“Well, he’s not completely naked. He’s wearing wrist guards,” the man said with a laugh. Nathan thought he had either an Australian or New Zealand accent.

“Oh yeah, sure… how could I miss the wrist guards?" the British accented woman smirked. "It's always important to protect the modesty of one’s wrists."

The man laughed again and shouted towards Nathan, “Hey, ya alright mate?”

Nathan had been in a mad scramble to grab his underwear and pants when they caught sight of him. He could only imagine how ridiculous he looked. His two sleeping companions covered in blood, one whose pants were pulled down, only added flavor to the scene.

He took a deep breath. Just act normal. Who cares if he was naked while bathing in a creek? They were in a survival death game. But he still couldn’t prevent the warmth that reached his face. He tried to casually pull on his wet pants and yelled back, “Yeah, was cleaning my clothes.” And then to take the focus off himself, he added, “My friends are injured so I’m glad you’re here.”

The three people descended the hill. The man who called out to him was tall, at least six feet, four inches. He looked in his early twenties with tanned white skin, messy blond hair he pushed out of his eyes, and a strong square jaw. He wore a plain green t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, white soccer shorts, and a pair of running shoes. He had a matching collar and wristband designating him as a player. The yellow stone on each meant he was an Earth Prime like Johanna.

The man casually held a thick and heavy looking wooden bat. Nathan recognized the blunt weapon immediately from his RPGs… a wooden club. It was the first real weapon he’d seen and he immediately wanted one. Sorry Mr. Rock. The man must’ve gotten it as a reward, similar to Nathan’s own armored bracers.

“Emma, will ya take a look at them?” the man asked the girl who had been silent so far. She was a lean, fair skinned girl with raven hair; probably in her late teens or early twenties. She wore a loose black tank top long enough he couldn’t be sure if she was wearing shorts or not underneath. Her collar featured a blue stone marking her as a Water Prime.

Most notably, she had green improvised bandages wrapped around both her feet, both soaked through with blood. With sudden understanding, he realized the bandages were once the man’s shirt sleeves. She must’ve been transported here without shoes or socks, wearing only what she’d slept in. He felt embarrassed about how miserable he’d acted concerning his dress shoes. At least he had shoes.

“I have a look,” she responded. Her heavy French accent was difficult for him to follow. She turned to address Nathan and said, “I live on farm. I help hurt animals.”

The woman who had first spoken with the British accent laughed. “I think she means she helps animals that are hurt, not that she helps hurt the animals.”

She was half a foot shorter than the pale girl and had dark Indian skin. She looked to be in her late twenties, closer to his own age he guessed. The stone on her collar was red meaning she was a Fire Prime like Asahi. She was wearing flannel patterned pajama bottoms and a matching lavender t-shirt featuring an image of a skinny black cat sporting a pearl necklace. She wore two dirty purple and white striped fuzzy socks on her feet. Oh man, he felt doubly bad he complained about his shoes now.

The short woman held a wooden staff as tall as she was which she currently used as a walking stick. The rough wood was the opposite of the polished finish of the man's club, indicating the staff was likely self-made from a large branch.

The taller French accented woman addressed as Emma went to Asahi’s side, bending down to examine his leg. She studied the tourniquet and then unwrapped the bandage to get a look at the wound.

The other purple pajama woman stepped towards Nathan. “I’m dying of thirst but worried the water might not be safe. Did you drink already?”

“Oh yeah. I feel fine so far for what that’s worth,” Nathan said. “I also have the Wilderness Survival skill and it’s telling me that it’s most likely safe.”

“Most likely safe? You aren’t sure?” she asked.

“It should be safe unless something specifically contaminates it,” Nathan replied. “That being said, I do suggest drinking upstream unless you want to drink my bathwater.”

She laughed. He found the cheerful noise strangely comforting. The contrast between it and the last hour of battle and medical horror made him understand how much he’d been messed up. Meeting new people... people who could still laugh... was something he needed more than he’d realized. After all, he’d been mentally talking to his rock before they showed up.

