Harper

Hazel eyes watched in horror as more video feeds came through her phone. The Wave had captivated the world. Coming from the distant cosmos at impossible speeds, it slowed after landing in the Atlantic ocean and continued to slow as it spread. Slow was relative, and at a few hundred miles an hour, one would only gain minutes of uncertainty by driving away from it.

Uncertainty because not everyone was taken by the Wave. Harper liked to think of it as taken rather than the other theory. Then the red light blended with a gold light when it reached the planet, and those colors would express themselves when the Wave crossed a person. A teen live-streamed the passing of the Wave. It hit them and a gold bubble pushed away their mother and father, who were clinging tightly. Then they both disappeared into the red Wave. Leaving the orphan to start crying uncontrollably.

She turned off the video. There was an example that gave an answer. The father had a book in his hands, a bible she noted absentmindedly. It was taken away just like clothes and jewelry. Yes! If it was killing people, it wouldn't bother with sending people and their trappings. And it was targeting people the live stream from an east coast zoo showed the animals in their exhibit. Now she just had to figure out how much someone could take with them. Right now, she knew it was somewhere between a refrigerator that wouldn't transfer and a heavy book that would. Reorganizing the duffel in her lap, she multi-tasked, finding another feed and fretting if she had the right things. Another string of thoughts broke off to worry about trying to bring too much and having nothing.

Water in a thermos with an uninsulated metal cup lid. Perfect for heating over a fire at some later time. A fire starting kit inside of a film refill container. MREs from the military surplus. Water purification straw because the thermos would only get her so far. Two knives and the head of a hatchet and some nails. Compact first aid kit. A solar-powered battery bank and her slim tablet currently downloading libraries of survival books.

Worrying that it was too much was probably just her trying to justify taking so little. A gun! her heart screamed. She didn't own one and wasn't about to brave the chaos to acquire one.

A productive string of thought yelled through her noise. Rope! It was always coming up in survival literature for building shelter. Plus, it was a must-have for every adventure in the tabletop games she played. There were so many uses for rope. Checking her watch, she still had time. Out of caution, she carried her duffel with her anyway. While the Wave had been predictable so far, she wasn't going to let herself be harmed by relying on rules that hadn't been tested.

Digging through her storage closet with one hand, she came across her rope. Wearing the loops like a bandoleer, she tried to remember how much there was. Maybe 150 feet? Standing in the closet looking at her coat, she had another thought about survival and put it on one arm at a time over top of her bandoleer of rope. This wouldn't be too much? Harper worried.

Walking to her bed, she sat again and ignored that she was getting uncomfortably hot. Only a short time left and she'd either need it or discard it. Tapping her fingers on the leather strap of the duffel, her noisy mind settled down. Nothing to do really but wait. The silence was uncomfortable, and it let her mind wander to places she wanted to leave behind.

Now was so not the time to have a panic attack. Harper thought to herself.

Before she could untangle those worries, Harper's curtains lit with a crimson glow. Red became her whole world as the feeling of sweating under heavy clothes and tight squeezed leather biting into her hand disappeared.

Welcome to Leternum, your new world. Adapt. Live.

Transition phase.

1) Vanquish the monster.

2) Prove a crafting skill.

After having the basic skills that will be required to succeed in Leternum you will be placed into the main world of Leternum. Enhanced skill growth is granted to aid this transition phase.

Muggy heat assaulted her face and hands. The fluffy winter coat for a few moments held in the cold of her air-conditioned environment. Chirping insects and birds started after a pause as if they gave a moment of silence for her arrival. Judging by the weight on her, everything she carried and wore came along to this Leternum place. As she breathed sweet fresh air, a moment of relief hit her. She didn't think people were being taken to an environment hostile to life but the worry that she wouldn't have air on some other side had come up in her many thoughts. Harper opened her eyes. Woods and brambles abounded in the verticals of her vision. Above her was a canopy of green with holes letting down shafts of light, some of which lit up patches of leaves or moss.

Given the heat, Harper decided that water was the first priority to offset all the sweating she expected to do. Second shelter. Third a stable food supply. Survival basics set in order according to her hasty reading. She pulled out a knife and started walking downhill. Rivers, springs, and ponds tended to drain down into the valleys. Even if she didn't find water, there should be signs on where to find it. A dried-up water bed may tell the story of its source.

