To Nate’s surprise, the book was basically a series of ramblings on theories concerning the system and the Singularity’s intent for creating the system. Nate didn’t take much stock of the religious type comments in the book since the man that had given the book to him had basically sent him to his death in the mines. He wouldn’t believe in some religion that sent him off to suffer in the mines, but the information concerning the system seemed to be legit.

The kids of the Grey Sector had been given the simplest education when they were young. Nate had been instructed on the basics of anatomy, wildlife and plants, reading and writing, and simple math. The education was very easy since the tasks mostly consisted of performing their jobs in the industrial plants of the Grey Sector. No one really expected the kids to amount to much, so they were only given the basic information concerning the system and how it worked. So regardless of where the new information came from, reading about the theories and concepts behind the system’s function was enlightening to Nate.

“So, the system and the nanites work together to help a human evolve into something superior,” Nate said out loud to himself coming to a realization.

The book had speculated that the Singularity had realized that humans had become too dependent on external sources of power instead of continuing their evolutionary processes to become higher-order beings. It had caused humans to become weak and fragile beings. So in an effort to solve this issue for its creators, the Singularity had taken away most of the humans’ advanced technology and given them a way to improve themselves to become more than human. Everything was turned into a system, including levels, skills, classes, and experience, as a method of speeding up and managing humans’ progression and development.

After reading through part of the book, Nate had much more insight into how the system worked to progress skills and increase stats. With this new information floating around in his head, he decided to test out something and pulled up a skill window.

[Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 1)(Exp. 16/100)]

“So, I currently have 16 experience points in the [Dark Vision] skill. Let’s see if this works,” Nate thought as he patiently waited for the light to dim inside of the tree. With the day getting darker, the text slowly became harder and harder to see. When the light was low enough that he could barely make out the writing, Nate tried reading. His reading was slow and he started to get a headache from reading with so little light. But, he continued anyway. After about 15 minutes of nonstop reading, Nate pulled up his skill window again.

[Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 1)(Exp. 41/100)]

“It worked,” Nate grew excited from the results. From the concepts in the book, Nate understood that the system was working with the nanites in his body to aid in his eye development so that he could see in the dark. It was really an interesting concept when he thought about how everything seemed to work together.

Nate spent the rest of the day reading through the book. After some time, a ding in his mind alerted him to a status window.

[‘Dark Vision’ has increased to Level 2]

[Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 2)(Exp. 7/200)]

With the basics of skill progression now sorted out in his mind, Nate realized that it was actually getting too dark to read even with the skill. His body also hurt and he was starting to get tired. Nate felt that he was recovering well and wanted to make sure to get some good rest to heal. He checked over his new security measures at the tree entrance one last time, rubbed some more of the healing ointment on his wounds and laid down to rest.

******************

The next morning, Nate woke up to a ray of sunshine hitting his face through the hole in the tree. By his best guess, he had been living out of this tree for anywhere from three to five days depending on how long he had passed out that first day. His body was still sore but he was in much better condition than he was the day before. Immediately after waking, Nate pulled up his health information as a check of how much his body had healed.

[Health: 63/100]

He was feeling much less worn down, so Nate began to make plans for his day. After a few minutes of internal debating, Nate planned to go out to look for water and to inspect the site where the detonation of the transporter occurred.

Nate’s main driver wasn’t curiosity. He understood that he needed food and some more supplies. So regardless of the serious explosion that happened, Nate still wanted to go see if he could find any supplies to help him survive. He only had enough nutrition bars to last about six more days and he knew that food was going to be needed eventually. He had hopes that maybe he would luck out and find a stash of supplies.

He also figured that now was probably the best time to see if he could scavenge any items from the crash site. Nate had been particularly nervous about going out into the wild again, but he thought that the explosion had scared most of the beasts away temporarily. Considering that possibility, he hoped now was definitely the best time to go investigate.

After a few minutes of arranging his belongings inside the tree, emptying his backpack to make room for anything he found and removing his security at the entrance, Nate exited the tree hollow. The only item that he kept in his backpack was the broken knife. After a detailed inspection, all he needed was a sliver of metal to pin the pieces back together and it would be fixed. Finding a piece of metal the right size was his second goal for visiting the transporter wreckage today. With his mostly empty bag on his back, he started to make his way toward the crash site by crawling low to the ground and hiding behind the oversized features of the forest.

Safety wasn’t the only reason Nate was crouching and crawling around between the open spaces and cover. He was actually continuing his investigation into how his skills progressed from the day before. Nate pulled up a skill window before moving too far away from his tree.

