Andrew pushed his way through the thickly bound ferns that made up the door to his burrow. Every joint was stiff and he forced a stretch out of himself in the early morning light. That burrow had seemed a lot more comfortable the night before when it protected him from giant bear things. Now he wanted nothing more than to find anywhere else to sleep for the night.

He cautiously made the walk to the edge of the tree line where he saw the caravan attack the day before. As he focused on the wagon he could feel his vision sharpening. He could count the planks making up the wagon's structure and see the footprints those giant creatures had left behind.

Must be that perception skill I leveled yesterday, already coming in handy. Theres nothing out there right now, no bodies even, should be safe to scavenge what's left.

Andrew crept his way down the hill towards the dirt road, staying low and keeping his head on a swivel. He managed to stay within the protective grasp of the forest ferns by darting from one to the other, feeling like an absolute fool. It was still felt better than just blatantly walking out. This strategy only lasted about half way down the hill before the ferns abandoned him and he had to just jog the rest of the way across open ground. The lack of a stealth skill creation seemed to confirm to him how silly the action had been.

The wagon was tipped on its side, contents spilling out of canvas sacks and shattered wooden boxes. Piles of grey rock streaked through with rusty orange color spilled out of one several barrels scattered around the back of the cart. A number of once neatly stacked pick axes spilled out of a upturned crate, and he found a single heavy sledgehammer nearly 8 feet from the cart, hidden in the grass. The real prize was the 3 sacks filled with hard biscuits, smoked meat and dried fruit, found nestled between the other boxes and bags.

Andrew made two quick trips up the hill with a sack in each hand on the first, a couple of smaller hammers and the other sack on the second. All three sacks barely fit into his burrow, but that suited him just fine. He would just find a new place to stay tonight anyways.

Returning to the caravan he picked several outfits of rough cloth from another of the crates. Far too large for him but they would have to do if his current clothing was damaged. He also grabbed a lantern, a pitcher of oil, three torches, and what he guessed was around 30 feet of rope. His cautious crawl down the hill all but forgotten as he ran back and forth from his squirrel hole, filling it with his plundered treasures.

He decided his greed was getting the better of him after he was halfway up the hill with his newfound shovel, getting ready to dig his burrow deeper.

So he could hide the pretty grey-orange rocks.

Wasn't I going to find a better place to sleep tonight? Still though, might have a use for this ore later, don't want anyone to come by and steal my salvage.

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

He dug the hole anyways, and earned an increase in strength for dragging the barrel up hill to the hole. Once he buried the barrel, hiding it out of fear it would reveal his burrow than anything else, he sat down for the second meal of the day. More of the dried fruits and jerky. It was delicious.

Now for priority number two. New hole to hide in, and a better grasp on my surroundings.

Andrew spent the rest of the day wandering the forest, using the tree line and the river to orient himself. He caught sight of a few smaller animals throughout the day, most under level five.

I guess this means that bear wasn't the only thing with levels, though It was incredibly high level compared to everything else I've seen so far.

As evening began to set in Andrew realized he would have to stay in the burrow again tonight. He hadn't found better shelter during his wandering that day. The forest was wholly untamed. Dense brush and tall trees as far as the eye could see. He found several berry bushes that looked promising but didn't eat any. Taking note in case food became truly desperate.

He returned to his burrow and began digging another hole nearby. He threw himself into the task, pushing himself as hard as he could. The progress kept him centered, focused on the moment, on what was important right now.

He wasn't strong enough to survive against any of the monsters outside of this stretch of forest. He couldn't help anyone else who found themselves stranded in this world until he was strong enough to leave. He couldn't go and find out if his family had been taken too, if any of his friends were struggling out here, or chained to the back of a prison cart. He couldn't do any of those things if he ran out and got himself killed, and he couldn't do any of those things successfully until he got stronger.

If this is really a world where you can get stats just from hard work then I'm going to get as much as I can out of it. The more I work, the stronger I get, the safer and more concealed my camp is, the closer I am to getting out of here and figuring out what's going on.

