The Yeksa were not difficult to follow; they made no attempts to cover their tracks. Bronwyn found she could easily spot the winding path ahead of her, glowing red with their residual energy. She headed deeper and deeper into the forest. She ran along the trail for about a mile and didn’t see any sign of the other captives. However, it was clear that she was on the right path, and it had to lead somewhere.

She followed the trail for a few hundred more yards until it led her straight into a stream. It was only about ten feet across and no more than a few feet deep at the center. She looked around and found a shallow ford so as not to get water down into her boots. She was able to pick the trail up again quickly, but she almost didn’t need it; once she was on the other side of the river, she could easily smell the smoke of campfires.

Bronwyn was never one for stealth, but she wanted to get a layout of the village and find where they were holding the captives before she started anything. She slowly crept forward in the thick underbrush until she could begin to make out the first buildings. They weren’t so much buildings as crudely constructed tents made out of a light-yellowish hide she didn’t recognize. The Yeksa seemed to lack an actual social structure, and the village looked more like a gathering of individuals than any sort of community or town. However, the raid on the colonists did prove that they were at least willing to work together toward a common goal.

She crept around the edges of the forest, and it seemed to her like twenty to thirty Yeksa were living in this small community. She didn’t feel entirely comfortable taking them on all at once, but, given how disorganized they seemed to be, she figured she might be able to attack them in smaller clusters. After sneaking most of the way around the camp, she finally found the other nine colonists. They were tied to poles, in groups of three, on the southern side of the clearing. She decided that starting her assault on the northern tents would draw some attention away from them and maybe keep them safe for longer.

After quietly making her way back to the northern dwellings, she found what looked like a good place to start. There were two tents, a little bit spread apart from the others, with four Yeksa in the vicinity. She waited until the seated one was about to take a bite of some foul-looking gruel he was slopping around in a wooden bowl. As he lifted the bowl to drink from it, she wordlessly sprang out of the forest and slammed her fist into the back of his head. She kept the momentum of the punch going, following the collapsing Yeksa to the ground, burying his face in the dirt. Before any of the Yeksa could react, she wrenched her gauntlet from the back of the first one's skull and threw her whole body into an uppercut against the Yeksa standing adjacent to her. Her gauntlet squarely made contact with the bottom of his sternum, and she could feel a multitude of bones snapping as she lifted him three feet in the air with the force of the impact. The third Yeksa let out a screeching battle cry as it lunged a spear toward her. She caught the head of the spear with her right gauntlet and yanked it past her side, pulling the Yeksa into her. Bronwyn shoulder-checked his face as he flew into her, knocking him to the ground. Taking the spear from his weakened grasp, she plunged it into his stomach, pinning him to the ground. The final Yeksa attempted to run into the camp, crying in alarm, but Bronwyn was significantly faster than he. She caught him almost instantly and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him to the ground. She brought her gauntlet down on his face, but not before he could let out another loud shriek. She could hear the other Yeksa coming.

Not wanting to become surrounded, she sprinted towards the western voices. Bronwyn left a trail of blood in her wake. Careening around ratty lean-tos made of hides and leaping over fire pits, she felled a dozen Yeksa before they had any chance to gather together. When she reached the southern side of the village, she turned, not wanting to get too close to the captives. She rounded a corner to be confronted by a small mob the remaining ten or so Yeksa had formed. Bronwyn braced herself and readied the energy in her Core. She let them get within ten yards of her before she launched herself into a charge. Just as the first Yeksa was about to skewer her with its spear, she released the stored Energy in her Core, letting it flow out towards her fists. Her skin turned to stone, and the tip of the spear exploded against her, not even leaving a scratch. She flew into a rapid assault, always sprinting towards her next opponent as soon as she felled the last. When there was nothing around her but broken bodies, Bronwyn yelled out in triumph and dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. She realized she had received a few minor cuts on her legs during the fight as she knelt there. None of them were much of a threat to her health, though, and, in fact, the incoming stream of energy from her defeated foes was causing them to close right before her eyes.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 5 base human. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.***

