Nenn awoke the next morning, thankful to see the sun had already risen above the tree line. It was still dark, given that he and the rest of the group were positioned beneath the boroughs of an impossibly tall tree, according to Earth’s standards. The fire in front of the group had been long since extinguished, and the fire watcher had gone to bed for the day.

Nenn begrudgingly rose from his nest of blankets and pillows. He took the time to roll and fold them up. The rest of the group began to stir, but after a brief exchange of good mornings Nenn set off a couple of meters away from the group. He quickly drew a circle into the ground using his heel and sat down on the ground. He closed his eyes and activated [Nature’s Regrowth].

He had wanted to try meditating ever since briefly feeling the effects of it yesterday. He reached out and felt the wisps of nature energy around him. He felt himself become still as he examined the world around him with rapt attention.

The world was vibrant, even though his senses were closed off. Closed off might not be the right word for it. He was experiencing things in an entirely new way. Maybe this is a kind of mana sense, Nenn thought. It makes sense, if Mana Theory is a thing, maybe [Nature’s Regrowth] is just an extension of that.

Nenn could feel everything around him, but it was blurry, distorted even. It was like he could watch a glimpse of the environment around him but the more he looked for details the more washed out it became.

Nenn tried to focus in on a single blade of grass in front of him, closing off the rest of the world. The blade of grass appeared sharp and in focus for him. Now, he wasn't seeing the blade of grass but rather feeling the movement of life mana through it. Feeling the flow of energy as it moved up through the blade bringing nourishing life mana to the cells of the plant. Then the return of depleted mana heading back down the blade.

Nenn’s focus broke. That wasn't how a plant was supposed to behave, at least, that's not how they behaved on Earth. Maybe this is what the System meant by simplifying organic processes, Nenn thought. Do we even still have cells, or are we just some sort of tissue aggregate? Nenn wondered. Maybe that’s a question best saved for later.

Nenn focused back in, feeling the wonderful feeling of life mana all around him. It was a sensation he never dreamt was possible, but here he was, somehow. He focused on another blade of grass, nearly identical to the first, finding his mana sense sharpening.

Then he added another blade, finding both in focus. Then another, and another. In a couple of minutes Nenn had a clear image of a square foot of grass in front of him. He went to add another blade, but this one was different. The grass was bent under strain, the life mana constrained slightly. Nenn could tell this blade was still okay, but it wouldn't be if it stayed that way forever.

Curious, Nenn shifted his mana sense slightly to see if he could see what was impeding the blade of grass. He was greeted by a blindingly bright source of immense life energy, pushing him out of his meditative position.

When he opened his eyes he saw what the culprit was. His foot. The blade of grass was bent underneath his foot. The immense source of life mana that had blinded him was his own body. It was truly an awe inspiring sight to see. One that didn’t seem too out of place when Nenn thought about it. His body was, afterall, significantly more massive than a blade of grass by several magnitudes, it would need more life mana to sustain itself.

Nenn wanted to explore this new world some more, but before he got the chance he felt a hand on his shoulder, startling him. He turned around to see Jack in his blue mage robes.

“Hey, buddy, it’s time to go,” Jack said.

“I guess it is,” Nenn said. He hadn’t realized it, but at least an hour had passed while he was meditating.

“So, Jack,” Nenn started, “Can I ask how you ended up in that body? We all went through the customization process, so we know you didn’t involuntarily end up like this.”

“Uhh,” Jack stalled, they still didn’t seem to be accustomed to their new voice. “Well, I’ve got two answers for that one. First, and foremost, I asked the System to make me identical to Liz, so that everything is even between the two of us. Now we can truly compete against each other on a fair playing field. The system seems to have taken that in some sort of different direction than I was expecting because it looks like Liz’s own choices were not respected. Although I suspect she made the exact same request as I did. To make things as even as possible between the two of us.”

“See that’s the reason I had ruminating around in my head,” Nenn said. “You two have always been hyper competitive with one another. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to listen to you two spout out some kind of reasoning as to why things weren’t fair. You’re taller. You’re heavier. You’re smaller. My hair got in my eyes, my job got in the way of studying, and so on. So I’m glad to see that those days are behind us. But, you mentioned a second reason?”

“Yeah, uhh, you know how I always ended up playing female characters in games?” Jack said. “Well, it just felt right to do so here too. I don’t know why but it feels… I don’t know how to put it.”

“Correct?” Nenn said.

“Yeah. Like I’m finally in my own skin. I’m not sure if that is System bullshit making it so that you feel right at home in your own customizations, or if I’ve always wanted to be this way,” Jack said.

“Well, if it makes you happy, it makes me happy. Congratulations, I guess?” Nenn said. Jack laughed.

“Yeah, it's a bit of a silver lining to the whole end of the world thing happening here. It makes me wonder if we will ever get to see Earth again,” Jack said.

