The meadow was the same as always. Joe took a moment to stretch his muscles and make sure he was limber. He took some deep breaths and made sure his focus was rock solid. Today wasn't about adventure or excitement. It was a workday, and Joe sure as hell knew how to work.

Step one was clearing the rift to the fox and building up some fighting skills and essence reserve.

"Game face on, Joe."

Joe moved forward at a steady pace. He came to the first two brownies and stopped. Once they were on the other side of the clearing, he yelled and grabbed their attention. A screaming suicidal charge happened like before, and Joe focused on keeping his dodge as tight as possible. His new strength pushed him too far, and he could only brain the one in the rear without overextending. Joe jumped backward to give himself space and stumbled. His new attributes were now high enough to make his reactions different.

The second brownie wasn't able to close the distance before Joe regained his stance. Instead of dodging this time, he did his best driver swing, and the brownie's face deformed before being sent to join its partner. Joe waited for the fire and collected his spoils. This time there were three copper coins and two berries. The items these monsters dropped appeared static, and only the coins had a rare drop. Joe knew the sample size wasn't big enough for conclusive answers yet, but it certainly looked that way.

The path ahead was the same as before, and it wasn't long before Joe saw the next clearing ahead of him. The same three brownies waited for him, wandering aimlessly around the clearing. Joe waited until they had bunched at the other end before repeating his yell. This time his dodge was better, and he managed to kill the back two with a single swing of the bat. He knew his back was exposed with the Big Hurt swing and dove forward. It got him out of the last brownies range, but Joe learned something significant.

A combat dive and roll is something that anyone with a montage can do in the movies. In real life, you are more likely to hurt yourself or be left wide open than succeed unless you have practiced the move extensively. Joe got a crash course in this as he tumbled and felt a pop that left his left arm numb. He pushed to his feet and caught the last brownie with a softball pitch swing that caught it under its ugly face. Joe waited for the conversion as he had titled it in his head and collected his loot. Shitty pouch number two was now officially his coin pouch, with pouch number one still firmly holding down berry duty.

Break time. Joe went over to the tree at the entrance that didn't have thorns on one side. After a minute to psyche himself up, he slammed his left arm into the tree at the shoulder and felt searing pain followed by a pop. Feeling returned to the arm, but cramping and pain weren't exactly a welcome sensation. Joe moved down the path and stopped when he was halfway between the clearings. He'd picked up some berries at this point, and it was time for step two in his plan.

Joe sat in his best lotus position before popping a whiteberry into his mouth. He chewed quickly and swallowed. The taste was still pleasant, but he didn't want any of the effect to go to waste. There was a warmth in his stomach when it hit, and Joe could feel it spread out to the rest of his body. The scrapes on his knees felt slightly better, and his arm twinged just a little less. The feeling passed after about a minute, and Joe focused for another minute afterward to be sure. He reached into his berry pouch and grabbed another one.

That was how Joe spent the next twenty minutes until he was out of berries. His body felt pretty good, and his arm was back to mostly functional. These berries were great, but they weren't precisely a healing tonic. Joe had focused on the feeling of the effect more than anything else. After the last berry, he was pretty sure there were two different kinds of energy working on his body. He didn't know for sure that was the case or what they were, but Joe felt he was making progress.

The next clearing came into view, and Joe grabbed the sole rock he'd stashed in his pocket. Trying new things on the first two clearings was well and good, but the snake and its venom wasn't something he was willing to take lightly. His new Vigor might be able to overcome it, but might wasn't something Joe was willing to bank his life on. He cleared this area with the thorn wall tactic and collected his loot. Joe pocketed the scales and thought it would take a lot of them, but they would probably make some decent armor. It was a thought for another day.

The final meadow was cleared the same way, and Joe hurried back the way he came. He didn't even move towards the fox yet. Joe slowed and saw the third meadow was still empty. He hurried quickly past and was unsurprised that the three brownies were back in clearing number two. Joe knew they'd be there, given the time he spent meditating on the whiteberries' effects. He resisted the urge to throw his stone and instead yelled at the brownies.

His dodge was about the same, and he managed to kill two with one big swing again. Instead of a dive, Joe tried a jump to the side, and it kind of worked. The brownie stumbled in its charge, but it was still too close for Joe to get a good swing. He went with his instincts and kicked it in the face. Its momentum wasn't as high as the last time, and Joe was tougher this time. The brownie stopped dead with a dazed look on its ugly face while Joe's foot still hurt like hell. It was better than last time but still nowhere near painless. He tested his foot, and it would hold his weight, though not without pain.

