Tom's PoV
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I was still slightly worried I had offended Lilly more than she was letting on. The last sentence she said implied that she had some sort of basic trust towards me, which I suppose makes sense since she did basically let all her defenses down during her sleep next to me. Or maybe she just had to for the sake of survival.
'I'll just ask her' i decide.
"Was the sleep uncomfortable?"
"Going to sleep, and waking up was. But it's not really something you can fix. Or you can but it takes resources you didn't have," she rambled a bit.
"Right. I guess we better start scouting, how long does a light last?" I ask.
"Depends on the season but it's on average 12 hours." she replies.
"Ok so 50 mana or less, When I hit 60 mana we'll head back," I say.
"Sounds reasonable, you're around 35 now then?" she asks.
"Yep. 34 return trip should be shorter but there are probably things we want to do to the base," I reply with my time allotment plans.
We start walking towards the pillars of stone in the vicinity and Lilly keeps pondering out loud what things might've been in the past.
We reach the city and look around. Vaguely square pillars of stone all around us but there are some shorter shelter like structures around us. Some of them are even made out of wood. Lilly comments that they wouldn't have normally been found in such skyscraper cities as this one. I wouldn't know. The word log cabin had some mental image of a lonely house in the middle of the woods, but that's about all the context i had.
Going inside one of the shorter wooden buildings in hopes that it doesn't collapse on top of us. We stat searching for anything that could be valuable or useful as a tool, but everything is just slightly out of shape and twisted, some things are recognizable as being previously a tool of some sort but without using [Manipulate] the objects wouldn't be usable as anything other than fire wood, when applicable. Metal tools were even less usable in their eldritch form.
We were in the same room when we heard a loud "thump" outside.
"Well that's probably not good?" I ask no one in particular.
"Grab some weapons," Lilly says serious.
I take the longest iron tools and shape a sharp edge on them.
"Weeb," Lilly says, triggering a short burst of headache with the amount of context needed to understand the word.
"First of all. OW. Second, how is this related at all," I ask in confusion.
She then proceeds to mutter quitely "Guess i'm the only one capable of weeabooism."
"Focus," i say and proceed to the balcony on the second floor.
"The fuck is that? A goblin bear?" Lilly asks. Triggering more info bursts with the word goblin.
Still it's an accurate description of the green fur less bear looking thing. I hit it with an [Inspect+Manipulate] to scan for weaknesses and relevant information in terms of combat.
Level 10 Goblin-bear: A monster. non-sapient. Stupid.
"Level 10" I whisper to Lilly.
"We should probably just skip it and run" Lilly says concerned.
Your party has been given a Quest!
Defeat the Goblin-bear.
Reward: +1 Level.
"I doubt it'll be easy but I could probably beat that." I reply "Besides the reward just got better."
"I'm going to trust you on that, but i'm not going anywhere near that thing. Can you make a bow for me?" Lilly asks. I oblige and [Manipulate] her metal "sword" into a bow with a hair string. And a few arrows for her to use.
"Make a divot for the arrows, I have no clue how archers' paradox works, but I think this with the stiff arrows should mitigate it," Lilly whispers.
After weaponizing the scraps around us we come up with a plan. Lilly stays on the balcony and I get into a position around the bear thing. It's oddly passive and isn't walking around, but I suspect this is more of a test than an actual random event. Mainly because of the encouragement quest.
Lilly nods at me, I nod back. Then she draws her bow with three arrows in her hand, though only one is on the string.
The arrow flies off and goes off course to the left of the monster, which doesn't give a flying fuck and just stares at the arrow. I look at Lilly and just nod again, that pretty much verifies the tutorial encounter.
Another arrow flies and this time hits the shoulder of the monster, it roars and now starts frantically looking around, And spots me walking towards it with a blade in hand. Lilly fires another arrow that misses the now moving monster. I try to get as stable a footing as possible when it approaches me at a jogging speed due to one shoulder being injured.
Another arrow hits it in the side but it's now too close to me. And now Lilly has to wait for an opportunity to shoot. I swing at the uninjured fore limb, and the goblin bear pretty much just ignores the swords existence and slams me across the street.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lilly curses and releases another arrow, nailing it's back leg, opposite to the injured shoulder's side. I probably broke a bone but didn't feel any pain, just had a feeling of being damaged. I get back to my feet and decide to not fight the thing head on, half jog trying to get to it's side.
The creature flails it's injured arm at me since the uninjured one is the one keeping the body balanced, this time the force is much lesser and i manage to block it. I then shoulder the arm to the side and swing at the neck of the beast. And the beast bites the weapon in half. I shove the remaining piece of it at it's throat and manage to plunge it in.
The goblin bear, now profusely bleeding from it's neck, stumbles back, swipes with it's intact arm and sends me flying. I crash into a window of a building, and hear Lilly scream my name. I hear her pelting the monster and the ground around it with arrows. Then I get a blue box.
