Dripping and disgruntled, Cain reluctantly accepted the water’s refreshment and drank. Spite was unequal to thirst. It was, however, more than a match for roots. Terrible, horrible roots. One day, they would part before the ground he walked, for fear of tripping him and drawing his ire.
Just not yet.
Cain hadn’t seen any rocks on the forest floor yet, but there was a healthy collection of pebbles in the bed of the creek. Perhaps a soft rock formation of some sort was upstream, that these pebbles had broken off and been carried away from by the water? Cain wasn’t a geologist or whatever the relevant profession for that was, but his collection of random trivia seemed to accept the idea. And if he was right, maybe there would be somewhere to take shelter there. Or at least a rock big enough to hit something over the head with. Cain decided he would walk upstream now that he had found water. It seemed like the thing to do.
He walked against the shallow waters, the soft silt and pebbles much gentler on his feet. It would also maybe mask his scent, but he was more concerned with his aching feet. He had walked a good ten minutes when he felt an odd sort of breeze that passed through him rather than around him, and he looked in the direction it was heading to see a fallen tree. Its branches were pressed into the soil by its weight, partially propping the tree up so that it was at an acute angle rather than lying flat on its trunk. It wasn’t really that interesting in the context of a forest, so Cain was about to turn away and resume his trek upstream, but was distracted by an odd distortion of the light. He squinted at the base of the tree’s upended roots (Ha!) where he thought he saw it. A few moments passed and he almost convinced himself he had imagined it when…
[ Body Attribute Manifested : Sense (Ocular) ]
Sense affects the sensitivity of the entity’s bodily senses. Common examples are light-based ocular sensation and vibration-based auditory sensation. (Current Value: 1)
His vision seemed to focus a slight bit further, allowing him to just perceive a small, transparent something in the exposed soil at the tree’s base.
Cain looked down at his feet…
And left the relative comfort of the creek’s shallow waters with a sigh. Making his way towards the tree, he attempted to bring the object of his attention into further focus, but met no progress until he knelt down in the dirt and observed the irregularity where it sat inches away from his face. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a small, wispy flower. Its stem was marginally thicker than one of his own hairs, and it sported four petals at its peak which were rounded at the base before curving into a pointed tip. The petals themselves seemed paper thin, and seemed likely to shatter into a million pieces if he were to touch them. Cain thought the entire flower seemed to be made of glass, or perhaps a thin layer of that sugary glazing they put on donuts.
Once again, he was aware of the strange breeze, but it seemed closer this time. He realized that the flower was the center of the phenomenon when its stem seemed to shine for a moment at its base, before the faint light traveled up through the support structure to the petals it held aloft. There were probably more important things to be doing, but childlike curiosity overtook Cain as he pressed his face as close to the alien flower as he dared. Another breeze passed straight through his core, and another moment of internal illumination within the glassy flower. But this time Cain saw more detail than he had before. He watched as the glow was sucked up through the stem as water might be, but when it reached the petals it split. It wasn’t a light highlighting the plant, it was some strange substance being pulled into it. First was the four-way split between the petals, and then it seemed to further divide itself among small channels resembling the ‘veins’ you could observe on a tree’s leaves. From those channels it simply diffused outwards through the transparent flesh, like oxygen in the blood might diffuse through tissue. Cain’s fascination grew by the minute, and he proceeded to spend several observing the little flower, seeing a tiny bit more of what was happening each time the breeze came.
[ Ethereal Attribute Manifested : Mana Sense (Ocular) ]
Affects the entity’s ability to detect the presence and behavior of mana, typically manifesting as some equivalent to the entity’s most actively used bodily sense. (Current Value: 1)
Wait, what? Was that a magic flower?
[ Tidbit Unlocked : Natural Mana ]
Mana is a form of energy directly subject to will. It can occur in different aspects and produce different effects, dependent on the environment or entity shaping it. All living entities are capable of interacting with it to varying degrees of effectivity, and some use it as nourishment.
So, that was a yes. This seems like something I’ll need to learn a lot more about in the future. Cain put a mental sticky-note on that and returned his attention to the flower. He could now see the channels that the mana seemed to be flowing through without help, if only barely. The comparison to a circulatory system seemed accurate. Perhaps this flower was one of those entities that used mana for nourishment. Wait, that’s an idea… would mana have some sort of effect on him? If all organisms are supposed to be capable of using it, what could Cain do with it? Shelter thoroughly forgotten, he raised one finger to gently brush the underside of a petal. To his surprise, it felt much more solid than it looked. With an emboldened touch, Cain determined it to be somewhat more resilient than a non-magical leaf in good health.