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

Andrew crawled into his burrow that night feeling with mixed emotions. He had hoped to find something more when exploring today. Signs of other people abandoned in the forest as he had been, some ancient ruins or mystical powers. Instead he dug a bunch of holes and spent the day identifying squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional hawk. Still, he had secured a good source of food and he was confident he could survive out here for a while longer.

Andrew spent the next three days doing basically just that. Training his stats by running armfuls of pick axes and pushing barrels of rocks up the hill. Then digging holes to hide them in. He would train like this in the morning, then cool down by wandering the forest, traveling further and further from the river and tree line that he used to orient himself. He marked trees to make sure he could find his way back, and tried not to check the same area twice. It was on the evening of his fifth night here that he found what he was looking for.

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Strength for performing labor that pushes your limits]

[+1 Vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

[+1 Vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

[+1 Vitality for pushing the limits of your endurance]

He found a clearing a healthy distance from his camp, bits of stone jutted from the earth in rough stacks, grown over with vegetation. The rough stone piles formed the outline of a small cottage that must have stood in this clearing a long time ago. He approached the ruin cautiously. The interior of the square of stones was coated in dirt and grass, and the approaching darkness of night made it difficult to make out details inside of the simple structure.

Andrew stepped through what remained of the doorway and looked around. He could feel the dirt under his feet shift slightly as he made his way around the small cottage. The walls might've been made from stone bricks before, but now they were so grown through with vegetation it was hard to tell. The cottage was all old stone and new dirt.

Well, I guess there's nothing for me here. Won't make much of a shelter either, these walls barely reach my chest.

As Andrew headed across the room to the door he felt the ground beneath him shift and sag for a moment. He paused, took one step forward and- His foot broke through the ground in front of him just as he transfered the last of his weight to it. The dirt around it collapsed downward as the rotten wooden floor that previously supported it gave way beneath him. His right leg scraped against broken floorboard as it was buried to the knee in dirt. He landed heavily on his other knee and had to reach out with his hands to catch his balance.

Okaay. Not great. Way to trap your leg as soon as it starts to get dark.

He could feel the sharp edge of a broken wooden plank digging at his inner calf and he hurriedly began digging the earth away from his buried foot. His efforts revealed old rotted wooden floorboards beneath, his foot having broken through a particularly weak area. He cleared a healthy amount of dirt out around his leg before wrapping his hands in some bandages he cut from the oversized outfits. He used his wrapped hands to grip the boards trapping his leg and pull them away.

They came apart much easier than he was expecting and he nearly hit himself in the face with the sudden jerk-snap of the boards. He managed to pull his foot free and could now see why the floor had collapsed in only this spot. There was a small storage space of below this cottage and while the structure above had collapsed the space below was surprisingly intact.

It was getting quite late, but curiosity got the better of him and it did not look like a large space anyways. Hands still wrapped he began pulling more and more of the boards up and out, clearing dirt as he went until a small chest was revealed. It looked like it was once bound in leather, but only scraps of that remained, falling away from the sturdy wood that made up most of its structure. The chest was heavy but manageable and he picked it up, deciding to carry the whole thing back to his camp rather than waste more time trying to open it here. It was too dark for him to be able to see the contents right now anyways and if he stayed out any longer he wasn't sure if he would be able to find his way back.

When he returned he stuffed the chest into a corner of his ever expanding burrow and tucked himself in. The burrow was now lined with the pilfered clothing and a little more livable. He checked his status before heading to bed.

Tomorrow I'll get to figure out what's in that chest. Hopefully it's worth carrying the thing all the way back to camp.

