Devi sat, exhausted, on the forest floor, a dead squirrel lay beside her, one that had turned her into a bloody mess. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the deep cuts that covered her body all burned with pain, flaring up every time she moved. She couldn’t even begin to count all of them, but there were a lot of them.
She didn’t want to move, but she knew she needed to. Now that she had first-hand experience with the denizens of the forest, she was in no mood to meet another one. She had barely fought off a squirrel and was definitely not ready to meet anything else. At least for a little while.
Groaning, she forced herself to her feet. Maybe I was a little hasty with running into the forest. She thought for a second before deciding she was right to explore instead of continuing to talk to John and his lackeys. I am not dead, and I learned what was in the forest, so I believe it was a good decision. Though I should definitely head back to the clearing.
She scooped up her discarded crossbow and began to gather up the bolts that had fallen during her tumble. She tried pulling the bolt that had lodged itself into a tree, but it had sunk at least an inch into the tree and was not going anywhere anytime soon, so she gave up on it.
One quick glance around the area showed she wasn’t leaving anything behind, except the chard remains of the squirrel, her bolt still protruding from its chest. Maybe I should bring it back, Devi thought to herself as she stood over the corpse. I did not see any food listed in the store. She grimaced over the dead squirrel. I guess it is better than starving.
Devi squeamishly grabbed one of the legs of the squirrel and hoisted it into the air. On second thought, maybe I will wait to find something else to eat.
She dropped the squirrel and dusted off her hands. Someone will definitely find something else. There looks to be plants around, hopefully, those are edible. She wasn’t a vegetarian by a long shot, but having to skin and cook an animal was pushing it a little much. She didn’t even know where to start, let alone have the required tools. I need to start making something for that at some point.
Shrugging to herself, she finally took a look a the multiple windows that had appeared in her vision.
Congratulations
You have defeated your opponent
XP has been awarded
She raised her eyebrow at the message. Looks like there are kill notifications. Or at least I am assuming that is what this is. Seems handy.
Devi was still frustrated at the lack of information she received. It didn’t tell her what the opponent was, its level, or even how much XP she had gained. It just said she had been awarded some. Not a single bit of information other than it was defeated. It didn’t even say killed, just defeated. Would the same message pop up if she incapacitated the squirrel instead of killing it?
She let out a frustrated sigh at all the unanswered questions she had. Questions that she had no real way of finding the answers to at the moment. More things to figure out I guess. Dismissing the notification, she focused on the next one.
XP threshold reached
Novice Support (inferior) lvl 0 -> lvl 1
+3 Free
A wave of the now familiar tingling sensation rushed over her, quickly dissipating. This time it didn’t focus on any particular part, and if she focused, it felt as if it was still there, a potential waiting to be tapped into. She remembered obtaining a few free points when she had been awarded her title but hadn’t really looked into them. She had figured they were just points she could distribute into one of her Attributes.
Yet another thing to figure out. The list is never-ending. She shrugged. At least I will not run out of things to do I guess.
She dismissed the notification and focused on the next one.
XP threshold reached
Human (G) lvl 0 -> lvl 1
+1 All
She blinked in surprise as the wave of energy faded. A race level? I had assumed I could level my race, the little level indicator next to it hinted at that, but wow, one level gives quite a bit. 10 whole points, that seems a bit excessive, though I am not complaining.
Devi squinted at the notification, but what did I do to earn this level up? Was it defeating the squirrel? All the notification said about that was that I gained XP, not where that XP was going to. Maybe all XP is shared?
She dismissed that idea since she had leveled up her Vocation before her Race and Class. Maybe the XP is distributed unevenly? More goes to whatever I am doing, like if I am crafting, most of the XP goes to my Vocation, and a bit goes to my Class and Race? And then killing things sends XP to my Class and a bit to my Race? But is killing things even a part of my Class? I am a Support, whatever that is. It does not sound like a fighting Class.
Devi let out a frustrated groan and wished for the thousandth time that there was a manual that came with these dumb blue boxes. She was no closer to figuring out why or how she leveled up, or even how much it took to level up. Devi was fairly certain XP had something to do with leveling up since it most likely stood for experience points, but even that was just a guess, not based on anything.
Each time I get a notification, all I am left with is questions. She paused for a second, and usually some improvements.