The cheery woman and the tall man took a few steps upstream and started drinking. Nathan used the time to finish dressing himself.

Once he drank his fill, the man walked back towards him. “I’m Harrison, how’s it going?” He held out his hand. “Nice outfit. Ya look like that Hercules bloke with those leather arm things.”

Nathan smiled, glad someone appreciated the look. He shook his hand. Geez… the man had an iron grip. “Thanks…”

“Although ya don’t have his good hair or muscles. So a scrawny Hercules.”

Nathan laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m working on both. I’m Nathan and from the U.S. I was working in my office building when I ended up here. Where are you guys and gals from?”

“Sydney, Australia,” the man replied. “Was headed to my footy club and found myself here when opening the locker room door. I’m a construction foreman for work.”

The shorter pajama girl spoke up next, “Hi, I’m Maya. I grew up in India but moved to London for work. I’ve been a project liaison for an I.T. company for the last eight years. It’s been brilliant! I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom and when I opened the door, it led to this forest.”

Emma had finished checking out Asahi and was now looking at Johanna’s stomach. She spoke up so she could be heard. “My name is Emma. I from small village in France.” He had to listen carefully due to her heavy accent and limited vocabulary. “I go to uni in Rome. I sleeping in the flat. When I wake, I’m here. Sorry my English not speak well. My third language.”

That was still an impressive feat to Nathan. Many Americans never even learned a second language including himself. Well, he supposed he did learn five new languages that day, but hadn’t she too?

“Didn’t the Language skill help with your English?” Nathan asked.

“Language skill?” the French girl asked.

“Language skill!?” Maya asked excitedly at the same time.

“Yeah, teaches you five languages. We all got it in the prelims.”

Maya stepped closer to him. “How? What steps did you do to unlock it? What does its description say?” Her questions were rapid fire.

“Uh, we just tried to talk to each other non-verbally. We spoke different languages so the skill helped us out big time.”

“That’s it?” Her brown eyes held an intensity to them. “So it requires you to attempt communication with someone who speaks a different language? The four of us… well, the three of us left now... all spoke English to varying degrees. Maybe we didn’t meet the right conditions to unlock it?”

“Maybe,” Nathan said. “We can experiment in a bit if you like. But a monster attack should be hitting us any minute now.”

As if tempting fate, a loud screech pierced the air from across the creek. A strange yipping noise accompanied it, heralding that something differed from the previous attacks. The yipping came from the opposite hill, the same direction the new players arrived from.

They were surrounded.

Maya pointed her walking stick towards the trail and the source of the unidentified yipping noise. Harrison raised his club off his shoulder and faced the creek. Nathan took two quick steps to Johanna’s sleeping side and grabbed Mr. Rock where she’d dropped it. Then he took position beside Maya up the trail against the unknown threat. Emma, who was weaponless, stayed behind Harrison along with the two sleeping players.

Nathan thought the yipping resembled a hyena laughing with its high pitched disturbing whine. The noise was soon followed by the appearance of a grayish skinned humanoid at the top of the hill. The short person, or more accurately monster, walked upright but had an alien face that only its mother could love. Its nose was squat and wet, dripping mucus.

Off the cuff, Nathan thought the short statured creature might be a goblin or orc from fantasy lore. Though that was probably his own geeky bias labeling it. The creature’s big floppy ears covered in scraggly white hairs looked shredded as if from a fight. A few more wisps of longer white hair hung down from its scalp, and jagged yellow teeth showed in a snarl... or perhaps a grin? Either way, the effect was the same. It was wearing a dirty brown fur skinned rug with a crude opening cut out for its head. The sorry excuse for clothing was thick and padded so it likely served as low quality armor.