She contemplated putting some points into intelligence to use her earth magic better, or maybe into vitality in case she started to take some bigger hits. However, she did notice that, at least at the moment, she was significantly faster than any of the opponents she had fought. She reasoned that there was no real use in spending points in vitality if she never got hit, and she had her stone armor to shore up that weakness to some degree. “Well, three strength and two agility it is,” she said, spending the points and checking her status:

Status

Name:

Bronwyn Tallow, aka “Blodwyn”

Race:

Human - Base 1

Class:

—

Level:

5

Core:

Amber Class - Base 2 - Tri-Node, Earth Energy Attunement

Energy Affinity:

5.6, Earth - 6.6

Energy:

210/210

Strength:

25

Vitality:

11

Dexterity:

9

Agility:

19

Intelligence:

9

Will:

11

Points Available:

0

Titles & Feats:

First Colonist

Skills:

System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Unarmed Mastery - Basic, Stone Warding - Basic, Tracking - Basic

As she was heading back to free the captives, she heard a rumbling, angry roar erupt from the central, largest tent behind her.

***Bonus objective added to quest: Rescue the captured colonists from the Yeksa village: Defeat Gristle Snot, the Yeksa shaman, before freeing the captives. Bonus Reward: One Basic Treasure Box.***

Bronwyn felt torn: on the one hand, she was the reason these people were in trouble in the first place; on the other, if she didn’t take risks, how would she ever grow? “Ugh!” She tightened the straps on her gauntlets and stomped off towards the source of the roar. When they’d first arrived here, she’d felt that the kind, nurturing voice of the System was genuine. It even described itself as a “benevolent entity,” but she was starting to wonder. First of all, if it was genuinely benevolent, would it have to tell people that? Why would it drop the barrier with no warning? Why would it put quests like this in front of her when people were waiting to be rescued. She supposed the shaman’s arrival could be outside the System’s control and that it was just taking advantage of a situation, but she had her doubts.

She rounded the side of a ramshackle tent, and, directly in front of her, not fifteen feet away, she saw the creature. Gristle Snot was much larger than the other Yeksa she had fought earlier; he was nearly seven feet tall and had to weigh 500 pounds or more. His gigantic rolls of fat jostled around as he spun to look at her. He shouted something in a grotesque phlegmy voice, spit dribbling down his chins and thick mucus running freely from his drooping, troll-like nose. She had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded like an insult.

“Well, come and get it then, lard ass!” She raised her gauntlets and beckoned him forward. The Yeksa took one giant, lumbering step forward, and, as his foot touched the ground, Bronwyn lunged toward him. Except, she didn’t lunge. She didn’t move at all. Looking down, Bronwyn realized her feet had been encased in ice and were frozen solid to the ground. Gristle Snot let out a gurgling laugh as she panicked and tried to wrench her feet free. He raised one of his thick slimy hands and conjured a massive ice spike in the air above his head. He let it sit there for a moment, hovering in place, before hurling it down at her.

The spike reached her almost instantly; she barely had time to activate her Core and cover herself in stone. Her gauntlets took most of the impact of the five-foot spike, blocking as it crashed into her. The impact was enough to break the ice beneath her and send her tumbling backward a half dozen feet. If she hadn’t conjured her armor, she was sure she’d be dead. Even with the stone armor and blocking the spike with her gauntlets, she had numerous tiny shards of ice puncturing her arms, shoulders, and chest; she was bleeding from a dozen wounds.

Gristle laughed again as Bronwyn crawled to her feet, and he started conjuring another spike above his head. However, her feet were free this time, and Bronwyn, even wounded badly, was much faster than he presumed. She sent herself into a full sprint, closing the distance between them before he could finish his spell. She dove forward, and her right fist made solid contact with Gristle’s kneecap. A sickening popping and snapping sound erupted from the Yeksa’s knee as it bent backward, and he toppled to his side. Bronwyn ended her dive with a roll and stood behind Gristle as he writhed on the floor, his bloated body too heavy to stand on one leg. Gristle rolled onto his back and tried a last attempt to shoot a smaller icicle at Bronwyn, but she darted forward and caught it in her gauntleted hand before it could take flight. Spinning the icicle in her hand, so it was pointed downward, she knelt, slamming it down into Gristle’s bulging right eye. His eye popped and froze against the ice as she shoved it through the socket and into his brain.