He momentarily ran out of new things to experiment with, before pulling the flower up by the stem and deciding to eat it.
Hmm… very slightly minty flavor. Crisp. Seems to lack fluid, but the flavor spreads through my mouth and trickles down my throat a little…
A faint buzz took hold in Cain’s core, a sensation he found odd but not altogether unpleasant. Perhaps he had just ingested the magic equivalent of marijuana? Manajuana? Maybe that’s just a normal sensation to experience when eating magic flowers. Maybe he shouldn’t make a habit of eating strange magic flowers he finds on the forest floor. Maybe he—
…
Maybe Cain should eat something more filling than a manaflower. Which begged the question: what did he plan to eat? He had been putting off the issue in favor of finding water first, but with that need satisfied, and his tumbly feeling rumbly, the matter was now much more difficult to ignore. Though he had tried to keep an eye out, Cain hadn’t seen any edible looking plants. He had little idea what to look for, granted, but fruits would’ve been fairly easy to spot and only somewhat likely to poison him. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all. But as things stood? It looked as though he’d have to hunt for his food on a much shorter timetable than he’d bargained for. Which brought its own slew of problems to the table.
First was that he had no weapons or traps. That put predators and things that could outrun him almost entirely off the table, with the latter requiring him to somehow sneak up on his prey. Most small game would automatically fall into the second category, which was a shame since it was also theoretically the least risky group to hunt from. The second problem was attributes. Wild animals thriving in their natural ecosystem, especially predators, were likely to have accumulated far higher attributes than his if he was right about how they ‘grew.’ It was like a workout; strain the aspect of yourself tied to a particular attribute, and it would grow stronger. This was thus far corroborated by the manifestation of Endurance when walking more than he was used to, and Sense when straining his eyes to perceive the magic flower’s more intricate details. Granted, going from the invisible zero to a value of one hadn’t made a very dramatic difference, but Cain was confident that the disparity between a value of one and five, or even one and ten, would be more than enough for his own brutal murder. The third and final problem was related more to his laziness than anything actually important. Animals naturally gathered at water sources, both to quench their thirst and hunt for food. Water flowed downhill. And he had been walking upstream for at least ten minutes. That meant he would have to walk right back the way he came, wasting all that effort, if he wanted to reach an area likely to still be populated in what was likely early winter or mid-to-late fall, given the weather and the state of the vegetation. If the area had particularly lengthy winters or just a colder climate in general, he would likely be seeing evergreen trees and not these birch-white oaken-looking ones that were going red at the leaves. Which meant that him popping into existence in the cold half of the year was just plain bad luck.
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Coming back to himself with a sigh at all the things going wrong in his afterlife, Cain stood from the fallen tree and decided on a course of action before he could waste any more daylight on internal ramblings. He was most likely to find food downstream, so downstream he would go. But it was also possible he would find animals drinking from the seven(ish)-foot wide, almost knee-deep creek that he’d been walking in until now. That meant, much to his weary soles’ chagrin, he’d be back to walking among the twigs, dirt and the loathsome roots. If he kept a reasonable difference away from the water, he’d be able to remain somewhat obscured from anything he came across that was in the process of slaking its thirst in the all-natural mineral water.
Decision decided, he walked.
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[ Body Attribute Increased : Endurance ]
(Current Value: 2 -> 3)
[ Body Attribute Manifested : Dexterity ]
Affects the entity’s ability to exercise precise control over their body. Common examples include maintaining balance in unstable conditions, manipulating appendages for delicate tasks, and comfortable exercise of joints at or near their natural limits. Lightly increases durability of joints and attached ligaments and tendons, causing reflexive reactions to cause less strain. (Current Value: 1)
After the first two encounters, Cain had been much more vigilant with his footing, ensuring he didn’t fall prey to the machinations of scheming tree roots for a third time. As an added bonus, he was able to avoid twigs and some of the crunchier leaves, making the journey a little more stealthy than before. The added effort seemed to cause a new attribute to manifest, though the description made Cain view cats with a newfound respect. If they were acrobats in his world, they would be gold-medal Olympic gymnasts in this one, he could already tell. He made a mental note to fervently avoid any felines he came across that rose to his knee or higher. The two additional points in endurance weren’t lost on him either, making each individual step slightly more bearable as he continued downstream, but it did little to help the already accumulated levels of fatigue. Cain was certain he could press on a while longer and even run if his life depended on it, but it would be an unpleasant experience. Already, a thin veil of annoyance had settled over his emotional stillness, further motivating him to find a tasty animal to eat so he could finally stop walking.