Name: Andrew Neilson

Race: Human

Catalyst: None

Class: None

Profession: None

Titles: Pioneer

Status:

HP: 110/110

SP: 110/110

MP: 50/50

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 8

Vitality: 11

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 7

Skills:

-Perception lvl 2

-Camouflage lvl 1

Morning arrived and as soon as Andrew awoke he was pulling the chest out of his burrow. The chest was secured with a padlock coated in rust. Two solid hits from the sledgehammer and it was open. He was really felling that increase in strength. Once the box was open he was rewarded with his first sight of something truly magical.

Within the box was a heavy leatherbound journal, and six blue crystals that had a slight glow to them. The journal was about half full, mostly with illustrations of strange runes and text in a language he couldn't read. The runes stared relatively simple, a handful of lines creating basic patterns. The runes in later pages were significantly more detailed and he only made it a few pages in before he felt a growing headache. He ignored it at first but after the first few pages it increased in intensity. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and felt pressure building behind his eyes. When he slammed the book shut his headache lessened, but he was left with a lingering unease.

Well that feels magically promising. Super gross and uncomfortable too, but definitely magical. I'll have to stick to the stuff that doesn't make me want to die for now. Not going to let all that work go to waste. One more try.

He opened the book again.

The first page contained a circle made up of geometric symbols connected by intertwining chains. It was accompanied by pictures of a man bound by chains and surrounded by indecipherable symbols. The page was filled with text but he couldn't understand any of it. The second page was more text, and pictures of creatures chained to the ground while standing in a circle made of runes.

The next two pages had a similar format. This time the runic circle was made from a set of wavy triangular runes and similar lines that connected them. The drawings nearby showed a progression of wavy lines, to smoke, to a flame, each contained within the circle. He turned to the next set of pages.

The third set of runes was made up of nested pentagons pointed inwards, connected by a circle of diamonds layered on top of one another. The pictures accompanying these runes were less easily deciphered. A brick wall, A textured oval, A mountaintop.

First circle looks like some kind of binding magic. Something designed to trap living creatures with chains or something? The second one seems to create flames, or increase the temperature inside. I'm not sure about the last one though.

The brick wall might imply structure, or durability. Not sure what the second picture is though. Looks more like a lumpy rock than anything. The third one looks like the peak of a mountain, though what that's supposed to represent I have no idea. I wish there was a way to read this language. It looks nothing like english though and I've never been great at learning languages. Two years of high school Spanish and a college quarter of Japanese isn't a great foundation for old fantasy language deciphering. I suppose I'll just have to experiment. Nothing could possibly go wrong with drawing random arcane symbols found in an undecipherable journal in a locked box right?

He set the book aside and reached for one of the blue crystals. He felt a vague buzzing, almost like static electricity as soon as his hand closed in on one of the crystals. As soon as he grabbed one he felt a jolt, like a light electric charge but it sent a cold shiver up his arm. The pulse traveled up through his body once, twice, three times. It felt almost like a heart beat. The pulses continued to flow through his body as he held onto the crystal. He tried to focus on the cold pulses. There was something to learn here.

A book full of runic drawings and a bunch of blue crystals. This has to be related. The circles before seemed to be some kind of magic, that would create effects when drawn. Maybe this is a battery of some kind? A mana crystal or something? Could also just be pumping radiation or something else awful into me though.

He focused on the pulses of cold lightning flowing through his body and tried to control them. He started by trying to slow it down, to create separations between the pulses and draw out the feeling of cold flowing through his body. At first the pulse moved so quickly that he could barely track it as it traveled the length of his body in less than a second. About an hour later he had managed to slow that pulse down to a full five seconds. When he stretched that feeling out to a crawling ten second pulse he finally achieved what he was looking for.

[Mana Control skill created]

[+1 intelligence for creating a mana related skill]

Fuck yes! Okay, magic is real, this crystal probably isn't irradiated, and I can use it! All I can do right now is slow it down, but I bet if I can get to fireball levels of magic man powers I'll be able to deal with something like that bear no problem. Just need practice. Practice, then fireballs. No problem.