“I’m not going to give it much thought,” Nenn said. “We’re here now, and we have a job to do. We can only take things one at a time right now. Maybe once we get settled in the world we can philosophize about it all, but for now, that won’t do us any good.”

“I’m going to borrow that line of thinking. Thanks. We should probably get back to the group. We need to get underway before we lose any more daylight,” Jack said.

A couple of minutes later, the group along with Ortango were on their way back to the obelisk. Aiden offered to carry Ortango from the get go this time, and the group made the trip in record time. The forest was just as active as yesterday, filled with non-hostile prey creatures that would bolt as soon as they saw the party approaching. The way back was not at all straightforward and very far off of the few beaten paths the group managed to traverse over. Even Ortango seemed to be a little disoriented while directing them. But, after an hour and a bit the group caught their first glimpse of the obelisk sticking out of the forest.

“Humans, slow now,” Ortango whispered. Aiden set the goblin hunter down. “We move slowly, watch for orcs.” Ortango gestured.

“You think the orc’s have already found their missing hunters?” Aiden asked.

“Maybe. We move slow. Careful. No noise,” Ortango said. The group crouched down, making themselves small to the ground, and moved forward, taking in all of their surroundings while they moved forward.

“Wait. Let me try something,” Nenn whispered to the group. “I might be able to sense if there are orcs ahead.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Okay,” Aiden said. “It’s worth a shot. Go for it. We’ve got your back.”

Nenn quietly drew a circle around himself, sat down, and closed his eyes. He activated [Nature’s Regrowth] and reached out to the world. He was granted a murky landscape of life mana. He looked towards the bright burning spot where his group was. Six distinct smudges of life mana burned brightly enough to hide the background of foliage. With his theory proven correct Nenn expanded his search, feeling for life mana closer towards the obelisk. The background of the forest came back into view now that it wasn’t being muted by the group. Little bright pockets came into existence. Small animals, burrowed around the forest floor. A bird in a tree. Nothing big enough to be a goblin, let alone an orc.

Nenn continued his survey, finding his mana sense deteriorating in quality the further he pushed out. He got to the clearing around the obelisk, and found the structure itself to be devoid of life energy. It was completely dark in his vision. On the other side of the clearing his mana sense finally faded out entirely, but not before a large volume of life energy moved in and out of view. It was too far to tell just how big it was against the background of the forest.

“Okay, it looks like there aren’t any orcs between us and the obelisk. But that’s as far as I could sense,” Nenn said. “There was something I could just barely feel on the other side of the clearing, but I can’t tell if it's an animal, or an orc. I can just say that it’s not a plant.”

“Fucking neat,” Jack said. “What skill is that?”

“Uhh, I don’t think it's a skill per say,” Nenn said. “Yesterday when I used my [Nature’s Regrowth] ability to recover from the fight I felt like I was one with nature, and able to sense things around me. Then with Gebunto’s Mana Theory explanation yesterday, it made me realize that I was sensing life mana. This morning I experimented with it and figured a couple of things out. The bigger and more complex an organism is, the denser its life mana is. As a result it shows up brighter than the background when I meditate.” Nenn said.

“The skills aren’t close ended,” Liz said. A brief smile crossed her face.

“It looks like it,” Nenn said. “There’s probably a lot of room for mastery and skill manipulation. Maybe even raw skill development.”

“I’m just as excited as all of you, but, for the moment, we have an obelisk to secure and a base of operations to establish,” Aiden said.

“Yes,” Ortango said. “We be quick. Before orcs come.”

The group pushed forward, taking their time to sweep through their surroundings. They soon came upon the lifeless bodies of the orc hunters they had slain yesterday. The bodies hadn’t been moved or touched as far as the group could tell.

“We move them,” Ortango said. “Hide in bush, for now.”

The group took their guide's sage advice and dragged the corpses out of the somewhat open area and threw them into a dense collection of bushes. The task was much easier than Nenn thought it would be. If he had to take a guess, an orc would probably weigh somewhere in the 220 to 250 pound range. Before the System, Nenn would have struggled to move that much weight, but now with 4 more points in strength, he noticed a huge difference.

The group continued their sweep around the area but found nothing of note. There were some small animals, accounting for the mysterious blob of life mana Nenn had seen, but there was no trace of anyone or anything else.

“Does anyone else find it strange that no other humans have come through the obelisk?” Nenn said.

“Yes. I find it odd. If the System was demanding 10% of the human population of Earth come here every year, you would have thought that with somewhere close to a billion people slated to arrive this year there would be more of us here,” Harper said.

“Maybe the government did something?” Jack said. “Maybe they’ve put their foot down and decided to not send people through. It makes some kind of sense, especially given our aging population. Young, unestablished people would be most likely to answer the challenge, and that can really throw a wrench into the labor market.”

