Degritone smashed the rock into his left hand, bruising it, but causing no major damage. "MMMMMMMM-hmmmm-hm-hm-hm", he moans while shaking his hand. "With IWM, I just did 1.24 damage to myself. 73 point stuff regen per hour, a little over a minute to regen this? Cool. Skills."
Stomp lv2
Running lv3
Improvised Weapon Mastery lv1
"Dangus, no new ones for that. No resistances or regen skills, at least from something as small as one damage... Now, let's go kill more Tree Walkers. Probably an ambush build, given the slow movement and those limbs. Engage eyes."
Degritone quietly laughs at himself for a bit before moving on, keeping careful watch over his surroundings for any Tree Walkers. After nearly 12 minutes of slowly searching, he finally finds one. He points at its name to open whatever popup it would give.
Name - Race Tree Walker
Only this much? Dang, I was hoping for more than race information. Degritone thinks as he prepares his rock. Oh, well, smashing time.
As he approaches the Tree Walker, he realizes it has a small, lizard-like creature in its arms, its head already bitten off. Poor little lizard! He sadly thinks. As he steps forward, he snaps a twig, causing him to immediately bolt forward, smashing his rock down onto the Tree Walker's head, repeating the process three times before the name disappears.
Weak points or are headshots auto-crits? Also, what am I even doing out here? Now that I'm not caught up in the excitement and dread... "What even is my goal?" He starts walking a random direction. "Get out? How? Kill x things, get to a location? This place is decently large. And there's essentially traps in the Tree Walkers.
"Moving will cause me to be visible and move past more potential Tree Walkers, while standing still increases my chance of being stumbled upon. Are there safe rooms? Is this even a dungeon? A new world, perhaps, but one with the same gravity and atmosphere composition as Earth? Unlikely.
"Maybe everyone got scattered. There wasn't anything beyond the initialization messages. Maybe there won't be any until something happens, such as me escaping. What if this is a test to see how long you last, and you get a class after you die? I'm not taking that risk. Whatever kills me will have to be enough to kill me.
"I should set up a base camp of some sort. I don't really remember the Primitive Technology videos, but I think I remember the ideas of some stuff. One potential problem is Tree Walkers absorb dead plant matter, so no easy wooden structures. It'll have to be mud. No water source nearby, though, so that's out.
"I'm really lost as to what to do. I've been given no direction in any way here. Maybe, map." After monologuing for a while, Degritone opens his map screen and moves it around. After moving it a certain distance, it stops allowing him to move it. With some trial and error, he assumes that the area he's in is roughly shaped like an egg, and he's at the big end.
"Well, to the small end, I guess. I should probably fashion my rock into a club... I'll need one or more sticks to make the handle thick enough to handle the pressure, and vines or something to wrap around the rock." He begins carefully walking toward where the little end is, keeping a watch out for anything he could use as a handle or rope and enemies.
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After nearly an hour of sneaking through the woods, he stops dead in his tracks. "Wait," he says and looks around. "I can see at a distance without my glasses." He looks down at his feet. "And I don't have shoes. Makes sense, since I wasn't wearing any. Though, I'm surprised my feet don't hurt. Maybe because no health damage was done."
"If I was cured of my nearsightedness, I wonder if paralysis patients, cancer, and all the other fun stuff got cured, as well, or if only minor stuff did." He looks at his torso, covered in his signature white, V-neck T-shirt. "Didn't cure my 80 pounds of fat, though, keepo," he says with a slight giggle and cheeky grin. "Wish it did, though."
He looks at his hands and finds his black and gray, fingerless gloves still on, as well as his class ring with a blue stone at the tip. "Still have these. I wonder if people with wheelchairs and canes and stuff kept theirs. Maybe other objects, too."
He realizes his mistake and lightly hits the nearest tree as his eyes widen. "DANG IT, I could have had us all take guns with us. We had like a minute after I explained everything to grab them. Wish I had my bolt action right now. Or maybe a pistol would be better, since it takes up less space..."
"Odd my legs don't hurt. Maybe stamina makes me not have muscle pain as long as I have some. Cool," he says, looking at his legs, half covered in his black shorts. "Then do I even need sleep? What about food? That Tree Walker was eating, so I probably still require food. I'll see about sleep in a few hours."
He checks his friends list and finds it still empty. "It said sent. Maybe just not delivered. To the servers, just not the device. Or, person, in this case." He continues his slow walk.
"Assuming they work like in Randidly, I should probably do paths soon. Or already, I guess." He takes a long pause, taking in his surroundings as he walks. "Seems safe right now. Paths."
PP: 5
Initiate 0/10
Ignoring the slightly ominous description of it, he puts his 5 points into Initiate, gaining a free stat at every PP he puts in. He opens his status and notices a glowing plus on top of the names of each stat, including the maximums and regenerations of his resources, but excluding Physical and Magic.
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"Huh... Odd I can't increase Physical and Magic, but whatever," he says. "I think I'll hold off on allocating stats right now. I know I love off-tanks with tons of self healing, but I'll need more time to see what I need at this exact moment. Nothing's been dangerous so far. Well, Tree Walkers, but they're easy to avoid."
After walking for a few seconds, he exclaims, "Oh, hey. There was 5, not 4. 2 from running, 1 from stomp, and probably 1 from IWM thanks to that last kill, but where... Skills."
Stomp lv2
Running lv3
Improvised Weapon Mastery lv2
Search lv2
Scan lv1
He paused on Search's description.
Search an area for objects. As long as it is reasonable an object might be where you're looking for it, there is a chance you will find it.