Status
Name
Devi Robinson
Race
Human (G)
Lvl 1
Class
Novice Support (inferior)
Lvl 1
Vocation
Novice Tinkerer (inferior)
Lvl 1
Titles
Tutorial Attendee, Magical Trailblazer
Health
31/110
Stamina
48/100
Mana
25/242
Attributes
Vitality
11
Toughness
10
Endurance
10
Wisdom
22
Vigor
11
Presence
8
Agility
13
Intelligence
24
Strength
9
Willpower
14
Free points
9
General Skills
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
Class Skills
[Enhance Attribute] lvl 0
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
Vocation Skills
[Improvise Tool] lvl 0
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Well shit, all of my Health, Stamina, and Mana got super low. Dangerously low. Since she just received a free point in both Vitality and Wisdom, both her current Health and Mana had increased by 10, meaning she had been sitting at 21 Health and only 15 Mana after that figtht. She didn’t know what would happen if she ran out of either one, but something told her that running out of Health was a terrible idea. Her stamina was still fairly high, but she was still quite out of breath from the whole thing.
A lot of other things had changed. The extra point in Strength and Agility were definitely noticeable, while the others weren’t. She felt slightly stronger and more in control of her movements than before. Though, it could always be her brain playing tricks on her and she hadn’t really improved that much. I need to do some tests before and after I increase my Attributes next time. Putting that on her to-do list, right after getting out of the forest before something came along and attacked her, she closed the last notification and started back to the clearing.
Thankfully, she hadn’t traveled far outside the barrier, so she was able to backtrack her way to the clearing fairly easily by remembering how she had wandered through the forest. She passed by an oddly shaped tree she remembered studying for a while, and then walked by an interesting bush with white round berries dangling between red leaves. She had been wary of the fruit since it looked super poisonous. What type of berries are white? Probably ones that would kill you.
She managed to make to the barrier without incident, thankfully. Though she had broken into a light jog near the end, the slight noises of the forest spooked her. Each rustle of a branch could be another killer squirrel that could pop out and attack.
Letting out a relieved sigh, she stepped back through the barrier and into the clearing. She didn’t exactly know if the barrier would keep monsters out, but it had to do something, or else it wouldn’t be there, so she felt a bit safer. Also, there were other people around, so if a monster did attack, hopefully, it would be a lot easier to fend them off rather than trying to do it all by herself.
As she looked around for a good spot to lie down and see what she could do about the multiple cuts she had accumulated, she noticed John look over in her direction and start making his way over.
Well fuck, I am definitely not in the mood to deal with him right now. Between having to listen to him try and get me to donate money to him, or fighting another squirrel, I would take a squirrel, any day. Guess I will just have to tell him to fuck off then.
She stood there, waiting for John to walk up to her, trying to hide how much pain she was in. The pain hadn’t lessened since she had gotten covered in cuts, if anything, it had gotten worse. I really need to figure out a way to clean them and get some bandages. I would even settle for a box of band-aids right now. Maybe I should have gotten the [First Aid] Skill. Bet it would have come in handy here.
Her musings were cut off by John stepping up in front of her, smiling warming.
“So, I think we ended things on the wrong foot earlier,” he started off. “I apologize if I upset you in any way.”
“Maybe you should not start asking people for money right off the bat then,” she answered. “I do not trust you to use it well.”
“Ture, you don’t know much about me,” he smiled good-naturedly. “But, I assure you, I am working towards everyone’s best interest here.”
Devi just scoffed.
“I will be the one to make that determination, thank you.”
As she was beginning to walk away, she noticed two figures quickly approaching. The one in front had vivid blue hair and was wearing what looked to be a metal breastplate. A large shield was strapped to one arm, while a sword flapped wildly on their hip. Next to them was a taller person, with curly black hair, sporting the same leathers as Devi, with a simple spear held in one hand.
“Hey, are you harassing people again?” The blue-haired person said as they got within speaking distance. “Go find some other person to try and get to donate to your cause.”
“I’m not bothering this young woman, Mars, I’m just simply talking with her. I felt like we ended on a bad note, and wanted to rectify that.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Mars retorted. They turned to look over at Devi. “Is this man bothering you?”
“No, I was about to leave,” Devi replied. “He already tried to get me to donate.”
“If any of you reconsider, and want to help everyone here, please let me know. I just want to do what’s best for everyone.” And with that, he gave them all a charming smile and walked off.
“Fucker,” Mars said as he walked off. “Sorry about that.,” they said as they turned back to Devi. “Hi, I’m Mars, they/them.”
“Devi, she/her,” she said giving them a small nod. “I am guessing he tried to get you to donate too?”
“Yeah, and pretty much everyone here it looks like,” the currently-haired person chimed in. “I’m Mat, by the way, he/him.” He gave a small wave as he introduced himself.