He spent most of the morning working with the crystal. Practicing slowing down the pulse until he managed to draw it out over the course of an agonizing thirty seconds. He then tried to force that pulse out of his body through his hands. He managed to concentrate the pulse into one hand or the other, but as soon as it escaped his body he could no longer sense it. He watched carefully but couldn't see any physical change on his hands as he forced the mana out. It just, disappeared.

He spent another hour trying to make something happen. A ball of fire, A pulse of energy, hell he would have settled for a little blue mist. Nothing.

I don't need to be able to see for this. I'll try again tonight, but it looks like my dreams of throwing fireballs are still a long ways off.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

I'm going to need to get a class or catalyst soon. I can train attributes all day long but I'm not sure how far I'll get fighting something like that bear without one. I was hoping that mana control practice would earn me a catalyst of some kind maybe, but I just need to practice more. Oh well. Next on the list is testing out those runes.

First step was drawing in the dirt. It seemed like a good enough way to practice forming the symbols and its not like he could set the earth on fire, or bind it for that matter.

This was easier said than done, as he had to return to the road which held the only stretch of bare earth he could easily find. He was constantly pausing his work to scan the horizon, looking out for more of those giant creatures or another caravan. None came.

[Perception lvl 2-3]

He practiced the binding runes first. He glanced back and forth from the book of runes, to the dirt in front of him, to the horizon around him. He had brought a long thin stick from the woods and was using it to scratch the runes in the dirt.

The circle was made up of eight individual runes bound by connecting symbols. The runes were made up of eight hexagons linked by three crossed lines. The connecting symbols were made up of three links of chain crossing and braiding.

It took him a full hour and a half to painstakingly dig the runes into the dirt, often having to kick over mistakes and scuff the dirt to erase his failures. When he finally completed the circle he stepped back and watched, waiting for something magical to happen.

[Perception lvl 3-4]

Nothing.

He pressed one palm to the circle and the other to a mana crystal he now kept in his pocket. He felt the pulse of the mana through the crystal and into his body and he expelled it down into the circle. With each pulse he could feel as the mana pushed its way through the runes. It felt as if the pulses of mana were digging the runes deeper into the dirt and as soon as the mana completed the circle he felt a jolt of feedback.

[Mana control lvl 1-2]

[+1 Intelligence for completing a new arcane technique]

The circle had a dull blue glow to it now and he could see faint wisps of light floating inside the circle. They appeared for just a moment, traveling in a spiraling pattern headed inward before disappearing again, lasting only a brief moment. If there were not so many of them he wouldn't be sure they were there at all.

He tossed a rock into the circle. Nothing happened. The circle was still glowing, still blue. The rock was unchanged.

I'm fairly certain this is a binding circle of some kind. I probably should have had a plan for what to do when I finished it.

…

I could just step inside to test it. Who knows how long it will last though.

…

I don’t want to be stuck here when something else comes along.

…

Could try luring a rabbit over here or something. I don't think I have much of a chance of pulling that off though.

...

Oh well, endurance test it is then, I'll have to check on it later to see how long it'll remain active. Next one should be portable. Can't just sit out here all day waiting for something to run through it.

Andrew headed to the nearby wagon pulled a board off it. His increased strength made it easy to pry the board loose from it's frame with his bare hands. He then grabbed a knife from the wagon and sat down with the board to work on his second set of runes. He occasionally glanced at the first circle he scrawled in the dirt, waiting for it to dim.

The runes he was working on now were the heat related runes. These were slightly less complex, the rune was formed from three sets of three wavy lines. The lines formed a triangle but were not connected at the ends. The connecting symbol was a pair of parallel wavy lines extending from two points of the triangle, with the third pointing inwards. The simpler design of these runes also made it a bit easier for him to scratch them into the wood in a smaller form.

[Woodcarving skill created]

[+1 Dexterity for creating a precision based skill]

It took about an hour to fully complete the runes on his wood board. His third wood board. He had to throw away his first board after botching the fourth rune beyond fixing. The second time he rushed and only after finishing the third rune did he realize he had connected the lines forming the triangle of the first rune.