Joe moved towards the first clearing and the two brownies wandering in it. The foot was a perfect opportunity to practice fighting while injured. Joe wasn't so confident in his abilities that he wanted to try this anywhere but the easiest fight in the rift. It turned out to be a reasonable precaution. Joe stumbled on his dodge and barely managed to stun one of the brownies. A second awkward dodge let him stun the second and finish both opponents off. He collected his loot and moved back to the entrance.

Joe sat down in front of the rift and popped more berries. Each time he tried to focus on feeling the energy as it moved through his body. He was sure there were two types of mana inside the berries, but Joe had no idea what they were. By the time he ran out of berries the second time, his foot felt better. It still twinged when he tried some side-to-side drills, but it had healed more than he'd hoped for only an hour.

With no more berries, Joe dusted himself off and moved forward once again. He was surprised to see the first and second clearings were still empty. It had been long enough to respawn, so maybe they only respawned a single time with each rift run. Joe would have to do this many more times before he felt comfortable with that conclusion. Still, every piece of information he could gather would help him in the long run.

The snakes and brownies were all back in the last two meadows, and all of them met their end and provided fuel for Joe's fire. This time Joe crept towards the meadow with the fox, and it was there in the middle again, still pretending to be asleep. A spike of adrenaline accompanied thoughts of the last time he'd seen the monster. Part of him wanted to run screaming away, and the other wanted to bash its brains into the grassy floor.

Joe held firm and simply studied the fox. It was interesting to note that while it still felt strong, the overwhelming feeling that he'd gotten before had faded. Joe didn't know if this was due to his attributes, levels, or other factors, but it made him feel better. Still, he resisted the urge to fight the fox and moved back to the rift entrance. No other monsters had respawned, lending credence to his current theory. Joe sat down in a lotus position once again.

A berry went in his mouth, and Joe didn't chew it right away. This time he focused on the traces of energy coming from it while rolling it around his mouth. After ten minutes, that stopped, and Joe swallowed it whole. It took longer for his stomach to break it down, and Joe focused on the subtle energies coming forth. When it finally broke open, the energies moved through his body once again. He continued to focus on his body until he was sure every trace of the energy was gone before putting another berry in his mouth.

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Three Hours Later

Joe had placed the last of the berries in his mouth. He felt the energies as they moved through his body, nourishing and repairing. Joe still didn't have a name for them, but they felt green and gold, lacking a better description. The green did the nourishing, and the gold did the repairing. It seemed like they could do both functions, but they had specialties they excelled at more than the other. Joe wasn't ready to try this with the poison berries or his other loot yet, but it was a step in the right direction. Suddenly a wave of energy spiked through him, and Joe didn't try to resist the giant smile that spread across his face.

+1 Glamour

The rift had seemed to be the key to advancement. Joe didn't know if it was possible to gain attributes on Earth, but he did know that every time he'd managed the feat, it had been in a rift. His lack of magical talent hadn't been a big issue yet, but Joe was pretty sure a powerhouse needed to be able to use skills more than five times an hour. That meant lots of boring magical training in the rift with the only magical items he felt comfortable ingesting. The good news was that after eating all those berries, he really did feel quite satiated. The nourishing aspect would make a handful of them an effective meal replacement if there weren't injuries draining off the power.

Joe stood up and stretched. He knew that he had a better shot at the fox, but slow and steady would win this race. He fished four coppers out of his pouch and walked out of the rift. The disorientation was brief, and Joe's head cleared quickly. He looked around, and then the sun was almost directly overhead. The new guards that saw him were surprised, but it cleared quickly. They walked over with their billy clubs on their shoulders. It was probably meant to be intimidating, but Joe simply saw openings he could exploit if he needed.

"Carl and Chris told us about the toll."

The coins glinted in Joe's open palm as he placed them on the ground. He walked in the opposite direction of the guards, heading towards the entrance. Once he reached the opening, Joe turned and did his best to give a friendly wave.

"Pleasure doing business with you boys. Let any other guards know, and we can all share the wealth."