Bronwyn flopped down onto her butt, breathing heavily and taking stock of her injuries. She was pulling shards of ice from her shoulders and upper arms when the stream of golden motes flew out from Gristle to her.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 6 base human. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.***

“A whole level from just one creature?” Bronwyn felt like she was leveling fast, but then, she had no idea what the level cap was. Was there even a level cap? True, the shaman had rewarded her a whole level, but he had been a dangerous opponent; if she hadn’t reacted as quickly as she did, that icicle would have skewered her. Gristle’s magic had been much more potent than anything she had seen so far; she hadn’t even realized he froze her feet to the ground until it had already happened. “Well, you slimy fuck, you almost did me in, but you were just a touch slow.” She slapped Gristle's belly as she stood up and noticed two things. One, a small, blue box had, at some point, appeared to her right, and two, Gristle was wearing a belt with about a dozen small pouches tied to little brass hooks.

The little blue box was very similar to those given to her during the tutorial that contained food and basic materials to build her tent. The primary difference was that it was much more ornate, covered in little filagrees, and engraved with silver runes she didn’t recognize. She picked the box up and sat it down in front of her, gently lifting the lid. Inside was a ten-inch long scroll with golden caps on each end. She unraveled the scroll and, written in flowing dark green calligraphy, were the words “Blacksmithy Requisition.” The detailing text explained that the scroll would instantaneously build a fully supplied, rank one smithy upon activation near a settlement stone. Bronwyn figured she better finish up here soon and get back to the colony to sort out this whole settlement business. She hoped this smithy would let them make weapons to defend themselves better from whatever threat came next.

She knelt next to Gristle and removed the belt from around his waist. Rummaging through the pouches, she found they were mostly filled with various herbs and some dried meats she couldn’t quite identify. There were two pouches, however, that were of interest. One held about thirty light blue spheres, slightly smaller than a marble. The other seemed to open into a lightless void. She reached her hand into the darkness all the way up to her elbow, an impressive feat, given the bag was the size of a coin purse. She presumed it was much like the bags of holding that were prevalent in VR games. She focused her intent on the bag, allowing Energy to flow into it, attempting to bond with it as she had earlier with her orientation rewards. The System had explained that directing your energy into magical objects would often give you a greater insight into their uses, and that proved true with the bag: in her mind’s eye, she found herself looking into a cube, it was thirty feet in every direction, and had a random assortment of objects left by the previous owner. Inside was, unfortunately, mostly a bunch of trash. There were a few maggot-ridden animal hides with chunks of meat still stuck to them, various bits of uneaten food, and myriad bones. Bronwyn unceremoniously dumped the contents out next to Gristle’s body. The bag would come in handy, but she certainly did not want to keep its contents. She wasn’t interested in wearing the filthy belt, so she took the two pouches off their hooks and slipped them into her pockets.

Having retrieved everything she wanted from Gristle, she ran back to where the colonists were being held captive. When she arrived, they were right where she’d seen them last, tied to poles on the southern end of camp. Most of them were squirming and trying to get out of their bindings; a couple seemed resigned to their fate and were just silently weeping. Seeing her return, they started shouting for joy and begging her to free them. She took some kind of a flint knife off of a nearby Yeksa corpse and started sawing away at the ropes binding the captives to the poles.

Once they were all free, she convinced them to look around the tents and take weapons off the dead Yeksa. After about twenty minutes, they had gathered a couple of dozen spears, even more of the flint knives, and an assortment of other makeshift clubs and shivs. They decided to leave most of the other stuff the Yeksa had in their tents, most of it being ragged furs and soiled garments. With their newly found weaponry, Bronwyn led them back toward the colony.

The sun was just starting to rise when she had left the colony in search of survivors, and the path back was clear and easy to follow in the golden light of late morning. Bronwyn didn’t even need to use her tracking skill to retrace her footsteps. She looked around at the forest, partially watching for any danger but also noticing how alien and beautiful it was. The trees were similar to Earth’s, but there were at least forty different varieties just along the route back to the meadow. Some had leaves that glowed a vibrant green in the sunlight. Some had bark that looked like rusted iron, and many had various fruits or brightly colored flowers growing from their branches.