“He’s gotten quite a few people though, it seems like,” Mars said while shaking her head. “Not that I don’t agree that we all need to work together here, I just don’t trust a man like that to be the one in charge, you know?”
“I get that, they seemed slimy,” Devi said. “Not someone I would want to have in charge of everyone.”
Mars nodded in agreement, before looking over at Devi in concern, just noticing the multiple cuts on her body.
“Are you okay? What happened? Do I need to go beat someone up?”
“No, I am good, it was a squirrel, but do not worry, they look worse than I do,” she said with a chuckle.
“Wait, a squirrel did that to you?” Matt asked, alarmed.
“Yeah, though it was quite large, and could shoot electrical sparks at me. It was fucking fast.”
“But you killed it?” Mars asked, and when Devi confirmed that she had, Mars’ face broke into a wide grin.
“You go girl! Look at that, that’s so cool! How did you do it?” They turned to Matt. “See, I told you we should go out into the forest and kill monsters.”
Devi was taken back a little at Mars’ enthusiasm.
“I shot fire at it and then stabbed it until it was dead,” she replied. “It might have gotten me a few times before then. I thought I was going to die the whole time. I would not recommend.” She gestured to the numerous injuries.
“You can shoot fireballs?” Matt asked before ducking his head a bit in embarrassment. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer, that just seems really cool.”
“No worries. No, I can not, or at least I do not think I can. I am not too sure how I did that either.” She pulled out the magic tool she had summoned the pillar of fire from. Parts of it were singed and burnt, while a couple of the odd symbols were completely burnt away.
“Wait, is that the fire starter magic tool?” Matt asked.
“Well, it is a replica I made,” Devi admitted.
“And it works?”
“Yeah, it does, though not quite as well as the original.”
“You can make those things work?” Mars asked, impressed. “Haven’t you been trying for a bit to get the two you got to do something this whole time, Matt?”
Matt pulled out a familiar-looking metallic stake along with a circular disk about 15 cm wide and two thick. It was covered in similar patterns as the stake.
“I haven’t had any luck with either one. I’ve given up really, at least for right now.”
“I could try and show you if you want,” Devi offered. “If you let me look at the other magic tool. That is the water purifier, right?”
“Yeah, of course,” Matt said, handing over the disk to Devi. “Is there a trick to using these?”
“Probably, I heard that having a Skill for them is useful, but you can use them without that.”
They sat down on the grass, as Devi walked them through the process of looking inwards to find the bubble of energy in their chests. Mars and Matt both had a hard time locating it, neither one had experienced what it felt like to have their mana move as Devi had with her Skill. She had them keep looking, helping out as she played with the new magic tool.
The water purifier was a perfect circle made out of the same silvery metallic metal, with odd symbols scattered over it, only on one side. The symbols themselves were engraved with a whitish metal instead of the bronze the fire started used.
She closed her eyes and focused, sending mana down her arm and into the tool. She could feel the magic tool start absorbing her mana, but when she opened her eyes, nothing seemed to be happening. The tool also was absorbing mana far quicker than the fire starter, until it suddenly stopped absorbing mana.
A quick check of her Status showed she had sunk 10 points of mana into the disk, all for nothing to happen. Though as she peered over the disk, she had to amend that thought. A few of the symbols seemed to be glowing faintly, but nothing else. Maybe I need water for it to work? It can not purify water without some water around.
She shrugged and explained what she had done to both Mars and Matt, both of which had been watching in awe as the symbol slowly started glowing, only to be let down when no fun magic happened. None of them had any good ideas about why it didn’t work. Devi decided to start replicating the magic tool, and the others sat around and started chatting as she worked, taking a break from trying to move their mana.
Devi learned that both Mars and Matt both been working at the same coffee shop, the one Devi had been at right before they all had been transported here. They had seen the boxes and had gotten excited. Apparently, they had both been fans of a particular genre of books called lit-rpg, which featured things exactly like the floating blue boxes, which raised way too many questions for Devi’s liking, such as why those ideas even existed in the first place on Earth. Had Earth already known about magic before the sky fell? None of them had any answers.
“But anyways,” Mars said, after a long pause where everyone was chewing on the fact that lit-rpg books had existed. “What Class and Vocation did you choose? If that’s not too personal. I chose the tank one because it sounded super fun!”
“Did you not choose a Vocation?” Devi asked
“Nah, not yet, none of them really felt right to me, so we’ll see what happens later,” they explained.
Devi nodded along.
