The ever-present eye in the corner of my vision pulsed with a green glare, practically demanding my attention. I remembered the last notification I read before passing out from Vineslasher’s poison. With renewed energy, I quickly pulled up my notification feed. Sure enough, there it was:
You have collected enough EXP to earn Level 1. Level up? Yes/No
I paused. What would happen if I said Yes? Was this safe?
Despite the ongoing seriousness of the situation, I burst out laughing. The whole thing was comically absurd.
The aliens came, presumably destroyed our civilization as we know it, planted a bunch of alien life forms on Earth to exterminate us, gave us some childish System interface to encourage us to get ourselves killed more quickly, and here I was worrying how safe levelling up would be.
I shook my head at my idiocy.
With that thought, I braced myself for whatever was coming and accepted the level-up.
A tingling sensation ran down my spine, just like when the System first appeared in my field of vision. It wasn’t any less unpleasant than the last time, and I shivered, shaking it away.
Congratulations on reaching level 1!
Class selection available.
Choose your class now? Yes/No
“May as well get this over with too,“ I had been putting off levelling up long enough. I shouldn’t do the same with the class selection.
I don't know what I expected but I had a short list of classes to make my choice. It was somewhat underwhelming.
Gardener (Common)
You can tell the difference between dirt and gravel. Good job! Aside from that, you have been the main cause of at least one plant’s well-being.
This class can be upgraded at level 25.
This would be a handy class to get. But I didn’t know if the classes came with weird abilities like making the plants grow faster, which would be great for food production. I wished I could find out more.
Accountant (Uncommon)
You have spent several years learning how to make sense of spreadsheets. So, so many spreadsheets. Accountants are valued members of the Universe’s society at large, especially around tax season.
This class can be upgraded at level 50.
“There is a tax season? I have to pay taxes?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. “We are in hell. “
I’d have to understand the relevant laws and regulations as soon as possible. Blyb had gifted me the land claim token, but would it be seen as taxable income? There was no way I could pay it off in these circumstances. The image of alien tax officers, looking less like bureaucrats and more like guerilla mercenaries loomed in my head as I went over the next class.
Homesteader (Rare)
You are the one-stop solution to all the problems on your property. You raise buildings. You keep animals. You can make medicine even without using essential oils. The sourdough bread you make is out of this world. No pests can escape your keen gaze.
This class can be upgraded at level 75.
I considered my options. The Accountant class would be great if I were in a city and more familiar with this new world. However, I was in the middle of a god damned forest, and let’s just say that I didn’t know the first thing about applying for a job at an alien corp. What would I even say in my cover letter?
To Whom It May Concern,
Even though one of you bastards just fucked up my planet and caused the death of (I presume) many, I am writing to express my interest in the position of Accountant at E.T. INC. Please and thank you?
Something told me this cover letter wouldn't get too many callbacks.
I hoped that there was a therapist class that specialized in System-related trauma. It seemed to me that there would be a pretty decent demand for that. Maybe the therapists were the ones behind the System. Maybe at some point in the past, they weren't getting enough patients for the run-of-the-mill traumas, so they had to invent their own. Pump those numbers up.
Shaking the thought of a Big Therapy conspiracy, I reread the description of the Homesteader class.
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All I knew about homesteading was from those videos that I would sometimes get served on social media, showing women wearing colourful aprons and not vaccinating their kids. In some other, less System-y times I would have laughed at the picture of me elbow-deep in dirt and living off the land. I was a city girl through and through. I liked going to museums and bars and not thinking where my food came from.
Suddenly, I was hyper-aware that the possibility of ever living like that again was slim to none. I’d probably never see my friends again. Or Uncle Ben, or Emily. We weren’t close, but they were the only family I had left.
It took all of my willpower not to start bawling and I scheduled my breakdown for sometime later. I had to become resilient.
