In the south of Germany, nestled deep in the mountains, there was a cave. In that cave, in the dark and all alone, was a girl. That girl was currently busy crying, as the events of the last few days caught up to her. Two days spent in complete and utter darkness would be enough to set anyone on edge, and when added to the general struggle to survive would have broken many with lesser wills.This woman’s will was iron, and she had forged through those challenges. Even the toxic nature of her food supply had left her shaken, but not broken.

Yet each trial was still a chip in the wall of her composure, making the next challenge more difficult in turn. Everyone has their limits, and this near-death experience had proven to be hers.

In the dark, far away from any judging eyes, Jen sobbed. She had learned the value of a good cry long before, and being a woman in a male dominated career path had given her many frustrations to release. The world had always been aligned against her and this latest was no different. It was a much more physical opposition than she had ever encountered before, but the principle was the same. She was in a place that was indifferent to her presence, the trials she faced not a targeted offense but simply the difficulties any alien would face. Perhaps the metaphor and comparison was stretched too far, but the framing helped, no matter how absurd the conclusions might be.

Jen let out a hysterical giggle as she wondered what her former classmates would think at being compared to poisonous mushrooms. Taking a few deep breaths, she wiped her eyes of the last few tears, feeling strangely lighter. Letting lose for a bit had helped quite a bit to relieve the stress that had been accumulating since she found herself trapped underground. Her silly comparison had done its job as well; the humor providing perspective on what had been one of the most terrifying events of Jens’ life.

Crawling over to the pool, Jen took a long drink to replace the water she just cried out, and then used a handful of water to scrub her face down. Moving back and taking a seat on the moss, Jen idly found herself inspecting her left palm with her other hand. For all that it had been deeply punctured by the roots It seemed like no permanent damage had been done. Already her skin seemed to have repaired itself, no sign of her injury left behind on the surface. The area was still tender, and Jen imagined that she could feel the flesh slowly knitting itself back together beneath the surface.

It had been the first time that she was injured since the universe had changed, and Jen found herself wondering just what the limits of this regenerative ability were. Even as questions about missing limbs and lost organs ran through her mind, Jen knew that this was not a route of research that she would be pursuing. One near-death event was more than she had ever wanted to experience. If her guesses were wrong and she overestimated the ability of the System to repair any damage she might inflict in testing? Far easier just to not go down that route in the first place.

Jen Idly wished she had a book and a light handy for a few hours. She was mostly back to her normal state of mind, but her close call weighed heavily on her, and Jen wanted nothing more than to have a good novel that she could just immerse herself in for a few hours, letting the world spin on without her until she was ready to face it again. Sadly there were no books present, and Jen had to settle for making a promise to prioritize reading once she was free of this prison she found herself in.

Now that Jen was experiencing an adventure of her own, she decided she far preferred reading about fantasy tales than living one. For one, reading was far more comfortable than trying to survive in inhospitable conditions. Book characters also had the advantage that their stories were complete. While their may be momentary confusion about the plot or about what might come next, there was always the underlying understanding that there would be a satisfying ending if the reader could just reach the end of the book. Jen wasn’t even sure she’d manage to live until tomorrow, let alone that she would manage to find herself somewhere that approximated a happily ever after.

It was made all the worse by the System notification that all these changes had taken place because some superior being had decided that the old way of human life was too boring.

Jen would be the first to admit that her old life hadn’t been the most exciting, but it had been her life, and it was meaningful in its own way. It was also far more enjoyable than her current existence trying to blindly survive in a cave all to amuse someone else.

Giving a quick middle finger to any invisible watchers, Jen refocused herself. She refused to give up and die, which left her with the sole option of continuing to explore this new world.

That exploration began with the mushroom that had caused so many problems for her. While the pain had demanded much of her attention, she vaguely recalled the mushroom glowing as it had absorbed magic from her. At the very least, it was possible she could use that information to develop a better understanding of the mechanics of magic and the biology of these anti-magic mushrooms, but Jen had a further idea in mind.

She started by slowly feeling around, trying to locate where the Mushroom had landed after she had hurled it away in her haste. It was a time consuming task to begin with, having to search a large area for a single object, but Jen took it even slower than she was capable of. This was partly to give her time to react if the mushroom decided to attack her again, and partially because there was still a small portion of Jen’s mind that was unwilling to have anything to do with the issue.

Jen had flinched back upon coming across the greatly expanded mushroom, but quickly determined that it was no longer interested in burrowing under her skin and draining all her magic. A more thorough examination showed that it seemed much the same as any of the other mushrooms Jen had devoured, except this one was far closer in size to her head than to her fist.

Jen let out a sigh. She had reached the limits of what she could tell using only her hands. To further study what had happened she would need to pull on her magic again. Her awareness of her mana channels had been steadily increasing, and she could tell that she had sufficient magic to draw forth another globe or two, but she was unwilling. Her mind kept conjuring the memories of what had happened last time, and then extrapolating further, filling her thoughts with visions of her root riddled corpse.

Jen sunk down into her meditation, feeding those thoughts to the flame of her focus. This was something that needed to be done, and so she would do it. Regardless of her feelings, her fears, her hesitation. No more half hearted tries foiled by her own self doubt, she would simply do it.

This time the magic began to flow, moved along by her will. As an afterthought, Jen began to swell the magic into her other hand as well, visualizing it split evenly between the two. It had been hard to tell in the heat of the moment, but she had thought that the mushroom had emitted light for a longer duration than her original amount of magic would have fuelled on its own. The best way to test this would be to simply run a comparison test.