His third board was perfect though. He took his time, carefully carving the runes with as much precision as he could manage, trying not to rush, to stay focused in the moment.

[+1 Dexterity for performing precise work]

[Woodcarving skill lvl 1-2]

The binding circle was still glowing with mana, though it seemed somewhat dimmer than before.

So it can last at least an hour. That’s pretty impressive actually, this magic was probably developed with traps or longevity in mind. I can't imagine dirt is the best thing for mana retention. If that’s even a thing. I wish the primer came with a "hey this is how mana works! Its good for this! Its good for that! Runes last forever and dirt makes an excellent mana battery! Never carve heat runes on wood!"

I suppose its time to find out about that last one. I probably should figure out a way to use my own mana to power it. Using the crystal doesn't drain any of my mana and so I can't tell how much went into making that circle.

He set the wood board in the dirt a little ways from the binding circle and began to infuse it with mana from the same crystal he used before. This time he touched the runes with two fingers extended away from his body, keeping distance from the board. He pushed mana through the runes and felt the same sensation as the mana seemed to dig deeper into the wood as it filled in the patterns. When the circle connected this time he felt no feedback and the board instantly began to grow warmer. The board continued to consume the mana he pushed into it even after the circle was completed.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

The board continued to warm up as more and more mana flowed through Andrew from the crystal into the board. The wood began to turn brown and he could feel the heat growing against his fingers. He smelled smoke and could see the wood begin to bulge in places. Black spots formed and cracks spread through the expanding wood.

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

He watched as one of those cracks creeped its way across the board before splitting one of the connecting runes. The mana he was pushing into the board snapped and he felt a jolt of feedback,. He pulled his burnt fingers away from the board as a wave of heat erupted outwards from the broken connector and around the board, blackened splintering wood following its path before meeting on the opposite side with a burst of orange sparks.

The tips of his fingers throbbed with pain. They were a milky red and he could see little bubbles forming under the skin.

Well that could've gone worse. Fingers really fucking hurt, and the board is destroyed, but hey, throw a couple leaves and twigs on one of those and I've got a reliable campfire at the very least. Feels like I should be able to do more with this though. If I could contain all of the heat within the material somehow, and release it all at once I should get something like a fireball. Something that feels a lot more like classic *Flash* *boom* Magic. Something that'll help me get some experience or levels at least.

[Mana Control lvl 2-3]

[Rune Inscription Skill Created]

[+1 Intelligence for creating a mana based skill]

[+1 Dexterity for creating a precision based skill]

Skills are great, and I can feel them sharpening my control, but there must be something more once I finally get a class or catalyst. Being stuck here alone without any supplies in the middle of the forest must have me way behind anyone else who came. I bet even the people who were chained to that wagon had a better idea of what's going on than I do, if only because they can actually travel. Could travel. Not much of that happening now I suppose.

He wrapped his blistered fingers in the cleanest scrap cloth he had on him and pulled five more boards off the wagon. He could cut them in half and get a total of ten squares of wood, all ready to be converted into convenient, portable little finger burners. The binding circle still glowed in the road as he made his way back up the hill.

He dropped his boards next to his burrow before making his way to the river and sticking his burnt fingers into it. Just staying there by the river for a little bit. Laying on his stomach to provide some relief to his back, which ached from hunching over scratching runes into the dirt. Not caring much for the dirt and mud that rubbed into his clothes.

I literally live in a hole now. Gotta get comfortable with a little more dirt I guess.

[HP: 108/110]

The system didn’t seem to think much of his burned fingers, but they certainly stung to him.

So a few options. Heat runes can get me some fires at night, which is great but it isn't going to get me any levels. If this works like a game, which it seems to, then I need to find some monsters to kill. Something with levels I can gain from. I have weapons, that big-ass hammer or a pick would be more than enough, but I'm not sure I can manage to hit a wolf with something so slow. So binding runes. Set some up. Trap a wolf. Kill it and get levels. Get strong enough to use the hammer and kill more wolves. Profit. Simple. Easy. No problem. Think positive.