Nathan’s eyes were drawn to the seven foot tall stick it was clutching in its gnarled fingered hands. The top of the sturdy stick was whittled to a point, resembling a sharpened pencil without the graphite core. He highly doubted the creature had much use for an oversized writing utensil so decided it must be a wooden spear. The spear would have decent range and it would make fighting the creature very dangerous assuming it had hostile intentions.

He didn’t have to guess much longer at its hostility. It let out another alien yip from its mouth and lowered its spear towards them, approaching steadily.

“Beavers cross the creek. I’ll take care of ‘em,” Harrison shouted from behind.

Seriously? Could everyone tell they were beavers except him?

Maya pointed her staff forward at the goblin thingy. She spoke to Nathan without taking her focus from the creature, “I will face it head on, try to circle around it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he answered, hoping the goblin creature couldn’t understand them. The tactic was sound though. He needed to avoid direct confrontation since Mr. Rock didn’t have the reach to match a spear.

He scrambled into the thick plants to the left side of the trail, his already tattered clothing snagging on various brambles. Sharp thorns cut into his hands and face drawing blood. On second thought, maybe not such a good plan.

He heard Maya talking to the creature. “We don’t want to fight. We are peaceful.” Nathan highly doubted diplomacy would work, but it was worth a shot he supposed.

Nathan couldn’t see either of them or the trail through the tall vegetation. He continued pushing through the brush, trying to stay parallel with the trail. He had to move far enough to get behind the ugly thing. A glance at his wrist informed him he just ticked to 16 EPs, enough for one attack buff. He heard another yip and then Maya called out, “Nolan or whatever your name is, it’s attacking... need help now!”

Nathan assumed she was talking to him so veered back towards the trail, pushing hard through the plants but far slower than he’d like. The gray monster soon came into view. He was approaching the goblin’s flank instead of from behind as planned.

The goblin thrust its spear towards Maya. Nathan’s heart leapt in panic. She stepped back and barely knocked it to the side with her staff. It lunged again and she dodged backward, losing her balance as she tripped on a root but recovering just as quickly. She was losing ground too fast. As the goblin advanced, probing her defenses, she was backed down the hill towards the sleeping players.

Nathan, concerned for the outmatched woman, burst out of the plants. “Attack Up!” Energy pumped through his body as he smashed Mr. Rock at the goblin’s head. The creature heard his skill announcement and stepped back, dodging the rock swing. The red energy misted away, his buff having whiffed with his missed attack. Nathan continued his forward momentum and tackled the goblin instead. Mr. Rock tumbled from his grip as they both fell into the opposite bushes.

Nathan landed on top of the monster in a jumble. A moment later he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. It freaking bit him! Yelling out in response, he tried to pull away but the goblin’s disgusting teeth were clamped in his flesh. Another wave of intense pain filled him and he was flooded with animal terror. He madly pushed the goblin with his right hand as he thrashed around wildly. Every muscle in his body tensed and flexed with strength, no other thought to his struggles than freeing himself.

Suddenly, the goblin’s teeth slackened and he was able to kick it off. He realized he was lying on his back, having rolled over while wrestling.

Maya swung her staff down on the goblin’s head and it yipped in response. She then bent down and picked up the goblin’s fallen spear. She stabbed it twice in its chest as it struggled to regain its feet. When she was unable to pierce its fur armor with the crude weapon, she changed her aim, unceremoniously stabbing it through the throat. The goblin sputtered, red blood gushing from both the wound and its mouth. It began glowing, metamorphosing into bright glittering lights. Then the light pixels dispersed in the wind.

Nathan twisted his head to see Harrison at the creek smashing a beaver flat like a pancake with his club. The tall man laughed as the rodent disappeared.

The battle was over.

“Well, that sucked,” Nathan complained, looking down at his throbbing and bloody shoulder.

