1.20

Rocky didn’t know if he liked the surface or not.

On the one hand, it offered an experience he had never had before. It wasn’t saying much, but for him, who had spent the better part of his admittedly short life underground, the aboveground world was sensory overload to the highest degree.

Yet it also represented fear incarnate, far from any known constant that Rocky was familiar with. The wide open space of the overworld was most akin to the large caverns of the tunnel system, all of them paling in comparison to even the barest stretch of land.

Like this clearing for example. It offered a sense of vulnerability that he had rarely encountered in the caverns. He didn’t know if the feeling was good or not. Just that it was there.

The ground here grew things. Things, because Rocky felt as if he had no hope ever classifying or understanding it all. Yellow circles gave way to brown cylinders on green sticks. And all seemed to bow before the ever-present green circles with a triangle taken out. Sometimes, the green circle would even play host to another green stick, which would then hold some brightly colored petal.

Rocky whirred happily at that. Even above ground, green was the dominant color. Now that he could understand.

The land here was flat, with not a rock to be found on the pristine, grass covered ground. That was surely a difference from the underground, where dislodged rocks lay haphazardly across every tunnel and cavern.

But more jarring was the presence of wood. At first glance, the pine trees had seemed to be some sort of brown, tall rock. After all, they stood stock straight, powerful in the face of adversity. He was filled with confidence at the power of his widespread, above ground cousins.

Then Rocky tested his theory.

A single light and unenhanced punch from his golem had sent splinters of a pine tree flying, the tree itself cracking under the pressure. Clearly not rock. A rock would never be so weak as to crumble under so light a pressure. No, this was a different, inferior substance.

Rocky filled with anger. ‘How could these weak things consider themselves rocks?’ He had had his golems break down half a dozen pine trees before Harold got around to stopping him.

Apparently, they were a plant, like the green circles with triangles taken out. It explained why they were so delicate. Yet, apparently humans had deigned to build with them! The indignity raced through Rocky again.

Truly, there was no need for wood when stone was available. He nodded in satisfaction as another tree was blown to pieces by a fireball of Amber’s making. They were testing their new skill, and one of them seemed to be very good at breaking through these imposter tree-rocks.

He turned his attention to his companions. Friends, Amber had told him. The rock had had no frame of reference, for the cold darkness of the void would brook no camaraderie. So he relished the word whenever he had the time.

The two humans, the ones that had woken him up from his eternal slumber, they were an interesting pair. Their knowledge far eclipsed his own, as well as anyone he knew, save perhaps for the sharp teeth queen that their other companion had killed.

The spiderling, as Harold named him, was another interesting case. Rocky had never encountered a member of the spiders willing to kill their own queen. It felt… wrong. He didn’t know why but he felt empathy for the dead sharp teeth brood mother. He shrugged, Rocky had gone down this line of reasoning before, and it had led nowhere.

Then finally, his golem guards. Each was a reflection of the level given on his status. Five levels down to be precise. For his level eighteen class, the three golems were each individually level thirteen. It was nice to see them move, even more so to fight. Harold had described them as ‘terrifying,’ though Rocky couldn’t see it.

They were his [Lvl 13 Golems of Cold Iron]. And honestly? They were kinda cute to him. Like kids who need guidance. Rocks, without direction. As the enlightened member of their group, sir Rock Hard would be glad to show them the ropes.

That being said, the area where they were now staying was fairly dull, and with Harold and Amber out and about, testing their new abilities, Rocky felt that it was about time to try his new skill as well.

[Claim Area] was an interesting skill. For starters, Rocky was unaware anyone could own land in the first place. The items on a being’s person were theirs, but to hold land in your name? Strange.

Regardless, he uttered the system given skill name, “[Claim Area]”

Instantly, a notification appeared in the same fashion that a status page might. On it, Rocky read the following.

[Claim Clearing as your Territory? This land will be recognized by the System as your Sovereign lands. (Y/N)]

He selected yes, and a world of possibilities opened before him.

#####

Robb really wished the System would help out more.

For all of its benefits of… well. Huh. ‘The System basically does nothing, doesn’t it?’

Of all the "benefits" it had given him, the greatest one of all was surely the age tracker. Because he definitely needed a recurring reminder that he was twenty four years old, especially one that came up every time he said the word ‘Status.’

He held no skills to speak of, no class with which to hone his skills. What he did have, was a shelter, and an itch on his back that he could only assume was from sleeping on leaves. Leaves, mind you, with possible insect inhabitants.

They had secured shelter though, and with it, a relatively warm place to sleep when nights got cold. A nearby stream allowed them freshwater. Though, it had been contaminated by something… brown for a few hours, before the last vestiges of whatever the vile substance was, finally washed away in the gently moving current.

Regardless, it seemed like this world also had abundant wildlife. The small rabbit warrens and squirrels had sustained their three man party for several days.

