~Congratulations Cassidy on surviving the initial Culling. As a reward, please receive these... 59 points to be used on Skills or Attributes.~

Choosing to do what she always does with things she doesn't understand, Cassidy ignores this bewildering change and starts shouting for her housemates. When her parents passed, she'd quickly recruited two friends to help pay off the mortgage and the 250 acres worth of property taxes. She rolled out of bed in her pajamas to go check on her friends. They all had work in the morning and she didn't want to let them sleep in like they always tried to do. Her feet met the cold wood floor and she did a little dance as she made her way to the door. When her parents died earlier that year, she had no one left but her friends to rely on. Like true superheroes they moved in to help her take care of the place and take care of her. But as she ran through the house all she found were unmade beds.

As she searched, her dog Koda bounced in from her makeshift archery range with canine exuberance. She'd been the anchor of her archery team in college and she just couldn't let go of the hobby when she entered the career world. Luckily, she had the space to keep up her practice and try the trickier and trickier shots. Her other dog, Sugarbear, followed sedately behind Koda, her blue merle fur mirroring the sense of calm she carried with her. Their claws clicking against the floor.

~Do you wish to claim these dogs? If not, they will revert to feral in the next 6 hours. Countdown 1:27:48~

It was that voice! The one that said... something earlier. Now it was talking about her dogs. How did that even make sense? And they were giving her less than 2 hours! What happened to 6? Besides they were already hers! Her dogs! She'd been training them for hunting competitions for years now and sold their first batch of puppies just a few months ago to cover utilities. They were large for their breed and Louisiana Catahoula Dogs were rare. Why did she need to claim what was already hers?

She reached out her hand and tried, "Claim?" It shook a little.

No Light. No ethereal magics, no real-world graphics, nothing. Her experimentation grew more graphic. She even ended up stabbing fingers and dripping blood all over them. The red blending in with Koda's brindled coat as it soaked into his ruddy, black striped coat. She refused to lose her babies, but her efforts only resulted in some uncomfortable licking as they tried to soothe their agitated owner. Eventually she just said their names and bowed on her knees to bump her head with theirs in resignation.

~The dogs 'Koda and 'Sugarbear' would like to recognize you as master, will you claim them?~

"Hell, yes!" She fell back in relief.

The room was quiet but for the shuffling of claws on tile.

She looked at them and Tears welled up in her pale green eyes, threatening to drown out her vision. This was all too much. What happened to her housemates? Why did this voice try to steal her dogs? She remembered something about points.

"What about my points?"

No answer

Increasingly frustrated she just growled out, "Skills?"

~Currently you have no skills, would you like to spend 20 points to convert pre-turn skills into your own Skill sets or browse available options?~

Figuring the familiar was better in what became an increasingly strange world she said, "convert." and lost nearly half her points that way.

~Configuring…~

~In Animal Mastery Skill Tree you gained the skills: Training, allowing you to more easily grow your Companions skills, Animal Husbandry allowing you more control over mating procedures to insure the best possible outcomes, and First Aid, giving you knowledge and caring skills to identify and heal your Companions injuries.~

~In the Archery Skill Tree, you gained the Skills: Precision, aiding in your accuracy, and Far Shot, greatly increasing the distance of your shot.~

~In the Cooking Skill Tree, you gained the Skills: Basic Herbs, Judge Freshness, and Recipes: Simple Steak, Fried Tilapia, Strawberry Salad, Fancy Scrambled Eggs, and Vegetable Stir-fry.~

~In the Jury-Rigging Skill Tree, you gained the Skills: Mend Clothes, Alter Design, Mend Plumbing, Mend Door, Mend Window, First Aid~

~In the Forestry Skill Tree, you gained the Skills: Ease-of-Movement, Plant Identification, Climb Tree, Observation, and Silent Tread.~

~These are the Skill Trees you have most often used recently.~

~Congratulations! You now have 39 points to spend on Skills or Attributes.~

"What Skills are available?"