“It could have gone better,” Maya agreed. For some reason she was smiling. “It took me a while to get a clear shot. You two were rolling around like a pair of crazed love birds.” She bent down to look at his injury, her tone becoming more serious. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve had worse,” he replied, not actually sure if it was true. He’d honestly never been bitten by a tooth diseased goblin before.

“Well, thanks for coming when you did. Things were about to get sketchy.”

“No problem. Though when you called for Nolan, I almost didn’t know to come,” he smiled. “You know my name is Nathan, right?”

She chuckled, “Really? Huh. You sure? You look like a Nolan.”

“Pretty sure,” he said, moving to stand. Instead, he groaned as he put his weight on his hurt arm and was forced to sit back down.

“Let me take a look at that,” she said.

Nathan nodded and started clumsily unbuttoning his blue shirt with his right hand. “Here,” Maya offered when she saw him struggle. She helped him take his shirt the rest of the way off, inspecting the bite marks with clinical professionalism. Then she smiled. “Nice hickey.”

Nathan laughed. “Yeah, I’m in a new world yet already falling back on bad habits.”

She barked out a laugh while she used his shirt to wipe the blood away. He lost his smile as he winced from the pain. After he glanced once at the blood on his shoulder, he became light headed. He averted his eyes, not wanting to gag in front of her. She finished by wrapping the shirt around his shoulder as a bandage.

“Well, looks like you’ll end up with some interesting scars.”

“At least something good came from it,” he mused.

She grinned. “You just need to learn a skill. We found out gaining Physical stats can heal people.”

“Yeah, we’ve done that too. I also have the First Aid skill. As soon as I get to 20 EPs, I can hopefully patch this up.” He glanced at his wristband. He only had 2 at the moment.

“First Aid? Wilderness Survival? What skills don’t you have?” she smirked.

“I can’t shoot laser beams out of my eyes… not yet anyway.”

“That’s because of the kryptonite I wear on my locket… sorry.” She grinned as she held her hand out. He took it and she helped him to his feet. She then snatched up the goblin’s spear. “I call rights on the pointy stick since I stuck him with it. Luckily it didn’t disappear with the body. It looks like everything the monster was wearing is gone though. Not that I wanted any of those disgusting looking rags anyway.”

“If you are taking the spear, can I have your staff then?” Nathan asked hopefully. “I can probably still use it in a fight even considering my shoulder.”

“Sure, though calling that stick a staff is a bit generous.”

Nathan walked back up the trail and retrieved the discarded staff. The sturdy stick was smooth, and he felt reassured to be holding a real weapon. Poor Mr. Rock, you are now obsolete. He then checked on the sleeping forms of Johanna and Asahi, relieved to find they were untouched from the battle, other than the wounds they already had.

“Nice work holding the creek,” Maya said to Harrison as they joined the taller man by the water.

“Based on the number of screeches, I’m assuming you fought three of them?” Nathan said. After the previous disastrous fight, he’d learned the importance of keeping track of the number of enemies. Especially if the monsters were kind enough to announce themselves.

“Ya, three beavers at once was fun,” Harrison said happily.

Nathan wouldn’t have described any of this as fun, but he supposed if he was going to have an ally, at least it was an enthusiastic one.

The other new player, Emma, knelt by the creek to wash out the bloody rag she was using to clean Johanna’s body. The tank top girl hadn’t helped in the fight as far as he could tell, but she was actively tending his injured friends. While not as glamorous a job as defending the creek, he could appreciate the contribution.

The younger woman placed her feet in the water and began washing her bandaged feet. How did she finish the preliminary without shoes? He had to race across a cavern like a madman and barely made it, and he had a running background.

“What were your preliminaries like?” Nathan asked the group of three.

“It was bonkers,” Harrison answered excitedly. “The four of us climbed up this vertical shaft with metal beams to grab onto. Random arrows flying out of the walls. The other bloke in our group, never got his name, was right under me. Took an arrow right in the face and fell about three hundred meters. I even told ‘em there was one there too, didn’t I?”

