bookpub Chapter 2: Decidedly Sarcastic Skills
Chapter 2: Decidedly Sarcastic Skills
Chapter 2: Decidedly Sarcastic Skills
It was a bleary-eyed Edwin who blinked awake the next morning, curled up in the hollow of a tree. It fortunately hadnt gotten very cold overnight, because his thin jacket and jeans would not have been adequate if it had been fairly cold. Still, as it hadnt rained, it was hardly the most miserable night spent outdoors he had experienced. It had taken effort to fall asleep last night, what with the highly uncomfortable spot he found himself in and the worry that some giant predator awaited just beyond his limited view of the world. He felt it, too, but the effort had yielded its own surprise benefit.
Level Up! Sleeping
Level Up! Sleeping
Sleeping
A very underrated part of the not killing people process.
Sleep to recover and become energized
Increased restfulness per level.
He was starting to wonder what wasnt a skill, and idly wondered how many skills other people must have, if he had already gotten five skills in less than a day of being on Jorah? A quick attempt at calling up old messages failed, but he was pretty sure it was something along those lines. Jarah, Jorah, Joriah? Joriah sounded right. Thought right? Eh, no matter. It did bring up the question about how, if at all, you could look back at previous messages, though. Maybe something about the customizability of Status? Maybe if he
He flicked himself on the arm to make sure he didnt get carried away on that tangent. He wasnt in his room or in class, he couldnt afford to daydream right now. This was a literally alien world, and he had no food- his stomach growled at the thought- no water, and no shelter.
Three days without water, three weeks without food, three hours without shelter in extreme weather. At least the last of those doesnt apply at the moment, but I dont know how long that will last. Come on, wilderness survival books, dont fail me now.
As it continued to get brighter in the forest, the wildlife picked up. Today, there seemed to be a lot more birds in the area, and maybe just more activity in general? Did they get less skittish of him? Was there something else in the area yesterday that was scaring them away? Was he just noticing them more today? Maybe-
No. Bad Edwin. Focus. Science later. Just keep walking in the direction you were last night, and oh hey! A shrub with purple leaves! I knew there would have to be a few. Gah!
Hey system guy, I dont suppose I could get a skill to help me focus?
Please?
Fine. He grumbled, ducking between a fallen log and a tree, stopping suddenly as he felt a spiderweb right in front of his face.
Level Up! Basic Mana Sense
Wait, was that magical? It did look practically invisible. Was the range on his mana sense really that short? Great, now he really didnt know if an invisible predator was sneaking up behind him. He almost wanted to grab a long stick, to poke the web and see if it was magically strong as well, but not knowing if the spider was supernaturally venomous tempered that desire.
So as it turned out, the web was supernaturally strong. And while he didnt know if the spider was venomous- he absolutely wasnt testing that without some kind of Poison Resistance skill. Would it be poison resistance, venom resistance, or toxicity resistance? Hmm. Well, maybe- Nope. Not the time- while he didnt know if the spiders venom was dangerous to humans, the mere fact it was the size of his hand when it had suddenly popped into visibility at the center of the web and started skittering towards the stick- firmly stuck in the web, though Edwin hadnt tried too terribly hard to dislodge it- meant that he was absolutely running as fast as he could away from it, trying to get as much distance as he could from that nightmare fuel.
Level Up! Walking
Wait, walking? Was there not a running skill? Why was it called walking if it covered running as well? Did it also cover hiking? Swimming? Flying? This would require a lot of testing.
Soon, he was out of breath from his mad dash away from that horrible creature. Spiders were fine, so long as they werent bigger than his hand. He stopped to recover, gasping for air as he leaned against a tree. Fortunately, his magic sense (spider sense?) didnt tingle this time. He did not want to tangle with another one of those monsters.
You have unlocked the Breathing skill!
Accept Skill? Y/N
He tiredly consented, happy for any kind of reprieve.
Level Up! Breathing
Breathing
You can breathe easy; you got the right skill
Breathe deeply
Increased efficacy per level.
Increased efficacy does that mean the skill will extract more oxygen from the air for each breath? That could be very useful. Edwin considered it for a moment, I hope I dont have to give CPR anytime soon. If the skill ever gets me to the point of using 100% of the oxygen in any given lungful of air, CPR would just pretty much straight-up fail. Interesting potential consequence.
Further testing required, he murmured. Promising himself he would get around to figuring out the intricacies of magic- and the thought of that tickled his heart- would probably be the only way he could stay focused long enough to survive to the point where he could test out all his skills.