“Please no. No more politics,” Liz said. “I thought we left all of that behind us.”

“If it affects us here, it's worth talking about,” Aiden said. “Another thought I had was that maybe there is a buffer time for when the obelisk sends people through. Like, maybe it's only once a day. Or once a week.”

“I wish we knew more,” Nenn said. “Speaking of other people, where did everyone else go?”

“They bolted as soon as the barrier dropped and the hunting horn sounded,” Aiden said.

“Which direction,” Ortango asked.

“Mostly,” Aiden oriented himself, “that way.” He pointed in a direction opposite of where the goblin village was.

“Oh,” Ortango said, his voice betraying his feelings. “They dead. Or captured. Orc hunting camps that way.”

“That’s not great,” Aiden said.

“What should we do? Rescue them?” Harper said.

“No,” Nenn, Aiden, Jack, Liz, and Ortango said all at once.

“Seriously?! You want to leave your fellow man out to dry like that?” Harper said. She was taken aback by the overwhelming response against her idea.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say it's not that we don’t want to. But we’re not in any position to try. We are outnumbered, out supplied, and out of position. We are out of everything,” Aiden said. “We need to help ourselves before we can help them. And that’s if they even need our help. If they are dead, they are beyond saving at this point. If they have escaped notice and they're running free, we can’t catch them.”

“The best thing we can do right now is secure the obelisk. We need to ensure that the next wave of humans to come through don’t get immediately spawn camped by an assembled orc firing squad. And we need to start collecting supplies. Once we have our asses covered, and get some more levels under our belts, we can think about leading a raid on an orc encampment.”

“If we die trying to help them, it will all have been for nothing,” Nenn said. “If we manage to eke out a win and recover them, we have to deal with whatever state they’re in, whatever state we end up in, and manage to hold off any counter attacks afterwards. It doesn’t do anyone any favors and we could lose our foothold here.”

“Sorry, Harper. No point right now,” Ortango said. “Orcs violent. Orcs won’t stop once attacked. Goblin’s never attack them. Fear they attack village. They find us soon. We must be ready.”

“Besides,” Jack said, “It kind of looked like everyone who came through with us was prepared for anything. There were even some military personnel who joined in. I'm doubtful they all ran straight into trouble.”

Harper stood there and took a deep breath, pushing her differing feelings on the matter away. “Okay. Fine. I don’t like it, but I am outnumbered on votes anyways. I’m on board with the plan. Let’s get busy then.”

The group had a brief chat about what type of defenses would be most worthwhile to pursue with what time they had. They had a circular clearing with a big ass obelisk pointing out their location. They needed cover to hide from range attacks, and they needed to inhibit a melee charge. The best idea they could come up with was a trench and some sharpened tree trunks acting as a deterrent.

If they could help it, they would be better off if they didn't have to defend the obelisk. There was nothing defensible about it. Other than it covering the area directly behind them, the clearing was unideal. The group would have to spend energy and split up to build defenses, which would leave them open to attack. It would be a perfect opportunity for a group of orc hunters to get the drop on them. Even then, it would take a huge investment to make the defenses worthwhile. It would have been nice had the other thirty-some humans that had come through the obelisk with them stuck around.

The party split into three teams. Aiden and Harper were the team tasked with tree cutting. Aiden got a chance to practice his shield bash skill on some medium sized trees, finding that they fell easily after a couple of hits. Harper practiced her healing bolt spell, which also seemed to regenerate some stamina, allowing Aiden to spend a bit more stamina dragging the trees into position.

Nenn, Jack, and Liz worked together to dig a trench around the perimeter of the obelisk. Thanks to magic, they were making steady, meaningful progress. As it turns out, [Entangling Roots] makes for an excellent excavation spell. Coupled with the group's new found strength, a wall of rocky material was soon piled up along the trench, allowing the casters to stand out of line of sight.

Ortango, on the other hand, was tasked with keeping watch. He was, afterall, the most familiar with the territory. The group managed to put in a solid morning of effort, and soon took a break for lunch. The goblin elders had been nice enough to arrange for food to be packed for them. The meal itself was nothing spectacular, just some bread that looked like it would serve as hardtack, some dried berries, and some nuts. Everything was foreign in color and shape, but familiar in taste somehow. It was as though the system was trying to match tastes from Earth to the tastes of the trial. Or, maybe the connection was deeper and the reverse. Maybe Earth’s development was influenced or copied by The System. It was certainly a thought Nenn would have gladly spent the day thinking of, only he was interrupted when an all-too-familiar horn sounded out in the forest.

The group froze in their tracks as a shiver went down their spines. It wasn’t just one horn. There were four that sounded out one after another, and from different directions. A second later and the first orc hunter broke out of the treeline and ran towards the group with its crude woodcutting ax raised.