Nathan saw Maya grimace at the man’s retelling. She even appeared angry, whether at Harrison’s flippant attitude or just with the situation in general he couldn’t say. Probably both. She moved to the water to wash the blood off the goblin’s spear.

Harrison continued talking, oblivious to her discomfort. “For the second challenge, I had to do a bloody messed up puzzle where I flipped colored tiles. Pick the wrong one... get an electric shock. Each time the electricity was more intense than the last. Not sure I’d survive after a few more. Got some nerve damage anyway I think. Maya’s second challenge was hardcore too.”

“Holy crap, that sounds intense,” Nathan replied. He turned to Maya.

“I’ll tell you about mine later,” she said. She was frowning, her ever-present smile gone. Nathan nodded, understanding her mood. If Harrison had been talking about Kean’s death so casually, he would’ve slugged him.

Emma finished washing and rejoined them. Nathan, looking for a way to change the topic, asked, “How did Asahi’s leg look? I used the First Aid skill on him which should give him three times the natural recovery for six hours.”

“It’s no good. He needs, how you say? Needle to close cut.”

“Ah, he needs stitches,” Nathan said. He’d thought of fire, but hadn’t even considered stitching the wound closed. For good reason too... where would they even get a needle? They had no medical supplies.

Suddenly, a foreign thought invaded his mind. He recalled seeing a tree up the path with wickedly sharp looking needles, kind of like a more dangerous pine tree. He could use one of the needles for sewing stitches.

It annoyed him that when he saw the tree earlier, his skill had been silent. Why was it giving him the information now? His best guess was he needed to be thinking about a particular problem in order for a solution to trigger.

As for the thread to go with the needle, that was an easier problem. He could just unravel one of his fancy knit dress socks.

“There were pine needles growing on a tree back up the trail, about a twenty minute hike. I think they will work for sewing. But I could build a fire in the same amount of time to burn the wound close.”

“Hmm, which better?” the French woman asked.

“No idea.” He reached in his pocket for the moss and grass he’d collected for fire starting. They were soaking wet. Well, that’s inconvenient. He’d have to travel the trail anyway to find more. By the time he returned, he’d still have to start the fire from scratch making it by far the slower option. “I guess needle and thread it is.”

“But we needs... what’s the word? Infection ending cream,” Emma said.

Yeah, they ideally needed a disinfectant to properly clean the wound. He wouldn’t mind some for his disgusting bite wounds too. Maybe that was a point in favor of fire, it could burn the bacteria, at least theoretically. It worked in movies anyway.

He was struck again with foreign knowledge. There was a root which could be used as an antiseptic when ground up. The plant had long stalks with six leaves and a yellow flower blooming in the middle. He’d luckily seen several by the trail back where he started his adventure.

Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure if he’d actually even noticed the flowers at the time. His Mental score was 118 now, so perhaps his memory for trivial details had improved. Another explanation were the nanites. They were helping him remember as part of the Wilderness Survival passive ability. Either way, he was grateful for his new abilities.

“I need to collect some flowers back up the trail too, their root is an antiseptic. I can get the needle for sewing stitches and more moss for starting a fire on the way. I can’t leave Asahi and Johanna here alone though, so could you guys stay here and watch out for them until I get back?”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Maya said.

“I can go with him,” the Australian man said. “You two sheilas have no shoes. How far?”

“For everything, about thirty to forty minutes each way.”

“Harrison, we need you,” Emma said. She touched the blond man’s arm suggestively. “No fight beavers with no you.”

Maya replied, “We should be able to fight them, they are really dumb. But honestly, I think I should go with Nathan instead. I want to see if I can unlock the survival skill if he can show me where to forage. My socks are actually quite thick and not too bad to walk in. Plus, I used to run the streets barefoot growing up so it's no biggie.”

“This is a piss poor idea, ya sure?” Harrison asked.

Her brow furrowed in annoyance. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m just as qualified to walk a trail as you.”