Trying to push her magic into two seperate places at the same time was a struggle, but one that Jen relished. There was no penalty to this struggle, no consequences riding on the line. There was just the desire to improve herself, and the ability to delay facing her fears for a few more minutes.

Finally feeling that the amount of magic she had gathered in her hands was both sufficient and roughly equal in volume, Jen began to expel it. Two apple sized globes formed shedding light on Jen’s tear-streaked face as a tremulous smile formed. Jen slowly brought her left hand over to her experiment mushroom.

Wanting to avoid any contact with the remains of its root system, Jen approached the mushroom cap, pressing her magic cautiously against its surface. She was relieved when the mushroom refused to react at all as she slowly forced her magic into the mushroom. As she did so, a soft glow began to emerge, lime green and following an arcane pattern as it spread across the surface. Jen’s hand continued to press forward, and soon came into contact with the mushroom. She quickly pulled her hand back, but not before noting that while the mushroom was emitting light,the surface was lacking the heat that she had come to associate with her globes of magic.

While she waited for the two lights to fade, Jen’s eyes noticed the new notifications in front of her.

Mana Manipulation is now Lvl 4.

Patience is now Lvl 3.

Pain Resistance is now Lvl 6.

Added to her the points earned from learning Patience, Identify, and Self Improvement, and Jen had a total of seven skill points to spend. Jen quickly pulled up the Path Screen. No new paths had been added, and she decided to put her points into the Intro Path. It only would take five of her points, allowing for it to be finished immediately.

Placing the mushroom on the ground freed up her left hand, and Jen quickly selected the Intro Path and began investing her points. She was pleased to see a notification appear immediately after putting one point into the path.

Congratulations! You have spent your first skill point! Skill points can be earned by learning new skills, or by making an effort to increase your capability with existing skills. Skill points are converted to Plot points, which can be spent to further your progress on a path.

Paths are unlocked through extraordinary accomplishments. This one was unlocked through living through the reconstruction of Earth and the implementation of the System. Other paths will have other requirements, which you will have to find out.

Progressing along Paths will increase your strength, either through granting stat increases, new skills, or even rare prizes.

Your Endurance has increased by 1!

Your Constitution has increased by 1!

Your Strength has increased by 1!

These three stats quantify your physical power; how fast, strong, durable, and healthy you are.

Having confirmation of many of her earlier assumptions about the System was wonderful, as was the three stats. Jen couldn’t help but compare this path to the Path of Patience, which had no rewards until forty points had been invested.

The notification that appeared after the second point was much shorter.

Not all plot points will increase your power. Some are merely stepping stones on the path to greater rewards.

Jen couldn’t help but snort at that. She really, really, really didn’t need to be told that fact. Shaking her head a little at just how out of order things had gone, she added another point.

Your Willpower has increased by 1!

Your Composure has increased by 1!

Your Intelligence has increased by 1!

These three stats quantify your mental power; how quickly you can think complex thoughts, as well as how well you keep your calm under pressure. These stats also influence your ability with magic; the strength, control, and flexibility of any spell are all reliant on these stats.

The fourth point gave no notification at all, while the fifth point followed a similar manner to the earlier announcements.

Your Reaction has increased by 1!

Your Resilience has increased by 1!

Your Dexterity has increased by 1!

These three stats complement their physical and mental counterparts, increasing your power through more subtle but still essential methods.

Jen wondered a bit at the lack of detail on the functionality of this last trio of stats, before mentally shrugging. The previous descriptions had still been lacking, this latest one was just more obvious. She’d still rely more on her own testing over the effects of increasing various stats than she would any system information.

Wanting to take a bit more time to consider her next path before commiting, Jen turned her focus back to her light experiment. The globe of magic in her hand had almost dwindled to nothing, while the mushroom’s glow seemed both strong and consistent, with no visible sign of a decrease in strength.

Kicking herself a little for failing to keep an accurate count of the time, Jen guessed that two minutes had gone by since she had formed the lights. She began to use her heartbeat to keep count as the light in her right hand vanished, leaving the glowing mushroom the lone beacon against the dark.

Knowing that the light had faded the previous time, Jen was patient as the minutes swept by. It was fully fifteen minutes by her count before the mushroom finally faded back into darkness.

Jen was cautiously optimistic that if she fed the mushroom more magic, the light would last a longer duration. It didn’t seem like it had used any of that magic to grow like it had when the root and stem structure were fed, which meant the majority of the magic was going to fuel whatever exo-luminescent reaction was occurring. She was curious if the mushroom was actually able to utilize that magic for its own growth, or if she was simply seeing it expelling magic that it couldn’t use. Vowing to look into that later, Jen focused on the main benefit of this test.

With a light source that she could both leave behind and that would last for a reasonable length of time, Jen would no longer be bound to exploring only within earshot of her pool of water. If a candle-flame was visible from thirty miles away in optimal conditions, Jen was confident that the light from the glowing mushroom would be visible anywhere she wished to travel in this cavern.

She would still have to move slowly, taking care to test the ground in front of her. Her echolocation would still be her main method of locating new and interesting features of the cave, given the speed that the light intensity would fade. But simply knowing that she could easily find a way back to her source of water and food was enough to give Jen the courage to move forwards.