Once his fingers were sufficiently numbed by the cold quick moving river water he climbed to his feet and headed back to his burrow. He split his boards into ten square sections. He then set one aside for his fire, and eight aside for the runes of a binding circle. He then jogged back to the cart to grab another five boards.

This is probably going to take more wood than I originally thought. That circle in the dirt is still going though huh.

He split those boards into ten squares, then split them again into twenty rectangles. It was already past noon by the time he finished carving his next heat circle, which he set aside. He then carved the binding rune onto eight of the wood squares, and the connecting runes onto eight of the smaller rectangles. He periodically laid them all out to make sure they would connect properly once everything was finished.

[Woodcarving lvl 2-3]

[Rune Inscription lvl 1-2]

[+1 Dexterity for preforming precision work]

[+1 Dexterity for preforming precision work]

There was still a few hours of light left in the day, so he collected up his squares, stuck a hammer and his knife through one of his belt loops and pocketed the mana crystal. He then started his first trek uphill since he ran from that bear on his first day in the forest. He hadn't encountered anything more dangerous than a rabbit this close to the tree line, but he remembered the wolves from before. If he could lure one into his binding circle he would be able to test how long it lasted at the very least. His new points in strength and dexterity gave him a bit more confidence in fighting off the beast if he needed to.

After about an hour of walking through the woods Andrew slowed down and listened to the forest around him. He could hear something larger shuffling through the woods ahead of him and he stopped, throwing down his circle of wood runes before pulling out his mana crystal and beginning to charge it.

This is the most dangerous part. Stay low, work fast. Don't get eaten.

His luck paid off as he managed to get the entire circle charged, noticeably faster than it had taken him before. Only five seconds this time. He could still hear the rustling ahead and he creeped forward through the brush to get a better look. About fifteen feet ahead of him he could see a big brown furry mass pushing its way through the ferns, nosing its way through the dirt.

[Boar lvl 3]

That would do nicely, probably safer than the wolf he was looking for anyways. He stood up from the underbrush and knocked his hammer against the tree next to him a couple times. The boar looked up before squealing and rushing towards him. Faster than he had expected.

He rushed back through the underbrush a short distance, moving around to the opposite side of the circle. The boar rushed right into it and he watched as the it slowed to a stop within it, as if caught in a thick invisible web. The runes glowed much brighter now and Andrew took his opportunity.

He swung as hard as he could down towards the boar's head and was pleased to find the circle did not slow him down. With a solid crack the boar stopped its slow push through the circle and fell to the ground.

[Boar lvl 3 defeated. For defeating an opponent above your level you gain additional experience.]

[You have gained enough combat experience to level up]

[Your current skills and achievements allow you to choose from the following classes]

[Warrior: A frontline fighter who relies on the strength of their body and their combat skills to defeat their foes]

[Ranger: Adapted to solitary life in rough terrain the ranger makes use of their environment to gain advantages against their foes and maintain awareness of their surroundings.]

[Trapper: The trapper defeats their foes by luring them to their death, spinning a web of death and allowing the prey to come to them.]

[Scavenger: The vultures of civilization, not to be underestimated. Scavengers make use of anything and everything around them, collecting and repurposing. Highly adaptable but often unfocused, reliant on use of equipment and capable of using or repurposing variety of it, but less skillfully than specialists.