Not wanting to waste time discussing it all day, Nathan said, “Alright, Maya can come too and Harrison and Emma can guard here. Just let me check my messages before we go.”

Without waiting for a response, he took a seat on a rock and opened his interface to begin reading. Maya and Harrison sat down to do the same.

[Your (3) participating group members have been awarded 2 NPs each for the defeat of three tier 0 monsters and one tier 1 monster.]

[Due to your first victory against a tier 1 monster, you have been awarded a randomly chosen Wood skill for which you meet the requirements.]

[You have learned the Analyze Enemy I skill.]

As he was reading, he began bracing himself for what was to come. When it arrived, it hit his brain like a truck.

He managed to stay conscious again, a fact that was more terrible than helpful. Once it was over, he sat up and opened his interface. He vaguely noticed the other players likewise stirring, just having finished skill learning of their own.

He read his new skill description.

[Analyze Enemy I: Requirements - Wood 3. (Activated Skill - adds basic knowledge of an enemy's statistics to the player's interface - cost: 8 EPs.) (Gain +1 Mental.)]

[Upgrade requirements for level II: 40 NPs, Mental 125, Wood 5.]

Information gathering was always useful. The 8 EP cost was cheap for use in battle too. The +1 Mental gain was extra icing on the cake, putting him at 119. He just needed one more Mental stat to improve his EP maximum to 35.

As for the NP rewards, fighting monsters didn’t appear lucrative, at least not yet. They only gained 2 NPs each. It was interesting only three of them were given credit. Johanna and Asahi were both asleep so obviously weren’t included. Emma was awake but didn’t actually help either. It meant a player had to actually contribute to get a share of the rewards. Splitting the pot three ways and given that the tier 0 rats were worth 1 NP each, he deduced the tier 1 goblin thingy must be worth 3.

He was now up to 21 NPs which was still not enough to upgrade any of his skills. The only one he had enough NPs to buy was Attack Up II but it required a Fire 4 affinity he didn’t have. Wilderness Survival II required Wood 4 so he was eligible that way, but still needed to get to 25 NPs. He’d hopefully be there soon.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked Maya as she finally sat up. Harrison had already recovered and was practicing swinging his club around.

“Oh, I fainted again. I hate that. But I learned two new skills so… yay!” Her smile turned gleeful.

“Two? Awesome, anything good?”

“Yes, the first is Pole Weapons I. It was awarded since I used a pole weapon to kill a tier 1 monster. Looks like it's one of the skills that unlocks when you meet its conditions instead of being given as a random reward.” She opened her screen and read the description to him.

[Pole Weapons I: Requirements - Wood 2. (Learn basic techniques and muscle memory for using staves, spears, poleaxes, halberds, and other pole weaponry.) (Gain +2 Physical.)]

“Nice, you actually know how to use your spear now,” he said.

Harrison was now washing in the creek and yelled up, “Now that you’re an expert in poles, Maya, ya can use mine anytime.” The stupid pleased grin on the man’s face made it clear what he was talking about. Nathan just cringed. Was this guy serious?

Maya looked pissed. “Get your Mental stat above three digits and I might consider it. Actually, no, not even then.” She then made a rude gesture to the man. Nathan was pretty sure every player selected had at least a three digit Mental score, but he wisely chose not to comment.

“Wow, can’t even take a bloody joke,” the man said shaking his head. He turned and walked back over to where Emma was still cleaning the injured players.

Maya leaned over to Nathan and lowered her voice. “That big idiot. He’s been talking rubbish to Emma and me since the moment we met. I had to stop bantering with him since it only encouraged him more. And somehow the French girl is eating up the attention, not sure what’s wrong with her.” In a more normal volume, she said, “Anyway, the new weapon skill has changed me somehow. I mean, I feel different since I woke up. So strange.”