Bronwyn also noticed many small creatures scurrying away from their path. One particularly curious beast, about the size of a robin, caught her attention. It had a body like a squirrel with pristine white fur, a large fluffy tail, and a golden turtle-like shell speckled with dark green splotches. It hopped down from a nearby branch, startling Bronwyn, and she nearly swatted it out of the air as it took a seat on her shoulder. It didn’t seem to have any interest in leaving, and when Bronwyn reached to pick it up, it deftly hopped to her other shoulder and plopped down once again. After a few capture attempts, Bronwyn decided that the creature seemed harmless enough and simply let it be.

She and the colonists could hear the human encampment before they could see it; there were no sounds of alarm, just the sounds of a large number of people getting ready to start their day. Soon the forest gave way, and they walked, once again, into the familiar meadow.

***Congratulations! Quest complete: Rescue The Captured Colonists From the Yeksa Village. Reward: Energy Rich Natural Material***

Another blue box with golden runes shimmered into view at Bronwyn's feet. Not wanting to make the people she rescued wait any longer, she quickly flipped the lid. She didn’t know what to expect exactly, but she certainly didn’t think she was going to open it to find, what seemed to be, a perfectly ripe, purple plum. As confused as she was, she felt the instant desire, the uncontrollable need, to consume it. She plucked the plum from the box and sank her teeth into it without even thinking. The next thing she knew, she was lying flat on her back, the little squirrel-turtle nibbling gently on her nose, and one of the colonists she was escorting kneeling next to her.

Feeling groggy, like she just slept for far too long, she mumbled, “What in the hells just happened to me?”

“Well, I couldn’t really tell you, ma’am; you picked up that fruit from the box and devoured it like you were starving to death, then your hair started to shimmer, you swelled all up, and you fell flat on your back. That was all a couple of minutes ago; we’ve been trying to wake you up since.”

Bronwyn looked down at herself - things looked alright, “What the hell do you mean I swelled all up?”

“Honestly, ma’am, I don’t know how to explain it. It was like you were growing, or you were just more than before, do you know what I mean?” The man emphasized the word more. Bronwyn frowned and pushed herself to her feet, her small companion hopping back onto her shoulder as she did. Standing next to the man, he did seem smallish to her, but she didn’t remember exactly how he’d looked before. It was something to figure out later, maybe. As it was, she felt fantastic. She called up her status sheet:

Status

Name:

Bronwyn Tallow, aka “Blodwyn”

Race:

Human - Base 2

Class:

—

Level:

6

Core:

Amber Class - Base 2 - Tri-Node, Earth Energy Attunement

Energy Affinity:

5.6, Earth - 6.6

Energy:

210/210

Strength:

25

Vitality:

11

Dexterity:

9

Agility:

19

Intelligence:

9

Will:

11

Points Available:

5

Titles & Feats:

First Colonist

Skills:

System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Unarmed Mastery - Basic, Stone Warding - Basic, Tracking - Basic

Bronwyn was startled to see that her race was now described as Human Base 2. Bronwyn hadn’t had any idea you could upgrade your race or what that descriptor even meant. She didn’t exactly know how to describe the changes she felt, but the colonist was right; she did, somehow, feel more substantial. Her muscles had better definition, her skin on her arms and hands seemed smoother, and she could almost swear her sight was better than before. Bronwyn took the tie out of her hair and let it fall, hanging just past her shoulders. Lifting it into view, she noticed that the bright red shock of curls had an almost metallic quality that shimmered in the sunlight.

Seeing her status screen also reminded her that she had forgotten to spend her latest five points in her haste to return the colonists. Strength and agility had treated her well so far; she won the fight with the shaman because of her speed. Three and two it is, she thought, spending the points and bringing her strength and agility up to 28 and 21, respectively.

Realizing she had been standing there for a few minutes, she motioned toward the colonists. “I’m not entirely sure what just happened, but come on, we need to report back to Mr. Ballard.”