘skin’ his teeth fighting to bite through what felt like a tire.
James couldn’t help himself.
What if it gave him something good?
Continuing to gnaw on the deflated monster James scrapped bits of the inside off swallowing the taste.
Maybe it's better fried?
…
A few minutes later James had a grass fire going. His makeshift pile of grass burned bright and hot lighting up the entire plain around him but it kept going out – it kept going burning up all the fuel while also nearly spreading to the surroundings.
James did not want to start a bushfire – he kept jumping on the spreading lines feeling like an idot.
There was a problem with just doing what he wanted damned the consequences but he was having so much fun he didn’t want to stop now.
Besides…the fire did its job – the heat softened the rubbery flesh somewhat and after copious amounts of spicy sauce the James choked down a few bites of the slinky skin.
A single defensive feeling stat dripped out of the monster and was distributed to James’s skin.
More importantly a large rush of…was a monster's skill mana or aether? James couldn’t tell what the feeling that monster meat gave him was, but it felt like it filled and shifted about him.
Like the last time its skill had been a kinetic-based one – but somehow…maybe because the monster was more ‘magical’ or more…aether dense? Somehow the feeling of slow power filled him stronger than anything had up till now.
It was a slow feeling of power and yet James wasn’t slowed by it…it was his to control.
Stalking out of the night was a second monster – a wispy looking four-legged creature without a head.
…a test subject.
James jumped at the creature bringing the slow feeling energy to bear the creature scratching at him even as it became lethargic and still.
It felt like cheating as James grabbed a rock and beat the defenceless monster to death then threw its body on his fire.
Too weak.
…too easy.
James travelled across the plains for most of the night occasionally finding and killing a monster or two.
It seemed like he was in a low leveled zone – his time in the badlands had shifted his view of what normal monsters were like.
James started getting really tired sometime deep into the night but there was nowhere to sleep – he was attacked every 20-30 minutes and sure he would be able to wake up in time to stop it but that felt like there wasn’t a point…where were the trees? Why were the natural biomes so big?
It was almost a fluke that caused James to continue fighting through the entire night but it rewarded him with an uncommon achievement in the end so maybe it was worth it.
By morning he was no longer tired – his second wind had hit and he felt like he could go another day but he ended up forcing himself to find a comfortable clump of grass to powernap in.
When he woke up it was afternoon and he travelled once more…another day of walking – flipping to walking on his hands or running blindfolded or running on all fours.
Anything to make his trip fun. Anything to train his body or try and get more stats.
Finally part way through the third day, a sharp line in the grass showed something had changed.
The grass in the plain was for the most part weird and alien – but it was just weird and alien.
Nothing he’d seen on earth… but still ‘just grass’.
The line in front of him however shifted the grass from ‘weird grass’ to something that seemed to bend his sight.
It changed from thick greenish stalks with occasional spirals into…a fractal of glass-like wires.
Just stepping across the line made his balance teeter to the point his body told him he was falling constantly.
More important than the weird grass was a look ahead. 20-30 meters past the weird grass was a waterfall of lava and less than a hundred meters to his right was a forest of upside-down trees their roots seeming to dig into the air around them.
Seperate biomes close together.
…he had made it. Finally, James was back in the badlands.