Your party has defeated a Level 10 Goblin-bear.
You've gained enough experience for level 5.
You've completed a quest!
You've gained level 6.
A Rush of mangled information arrives and leaves like it was never there, only the sensation is left.
"TOM!" Lilly yells.
"I'll be fine!" I yell back. I stitch my flesh with hairs, and stop the internal bleeding with [Manipulate], directly manipulating the veins back to normal, which spends alot of my mana, i'm down to 10.
Lilly runs to the broken window and in a half panic asks "Are you ok?"
"Not yet," I reply gathering information about my condition with a [Manipulate]:ed [Inspect]
You've gained a skill: Anatomy.
I then analyzed the new skill.
Anatomy: A skill of knowledge. Makes anatomy related spells cheaper. Gives slight insight on how anatomy works.
"Neat," I say, and look to Lilly, "I got a skill."
"That's what you focus on? While lying on the ground in a pool of your own blood?" Lilly asks, seemingly angry at my nonchallance.
"I already stopped the bleeding, and i got the skill 'anatomy' for it" I explained, now distracted by other things, like my status.
"And you're not delirious from blood loss?" Lilly asks, still staring daggers at me.
"No, why are you even angry?" I ask her.
Lilly just start muttering about Alien children and walks off back to the monster.
I look at her in confusion, and just decide to ask again once she's less angry. For now i'll sort my status.
Name: "Tom" Level: 6 Attributes: base Endurance: 10 + Strength: 10 Intelligence: 10 + Magic: 10 Attribute Points: 10 Resources: current max Mana: 11 100 Health: 30 100 Stamina: 50 100
It seems i get 2 attribute points per level. and can only add to Intelligence or Endurance. I add one to both, which unlocks the ability to add to Magic and Strength. And also adds 10 to health.
Strength adds 10 to stamina, and magic adds 10 to mana. I decide to just split evenly between Intelligence and Magic for the rest, i probably wouldn't have survived without the ability to heal myself. So it seems like a safe bet, besides it's my biggest bottleneck for gaining anything since i'm limited by mana. The final result looks like this.
Name: "Tom" Level: 6 Attributes: base Endurance: 11 Strength: 11 Intelligence: 14 Magic: 14 Attribute Points: 0 Resources: current max Mana: 52 140 Health: 41 110 Stamina: 65 110
It also seems like i get all the resources of a stat and not just the space to store it. Though keeping a point in reserve would be pretty pointless. especially since i don't intend to find out what 0 Health does.
I walked to Lilly who was sitting near the monster corpse and asked her, "Are you calm enough to chat?"
"The fuck kind of a question is that?" she asks back.
"A probing and information gathering kind," I answer.
Lilly just looks at me for a moment. And then says "Sorry. I think it's the landscape getting to me," and looks down the street and at the large buildings.
"Why were you angry at me to begin with?" I ask her still curious.
"It wasn't really at you," Lilly replies.
"What were you angry at then?" I ask her.
"Nothing!" she yells. Looks at her knees and mutters, "Myself."
"And why were you angry at yourself?" I ask again.
"Why do you even want to know?" she asks.
"To sate my curiosity."
"Ah so i'm just another strange thing in the world to pick apart."
"In a way yes. Knowing what makes you angry or unhappy helps me figure out on figuring out what to do to keep you happy," I reply.
"Why would you give a shit about my happiness?" she asks, squinting at me.
"Hmm. Well a purely selfish reason would be that if you don't walk off into the horizon I can keep talking to you and learning about how people and things used to work"
"Fantastic, suppose i'll be your happy little lab rat till your curiosity is sated. Not like I could live in this wasteland on my own."
"Why not? And i'm not gonna keep you here against your will if that's your conclusion."
"I can't just shit magic and have a meal to eat!" she half yelled.
"Well you just gained levels and 10 attribute points, you could spend them on magic. I could then probably teach you how to conjure food?"
"Why would you even do that? I could just walk off with your knowledge and you'd lose your precious lab rat," she asks, once more suspicious.
"We could then share resources, you could conjure meals and I could manipulate and build things. And you could survive on your own if i want to go on a solo mission anywhere. If you want to leave you can leave"
"So I'm just worthless enough that my decision doesn't matter to you?"
"No your decision would affect me but it's your decision to make." I reply.
"I-" she paused. looked up. And just sighed. "Thanks," she decided.
"You're welcome? But what did i do?" I ask her confused.
"I don't know. I just had to worry about not being able to survive without you. I guess it's just extra stress off my back. I'd like to learn the food conjuring though, just in case you know," she said.
"Ah ofcourse, yeah makes sense to thank me for that." I reply, slightly thoughtful.
"You're strange." she just states.
"Thanks!"
"How's that a compliment?" She asks, now confused.
"Oh, strange things are interesting, of course it's a compliment, I like the thought of me being interesting," I Explain my thoughts.
I like strange things.