When Octavia arrived back at the communal rock, she saw Derrick was passed out in a heap next to Julia. While that was a touch annoying, it was fine. He stood guard over her as she did the same thing earlier. Oh well, at least now she could sit down and carve out a thing to collect water while she waited. Carefully lugging the log to the top of the rock, she looked around to find a decent spot to sit so she could still see the forest. Once she was settled in, brought up the stat screen, intending to sink her spare points into something. Into what specifically, she didn’t know. But that is what research is for!

Stats:

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 12

Agility:10

Vitality: 8

Constitution: 7

Perception: 12

Will Power: 9

Endurance: 10

Free points: 2

As her stat screen floated in her vision, she reached down to her hip and pulled out the dagger sheathed there. Just like her father once taught her, she ran her finger against the edge in a way that wouldn’t cut her, testing its sharpness. It wasn’t as sharp as one would hope, but it was better than nothing.

Octavia placed the dagger on her lap and focused her attention on the stat screen carefully regarding each one. Her class had a focus on agility, endurance and perception. Which was good, but it was also lacking in some aspects. For example, the only chakram skill that she had used both stamina and mana as a fuel source. Only one of those stats was provided by her class, which begged the question, was it worth investing into mana?

The woman chewed on her cheek as she thought about it. She wanted to use magic, but at the moment, there wasn’t really a path forward in that matter, so there wasn’t much of a need to sink a point into that right now. Now that left a few different paths forward. The first being investing a point into health, which was a given. But the second point, she wasn’t sure. Did she want to use strength, or was it better to tie it into constitution? Strength would allow her to wield her weapon with ease, while constitution would allow her to take extra hits.

She pulled her attention away from the stat screen and scanned the forest’s edge. The area was still clear, with no sign of the wildlife making a move on them. Just the quiet rustling of tree leaves, and the wind whispering its secrets.

A shiver assaulted Octavia as she pulled her cloak tightly around her to ward off the encroaching chill. It wasn’t the deep, pervasive cold that winter brought, but more the cold that came from a mid spring night. Satisfied with the lack of beasts coming their way, she shifted her focus back to her stats. What would serve better?

Maybe it was for the best that she put the point into constitution. While hitting harder was good, it wouldn’t do well to take a hit and just then be floored afterwards. Her next free point, she would soak into strength, and try to find a balance in the meantime.

As if the system had read Octavia’s thoughts, the points were distributed, and a strange feeling settled onto her body. It felt like a candle appeared in her chest and the small bundle of warmth it brought expanded. As that happened, her skin tightened, and her muscles rippled slightly. As quickly as they came, the feelings vanished, leaving her a breathless mess.

Was this the power of the system? With nothing but a thought, it could alter the body, forever changing it? The idea of it all scared Octavia, yet it filled her with excitement. Her eyes flickered over to her stats, seeing what changed.

Name: Octavia Rossi

Race: Human

Class: Rogue

Level: 1

Subclass: N/A

Health Points: 80/80

Mana Points: 80/80

Stamina Points: 90/90

At a glance, she saw that the stat points were based on a factor of ten. That was fine. As long as there were no weird titles with percentage point modifiers, it should be easy to keep track of. Happy with the results, the woman dismissed the screen and leaned back on her hands.

The forest was still quiet, and her friends were sleeping silently behind her. She took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air of the forest, before glancing at the log. This was going to be difficult, as not once in her life had she ever needed to carve a slab of wood into something. With a heavy sigh, Octavia grabbed the twine handle of her blade, and dragged the log onto her lap. Better late than never.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A few hours later:

A pile of destroyed wood and wood chips covered the woman. That didn’t even include the large amount of minor cuts that lined her fingers and the large chunks of wood that were cast off the side of the rock like a forgotten toy. But she had a few haphazardly made bowls, and a new general skill to boot.

Wood Working (Inferior): With great perseverance, you’ve taught yourself the barest of essentials of how to bend wood to your desires.

The rogue picked up one of the bowls, feeling rather proud of how it came out. Yes, it looked rough, and more like a square with the top carved out than an actual bowl. But it would serve for now, till they found something better. She set it down, and glanced towards the sky, seeing that the sun was rising once more.

