Solomon did enough hiking that he tried to plan for worst case scenarios. He'd read the books, seen the movies, heard the horror stories. He'd entertain what-if questions in his head, sometimes, when he had an idle moment.

How did the saying go? Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Or until their arm was pinned under a boulder in the path of waves of monsters trying to eat their face.

As much as he knew he needed to move, and as much as his arm already hurt, it was hard to work up the nerve to maim himself. He looked down at the body of the last psychotic furball that had tried to kill him. It was either get on with it or wait until that thing's bigger, meaner, cousin came along to inflict a whole lot more pain.

Tying a tourniquet with one hand was painful. Deliberately breaking his own ulna and radius hurt a lot. Sawing through his own flesh and blood with a simple outdoor knife, yeah, it hardly bore thinking about. That wasn't the worst, though.

The worst, the absolute worst, was that the furballs kept coming. More of them each time, too.

The good news was that the strategy he had stumbled upon when faced with two of them worked with three, four, and five. By throwing the corpse of the previous challenger at the new attackers, they would immediately turn on each other and fight over who got to eat.

Solomon just had to pay attention and make sure he was ready once the victor made its move on him. His increasingly beaten up pistol still proved an irresistible lure, and although the furballs kept getting bigger, he was still able to smash them to death. That wasn't the absolute lowest moment, though.

That came when he had to go back to work on his arm after he'd taken a break from it.

There was nothing he could do but keep going. The last thing he wanted was to abandon this project halfway. It felt like it took an eternity, sawing away at his own flesh with periodic monster-killing breaks. Solomon would have sworn up and down that it had been at least half a day.

The timer, though, said otherwise. It blinked through 21:23:00 just as he finally cut himself loose. The whole ordeal had lasted a little more than an hour and a half.

Solomon dragged himself to his feet. The latest furball battle royale was still going on, with three of the original six combatants remaining. Now that he was watching from a higher angle, he could see what was going on a lot better. It was also a lot less stressful now that his face was out of biting range.

Eventually, there could be only one victor, just like before. As soon as the little monster threw its head back in a victory cry, Solomon took a step over and stomped down on the thing. He was wearing a sturdy pair of hiking boots. Two stomps were all it took before he heard a very satisfying crunch.

"Stupid little things," Solomon said. "I should look like Godzilla to these guys."

Congratulations on a successful combat encounter!

You have demonstrated Pain Resistance, Lvl MAX. Would you like to add this skill?

"That would have been nice an hour ago," Solomon said, rolling his eyes. "Fine, why not? Yes."

Congratulations! You have earned 55 Grid Points!

Solomon looked at the notice with suspicion. Something strange was going on here.

He shook his head. He could worry about math later. For now, the most important number was the 120 HP he had regained.

"All right, magic healing, do your thing," he said. When nothing happened, he cleared his throat. "Uh, system, please turn HP healing back on."

He stared down at the stump of his arm. It ended a few inches down from where his wrist used to be. He felt that wave of health and comfort as it moved down his arm. Right before his eyes, the ragged and torn flesh mended. In seconds, the wound at the end of his arm healed over to make a tidy stump. Normally, it would have taken months.

In a way, it was a medical miracle.

"Come on! Where's my new hand?" Solomon yelled. "What kind of lousy magic healing is this?"

The system didn't deign to give him a response. A moment later, he felt a fresh wave of healing energy restore circulation to his arm.

Solomon cursed and took the tourniquet off. The last thing he needed to do was piss away his HP with all the monsters running around out there.

All right. The good news was, he was no longer in immediate danger of dying. He could also move around wherever he wanted. The bad news was, he was minus one hand and had no idea where to go.

"Any suggestions, system?"

All of your questions about the System will be answered during the course of the tutorial!

"Oh, right."

Solomon didn't think a blue box could roll its eyes, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the system was looking down on him. Well, whatever. He'd had a rough day.

"Okay, spend a grid point on the tutorial."

Congratulations! You've been given access to an inventory space that can store system generated objects! You have been awarded an attribute point!

Just say "Inventory!" to try out the Inventory system!

"I don't really have..." Solomon trailed away as he looked down at the smushed body of the dead furball. "You know what, I'm good."

Just say "Inventory!" to try it out!

"Look, I get how it works."

Just say "Inventory!" to try it out!

"All right, all right," he said, bending down to gingerly take hold of a less-bloodied clump of fur before standing back up, holding the body at arm's length. "Inventory."

A small grid of empty boxes appeared in front of him. They had the same translucent look as the rest of the system interface. Solomon swung the furball towards a box, sighing in relief as it disappeared from his hand and reappeared as a little illustration of roadkill in the box.

He waited for a moment, but the system didn't say anything else. The inventory box disappeared due to his inactivity.

He shrugged. Might as well keep going. "Put another grid point in the tutorial, please."

Congratulations! You've been given access to the mini map! You have been awarded an attribute point!

The map will display already explored areas, and has been marked with the position of important system resources!

A small map appeared in the top right corner of his vision. Most of it was grayed out, except for a small area that looked to match his spot in the ravine. A golden X had been drawn on the map, not too far from his present location.

He glanced at the timer. 21:08:32.

As much as he'd like to figure out more about the system, he really needed to get somewhere safe before even more hell broke loose. If the system was going to the trouble to mark a spot on the map for him, he figured he ought to at least check it out.