Hiking was a much more arduous task than Harper remembered from her childhood jaunts in the country. Outside of no longer having a child's boundless energy, the path down the slope was thick with saplings or thorny bushes. Every step crushed dried leaves and sometimes snapped a twig, sending a jolt up her spine. Not to mention the bugs, gnats of some variety reminded her how much she hated bugs.

After a short travel, she took the coat off as it was hotter to keep on than take off. While paused, she also took her first drink of water. She didn't know if rationing was the intelligent thing to do but she planned on doing so until she read better in a survival book.

During her hike, Harper stepped over a log as her weight shifted firmly across it. It was at that moment she remembered being cautioned about venomous snakes biting in just that situation. A few breaths of humid air with nothing of note, Harper nodded her head. Safe and sound, she decided to not do that again.

[New skill awarded: Hiking I

Improve efficiency, safety, and speed of hiking travel by +1% per skill level]

Harper's eyes widened as she read the clear words before they disappeared. This world had already communicated by text. Was this too much of a stretch? Character screen, she thought. Nothing happened. Status. This time a status fixture appeared. The dull panic she perpetually held at bay pushed back in on her mind. But she had a status just for her. Harper's unhealthy coping mechanism of distracting herself in thoughts of game mechanics worked so much better when it was real. The guilt she had felt about obsessing didn't have a home here.

[Harper Cain Woods

Otherworld Human

Health 180/180

Reserves 25

Magic (unassigned)

Body Total 13

Strength 3

Agility 4

Durability 2

Endurance 4

Mind Total 21

Willpower 7

Cognition 6

Resistance 4

Resilience 5

Combat skills

None

Building skills

None

Utility skills

Hiking I ]

Abuzz with ideas, Harper kept trying to find the functions of the world. Friends list, inventory, equipment, upgrade tree, research tree, bestiary. She thought the words in succession with no response from the world. Class.

[Class selection reserved for citizens of Leternum]

While crouched, she heard twigs breaking and leaves crushed underfoot. Aware of it now that her own steps were quiet, she could recognize that the noise had been around for some time. Holding her breath, she turned without moving her feet to identify what she shared space with. A thorny brier waved about as something alive shook the entire mass of tangled vines. Harper raised her knife and remembered what she had read about defending herself with a knife against a bear. Stab as many times as fast as you could. There was no making it out alive but the world record was 14 stabs. If you're going to die a horrible death of mauling, you might as well make a new record. Yeah, no more pep talks from that side of her mind.

Then it broke through the brier. A flat circle with dark vertical slits pushed through first with a chuffing noise straight from an alien nightmare. Round to the point of being bubbly, its size and shape reminded her of a beach ball with legs and a snout. Brown with tan marking the quadruped wobbled to the left and right as it progressed. Nose diving into the foliage it brought up a face full of a blue mushroom. Harper blinked twice every time it chomped down with its cute little chompers blue bubbles would float away from its face.

Focusing again, she thought out analyze.

[New skill awarded: Scan 1]

[Shield Boar

Durable pseudo-monster the Shield Boar are used for meat and shield affinity leather.

Increase skill to learn more]

Knife in hand, she sweat until the bloated pig tromped out of sight.

Wiping the stinging from her eye, she stayed planted to the spot until it was quiet again. Crunching through the leaves, Harper swept a lock of her errant brunette hair from her face and dug around in the leaves where the ball hog had found some food. It was a messy eater and didn't eat all that was on its plate. In the broken bits of mushroom strewn through the leaves. Harper found three blue stalks that were unblemished. Using her knife she prodded the oddity.

*POP*

Another blue bubble. This sprang up from the mushroom she stabbed. This bubble didn't float, though. Anchored to the cap of the mushroom, the projection would flex around the point of the knife. The further the blue sphere deformed, the harder it pushed back on her knife until it stopped short of the growth.

Analyze

[Blue Shield Sporechild

A fungus having shield reagent properties

Increase skill to learn more]

Trying again to harvest the pig's leftovers, she cut away at the stalks. Blue mushroom meat sheared apart in a way reminiscent of slicing store fresh celery. Except that Harper had never cut celery that bled blue light.

While the ecosystem was fascinating, she needed to find a source of water badly. Potential food sources would still have to wait as a third priority. Detouring from the mission for a boon that fell in her lap was acceptable but priorities should stay in order. Water to survive the heat.

With this in mind, she kept hiking down the slope. Bouncing between excitement and fear of a new world and dull monotony of unending forest. She kept reminding herself that there was a monster in these woods and she had to stay vigilant. As the day wore on more and more, she found her focus wandering. The weight she carried was a mixed blessing. Food, water and tools to get her by for the time being were a blanket of security for her mind, but her body had to hike the weight through the thick undergrowth.

