I was pleased to discover that if I focused, I was still able to see my Quest screen behind my eyelids. Or maybe it was in my mind's eye? Either way I was pleased. I immediately noticed a few notable changes.

Quests

Grid Quests (1)

* Singularity

Area Quests(1)

* Prospective Node Warden

Tutorial Quests (2)

* Spoils of War

* Naturalist

I had 3 new quests. I had only looked at my quests briefly last night in the melee, but I was pretty certain they hadn’t been there then. I had no idea what an Area Quest was, so I checked that one out first.

PROSPECTIVE NODE WARDEN

CLAIM THE LAND. DEFEND YOUR TERRITORY.

DEFEAT THE CURRENT PROSPECTIVE NODE WARDEN [COMPLETE]

DEFEND THE NODE: CRIMSONEYE OASIS FOR 24 HOURS. [INCOMPLETE]

REWARD: UNLOCK SOVEREIGNTY QUESTS, NEW RANK

I guess the big one had been a Node Warden, whatever that was. I didn’t know what a node was or where it might be, but it sounded like it was linked to this Oasis. I’d just have to keep my eyes out for something that I could defend for 24 hours. I wasn’t pleased to find out the name of my oasis was the CrimsonEye Oasis; mostly because I guessed that it was named for the red-spotted beetles.

What if there’s more of them? Of course there would be more, the whole Oasis was named after them. My only saving grace was that they seemed to be nocturnal. I’ll have to beef up my defenses. I had been trying not to think about it too hard, but I was intimately aware of how close to death I had been last night. And how cavalier I had been in jumping down that monster’s throat.

Have I gone insane? Surely, it would take longer for insanity to set in than a single day, but jumping down a giant bugs throat was the act of an insane person. An involuntary shudder racked my body as the memories of almost blacking out brought themselves to the surface.

“I can’t believe I almost died from asphyxiation..inside of a giant Beetles ass. What a shitty way to go” I mumbled, trying to make light of the situation.and briefly opened my eyes. The oasis around me remained quiet. I looked down to where the carp had stopped cleaning and were looking at me. If it was possible for a carp to have pity and judgement in their eyes, these carp had it. They soon resumed picking away at the remaining bits of gore. I guess carp didn’t care for puns.

Tough crowd, I thought then closed my eyes to resume my exploration of the UI. It seemed my attempts at trying to make fish laugh had floundered, and I could tell when my attempts at humour were sunk. I didn’t know enough to make a plan for the Node Warden quest, and it sounded like the next step was just waiting anyways. The tutorial quests on the other hand were extremely straight forward.

SPOILS OF WAR

THERE IS MORE TO BE LEARNED FROM THE FALLEN.

HARVEST THE REMAINS OF 10 SLAIN COMBATANTS

REWARD: NEW PROFICIENCY

NATURALIST

THE WORLD AROUND YOU IS FILLED WITH WONDERS.

COLLECT 5 PLANTS SPECIMENS.

DISCOVER 5 CRAFTING COMPONENTS.

INGEST A NATURAL INGREDIENT THAT CHANGES YOUR STATUS.

REWARD: NEW PROFICIENCY

I was elated to see that both quests appeared to be relatively easy to accomplish, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I groaned as I read the first quest. It seems I have more harvesting of dead creatures to do. I was grateful that my stomach was still empty after puking last night as the thought of dissecting beetles had filled my body with revulsion. There’s nothing to be done for it, I need every edge I can get. That still didn’t make it easier.

But it was true, despite not appearing to have done too much, my current proficiencies; Natural Weapon, Natural Crafting, and Natural Weapon Crafting had undoubtedly helped with my survival last night. I’d need to craft an actual weapon with the beetle mandible blades I had used later so that I could get the benefits from crafting applied to them as well.

I left the quest screen to review my skills, and was surprised again to find a change as well.

ABILITIES (0/5)

SKILLS (2)

* COMPREHEND SPEECH

* BLOODLUST (APEX)

PROFICIENCIES (4)

* NATURAL WEAPON (BASIC)

* NATURAL CRAFTING (BASIC)

* NATURAL WEAPON CRAFTING (BASIC)

* SHORT-BLADE COMBAT (BASIC)

GET CLOSE AND PERSONAL.

MEASURES PROFICIENCY WITH WEAPONS THAT UTILIZE SHORT BLADES.

(BASIC) INCREASED DAMAGE FROM SHORT BLADES. WHILE WIELDING SHORT BLADES, YOU WILL FIND IT MUCH EASIER TO FIND YOUR ENEMIES, AND AVOID YOURSELF.