Joe jogged south out of sight before cutting east towards his home. Honestly, he hoped that the bribes would stay that cheap for a little while. Despite the payments, he had still netted almost twenty more copper and a couple of irons from the run. The temptation to go back inside was strong, but Joe knew that it would only take one sloppy mistake for the monsters inside the rift to end him gleefully. He was still getting used to his new body and fighting in general, and a single run a day would still let him progress for now.

His house came into view with no surprises for a change. After making sure no one was around, Joe let himself in the back door. Once the door was closed, Joe felt the day's tiredness sink into him. He'd held it at bay with focus and adrenaline, but there was a limit to what those could accomplish. A rumble in his stomach let him know that the berries were light, but their seeds still counted as fiber. Joe enjoyed a flush toilet and his last roll of toilet paper more than anyone pre-disappearance would ever appreciate. It sucked lugging the water here, but that was worth it.

It was too early for sleep, and Joe still felt jacked up over his success in the rift. His second pouch jingled on his hip, reminding Joe that his wealth was conspicuous to anyone paying attention. Joe separated six copper coins for the next bribe and packed the rest of the coins in the ruins of his previous T-shirt. He didn't see a good hiding place, but that could be fixed.

Joe pulled both mattresses off the bunk bed and stacked them in the corner. He separated the frame into two and dragged them into the spare room on the upper level. Joe thought about cutting open a mattress and stuffing it inside but realized how obvious that would be in an empty room. He didn't have the tools to cut out a wall neatly, so he went to the bathroom and stashed it up under the sink. It wedged in between the frame and bowl without being too obvious.

The mattresses were placed in the corner of the bedroom, and with both stacked together, they were close to one decent mattress. Joe looked outside, and the afternoon seemed to be cooling down. He didn't have a porch he could use to relax, but the window let out to the roof with the frame providing cover from the direction of the rift. Nothing seemed to be happening outside, but Joe was curious how often they changed the guards. In the meantime, he had another task to accomplish.

"Bite."

Joe focused on the power that flowed through and out of him as it settled in his jaws. The energy was different than the berries, but Joe didn't know what this type of energy would be called. He felt for when the power seemed to reach its limit and began to dissipate into the rest of his body. It was a baby step, but that's how progress worked. Joe thought the word 'Bite' as hard as he could for five minutes before he gave up and spoke again.

"Bite."

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Four Hours Later

The night crew guards hadn't shown up yet, leading Joe to believe that there were only two shifts in a twelve-hour rotation. Time would tell, and Joe had time today. His increased Fortitude attribute seemed to help with sunburns, so that was some great news at the end of Joe's day. It was probably too much to hope that his Vigor would prevent melanoma, but maybe someday, that would be a possibility. Either way, Joe was working on his best tan in five years as he continued to bang his head against silent skill activation.

Joe refused to believe that the most powerful people in the galaxy went around speaking their skills before they used them. All someone would need to do was be patient and then use a skill that directly countered. He didn't know its trick yet, but Joe was sure that he was onto something. Thinking the word didn't seem to do anything, but Joe kept trying. Focusing on the energy had left him with a better understanding of the skill.

Once again, there were two energies at play, though these felt brown and silver, respectively. The brown energy seemed to provide force first and toughness second, with the silver being its inverse. The two energies were pulled from separate areas of his body, though they shifted as his mana depleted. His glamour was paying dividends already, as Joe could activate the skill five times without passing out. The single time he'd tried to go for number six, an unplanned roof nap had been his reward. That was still one more time compared to before his attribute increased.

Joe's mana pool also refilled faster. It was a slight difference now, but instead of over two hours, it seemed to be just under that time. Without a clock, it was hard to ensure that all of this wasn't just wishful thinking. While he waited for his mana to recover, Joe soaked in the sunshine and thought about the descriptions of the attributes.

Glamour had seemed to make his magical senses more acute and helped his mana regeneration. It stood to reason that Connection would have something to do with moving the mana somehow. Joe's train of thought was interrupted by movement at the rift. It was late evening, and Joe could spot Carl's beer belly even from here.

Joe watched them take up a slow circuit of the rift and was about to dive back into his practice when a motion from the duplex closest to the rift caught his eye. Joe froze before slowly lowering himself to be flush with the window line. He watched intently as someone crawled out of the window and sat on their roof just like him. Joe couldn't make out any details while squinting towards the setting sun, but he'd bet all his coins that it was a woman. There was no way to be sure, but Joe thought he might have found his good samaritan.