“Focus, Dee,“ I took a deep breath. “I will be okay. “
I dismissed the Gardener class, as the Homesteader class seemed to include it. Its description implied that having this class would be helpful in my exact situation.
For a brief moment, I wondered how the System chose these classes to present to me. There were too many things I just didn’t know and had little chance to find out. Why were some classes Common, Uncommon, or Rare? What did it mean that they could be upgraded?
“I guess there is only one way to find out. “
My mind made up, I chose the Homesteader class. There was no point in mulling over my options for too long. If I had more classes to choose from, or if my circumstances were different, I would have been more careful with my choice.
I needed to grow food and I needed to make this cabin my home. That’s all there was to it.
Congratulations on choosing your class. You are now a Homesteader level 1.
Class skills unlocked:
Tend plants, level 1.
Animal husbandry, level 1.
Foraging, level 1
Carpentry, level 1
Scavenge, level 1
Resource unlocked: Energy
Tip: Energy is spent every time you use a system-generated blueprint or some class-related skills.
You have 2 stat points to distribute.
Distribute now? Yes/No
The System had never offered any tips before. I wasn’t going to complain though. I needed all of the help I could get. If only there was a manual for the System...
Two of my neurons rubbed together, and I smacked my palm against my forehead.
“I am a fucking idiot,” I had the Shop Terminal. There was a certain big retailer that sold almost everything a person could ever need or want and a good few things that they didn’t. This retailer also sold books. It even started its journey to world domination and rainforest destruction as an online bookstore. I would bet all of my credits that there is a guidebook to the System for sale in the Shop.
“Man, it really sucks to not have access to the Internet. Or Wikipedia. “ I once read somewhere that you could download the somewhat abridged version of the English Wikipedia and would fit on a USB stick. But then you would need a working computer to open it on and its usefulness to me in this situation would be nil.
I sighed and forced my wandering brain back to the topic at hand. There were points to be distributed.
I opened my character sheet and saw that I had an additional line on it, showing my Energy reserves. I figured that throwing one point into Constitution couldn’t hurt and made sure I wouldn’t. That stat was now 6 and meant that I had a total of 60HP. I still had no idea if I could improve the rate at which my HP recovered.
Filing that as something to look into once I could get my hands on any kind of manual, I put my other point into my Intelligence stat and saw that my Energy totalled 60 as well. It confirmed my hunch that Intelligence would be connected to Energy.
Finally, I checked out the newest tab in my System Interface labelled Blueprints. It seemed that I already had some blueprints available.
Plank
A long piece of wood.
Resources needed: 2 wood
10x nails
They are nails.
Resources needed: 1 iron
Brick
Building block.
Resources needed: 1 clay
Raised bed
Useful for extending the growing season, raised beds are a simple agricultural technology.
Resources needed: 4 planks
I would have to check out the Shop Terminal to see if I could purchase some more blueprints. My mind raced as I imagined a cabin decked out in alien high-tech. I couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of upgrades were possible. Only pure sci-fi concepts like the Holodeck came to mind, so I racked my brain for some more mundane ones.
A food synthesiser? No, that sounded kind of gross. Medbeds? Nah, I already heal freakishly fast.
I sighed and moved on from that line of thought.
All in all, I was pretty happy with my choice. My new skills seemed pretty cool, especially the Scavenge skill. I didn’t have a description of what it did, because that would be too easy, however, it didn’t seem hard to deduce. There was a lot of random junk lying around the cabin, and I also had my car. That was about 1,000 kilograms of pure rubbish now.
With all of that out of the way, I could truly relax for the first time since the System came, at least for a little while. I felt like some retail therapy was in order.
I was, after all, pretty rich.
Name: Diana Mond
Age: 25
Class: Homesteader
Level: 1, 25/200 exp
Strength: 3
Constitution: 6 (+1)
Intelligence: 6 (+1)
Wisdom: 3
HP: 40/60
Energy: 60/60
Points to distribute: 0