I wonder when that proficiency showed up? Last night was such a blur, and when I checked my skills last night I had stopped as soon as I saw Bloodlust. Either way, I was grateful for the new proficiency, and felt like I had really earned that one. It also helped me rationalize why I had been so effective last night at killing all the bugs. I got a proficiency in it, obviously I wouldn’t have been able to do all that without it.

Looking closer at Bloodlust, I wondered at the first line in the description.

BLOODLUST (APEX)

ONE MORE. ONE MORE. ONE MORE...

I had shouted that a few times last night hadn’t I? It was such a blur, but I did recall holding to that mantra to get me through. It was odd that I had resorted to that mantra in my potential final moments. A nonsense phrase I had used throughout my university years to get me through the tough days. A phrase that I had used to help me get up in the dark times. I couldn’t recall its origin, but it had become a symbol of peace and diligence in my life.

But now, now it was a symbol of death and destruction. I was grateful for its skill’s existence and for its timely arrival, but the description and the implications troubled me.

Furthermore, why was it a skill and not a proficiency? I guess it didn’t really measure anything, whereas the proficiencies seemed to measure some kind of progress. Additionally, since Bloodlust was listed as an “Apex” skill, could I get my proficiencies to that level as well? I didn’t even know what an ability might be, and why they were capped at 5. Hopefully they were powerful.

I reread the rest of the Bloodlust skill description with the hopes of gleaning any further information and found myself pondering the 2nd line of text.

SUCCESSIVE ENEMIES KILLED IN A SHORT PERIOD WILL BOOST YOUR STATS BY 1% UP TO A MAXIMUM OF

20% FOR A SHORT PERIOD AND PROVIDE YOU WITH A SMALL BOOST IN ENERGY.

I hadn’t given to much thought into it, but now I wondered, what are my stats, and what determines them? No sooner had I thought that than I was then brought to a brand-new page I hadn’t visited yet. The page was titled “Status”, but had a wealth of information.

Status

Name William Wolff

Origin Earth (5)

Race Human (1)

Rank -

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Class -

Major Discipline -

Minor Discipline -

Health 95%

Stamina 100%

Status Healthy

Status Effects Lacerated (Minor)

Strength 0

Agility 0

Endurance 0

Intelligence 0

Acuity 0

Resilience 0

Perception 0

Favor 15

[3 Stat Points available]

Titles

Outlander, Earlybird

………Once again, a lot of new information to process. Seeing that I was currently “Lacerated” wasn’t a surprise as I could still feel the cuts, but being able to see if I was poisoned in the future might be helpful, was there a way to keep this up all the time? I would have to see if I could find more info about that in a second, right now there was one thing that was sitting heavily on my mind.

“Zero strength?!” I shouted. I know it had been a while since I had hit the gym, but what the heck? I opened my eyes to the blinding sun and sat up to look back at last night’s carnage, just to be sure I hadn’t imagined the whole thing and had just been squashing regular bugs while dancing in my camp shouting like a madman, probably flinging poop as well. Thankfully, the bug corpses still littered the sand with the giant one still resting 20 feet away from me on green-stained sand.

“Do you see that UI? How could I do that with zero strength?” I shouted to the empty oasis. The Carp seemed annoyed by my movements, but continued with their work despite my outrage. I looked at the carps “you don’t think I have zero strength right?”. Neither of them met my eyes, likely because they were carp, but it still felt intentional. Oh yeah, these carp are up to something, it's written all over their judgy eyes. I laid back down and let them continue their cleaning. Now that I was used to the tickling sensation, it was quite relaxing and I did not want them to stop.

“Zero strength, ridiculous” I mumbled under my breath while reviewing the rest of the Status page. The rest of my scores were also zero, which stung, so I guess I just completely sucked as opposed to just being weak. Favor was at 15. So I sucked, but I was well-liked? Story of my life. A small victory but I was happy to take it.

“Alright, enough whining. Stat points, let’s see what you do.” Upon clicking on the available skill points the rest of the menu faded and little plus signs appeared beside each stat, except for Favor. But what was more helpful was the small descriptions that showed up beside each stat.

[+] Strength - Physical Strength

[+] Agility - Physical Speed

[+] Endurance - Physical Endurance

[+] Intelligence - Mental Strength

[+] Acuity - Mental Speed

[+] Resilience- Mental Endurance

[+] Perception - Sensory Awareness

Favor - Defiance of Fate

Well at least I had a way to increase my strength, but with the descriptions honestly all of them seemed useful, depending on the situation. There was a concerning amount of mental traits, which had me worried that there was a mind-controlling ant out there that would just walk me into its lair. I was a bit more informed, but still didn’t feel confident in choosing a direction so I left the 2 stat points for later and returned to the Status screen to review the rest of the info.

