After walking and walking, I decided to take a rest when the sun was too its peak. ‘Now that I actually had a break to think,’ I thought to myself ‘I can properly look into this whole status thing.’

‘Status’ I concentrated on the words, and a bright blue box appeared in front of me.

[Basic Information]

>Name: Alexis

>Age: 17

>Titles: Gods Blessing

[Advanced Information]

>Class: Scribe (+ Inventor)

>Class Level: 1 (1)

>Remarks: A bright mind with a soul heritage from the earth system, slowly growing in all aspects.

[Stats]

>Strength: 17

>Dexterity: 18

>Constitution: 12

>Intelligence: 16 + 3

>Wisdom: 15 + 3

>(Soul: 2.01)

[Affinity]

>Mana: 5/20

-Element:

>Divinity: 14/20

([Blueprints])

(>Crude Pendulum Clock)

([Notes])

(The System has been modified to not show items with parenthesis under any circumstances)

(If you think there is an issue, please get help by *REDACTED*)

‘So there were a few major things I can take away from this.’ I pondered to myself ‘One, I am without an elemental affinity, which I’ve heard normally shows up under the element area. If that is good or bad, I’m unsure but for the mean time, there is nothing I can do about that. Second is soul, which somehow increased while I was with them, so I have to see why its increasing and what benefit it brings. Third, my class is also an inventor as well as a scribe, which might mean it is a hidden class of sorts or special in some way. That is probably going to explain why my status screen is so weird, but at the moment I have no way of confirming that. Last but not least, blueprints.’

‘Status Blueprints’ I concentrate, and low and behold, a status screen purely on blueprints appears in front of me.

[Blueprints]

Crude {

>Crude Pendulum Clock (0%)

- Shows you how to create a Crude Pendulum Clock. A great device to know what time it currently is if set right. May lead to more opportunities after perfecting this product.

}

‘Huh, so it will show me how to create this device that somehow knows the time? How does that work exactly? Lets at least try it and see what happens, I doubt it can hurt much.’

‘Blueprint Crude Pendulum Clock’ and a few red squares appeared in front of me in different shapes and sizes. Quite a few of them were shaped like a star ( * ) with some of them being interconnected and a few strings with metal pieces on them. The word “Gear” came to my mind for whatever reason. I couldn’t seem to understand it, but I wanted to try. I tried rearranging the shapes mentally, and to my surprise it worked! I was able to move them around and move them in mid air, but sadly that was as far as my adventures got me. I couldn’t seem to crack the secret as to how they went together. ‘For now, lets just move on and set up some form of shelter.’ I thought to myself ‘It will probably take the rest of the day to do it properly.’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I quickly went to a few outcrops and searched for a small out cove, preferably without too much depth which may indicate its a dungeon. I spent a while just searching for a good spot, and when the sun had about a quarter left before it went down, I finally found a decent cave that checked all the boxes.

I quickly used my short sword I got from Jeff to cut some bark off the trees using a technique I got from the thieves I lived with, as we used to spend a few days in the woods after a heist and I watched them set up camp quite a few times and sometimes was forced to help so I know the ropes. I then cut some small tree branches down and gathered some dead ones to make it easier to light, and went back to my cave. After repeating this a few times I had enough for the night. While sleeping in a cave the thieves were making jokes about a bug called a Mana Leech they always tried to avoid, so I figured I might as well do what they always did to prevent them as well. I would place the campfire right next to the entrance to prevent these so called Mana Leeches and went deeper in to avoid the smoke coming from the fire. I would have to add fuel to the fire every so often but it would work for now.

I quickly took an old flint I found on the ground, took my short sword and did what the thieves did, strike it and thankfully it made sparks. It took me a while and the sun was really close to setting but I managed to do it in time and added a bit of firewood, rationing it out to last throughout the night.

After going to the other side of the cave, albeit cold, I tried my best to sleep. I tossed and turned for a while and eventually went to sleep.

I was spectating myself as I went around a small enclosed room with a bunch of pots and a few stalks of what looked like a plant I saw a few times while coming here, and a pile of long strips of what looked like the stalk cut up in a pot of water. I first cut the stalks up into thin strips, then I rolled them, and put them in a large piece of water. Afterwards I took out another set of strips from another pot which has already been soaked, ‘for a day’ the words came to me like a lost memory. Then I laid the strips parallel to each other than another set up and down, then took a wooden hammer and pounded them. This went on for a small amount of time, which was hard to judge due to Alexis feeling like a spectator, then put in another pot and let sit ‘for three days’ again the words came to me. After that I took out of another pot a new set of plant matter emerged, which looked a lot like the hide paper I’ve seen at stores so much for extraordinary prices, but much more refined. Then I used a small flat flint and scrapped the paper until it was flat and took a stick of charcoal and drew on it. Surprisingly it started to work fine and I started drawing strange characters on it that I somehow recognize.

“I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that wont work.” - Thomas Edison

For some reason that felt inspiring to me in this moment, even though I didn’t know who ‘Thomas Edison’ was and why he found ten thousand ways that didn’t work, but that was where the scene cut out.

I wake back up to my fire dying and it still being midway through the night. I quickly put some more wood on it and try to kindle it and thankfully it comes back to life. I try to reflect on what I just remembered ‘That didn’t seem that hard, then why wasn’t it done before? Surely this can’t be as simple as it seems.’ I ponder ‘I am going to try this tomorrow and see how well it works.’

I went back to the corner of the cave, not seeing the blue box appear in front of me as I closed my eyes.

[Blueprint ‘Crude Papyrus Paper’ has now been unlocked!]