~Due to Random Selection you can choose Frost Spike for 10 points, Sweet Dreams for 5 points, Nether Whip for 5 points, Void Mastery for 30 points, and Flame Tempest for 15 points.~

"Void Mastery? What the hell is that?"

~Congratulations! You have selected Void Mastery for 30 points. This now leaves you with 9 points. How would you like to spend them?~

Cassidy was floored. She didn't understand. Did the Voice not understand questions? Was that why it was ignoring so many of hers? She didn't know a damned thing about Void Mastery! It certainly didn't sound like the kind of thing you'd want to experiment with. What the hell did it even do? She imagined accidently opening a vacuum of space and sucking everything she loved away. She shuddered. This was not what she wanted. She wanted all this nonsense to stop and her friends to come back from wherever they were hiding.

She'd had about enough of this cursed voice all together. She certainly wasn't going to waste any more points fooling around. Who knew how what they were? Let alone how valuable they actually were? This thing didn't exactly come with an instruction manual...Did it? It certainly hadn't been answering her questions too reliably.

Maybe she just needed to rethink this whole thing. It gave her skills when she asked for skills. It let her claim her dogs once they demonstrated a relationship. Surely it had to have some explanation for what on earth was happening. She tried to remember past the panic, her hands digging into her dogs’ blue and red fur, respectively. It helped her calm down and focus past the terror. Her dogs were there, as long as she had them, she had hope. She tried to remember.

It didn't answer her about points but it did when she brought up skills. What was the difference between her questions? She just needed to find the right trigger word. What had she heard when she woke up?

Back to the beginning, "What was the Culling?"

~After establishing much of humanity did not have the Attributes required to survive the new found changes, they were removed.~

None of this sounded good.

“Removed?"

…

Right, the voice didn’t want to share. Focusing on her dogs breathing, she matched hers to theirs.

Let’s see, some kind of trigger word. What else did she have?

"What is a claiming? "

~It is an official recognized bond between a master and lesser creature that subverts the lesser creature to the master's will.~

Ok. Off to a good start.

"What is a skill? No, Wait! I already got that one. What is an Attribute? What is required of Attributes to survive in this world?"

~An Attribute is a statistical measuring of the variety of a person's strength. As the world has experienced a change with the influx of Mana certain strengths overlooked before are now paramount for survival.~

"Who are You?"

…

"How do I find out my Attributes?"

…

Remembering her first experiment with skills, she tried again. "Attributes?"

A list showed itself across her vision.

Strength

2.8

Resilience

3.4

Reflexes

4.7

Speed

3.9

Perception

3.7

Stillness

5.0

Willpower

4.5

Intelligence

3.0

She hadn't a clue what these numbers meant. Were any of these even high? Shouldn't you usually start off with 10 or something? And since when was Stillness an Attribute and not a state of Being?

After staring dumbly into nothing for a while she realized sitting in silence wouldn't help her find the answers. There was plenty of other things to get done. If this world was changing and she stood on her own, not excluding Koda and Sugarbear, she needed to make sure she was secure. This house was too big to keep safe on her own. Luckily, there was plenty of work materials at the property's old barn. Problem was she didn't know what else might be there now. Things like attributes and magic usually meant monsters, if any of her old books were true to form.

Her thoughts wandered to her friends but she shut that down. None of that mattered now. Now she needed to survive.

She stood in the kitchen and looked around, identifying weaknesses. She had the back door which led to the kitchen with its now, scarily open doggy door. Flap floating threateningly in the breeze. Then there was the side door leading to the rest of the house and the back staircase leading to the basement and her attic room. She could move her bedroom to the attic, save anything of value, putting it in the basement and wall off the side door to the rest of the house. There was also some chicken wire, if she remembered right, which she could cut up and insert into either side of the window sills to discourage anything from attempting the glass. It wouldn't be too strong but she couldn't bear the thought of barricading the windows and losing all that natural light. With this plan in place she got to work.