(Magic/10 + ??? + ??? - ???)% = 2.2% chance
???
"Plus two sets three question marks and minus one? A luck stat of some kind? But why three? And does this mean that objects magically appear when I search for them? Isn't 2.2% high for that? That's crazy. Though, it does say 'reasonably,' so I can't expect to find a full plate mail set with an enchanted greatsword out here in the middle of nowhere.
"And how often does it poll the RNG? Once per second? Millisecond? Per atom I scan across? Per surface area of the object in question? Per x units of distance? And why didn't I get it while I was searching for a weapon when I initially came here? That skill opens way more questions than anything that I've encountered before this.
"I've been searching for, what, an hour now, and it only has 13 experience? How does 60 minutes translate into 13 experience? And what's the three question mark line for?" He rubs his eyes before resting his fingers on the bridge of his nose. "Whatever, this annoying skill will be useful. Doesn't even say how it scales, though. Maybe it scales by some multiplier on one of the luck values."
He shakes his head and throws his open hand above his head in front of him. "WHATEVER, this skill opened way too many questions too fast and I'm not going to have an answer for any of them any time soon. For how much clarity the system's given on everything up to this point, it is interesting that it-" He shakes his head slightly again.
"Stop thinking about it. We have other stuff to do. Mainly survive. We can think about these things once we escape." He sighs slowly to calm himself. "Ok, let's set up missions. Mission one: Obtain a better weapon than just a rock. Mission two: Find out the objective of being here. Mission three: Complete that objective.
"Additional objectives for completion at any time: Find food, make or find shelter. Anything else?" He looks around, as if waiting for someone to answer. "No? Cool."
Immediately after he says that, he holds up a finger and stops walking. "Ah, yes, attempt skill creation. This doesn't seem very much like Randidly, but, maybe I can create skills in the same manner," he takes an excited breath. "Ok, I just need to imagine something really hard. Let's start with electricity, since I can imagine that easy."
He begins walking again, holding out his left arm slightly in front of him, keeping it straight, and imagining lightning shooting from his palm into the ground below him.
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Multiple hours later, he finds himself at the edge of a 20-foot wide river that blocks his path. He is unable to see the bottom and the water is running pretty quickly. "No weapon beyond my rock, no skill notification, and now no way forward. Stick, stick, stick," he says as he searches the ground nearby for a stick. He finds one and snaps it so one end is pointy before tossing it in the air.
It lands with its small end facing towards the left. He shrugs and goes left, following the river upstream. After a short while, he notices its edge is smooth and it is constantly turning slightly to the right.
He shrugs. "If anything comes of it, then whatever. If not, then whatever. We'll see." He continues to attempt to make his skill. "I really want my inner chuuni to be useful for once," he says under his breath.
13 minutes later, he sees a large creature on the other side of the river. He can't see anything but its humanoid foot from his current location, but it looks to be laying down, its foot about as large as his entire body, with an extremely thick leg extending from it.
Sleeping? Hopefully it has correct proportions for a creature that size rather than typical fantasy giants with normal human proportions. Those things would snap their bones. He shakes his head. And would be able to walk over this river given the size of its foot.
He walks further up and its thick legs slowly come into view, followed by its stout body, and finally, its head. Above its head floats, Beltag lv21. He points at it, then pokes the Wood Giant race.
The Bark Skin skill
Moving any amount costs stamina
+100% maximum health
-20% stamina consumption
-10% health regeneration from vitality
Base 300 health
Base 100 health regeneration
Base 20 mana
Base 100 mana regeneration
Base 300 stamina
Base 300 stamina regeneration
Degritone holds back a whistle. Insane base stats. Though, makes sense, since it is a giant, he thinks. Wait, does that maximum health bump also affect its base health? Probably, so an effective 600 base health? Plus it's level 21? There's no way I'm going to be able to deal with that.
Maybe it's sapient. Wait, before anything... He looks at its legs. Given the length of the legs... He looks back and forth between its legs and the water. Its legs are roughly 7 feet long. It could easily jump it, assuming it has the capabilities of a dwarf scaled up to the size of that. Oh, there's a thought, maybe giants and dwarves are somehow related, since they have relatively similar body structures. Assuming dwarves exist in the post-system world and look similar to fantasy depictions
With his attention no longer on the giant, he looks around and notices that this area is devoid of most trees. Rather than a tree every nearly 12 feet, there's one every nearly 60 feet. He checks the water for anything dangerous, checks his surroundings, and sits down a few feet from the water.
"It's been multiple hours and I haven't gotten hungry," he says quietly to himself. "Either those berries are magic berries that last days, or food is no longer required. Anyway, let's sit and wait for them to get up. Assuming they can understand me, I'll see what information they have to give me. For now, back to chuuni training," he says with a cheeky grin.
As he starts to imagine lightning, he says, "Wait, I have a much more clear image to use." He lays back and gets as comfortable as he can, placing his left hand on his chest, and sticking his right arm straight up toward the cloudless sky, no light source in sight.
Closing his fist, he imagines a golden, glowing rope in his hand, the ground around him becoming an ocean. Around him, a storm rages, causing high waves and turbulent winds. The skies grow dark with storm clouds, rain pouring down in torrents.
But in an 8-foot circle around him, the ocean is calm, with gentle, enjoyable waves, the wind a slight breeze, cooling him down in the otherwise slightly too warm for him weather, the sky clear, and the sun beaming down on him.
"I don't know what you'll become if skill creation exists," he says to the air, "but you've been strong in my mind for years now."
After an unknown amount of time, a noise to his right snaps him out of his trance.