‘We need to explore.” Over the course of their little survival jaunt, Robb had been growing increasingly nervous. ‘If this is anything like the LitRPG books, staying in place will leave us incredibly weak compared to everyone else.’

Their little stretch of the woods seemed to be some sort of safe haven however. They had seen monsters around, of course, but they beasts had chased them only to halt at invisible barriers, seemingly unwilling to attack the group regardless of how much taunting they had to endure.

A safe zone then. They could use this to their advantage.

On the third day, their group set out on an ‘expedition.’ They trekked to one of the invisible barriers that Robb had marked out the day prior. Nodding to his companion, Robb briefly explained his plan.

“So the general premise is that the monsters are unwilling to cross the line, meaning that we’re able to use it as a sort of ‘safe area,’ to retreat to whenever things get bad.” He paused to wait for looks of affirmation from his teammates. “That allows us to experiment a lot more with baiting the monsters and killing them with traps. If we get a pitfall going over here, we can kill them with impunity from above.”

Jess looked less than thrilled. “I… I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I work for the government, maybe we can just wait for the search parties?”

‘Shit. There’s no way she buys my explanation that we need a class and levels, no matter how similar this Tutorial is to those novels.’ Robb opened his mouth to respond, only for Donny to cut him off.

Flexing, Donny put on a confident smirk. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure the area is safe soon. So don’t worry your pretty little head.” For a little emphasis, Robb could see his veins bulge on his forearms.

Robb almost sighed aloud. ‘I guess the shock of being teleported is wearing off. The macho persona is back in full force.’ Of course, he needed a bit more tact than that, and spent a few seconds formulating his next response.

“It’s unlikely they’ll find us in the middle of nowhere, and lighting a signal fire isn’t exactly gonna help in a forest of all places. Better that we go searching rather than sitting here to rot, right?” The last part was formed to make her think this was her idea. ‘Take the bait. Take the bait..’

“I suppose that’s true.” She still didn’t look happy, but acquiesced anyway.

Pumping his fist, Robb smiled, setting off into the wilderness to find some monsters.

#####

His first impression of the area immediately outside the safe zone was that it was incredibly uncomfortable. Mosquitos bit at his relatively pale, white skin, and he cursed himself for not working out or playing sports in college.

‘If I were a monster, where would I be?’ He raised a small branch out of his face, spotting a small rabbit warren a couple dozen feet in front of him. He hefted his sharpened sticks. If they weren’t bait soon, they’d be dinner.

Luckily, or unluckily for the rabbits, the monsters did show up just several minutes later. A pair of Kobolds, ‘of course there’s more than one, fuck this world,’ began to trek past Robb’s concealed position. The faintest sounds that he made masked by the whir of mosquitos in the air. His scent, assuming he had any, masked by the ever-present smell of pine-needles.

They had only dug one trap, so this first strike had to kill one. He crept closer, eyes darting between his target and the ground, careful not to let his footsteps crunch upon any stray leaf or branch. A mistake now might spell his certain death.

The Kobolds, for their part, seemed perfectly content to start fishing around the rabbit warren, looking for easy prey. Their reptilian scales glistened, and their brutish, primitive spears now came into view. Though with his sharpened stick, Robb wasn’t sure he was in any place to judge primitive weaponry.

He was close enough now. Close enough to see the swishing of the lizard like tail. He silently took a breath. No shakiness, no hesitation. Raising his spear, he thrust it forwards into the unsuspecting neck of the nearest Kobold, immediately bolting towards their pre-made pit trap as soon as the blow connected.

Behind him, he heard the bellow of the remaining Kobold, angered at the death of his fellow. The two went charging into the underbrush, Robb desperately keeping his lead as the more adept and in shape monster sought his hide.

He leapt over their pit trap and turned. The trap had been constructed in an area they had cleared for just an occasion. Three trees had previously stood here, fairly spaced out. Now it was open ground, holding a disguised hole with a pile of leaves and some sticks to keep the covering in place.

The Kobold looked confused for a moment, seemingly surprised that he would stand and fight. “Heeere kobie kobie kobold. Eyes up heeeere.” Robb spoke as if talking to a dog, trying to goad the overgrown grass snake into… HA!

The Kobold ran forwards, perhaps not the smartest of creatures in this stretch of the forest, where it fell legs first into a fairly deep and wide hole, at a depth of eight feet. With their sharpened sticks, Robb and Donny peered over the edge, and began to chuck their sharpened weaponry at the trapped monster.

Seven spear hits and a few tentative steps forward later, the pair had been left with the corpse of a Kobold. From its chest, Robb spotted a glint of light, something was shining in there. Reaching in, he gingerly avoided as much of the blood and gore as he could, pulling out a shining, white crystal from within the Kobold’s chest.

[Minimum requirements met, please select a class]

[WARNING: The use of common monster gems may result in lower than average class option. Proceed? (Y/N)]

Robb stared at the notification. Then he started to laugh.