It was time to see what other changes were out in the world and reclaim the materials she needed. With that daunting task set before her, she made sure to grab her bow and quiver but hesitated before calling her dogs. Running back through the house, she rummaged through her housemate Danielle's dressers till she found it. A massive knife or, er… dagger? Danielle’s brother brought it back from when he was stationed overseas. Goal in hand, she slid it through the loops on her belt and it fell out. She had to find some string to tie around the belt to hold the dagger against her hip before going back to the kitchen. With a call to her dogs, she headed out the back door.

The walk was beautiful, as expected for a late spring day. The flora on the other hand… was on fire, literally. The lilies she planted creek-side were made of flame without actually burning anything around them. She wanted to go down there to see if they exuded any heat. But there was more. The moss on the trees sparkled with little iridescent beads entangled in their roots and the sunflowers glowed. She looked up at the leaves overhead to find shades of green she’d never seen before mixed in with the odd gold or fiery red, colors too vibrant to even be seen in autumn were now heralding the summer season. The world had changed.

But it was still hers! She hoped. The path behind her house still existed and it seemed to be leading where it used to, the old barn. Besides, she had planted those lilies and sunflowers. Wouldn’t they be gone if this were another world? She had to pause in her ruminations as something else stood in her way, forcing herself to wrap her mind around the impossible.

A monstrous looking stag was grazing below her. It was quiet some distance from the path, about 200 meters away with a quaint Tier 1 floating above its head in white letters. Letters didn’t float and stags weren’t six feet at the shoulder with bloody stripes. Or, at least she hoped those were stripes and not the alternative.

She wasn't even 5 minutes out and already she'd run into this beast. Her shoulders shuddered at the thought of it so close to her house. Nothing about it said it was the quiet fleeting prey she was used to. She wanted to run. However, she had a job to get done and hunting was nothing new to her—even if she was facing monsters from hell.

The arrow sidled into place as she leveled her bow and took a breath. Eyes focused on the creature's side, right where the heart should be. Her breath rushed out as the arrow flew and struck, sliding right between the ribs. It let out a painful bleat and staggered around, looking for the offender before falling to its knees. With a whistle, her dogs ran forward to taunt it from either side as she went to check its breathing. There was a heavy rasp. She needed to give the final blow. As she pulled the knife from her belt the thing burst upward in a sudden show of life and aimed for her with terrifying razor teeth. Her arm had frozen but, blessedly, Koda hadn't. He launched forward and hung from its muzzle with an iron bite, Sugarbear went for its leg and the beast fell one last time with her dogs hanging from it. Calling them off, she checked again. There was no breath.

~Congratulations! You have gained a Skill in Archery, Steady Hands.~

She was already keyed up from the deadly experience. The message did her in and she fell backward with an airless scream. Breath began rushing in and out of her lungs as she hid her head between her knees to calm the hyperventilation. Since when were stags predators?

Deer were safe creatures. This world had turned them into monsters! What was she supposed to do when she couldn't trust prey to be prey? What even was prey now? Because that thing just tried to eat her! She leaned back and the cloudless sky stretched before her, leaves breaking it into small framed pictures of blue. At least that was still the same. She had to reach the barn. There was no telling what else might come for her or try to break into her house. She still had half a mile to go. Statistically, there shouldn't be much else in range. There better not be.

The math worked in her favor; she reached the barn without incident. Even better, after much reconnaissance between her and her dogs, she found it free of any beasties. Perfect for scavenging. Was it scavenging? The stuff already belonged to her…. Whatever. Terms didn't matter when your world was ending with apocalyptic deer set on eating your face.

She threw the roll of chicken wire into a wheelbarrow with some wire cutters. She knew there was a drill somewhere... but a handsaw, now there was something useful. She threw it in with the wire cutters. A hammer and box of nails followed soon after. The wood was a problem. She didn't need the panels so long. Not to mention they needed to be awfully short to fit in the wheelbarrow. But cutting them took time, time for any new bloodthirsty critter to sneak up on her.