The system knew my name, which felt concerning, but ultimately that concern was pretty low on the totem pole so I moved past it. My origin and race were both correct, but the number 5 beside Earth and the number 1 beside human were confusing. Earth was the 3rd planet as far as I knew, so maybe that was what it meant? Or maybe there were 4 other Earths out there? Or 4 other planets? Had my screen just confirmed Extra-Terrestrial life for me? Pretty neat if so, but then why the 1 beside humans? I eventually decided to move on as I was just thinking myself in a circle. Hopefully if it was important it would make itself apparent soon.

Rank eluded me, at some point I had seen it in the various screens but I couldn’t remember where. I’d find it later. I was beginning to get overwhelmed at everything I was trying to learn. I had no idea what was important and what wasn’t. Worse, I had the sneaking suspicion it was all important and I was dooming myself by not understanding all of it right away.

“You didn’t understand most of the concepts you studied either Will,” I reassured myself, “ it took some time. Just relax, it’ll come to you.” I decided to focus on the plus side. It was all very confusing, but also exciting? And a little cool? Yeah, it was really cool. Focus on the cool. The next 3 lines were all blank, but seemed like they could be cool.

“Class?” I had been in many classes for the last few years in school, but I doubted this was the same. Hopefully, in keeping with the cool focus, it was more akin to game or fantasy classes. “Being a Fire Wizard would be neat, or maybe a Barbarian?” I’d played some Dungeons and Dragons in high school and a bit during my Bachelors and I hoped this class was like that one. Then again, the “Major” and “Minor Discipline” lines actually worked against my theory as they sounded much more like a school term.

“Maybe I’ve fallen into the Land of Eternal School?” I wondered. I liked learning, but to be honest, 5 years of it had worn down that love. And if the experiences thus far were this world’s version of learning I wasn’t too keen on them. I really didn’t want to be crawling out of giant insect butts all for an A+ in biology. Once again, I could do very little but wait and see. Unlike the stats, trying to select these entries didn’t yield more information. Titles on the other hand, did provide more information when selected, and the second entry proved concerning.

Titles

Outlander - You've cheated death, but have reduced the costs of Balance. Increased

chance of finding Favor.

Earlybird - Be among the first Occupants to Unlock a Progression System

Reward: 25% increased chance of Ability, Skill, and Proficiency rewards having synergy.

“First Occupants?” Was this happening to other people? I had assumed at first that I had died, and then had guessed that it was a unique experience, like getting taken by aliens or something. But what if the kids in that alley had also been sucked up into all of this as well? I immediately sat back up, eyes alert, and reached for my mandible-blade. I scanned the horizon, heart racing. What if there are others nearby? For a second I saw the shadows of last night and of that alley all around me. But then I really thought about it.

That would be good, if there were other humans nearby we could join forces. What if it was the teens from the alley? I’m pretty sure we’d be able to settle our differences and still join forces, and a lot had happened in a day. I held the weapon in my hand comfortably and was very familiar with its use. Even as I gripped it I could feel soreness in my hands where new calluses were forming to accommodate the grip.

I might be able to find other people. I might not be the only one here. If that was the case I needed to be sure that I could defend my location, they might not have had as much luck dealing with the local wildlife and need a safe place to retreat. I glanced back and could see the entrance to my clearing, completely undefended. That won’t do. I’ll need walls and traps. I had watched Swiss Family Robinson many times as a kid, and near the end they prepare their island to deal with pirates. I would need to do the same. I jotted some notes down quickly in my notes tab then returned to look at my titles. I was still very lost, but I needed to know all the supposed perks or abilities the UI had given me. Every little boon might be the difference between life and death.

On my first read of the Outlander title I took it as getting lucky every now and then. But, if that was the case, why capitalize Favor? Then I remembered that Favor was a stat in my status screen, and the only one I had any amount of. The description of Favor being a “defiance of fate” was only so helpful, but regardless, I’m sure more wouldn’t hurt, so this Title would hopefully help me long term.

Still sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. It was a lot. I was grateful for the notes screen as I was able to write down my thoughts and ideas down, which was giving me some sanity. But I had just been presented with a wealth of information, and I had no idea how to even begin to make use of it. And what was worse, I had the nagging feeling I was missing something. I just wish there was a guide or menu of some kind. A table of contents to this UI so I could stay organized. Actually, the UI has proved remarkably well organized, I wonder if there is a menu?

“Menu” I said aloud, and there it was, a screen titled “Menu”.

“Come on Will, you grew up playing games, you’re better than this, you need to be better than this.”

Menu

-Status

-Titles

-Quests

-Abilities, Skills, Proficiencies

-Achievements

-Log

-Notes

Turns out I had missed two entries. I rallied my exhausted mind, took a deep breath and selected the first new one.

Achievements.