Nathan stared at the changed class requirements for several seconds. That… definitely wasn’t the System. The System rotated between snark and politeness. It didn’t do this mysterious stuff. And what was up with that ripple in the system window?
How did he make an offering to the sea anyway?
He pulled the jeweled sword from his inventory and held it to the quest screen. Nothing happened. Maybe a more suitable offering would’ve been a fish?
He cast a line and quickly got a fish, then held it to the status screen. Once again, nothing happened. He spent several minutes trying several other things, only to meet with disappointment.
Nathan sighed and shook his head.
They could’ve given me an explanation.
He moved to the quest that was most exciting to him—[Throw Harpoon]. The quest requirements were dead simple. All he had to do was throw his harpoon at a living target ten times.
At first, Nathan had been hoping that he could do that with some fish… but there were no fish he could see in the water.
No, he knew what he had to do.
He had to head to the surface and hunt down some monsters.
Nathan’s hands shook at the thought of running into the Gliding Eel again before he slapped them against his cheeks.
Nothing would go wrong. He’d make sure that he was always ready to run back to the cavern. The Eel probably wouldn’t follow him inside.
How do I know that for sure?
After a few more minutes, he headed up to the surface and walked in the opposite direction of the lake. On the way, he noted that his plants were already beginning to bud.
After walking for ten minutes, he stumbled upon a forest of dead trees. It wasn’t densely packed enough to feel claustrophobic. Instead, it prompted Nathan to envision how the scene could have appeared if the trees had leaves on their branches.
Nathan missed grass.
He couldn’t wait to be out of this hellscape.
After several minutes of waiting in silence, he heard something step in the soil at the edge of his hearing.
He turned around and saw a long furry creature with arms that stretched to the ground. Its eyes were too large for its face with all the proportions off.
Nathan used inspect.
[Timber Talltale] (Copper)
Creepy thing, yeah? All long limbs and shit. Run away, I guess. Or don’t, lol.
Nathan stiffened. He drew his harpoon back and threw his harpoon. Water exploded out of its back, speeding it up. Thanks to his Dexterity, the gravity enchantment on the harpoon, and the fact that the monster didn’t do anything, the harpoon sank into its fleshy body, puncturing a hole in its chest. It slumped over to the ground.
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
That easy?
A crunch echoed out to the right. Then to the left.
Nathan sucked in a breath… then ran for his harpoon. Their footsteps trailed him from behind.
He grabbed the harpoon and turned around.
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One was two feet away, its arms extended out toward Nathan like some kind of zombie. Nathan let out a little scream and threw the harpoon, killing it on the spot. The second one continued on and hit Nathan with its fists.
The attack bounced off Nathan’s hard skin. Nathan flailed his arms and broke the thing’s back with one accidental strike. It folded over and fell onto the ground.
Nathan looked around at the three dead Timber Talltales, then looked at his hand.
“Oh, yeah, I guess I’m kind of strong because of the achievements and stats.”
He slapped his palms against his face. “Be brave!”
Nathan walked over to his harpoon and pulled it out of the creature’s body. For the next two hours, he prowled throughout the forest, hunting 7 more Timber Talltales. With that, he got the [Throw Harpoon] skill.
[Throw Harpoon] (Copper)
Lets you throw a harpoon! No, really, that’s it. Seriously.
+10% increase to harpoon damage.
With that, he heard a soft ding.
[You have leveled up!]
Nathan brought his harpoon back and mentally activated the skill. He threw forward the harpoon.
Light exploded from the harpoon and it shot forward twice as fast as when he threw it normally. It crashed into a tree, went out the other side, then crashed into two more trees before it slammed into the ground and carved a trail through the dirt.
The first tree fell to the ground in a dramatic crash.
Nathan’s jaw dropped.
After staring at the desturction for a bit, he walked over and grabbed his harpoon, then headed back to his little cavern. He stayed low to the ground as he traveled, trying to avoid picking up any attention. Once he was back to the cavern, he fell asleep on the spot.
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The next morning after his daily 1000 casts (he was at 6981/10000), Nathan decided to work on [Gardening]. He was hoping that all the stuff he’d done with his plants meant that he’d soon finish the requirements.
[Gardening] (Copper)
Truly, the most useful of skills. With this, you will never go hungry again! Uh, after you’ve spent the necessary three months needed to grow the plants…
Objective:
Plant and Harvest 5 different plant types (0/5)
Nathan blanched. He wouldn’t be able to finish that in time!
He paused and rubbed his chin.
Then again, his plants had been growing abnormally quickly thanks to the weird soil. When was the last time he checked on his plants anyway?
He went up to the surface.
When he saw his plants, his jaw dropped.
Overnight, the surface had exploded into greenery. Grass covered the ground. Vines wrapped all across the bushes. Most importantly, they’d already started bearing fruit. Grapes. Grains. Potatoes.
Nathan took a step forward and reached his hand out toward one of the grapes. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that the leaves seemed to be reaching back.
He used [Basic Inspect].
[Normal Grape]
A grape born of a mystery seed you fished from a magic lake. It was planted in dead soil, brought to life by glowing water, and catalyzed by your poisoned blood. Oh, and it got done growing in less than a week. In other words, there’s nothing weird about it. Nothing at all.
Okay.
Nathan had been willing to ignore how quickly the plants had been growing before, but now he knew that something was off. When [Basic Inspect] laid everything out like this…
The only part that puzzled Nathan was the ‘poison blood’ part. When had he—
Oh, yeah, when he came out here in the freezing cold to get some wood for his campfire. He was still bleeding at the time.
Was it safe to eat?
Nathan stared at the grape for several seconds, internally debating whether or not he should eat it.
“I mean, I’ve been eating raw fish and drinking glowing water for a while. Besides, if that poison didn’t kill me, I doubt a grape will.”
Nathan bit into the grape. An explosion of sugar assaulted his tongue. He teared up from the sensation and shivered.
It was delicious. The best thing he’d ever eaten. Granted, he hadn’t had fruit in several days, but part of it was that it genuinely tasted that good.
Not only that, but he felt stronger as a result of eating it. He pulled his metal fishing rod out and noted that it was almost weightless now.
Nathan nodded. These fruits would be an essential weapon for when he faced down the Gliding Eel.
He finished off the grape and stored the seed in his inventory. After that, he harvested the rest of the plants that had borne fruit. This easily fulfilled the requirements to finish his quest.
[Gardening] was an okay ability. It provided a smattering of abilities enhancing the growth of plants. The more important thing was the EXP that he’d gotten. He instinctively knew that he wasn’t too far from another level up. One more side quest would do it.
Nathan tried to work on [Suspicious Gathering]. The requirements said that he just needed to find and burn a ‘suspicious plant,’ whatever that meant. It provided a hint saying that it would have several leaflets fanning out from a central stem.
Nathan hadn’t seen a single leaf at all since he arrived here, except for the ones that he’d planted. The surface seemed to be dead, and the underground wasn’t much better.
But surely the System wouldn’t give him a quest that was just impossible to finish, right? It had to be somewhere around here. And once he did that, he bet that there would be some improbably useful ability associated with it.
Nathan nodded to himself. The best chance was to head out again and see if he could find this ‘suspicious plant.’