Consciousness came with an avalanche of notifications.

*[Bash] has reached rank 6*

*[Blunt Weapons] has reached rank 8*

*[Channeling] has reached rank 5*

*[Dodge] has reached rank 4*

*[Intent Focusing] has reached rank 9*

*[Intent Perennity] has reached rank 4*

*[Light Essence] has reached rank 10. Tier 1 Light Spells now unlocked.*

*Checking Class Template for available Light Spells.*

*Error: No Class Assigned*

*Error Override: Alpha rank Implant: Host developed spells found*

*New Spell Gained: [Create Weak Light]*

*New Spell Gained: [Ball of Weak Light]*

*New Variant Spell Gained: [Persistent Ball of Weak Light]*

*New Variant Spell Gained: [Manifold Persistent Ball of Weak Light]*

*New Variant Spell Gained: [Weak Missile of Weak Light]*

*New Variant Spell Gained: [Weak Missile of Weak Blinding]*

*New Spell Gained: [Weak Shield of Light - Flawed]*

*[Manifold Intent] has reached rank 4*

*[Mental Resilience] has reached rank 4*

*[Darkvision] has reached rank 5*

*[Pain Tolerance] has reached rank 7*

*[Pain Tolerance] has reached rank 8*

*[Pathfinding] has reached rank 6*

*[Piercing Weapons] has reached rank 6*

*[Piercing Weapons] has reached rank 7*

*[Silent Movement] has reached rank 5*

*[Sprinting] has reached rank 10. Base speed increased*

*[Sprinting] has reached rank 11*

*Sprinting] has reached rank 12*

*[Survival] has reached rank 7*

*[Thrown Weapons] has reached rank 6*

*[Thrust] has reached rank 5*

*[Tumbling] has reached rank 4*

*[Vital Strike] has reached rank 8*

*New Skill Gained: [First Aid Rank 1]*

*New Skill Gained: [Animal Companion Rank 1]*

*New Skill Gained: [Hardy Rank 1]*

*[Hardy] has reached rank 2*

*New Skill Gained: [Long Distance Running Rank 1]*

*New Skill Gained: [Parry Ranks 1]*

*[Long Distance Running] has reached rank 2*

*[Long Distance Running] has reached rank 3*

*[Long Distance Running] has reached rank 4*

Paul gasped. His eyes blinked, and his mouth gaped open as he struggled to process the sheer volume of information had slammed into his brain. It wasn’t just the messages, it was the information that came with them. Techniques. Knowledge. Muscle memory.

How to do a backflip. How to splint a break. How to reverse his grip on a spear mid-thrust. Those and a hundred other pieces of information soaked into his memories like rain into dry ground. This had happened before when Paul received the mysterious messages, but never so many at once, and the result left Paul dizzy.

The messages contained other revelations as well. Paul wasn’t sure what any of them meant, but he surmised that [Animal Companion] must have something to do with Seymore. During his desperate flight from the trolls, the little lizard’s presence, perched against his neck, had helped him continue on, and Paul wondered if that is what triggered the skill.

Seymore draped lazily over Paul’s chest now, sleeping peacefully.

Maybe if I focus on Seymore…

Paul flinched in surprise when the lizard’s eyes opened and turned his head to look at Paul inquisitively. Paul realized that he could feel Seymore. It was vague, but Paul had an impression of curiosity, and sleepiness, and hunger, and affection.

Paul rubbed Seymore’s head, and Seymore leaned into his scritches like a cat.

“Hey little guy,” Paul’s voice was choked with emotion, “Glad to know that you’re not just here for the food.” The lizard perked up when he heard the word “food,” and Paul chuckled. “Well, still mostly the food I guess.”

Paul sat up, placing Seymore carefully to his side. He groaned, stiff muscles protesting as he leveraged himself up to his feet, the dim light he created during his escape still casting a feeble glow across the small cavern. He pulled a piece of rat jerky from his pack - the last one - and fed Seymore before taking a bite himself.

“There you go, you greedy little bastard.” But Paul’s’’ words had no malice to them, and he sat petting Seymore while he ate and contemplated the other messages he had received. Paul thought he felt a mental impression of gratitude from Seymore and contentment as the lizard curled up in his lap, but he didn’t know if that was his imagination.

Having an empathetic connection to a lizard is going to take some getting used to, if that is what this is, and not just another sign of me losing my mind. Well, it’s not the strangest thing that has happened to me.

Paul might have been more bothered by this revelation if it wasn’t for the others that the notifications brought. The wording of [Light Essence]’s rank up was pretty clear - he was casting spells, and Paul knew he could no longer pretend that his abilities weren’t for all intents and purposes magic.

If being nearly burned alive by a Troll that shoots fire out its hands wasn’t proof enough, this is. Magic exists in this hell-hole, and you’re going to have to deal with it.

What was more alarming was the messages that followed.

Error? That sounds like a computer program. Is that it? Am I in some sort of full-immersion VR program?