[You have gained enough magic experience to level up]

[Your current skills and achievements allow you to choose from the following catalysts]

[Rune Carver: The carver controls the wild magics of the arcane. Carving runes with exact precision and powering them with pure mana. Runic magic takes much longer to prepare than most, but is also capable of far more precision, customization and efficiency than others. ]

[Mana Enhancer: The enhancer uses pure mana to increase the strength of their weapons and armor. Pushing mana into equipment and material around them to strengthen it and make use of its natural properties]

Alright there's a lot to parse here. Separate magic and combat experience, though both benefit greatly from killing things. Nothing yet for profession, though I would've expected woodcarving to do something for that. It looks like the options are based around both skills gained and achievements. Skills are easy but there aren't any menus showing achievements. It must some kind of hidden system, judging my actions. I don't have a skill for either trapping or scavenging but got class offers for both. Catalysts seem to follow the same rule, but the primer stated that they could only evolve, not be replaced. I'll save catalysts for later, see if I get a more interesting or powerful option and pick a class now.

Warrior could be powerful, but feels generic. Ranger might give me some skills to make navigating the forest easier. It would probably give me something related to tracking too, which would be helpful for gaining levels and finding other humans. The trapper seems situational. It would be useful now with my current fighting style, but I don't think I can rely on picking my battlefield and having prep time, especially if I plan to travel and search for more people. Scavenger seems odd. The description is longer than the others and seems to be more specialized. Though it seemed to specialize in adaptability if that makes sense, and if it gives some kind of bonus to using the runes I already know then it could be very helpful. If games have taught me anything its that a longer description means a stronger class, and the primer implied these could be changed out unlike catalysts.

[Class chosen: Scavenger]

[Choose two class skills. One additional skill will be available every ten levels]

[Each level you will gain +1 Dexterity, +1 Vitality, +1 Wisdom. You will also be awarded 5 Attribute points to distribute as you see fit]

[Adaptive Weapon Mastery (Passive): Stick em with the pointy end. Hit them with the heavy part. Don't hit yourself with any of it. You have an instinctive feel for how weapons of all kinds work, and can make most anything into a weapon. You aren't a master by any means but you'll deal more damage and have more control over any weapon you wield.

Empower Item: Imbue an item with your mana, imposing your will upon the item and altering it to fit your needs.

Material Sense: Expand your senses gaining information on the general quantity and quality of materials around you. Can be narrowed to increase range.

Mana Sense: Expand your senses gaining information on the density and type of mana around you. Can be narrowed to increase range.

Delve Item: Saturate an item with your mana, examining it in its entirety. You gain knowledge on the intended use of this item and may learn the methods of its construction or operation.]

Weapon mastery could be useful, but that description seemed a little sarcastic. An increase to weapon damage and control is helpful in any combat situation and that instinctive feel for weapons could be more useful than it sounds. I'm not sure if I could make that sledgehammer work without some serious practice as I am now.

Empower Item could be very useful. Increased durability might allow me to create some kind of armor, and depending on how flexible the item alteration is, it could open up a lot of crafting and rune carving options.

Material and mana sense both seem useful, but not right now. Materials aren't a high priority right now and I wouldn't even know what to do with higher mana density or different types right now anyway. I wasn't even aware there were different types in the first place.

Delve Item is probably the most situational of the bunch. The use and general construction methods of most of the things he had now were no mystery. It could quickly become one of his best skills if he found any magical items though. The ability to use magic items at will and possibly learn to construct them could be very powerful.

Empower Item has too much flexibility to ignore, but now he had to choose between delving and weapon mastery.

Delving is high risk high reward, the reward being entirely dependent on him exploring more. If he found something complex or indecipherably magical he would be able to use it or even replicate it. That has the potential to greatly increase my strength and options, but only if I happen to by lucky enough to just stumble onto something like that.

Weapon mastery however is going to be in use any time he fought. Literally makes me better at fighting with everything. Gives me an instinctive feel for how to use new weapons properly. This should make it significantly easier to bridge the gap between how I think a weapon should be used, and how it actually is used.

It has to be Weapon Mastery. Way more likely to be helpful. Instantly useful. Flexible and allows for later alterations to my fighting styles. Delving is an interesting one if I had access to more complex items and so on, but stuck in the middle of nowhere like this it's nowhere near peak efficiency.

[Skill Gained Adaptive Weapon Mastery lvl 1]

[Skill Gained Empower Item lvl 1]

No attribute increases for gaining these skills. Meaning that only applies when you create them.