Particularly thick underbrush blocked her path. Looking at the patch stretch as far as she could see, Harper shouldered through it. Right in the middle of the thicket so thick she couldn't see her shoes, there was a familiar squelch of mud. Holding several branches out of the way, she saw flowing water. Harper's tired mind stuttered for a moment, unsure the proper name of such a small water flow. Until she decided it wasn't important. She didn't need a name to think about it and understand for herself what it was.

Testing the water, she dipped one finger in then stuck it into her mouth. Absent sulfur, sweetness, or bitter bite, this was a great sign that it'd be good to drink. Water check. Shelter. Hmmm…

Hurried reading before the transition to Leternum- no, this wasn't even the destination yet- doesn't matter, she focused on her memory. She'd read that shelter was protection from the elements. The notion that shelter was four walls and a roof was one of her own ignorant imagination. Not that she planned to give up on four sturdy walls and a roof in a world that advertised a monster to be vanquished. But the next item on her list was a way to stay warm at night and dry in the rain. Harper smiled at holding onto her coat even after deciding to drop it off if she found herself in a world too hot. Being a packrat paid off. Keeping warm at night wouldn't be nearly so complicated.

Next up would typically be a stable food supply but Harper was still focused on the whole monster thing. All she had come across so far was a dizzying array of insects, lizards, birds, and the Shield Boar. Nevertheless, Harper didn't second guess the notice she received. Whatever was taking people had a purpose, she began to think they wanted her to succeed.

Scouting for a place to set up defenses, Harper turned upstream and kept walking. After a half-hour of pushing through more undergrowth, the stream ended. Or started she corrected herself. A spring of water burbled up from the ground. A knot in her chest let go and she took a breath that was deeper than those before it. She was going to make it.

A guttural roar, something between a screech and a bellow, brought Harper's shoulders back up to her ears. It was a distant noise, but the squealing of a pig began to echo through the forest.

Dropping her burdens at the spring, Harper took the freedom of less weight to scout a small circle where she could still keep an eye on the spring and her things. Her sense of direction had never been the best, so until she could make a mental model of the surroundings, this was best.

Maybe not a map, but already a mental picture was forming up. First, a three-pole shelter, then a roof to keep firewood dry. After that, a wall all the way around- the tortured squealing hadn't stopped yet. Why hadn't it just died already? Did the monster play with its food, making it suffer before ending it? Yeah, maybe a three-pole shelter than a wall.

Getting to it, Harper started gathering. The collecting of resources wasn't random. Every calorie counted. She giggled, a new way to consider counting calories. Spending energy to hoard something because it may be helpful later would be a waste to making progress now. Now is all she had. Investing in the future would have to wait. So each limb broken and cut free with her knife was part of the plan she held in her mind. Only three branches tied together with her rope. Again using the industrial quality rope over what she could make herself or gather from cut vines. The future thriving would have to wait for survival today.

Harper had started lashing together smaller branches to the frame like the ribs of a beast before the forest quieted again. Maybe an hour? Shuddering, she tried not to think about it.

Cutting and pulling branches to the shelter was a learning experience for her. Using her whole weight to break a branch didn't separate it from the tree. The splayed-out plant fibers wouldn't let go. First, she tried cutting them apart with her knife. It could get the job done, but it was a lot of work and slow. Using torque by spinning the limb in a circle until they came loose was faster. Still, it took even more effort and it was noisy brushing the leafy branches against the undergrowth. She settled on breaking the branch, twisting it until the resistance was strong, then she would stab the twisted bundle of fibers with the point of her knife until there wasn't enough to hold the branch to the tree.

By the time Harper found a work groove, she was tripping on obstacles while navigating from the most recent tree as she wound to her new home. Darkness approached more rapidly than she anticipated. Checking her watch, she marked the time so she could plan for the next day.

Lashing the last branch to the shelter in the dark, Harper felt around for a smaller branch she had broken off. It reminded her of a leaf rake and a broom. Using her new tool to sweep, Harper filled the shelter to the gills with dried leaves.

[New skill awarded: Building 1

Improved quality, cost and production rate of structures]

Climbing into her new home reminded her of playing in the leaves her father had raked up in the back yard of their suburban home. The fatigue of a long day of hiking and making camp caught up to her. The mix of childhood wonder, nostalgia and lingering fear of a monster that would torture its prey for an hour lulled her to sleep for the first night in this new world.