The thought gave Paul a sudden flash of desperate hope.

“End program!” Seymore looked at Paul quizzically. “Quit program! Endgame! Quit game! Exit!”

Paul continued to shout out different permutations of exit commands, but his hopes faded as none of them had any effect. He sighed heavily,

Stupid for getting your hopes up Paul. Face it, you’re stuck here.

The rest of the messages were equally confusing.

What’s an Alpha rank Implant? Am I the host? What does a class do, and why don’t I have one?

He clenched his teeth in frustration.

There’s too much that I don’t know. Let’s try and figure out what I do.

Paul mentally reviewed the notifications again.

So this is definitely some sort of system. That much I’ve figured out. I gain skills for actions I take, and it seems like I get a lot more when I’m fighting, or when my life is in danger. Those skills seem to affect my body, as well.

Paul took a moment to inspect himself, stretching out his sore muscles and aching joints from the night before. Most of his injuries had faded, though his burned skin was still tender, and he still felt a twinge of pain from his ribs with each breath. Under those injuries, though, Paul could sense he was stronger, quicker. Maybe even smarter. He experimentally threw a punch and immediately winced as his ribs protested.

Well, maybe not that much smarter. Whatever this system is, it seems to work in base ten. Two special messages when skills reached rank 10, that’s probably not a coincidence. Sprinting I can test later, but what about these spells? How are they different than what I’ve been doing before?

Paul took a breath, banished his floating light, then pushed his intent outside of himself to re-summon it, preparing to weave the cage of will that allowed the glowing orb to persist without having to continually feed it intent.

The difference was immediate. As Paul visualized his threads of intent and began to weave them into a sphere, he suddenly knew what the final light orb should look like, where every strand of intent should be. Instead of fabricating the ball of light from scratch, Paul pushed his intent through this blueprint, and the ball of light popped into existence in front of him.

Excited, Paul tried to recreate his shield of light from his most recent battle. Again, unbidden, the pattern of intent materialized in his consciousness, and Paul willed the shield into existence.

The spells are like molds, waiting to be filled with intent.

Paul found himself mimicking the flow of intent with his hands as he threaded it through the spell pattern, and his eyes widened with a flash of realization.

The troll - it wasn’t trying to communicate with me with sign language, its hand movements were helping it cast its spell.

Paul forced himself to put his hands back at his sides.

Giving away a physical tell that I’m casting a spell - ugh, it still seems strange to use that word - sounds like a bad habit to get into.

He finished inserting his intent, and the disk of light flashed in front of him. Paul examined it and frowned.

I mean, it saved my life, and I made it in like two seconds, but this could be better.

Paul could feel his intent pouring into the shield, draining him at an alarming rate. There were also pieces of the spell-weave that were inconsistent, weakening the overall construct. Paul took note of each flaw before letting the spell dissipate.

It’s incredible that this thing worked at all. Let’s try again, this time without a rock plummeting toward me.

Paul mentally triggered the spell in his mind, prompting the pattern to return to his consciousness. Concentrating, he began to re-work the flow of intent that made up the shield, turning what had been a loose, desperate weave of intent into an even, orderly pattern.

The threads of intent resisted him at first, clinging stubbornly to the spell-pattern, but Paul clenched his jaw and focused his will, re-weaving the pattern with deliberate firmness. With a final burst of effort and intent, Paul powered the re-worked construct, and the shield bloomed into the air in front of him again.

*Spell Altered. [Weak Shield of Light - Flawed] is now [Weak Shield of Light]*

*New Skill Gained: [Spellweaving Rank 1]*

“Haha!” Paul shouted in triumph, startling Seymore from a nap. He had a distinct impression that the lizard was annoyed. “Whatever, I don’t see you casting spells.”

Paul wasn’t done with the spell yet though. Gathering his concentration again, Paul began to look for ways to “tie off” the shield, so it didn’t burn through his intent like it was dry kindling. It wasn’t as easy as he initially thought it would be. As far as Paul could tell, the strength of the shield was directly tied to the intent that he actively poured into it. When he tried to tie off the construct, it would disintegrate.

Maybe it can’t be tied off?

He sighed with frustration but persevered, rebuilding the weave from scratch four times before finding a solution.

*New Spell Gained: [Persistent Feeble Shield of Light]*

*[Spellweaving] has reached Rank 2*

Paul let out a long sigh of relief. The result of his efforts didn’t feel nearly as sturdy as [Weak Shield of Light] and took much more intent and time to activate, but he was able to maintain it with just a thread of mana.

Paul celebrated his accomplishment with a swallow of water from one of his skins. It was his last.

You’ve been procrastinating, Paul. Time to see if the Trolls are still after you and get back to camp.

He gathered his equipment and scooped Seymore up, nestling him in the ruins of his buckskins. Gritting his teeth, he gently donned his pack, taking special care to keep the pack’s weight off his healing shoulders as much as possible.

Taking a deep breath, Paul clambered up the jumble of rocks and back into danger.