“Well, I chose Tinkerer and Support, they seemed interesting. Do you think there will be more options later? Should I have not chosen so quickly?” Did I fuck up already? Shit, should I have not chosen anything? Fuck. Why did I not wait? I am so dumb, I could have waited, it was not that hard. Just wait a few hours and talked with other people to figure out what they were doing. I just assumed I knew better, but what if I did not? I just sabotaged myself. Her mind started to spiral down as she beat herself up over her decision.
“Who knows, maybe?” Mars shrugged. “Or there won’t be anything later, and I will have missed out. I’d say it’s about 50/50. I just wanted to wait a little bit”
“Well, I chose Ranger and Performer myself. Got to use those marching band skills, am I right?” Matt joked. “
“When did you ever have skills,” Mars said.
“I’ll have you know, I always had skills, but now, I have Skills. Two in fact,” he stated proudly. “[Sharp Eyes] and [Track] to be precise.”
“I have been wondering, how can you say the capital letters and brackets?” Devi asked, the oddity pulling her out of her own thoughts. “Or am I going crazy and no one else can hear them.”
“No, I hear them too,” Mars said, frowning. “I just hadn’t noticed it.”
“Wow, that’s crazy!” Matt said. “You can’t just say a bracket, right? But I can definitely hear it. That is so weird.”
“[Tough Skin],” Mars said. “Huh, you really can hear the brackets and the capitalization. That’s wild.”
“Your Skill is [Tough Skin]?” Devi asked.
“Yeah! I’ve got absolutely no idea what it does, but it sounds fun,” Mars rescinded. “And it’s bound to be good, like, who wouldn’t want to have tougher skin?”
Devi was already trying to devise tests to figure out how exactly that Skill worked. Maybe we could try and injure Mars and then both me and Matt and compare how much damage all of us receive? Do it enough times you should figure out if the Skill reduces damage. She paused to think of any flaws in that. Well, it could be it is just harder to actually get cut, not that it reduced damage. That is a bit harder to test. We could do the first test, and then address if any of the individual injuries were harder to do than other ones. Maybe we could randomize the-
“Hey, Devi,” Mars’ voice pulled her out of her train of thought. “You good? You kind of just started frowning at me for no reason.”
Devi blinked in surprise.
“No, I did not mean to do that. Just thinking about stuff.”
“It’s all good, I disassociate all the time,” Mars said with a laugh. “Though we should probably figure out where we’re going to sleep. I don’t see any beds around, and there wasn’t any for sale.”
Devi looked up and noticed the sun had begun to disappear over the tops of the trees, casting everything in soft shadows. The shimmering barrier began to become more noticeable as the sunlight faded around it. A few people began to notice the barrier's existence, seemingly not having seen it the whole day.
“We could just sleep here, it is as good as anywhere else,” Devi suggested, wincing slightly as her cuts made themselves known again. She had been too preoccupied with showing the others how to move mana and looking at the new magic tool to feel the pain, but now that she had a moment to think, it came back in full force.
“Maybe we should get you patched up first,” Mars said as she saw Devi wince.
“I’m fine. It is not like we have any medical supplies around.”
Mars gave Devi a hard stare before shrugging their shoulders before Matt spoke up.
“We should go figure out where some water is tomorrow then. There’s bound to be some somewhere, right?”
“You’d think, right? We got placed here somehow. I really hope whatever did that realized we need water to live.”
“Who knows? Maybe they did not realize humans needed water quite frequently,” Devi said. “But that is a problem for tomorrow. Nothing we can do about it right now.”
“You’re right,” Matt agreed. “Right now, we need to figure out how we’re going to sleep.”
“We should probably sleep in shifts, what do you guys things?” Mars asked. “You said there were large magical squirrels that attacked you in the forest. I don’t know about everyone else, but I would prefer not to be woken up to one of those eating my face off.”
“I am more worried about the other humans around than the squirrels. That barrier must do something since I have not seen a single squirrel or anything, come into the clearing,” Devi reasoned.
“So three shifts, each of takes one? And what, 2 hours each?” Matt asked.
“That would only give up 4 hours of sleep,” Devi replied. Just a bit of math would have made that clear, she thought to herself. “We should go 3 hours each, giving up all 6 hours of sleep, which is not the most, but if we go with 4 hours each, that would be half a day just to sleep.”
“Yeah, that sounds good to me,” Mars chimed in. “I’ll take middle watch if that’s good with you guys.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Devi said.
“Well, guess I get last watch,” Matt said. “Hopefully it doesn’t get all that cold tonight then.”
Knowing my luck, it is definitely going to drop below freezing, Devi thought to herself as she got in a comfortable place to keep an eye out on everything. And something tells me that this place is very unhospitable to humans.
She paused for a second. How the fuck did I end up grouping up with these people?