“Yeah, I had a similar experience when I learned my survival skill. The passive knowledge entering the brain left me feeling funny. It’s especially crazy when I access the information it gives. You said you learned two skills though, what’s the other?”

“It was a random Fire reward for my first tier 1 monster kill. Quick Reflexes I. It's a fire aligned skill that boosts my reflexes by 15%.”

“Whoa, nice. Is that a passive or activated skill?”

“Passive?” she asked, surprised by the question. “Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, it’s passive since it’s permanent and doesn’t cost EP. In addition to the battle NP rewards, I also got an extra 1 NP, well actually 1.5 thanks to my Quick Study skill, for bandaging your shoulder.”

“Quick Study? Sounds like I’m not the only one with a hoard of cool skills.”

She smiled mischievously. “A girl has to have some secrets. The skill gives me an extra 50% NPs whenever I’m awarded them for anything other than combat.”

“That’s a total cheat code.”

Her smile widened. “Yes, I know.”

“Well, when I helped Johanna and Asahi, I was given 3 NPs and learned First Aid. Wonder why your rewards were less for my bandage?”

“I’m sure your medical assistance was way more involved, not to mention you did it for two players. All I did was tie your shirt around your shoulder.” Her stomach growled loudly. “Ugh, I’m so hungry.”

“Here.” Nathan began pulling out the unripe nut pods still in his pockets. He handed her a few. He went to the creek and gave some to Emma and Harrison as well, but split four ways there weren’t many. He considered raiding Johanna’s and Asahi’s pockets for their nuts too, but decided they could resort to that later if things became desperate.

While they ate, the blond Aussie told them he’d learned the Blunt Weapons I skill from the battle for using his club. The passive skill was similar to Maya’s new Pole Weapons skill, and he’d gotten it even though he hadn’t directly fought the tier 1 monster. But since he participated in the battle, it gave him credit for the kill. Blunt Weapons was Earth aligned whereas Pole Weapons was Wood.

Harrison did a few more test swings with his club as he talked. “Does that survival skill of yours say where we can get some more tucker around here?” The man seemed particularly unsatisfied with the meager meal.

Nathan guessed tucker meant food based on the context clues. Weirdly enough, the Language skill didn’t translate English slang even though it did for other languages. He assumed it was because he already spoke English so the skill didn’t try to override the knowledge he already had. Or in this case, lack thereof.

“I hope so, let me try something,” Nathan replied. He began focusing his mind on food for about ten seconds, though nothing jumped out at him. Maybe he needed to be more specific for the survival skill to work? He stared at the creek and began concentrating on a mental image of a fish swimming. A strange thought began to coalesce, but remained out of reach. Still too vague?

On a hunch, he stepped into the creek and shifted a rock. A skittering creature ran out from under it. He snatched it up easily as it darted away, surprised at his own speed. His Physical stat boosts had made his reactions much faster. He focused on the creature in his hand and sure enough, his skill kicked in and let him know they were safe to eat.

Nathan showed his catch to the others. “These lobster looking crawfish are edible. We call them crawdads back where I’m from.”

“Good on ya,” Harrison said.

“Although you’ll have to eat them raw until we can get a fire going.”

“Ugh,” Harrison replied.

To demonstrate, Nathan grabbed a small rock and bashed the crawfish with it. He then cracked open its shell and pulled out a disgusting array of… stuff. God, but he was so hungry. He closed his eyes and put the food in his mouth. He barely chewed before he forced himself to swallow. He took a long drink of creek water to wash it down. He reflected sourly on how he would need to eat about a bucket full of the things to sate his 130 Physical appetite.

Turning to Maya, he said, “Alright, let’s go.”

She nodded and addressed the other players. “Emma, Harrison, take care. We’ll be back in a flash. Don’t worry about us, these monsters are simple now that we know how to fight them.”

Nathan winced. He hoped their alien captors hadn’t been listening to that. They might decide the current Hell difficulty was way too easy.