[Silent Crawl (Passive) (Level 3)(Exp. 43/300)]

“Okay, let’s see how this works,” Nate thought still trying to psyche himself up for going out. Nate had been conditioned to always get the most work done as possible during his years of working the weapons factory in Newcomb City. If he was going to risk moving about, then he was going to use the chance to level up one of his skills.

Although the movement took considerable effort, Nate’s crawling started to pay off about a quarter of the way through his trip. With the ding that he had come to enjoy, two system alerts sounded in his mind.

[Strength Stat has increased by 1]

[Stamina Stat has increased by 1]

Nate smiled as he gained more stat points. He took pleasure knowing that he was getting stronger. Taking a moment to check on his skill progression, he pulled up his [Silent Crawl] skill status also.

[Silent Crawl (Passive) (Level 3)(Exp. 81/300)]

So in crawling about a quarter of the way to the crash site, he had gained 38 points in the [Silent Crawl] skill. Nate was beginning to get a better understanding of how the skill leveling worked and was excited about the possibility of grinding them to a higher level. After fantasizing about being super strong for a moment, he continued on his way.

After about 30 minutes of moving along the forest floor, Nate heard a few more notifications ringing off in his head and was pleasantly surprised that his current method of leveling a skill was also helping to improve his stats.

Finally making it to the clearing of the crash, Nate stood up at the edge of the tree line to survey the area. All the large pieces of the crash had been removed or destroyed by the blast. The clearing mostly consisted of burnt grass, some ashen debris and a giant crater where the main part of the trashed vessel had been sitting. From his position, Nate couldn’t see anything significant debris remaining.

After spending a minute looking over the scene, Nate felt like he had wasted the trip.

“Maybe there is something lying down in the grass,” Nate thought to himself.

As a last effort, Nate crawled through the grass to see if he could find any items not easily seen from a distance. As he got closer to the crater, Nate felt a sudden pain in his hand. Looking down, he saw a few metal fragments from the transport. These pieces of metal were not large at all and reminded Nate of some arrowheads that he had once worked within the Grey Sector factory. After that memory flashed in his mind, Nate quickly grabbed the twenty to thirty pieces of small metal that were scattered around him and put them in his bag. Nate had a great idea of how to use these metal pieces. He just needed to find a few more pieces of metal to build what he needed. A ding sounded in Nate’s mind before an alert window popped up.

[Wisdom Stat has increased by 1]

“Must have been a good idea,” Nate laughed to himself as he continued to make his way through the field.

After an hour of searching, Nate was able to locate enough scrap metal and interesting debris to completely fill his bag full of material. No food or supplies remained at the scene. But, he did find a part that was a perfect fit for the broken component on his knife. Excitedly, Nate took his knife out of his pack on the spot, repaired it fairly quickly and clipped its sheath to his belt. For some reason, he felt much better knowing that he could at least fight for his life now.

Considering the several hours he had spent away from his shelter, Nate decided it was time to make his way back.

Even though he didn’t find any good supplies, he considered today to be a great day. Nate had fixed his knife and found some metal scraps that could also be used for protection. He had also learned a few things about stats and skills and was making quick progress in both.

While crawling along the forest floor, Nate continued reflecting on the day’s events. Looking in the distance, Nate could see the tree that he now called home. His trip to the crash site hadn’t been a complete failure and he was excited that he had made it safely without any issue. As he was about 50 feet from the tree, the woods seemed to quiet down and he felt a slight unease. Something didn’t seem right. Picking up his crawling speed, Nate continued to move closer to his tree. With the continued nervousness, Nate flinched when a system alert sounded in his head.

[‘Silent Crawl’ has increased to Level 5]

[Perception Stat has increased by 2]

“I guess that I am doing okay, but I need to get inside quick,” Nate thought as he continued to move through the woods as stealthily as possible. With his quickened pace, he had arrived back at his tree in a matter of seconds. Standing at the entrance to his tree shelter, Nate turned around to look back over the forest. The forest floor looked empty and just the same as before he left. No beasts in sight. He couldn’t understand where the feeling of unease was coming from and started to disregard it. He couldn’t see any dangers, so everything must be okay.

Nate’s excitement and disregard over the feeling were mostly due to his sheltered life in Newcomb City. This was his first real experience with the wilderness and he was very naïve and uncertain about many things.

As he paused looking out over the wondrous forest, Nate felt another confirmation that he had made the right decision to try to survive in the wild. Today had been a pretty good day. He smiled, and then a massive impact on his back caused him to lurch forward.