A veil that was pierced by the appearance of a berry-bearing bush. Though it was still visibly wilted from the cold, and a respectable number of berries had already fallen to the ground, the bush was still laden with a copious amount of vibrant red morsels emitting a sickly-sweet scent that his grumbling stomach refused to let him ignore. Jogging the remaining distance between himself and food, Cain fell to his knees, staining them with overripe purple innards, and began plucking as many berries as his two hands would allow at once before shoveling them down his gullet. Few things are tastier to the hungry than unwashed, unidentified wild forest berries. Even if they don’t really stop to chew. Cain even helped himself to the seemingly unripe berries that were still tiny and more hot pink than red. After a blissful eternity of about five minutes, his hunger finally waned and he let out a contented sigh. Now with his hunger dealt with, Cain could… walk… back upstream…
Fuck it, he would just keep going this way. A healthy diet has meat and vegetables after all. Following the sound of flowing water, Cain re-established his previous distance from the creek and continued downstream. And things were going great.
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For all of ten minutes. After those ten, Cain received an ominous message.
[ Body Attribute Manifested : Constitution ]
Affects the entity’s ability to maintain homeostasis within their body. Augments resistances to poisons, diseases, venoms, and various other malefactors the entity may be exposed to. Provides some level of resistance to weakening statuses, including most magical effects of that ilk. Lightly increases the body’s energy storage efficiency. (Current value: 1)
Manifesting an attribute that was responsible for regulating his body’s internal function implied that something was actively disrupting that function. And sure enough, a wave of nausea hit him. Cain staggered before catching himself on an adjacent tree, narrowly avoiding tripping over its roots. He scarcely had time to dwell on the attempt on his life however, as a second wave hit him and this time forced his stomach to turn out its contents. Red and purple chyme vacated his innards and splattered on the forest floor. Remembering a traumatic experience at a Starbucks in his earlier life, Cain took care to resist the vomit as little as possible once it came up. Otherwise it came out your nose instead, as he had discovered after a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and mango juice. After a few more viscous purplish waterfalls, he thought it was over — before nausea swept through him all over again and the process continued anew. This went on for about five more minutes and then another ten of dry heaving.
When the nausea finally abated the sickly-sweet berry scent was just plain sickly to Cain’s senses as he stood back to his full height on shaking legs. Now significantly hungrier than before eating the berries and properly dehydrated, he lumbered over to the water. Fully kneeling by the creek he bent over until his lower jaw was submerged and started swallowing water in generous gulps. Once his thirst was newly quenched and his extremities were slightly less shaky, Cain began scooping up handfuls of water and pouring it over himself, washing away some of the bile and working the rest out with his hands. His feet got a little muddy from the runoff water soaking into the soil, but it was either this or the vomit. Even if he ignored his personal feelings on the matter, mud would smell less than vomit and thus be less of a liability in the forest.
Dripping and now properly miserable, Cain finished his grooming and began trudging further downstream.
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[ Body Attribute Increased : Constitution ]
(Current Value: 3 -> 4)
He checked and Cain’s constitution had apparently increased to four from the berry debacle. Lucky him. Now he could go eat more poison berries. If he had to hazard a guess, this would be the one attribute he’d seen so far that other creatures wouldn’t have in spades. Why eat poisonous berries to increase your constitution when you could just avoid them altogether and not need it? Sure, diseases were a thing, but that’s why adaptive immunity exists. Eventually, survivors will become resistant to whatever strain of disease was ravaging the population and herd immunity will kick in. It was also the least useful body attribute to have droves of from the others Cain had seen. Poison resistance? Weakening effects? Energy storage? All useful and important in their own way, but something that could crunch on his skull like an M&M wouldn’t stop to marvel at his thousand points in constitution before eating him.
But before he could spend much longer contemplating his attributes, leaves rustled from the direction of the creek. Creeping past trees to get a view of the sound’s origin as quickly as he dared, Cain spied — dinner.