Andrew looked up from the cascade of blue screens with a start. He was still in the middle of the forest. It was getting dark and he was standing in front of the corpse of a boar, blood pooling from its crushed skull.

Shit I can't afford to get lost in thought like this in the middle of the forest. What if something could smell the blood and was attracted to this? What if something had snuck up on me while I was looking over stats? I would be totally fucked if even one wolf made it up into my shit out here. Focus. Prioritize.

It was getting dark and he needed to get back to his camp. He didn't need food right now, and he didn't need to keep looking at the log. He needed to return to shelter and get away from this scavenger magnet.

He gathered up his wooden rune tiles and made for camp. He would experiment with gutting and cooking boar later, but he didn't have the expertise now and didn't want to attract predators to his little camp.

Maybe ranger wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Those sacks of food won't last forever.

He returned to his burrow, gathering dried leaves and small twigs as he went. He set up a ring of riverstones around a small pit he dug and set the heat-rune board in the bottom.

I really need to come up with a name for all this shit now that I'm going to be using it regularly. The burn board! The Circle of Fire! The Heat Hickory! I'll have to work on that one.

He deposited his sticks and leaves into the pit before taking the long straight stick he had used to carve runes in the dirt and focused on it.

He closed his eyes and tried to feel the pulses of mana within himself. Trying to recreate the feeling of those cold pulses coming off of the mana crystal.

One

…

Two

…

Three

…

He could feel them, coming from a place near the center of his chest above the stomach but below the pectorals. The pulses flowed out through the chest, arms and head. Down through the stomach legs and feet. He felt the stick in his two hands. Imagined the mana flowing up. All of it flowing up. Into the stick, through the stick, one hand to the other, then back. You will transfer mana. Like an extension of my body, mana will flow through this stick and into whatever it touches. Like an extension of my body I will feel the mana within whatever it touches. He focused his mind on trying to activate the empower item skill, and felt a tingling at the base of his skull as it responded.

When he opened his eyes the stick had changed. It was longer, thinner than before. The bark was stripped off leaving a bare pale stick as long as his arm. He could feel the mana flowing through it. Now focused on the pulses of mana within himself as he was, he could feel the pulse travel up, through him and into the stick. He practiced slowing down the pulse, like he did with the crystal before, and it worked even within the stick. Perfect.

[+1 Intelligence for pushing the limits of your mana control]

[+1 Wisdom for sustaining constant mana control]

[Mana Control lvl 3-4]

MP: 65/120

He took his new 'staff' and poked it into the firepit until it touched his Cedar Cinder Circle. It took half his mana to create this staff, hopefully he'd have enough to start the fire. He still had his trusty pocket crystal if not though. He pushed mana into the staff, then the board. It didn't take long before smoke rose from the board and only 5 mana later he had a small fire going. He pulled his staff out of the fire, it had some small char marks at the end but otherwise appeared completely untouched. He set it to the side and gathered some larger branches nearby to throw on the fire.

He settled himself in the dirt near the fire. Stretching out and relaxing for what felt like the first time that day. The warmth of the fire brought him a sense of relaxation and security he hadn't realized he was missing before.

This, is nice. Almost like when I was camping, before all this happened. It seems like a lifetime ago. I would already be done with that trip by now if I were still there. I'd be home for days already. Probably dreading a return to work, to stocking shelves and hating life. A far leap from childhood dreams of game design and indie programming.

Not now though, now I was in the middle of an unfamiliar forest.

Doing magic.

Fucking magic, seriously.

I don't know where anyone else is. I don't know If they're alright or if they're safe back home but hey, I can do fucking magic.

Think positive, definitely not concussed, now a super cool boar killing, wizard extraordinaire.

This is going to turn out alright, just need to build strength, find people, figure out what happened. Not worth thinking about anything else until that’s done.

No big deal. Minor change of plans. Oh well.