Dawn was orange, with hints of blue and yellow peaking through the canopy. Silver clouds lazily floated through the sky in small clusters, with the last rays of star light cutting through them with liquid ease. The entire forest felt magical and free, as if it was yanked from another world and captured in time.

Enthralled by the scene, Octavia stared on, imprinting the memory into the depths of her mind. This was her first morning living with the system and it felt so freeing. Never had she felt so alive and for that, she was thankful.

The minutes ticked by, as she stared at the morning sky before deciding to stand. Julia slept the longest out of both of them, so she would be the first to get woken up. Dusting off her shirt and pants, she stood up and walked over to where the other two slept. Derrick had long since thrown his robe over the other woman, and was sleeping with his arms crossed over his chest. As much as he could be a dick he could be a kind man when he wanted to be.

“Hey Jules, it’s time to get up.” Octavia squatted near the sleeping woman, poking her cheek.

The woman grunted, and a thin layer of drool dripped down her face as she tried to roll over.

Seeing a joke at hand, a wicked grin spread across Octavia’s face. “Hey, you are running late, and we have a huge presentation. We need to go now.” She spoke in a rushed whisper as she shook Julia with a little more force than necessary.

The sleeping woman shot up with the force of a bullet. Her eyes were wide, and a panicked expression. “Wait what? Fuck, there is no way I overslept.”

“I lied. You didn't. I just needed you awake. Derrick is still passed out, and I want to go gather some flowers I found near the tree line that will help us.” The redhead smirked as she stepped back, tittering at the glare from Julia.

The smaller woman shook her head and ran her fingers through her knotted, gross hair, scowling. “You’re a bitch.”

“I am well aware. Anyway, how are you feeling? Sleeping on that rock sucked on the back.” The rogue extended her hand towards the tank, helping her stand up.

“My back hurts, my feet hurt. It still feels like I’m in a dream.”

“Yeah, I had a coming to god moment last night about it. No matter how bad we want it to change, it won’t. So we need to make do with what we have.” Octavia whispered softly as she gestured for the other woman to follow her. It wouldn’t do for them to wake Derrick up just yet.

“It’s not fair, though. Why us? Why did this system have to come to ruin our lives?” The black-haired woman whimpered as she followed alongside Octavia.

“I understand your pain. Trust me, I don’t like it either. But this was the hand that we were dealt. The only thing that we can do is keep moving forward the best we can.” She jumped off the side of the rock, holding her hand out for Julia to take.

”Yeah, I know. I’m just frustrated. Hopefully, my family is okay.”

“They might be. The advisor told me that a vast amount of the Earth was frozen in regions. So it’s likely they are still safe from this for now.” She patted the tank on the back as they walked over to the tower shield leaning against the rock. It was covered in a thin layer of dew, and a small sludge had built up near the bottom from the dried blood.

“You really think so?” The younger woman asked in a whisper as she reached out for the shield.

“Well, I can’t promise that they are, but the chances are likely. That title from yesterday said we were in the one percent of people selected. That is something like eighty million. So the chances are fairly high that your family is safe.” Octavia wished she had that same feeling her friend did. But her family died a long time ago, so she was more willing to go with the flow. But truly she believed her friend’ family was going to be safe.

“Yeah, I’ll try to have some hope.” The woman reached out and grabbed the tower shield. “In a strange way, though, this feels like a dream come true. I’ve always dreamt of becoming a tank. In all those system apocalypse novels I’ve read, I wished I could be in that too, and be somebody. Strange now that it’s real.” She grabbed the top of the shield and pulled it towards her.

“Yeah, you’re telling me. I never actually read those kinds of books, so I’m not sure what to expect.” At the end of the day, she was a busybody and a vast part of personality was work, simply because of her circumstances. Outside of the miniscule amount of gaming she did, there really was a vast lack of knowledge.

“It’s okay. I’m sure that this isn’t exactly like the books, so we will see. Thanks for listening to me rant by the way. I know there isn’t much we can do in the tutorial. But I will find them one day.” Julia hefted the tower shield up and grabbed the metal handles. While she still looked shaken, there was a passion in her eyes that blazed like a wildfire.

“Of course. If you need anything, let me know. In the meantime, watch over sleeping beauty while I go grab those flowers I saw on the tree line. They might save us in the short term.” Octavia adjusted her chakram and glanced around the area, really wishing she had a good pair of shoes right now. This barefoot life wasn't for her.