He still needed to find water, now more than ever.
Okay. So on the bright side I found water. On the downside, Im going to have to scale a 50-foot cliff to get to the top and hope I can get water there or figure out some way to get the mist from the air.
Climbing it is. Not where its this wet, though.
Backing up a ways away from the precipitous drop, Edwin evaluated his options. The rock face was decently craggy, though of debatable strength, and there was the odd tree which clung stubbornly to the narrow strip of soil he found himself on. It could help him clamber up the rock face, and all he would need to do is not look down. He would just need to start thereand move over there and probably try to end up over there. Piece of cake.
Level Up! Visualization
With luck, it would be as easy as leveling Visualization. As natural as breathing, he hoped, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
Level Up! Breathing
Was the System mocking him? He felt like it was mocking him. After a quickly aborted attempt at climbing- his legs simply wouldnt cooperate to push him up- Edwin gave himself a bit of a break, laying on the ground until his legs felt somewhat more normal.
Edwin wedged himself between a rock and a hard place. Well, the hard place was really just a tree that did not feel sturdy enough for him to be comfortable (though still quite sturdy, all things considered), and the rock was a jut of stone sticking out at a convenient height. It wasnt exactly comfortable, he noted, but it was better than any of the alternatives. Shimmying his way up the cliffside, Edwin found himself exceptionally glad he hadnt completely neglected his fitness even as he spent more and more time in the lab as college went on. It was somewhat neglected, yes-
Level Up! Breathing
- but he could at least still manage to pull himself up to one rock, steady himself against the tree, and prepare for the next step. It sure would be nice to get a skill for this, he couldnt imagine why he hadnt already gotten one-
You have unlocked the Athletics skill!
Accept Skill? Y/N
Athletics? Why not climbing? Was this not close enough to true climbing for the System to be happy? Just athletics? Wasnt that part of walking? Was there not a more specific skill for climb-
His foot slipped half an inch, and Edwin froze. No more getting distracted. He accepted the skill but didnt look at it. In fact, he switched entirely to doing his best to ignore all System notifications so he could just focus entirely on not dying.
Reach up. Grab a protrusion. Haul himself up. Brace against the trunk. Panic as the tree swayed slightly. Look for the next spot. Set his footing. Reach up. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Dont look down. Just keep looking up. Stop imagining falling down. Stop it. Look for the next spot to grab. Make sure your foot is secure. Keep three points in solid contact with the wall at all times. Leave the tree behind, its too thin at this point. How much farther could it be? This has to have been hundreds of feet, surely. Wedge hand into crevice, hope there arent spiders. Maneuver left foot onto previous handhold. Sprawl out across a pair of handholds absolutely too far apart for comfort. Hug the wall. Reposition right foot to avoid doing the splits while on a cliff face. Test to make sure that rock is solid. Freeze as a small bit of dirt falls from where his hand was placed. Reach up. Grab a protrusion. Haul himself up. Set footing. Look for the next handhold. Reach up. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Re- WHERES THE HANDHOLD. Oh.
He had made it? He made it! Hooray! And with no real incident beyond what felt like a half-dozen heart attacks. His limbs were like jelly and his hands and arms thoroughly scraped up (hopefully bacteria werent also magically potent in this world). He felt like he had run a marathon, but he was alive and he had made it. He felt so triumphant, even as his body refused to cooperate, far too comfortable where it was to consider moving at the moment. It was kind of amusing. Before today he would have never thought of a forest floor as being comfortable, but it felt as soft as a feather bed when he was this Exhausted. He looked back at his notifications.
Level Up! Athletics
Level Up! Breathing
Level Up! Athletics
Level Up! Visualization
Level Up! Athletics
Level Up! Flexibility
Level Up! Breathing
Level Up! Athletics
Level Up! Flexibility
Level Up! Athletics
Level Up! Status
Level Up! Athletics
Athletics
Who even needs steroids, anyway?
Improved athleticism
Increased muscle efficiency per level.
Why had his status leveled up? Hm. What was it, increased customizability per level? Did it level up by him ignoring his notifications somehow? Could he level it by not using it, however that might work? Hed have to experiment. But first, water. He so very much needed water. His mouth was like sandpaper, and tasted like dirt. There had probably been a lot of that in his mouth lately. Too much, really, not that any amount of dirt inside his mouth wasnt too much.
First, though, he was going to lay here for a minute. Maybe five. Yeah, just five minutes. Just five more minutes. This was fine. This was totally fine
Level Up! Sleeping