She looked at her dogs and back up at the sun. Well, there was at least time to cut off a few boards.

She got out the handsaw and went to work, cutting the boards only as short as she dared and sliding them into the wheelbarrow. She got to six before giving up. Anymore and things would be dangerously overloaded. Her lean body held the strength to push an overloaded wheelbarrow, but it took more than strength to get it where you wanted. It took balance and she was not in the mood to pick up a tipped over wheelbarrow. As it was, she couldn't imagine running from any killer deer with that thing, not that she could have before either. Instead of worrying about it though she went to look for the drill and caulk. She knew they were somewhere but the barn was so dim. Eventually she had to give up on that too. She was running short on time if she wanted to make it back, safely—she hoped, and board up the doors.

For some reason she'd thought pushing an over-burdened wheelbarrow down an overgrown trail would be easier than it was. The wheels kept sticking in mud, in bushels of pitch weed which her Plant Identification kept on giving her herbal uses for, and against rocks. She let out a yelp as the wheelbarrow stuck again and she was pitched forward, face digging into the chicken wire. As she extricated herself, she heard a shuffling in the distance and her dogs let out a low whine. Fear overwhelming aggression.

She clumsily grabbed for her bow and swung its aim up in the direction of the noise, sweeping the bushes for any beastie. The undergrowth was still. She heard it again and zeroed in on its location but still couldn't see anything over the bushes and their leaves weren't moving. She and the dogs stood frozen, waiting for the next move. And there it was, a slight tousle in the branches. Not even sure what she was aiming at, she let loose and a high-pitched squeal introduced the monster as it burst forth.

It was a boar, foreign to these woods, or at least they use to be. This one especially so as blue-grey flames ran down its back and black tufts created a mane around its head. She'd didn't spend time appreciating this absurdity as she was already lining up her second arrow while her dogs leapt forward to bait the animal, stalling it in its charge. Aiming was hard as she tried to follow the zig zagging movements it made to chase down her dogs while they dashed intermittently before it. A beat too late and its tusk scored against Koda's side. Without thought, Cassidy took the shot as it slowed with the blow and dashed forward in a panic to help her dog. Koda hadn't stopped but kept trying to push himself between her and the now falling boar. She got to him just as the monster collapsed. Blood was running down Koda’s side in sticky rivulets.

Not thinking straight, she disrobed to press her shirt against the wound. A futile effort with nothing to hold it there. They needed to get moving and she couldn't walk by his side to keep the pressure up. Abandoning the wheelbarrow, she started to run home with her dogs in tow but rationality soon kicked in. If the wound was serious, Koda shouldn't be running. She stopped and looked at the shirt in hand. Inspiration finally striking. She took her dagger to it and began cutting spiraling strips to make them long enough to tie around his side. Finally remembering one of the descriptions of all those plants her Plant Identification skill told her about, she looked around and spotted her leafy hope between two trees. She pulled it up and ground it between two rocks before smearing it across Koda's wound and wrapping him in the remains of her shirt.

~Congratulations! You've Gained a Skill in Alchemy, making a Poultice: 1 Recipe.~

~With your current intelligence you may open no new Skill Trees. Please choose three to focus on.~

What she chose was to ignore that question. She needed to get home and help Koda. Trying to figure out Skill Trees and what the hell they were could wait. She started to get up.

~Please choose three Skill Trees to focus on.~

She took a step forward.

~Please choose three Skill Trees to focus on.~

Alright! Damnit. "What are my Skill Trees?"

…

"Skill Trees!"

~Animal Mastery, Archery, Cooking, Jury-Rigging, Forestry, Void Mastery, and Alchemy~

"Was that so damn hard?"

…

Apparently, it was.

She didn't have time for this, but the new voice in her head wasn't giving her any other option so she was forced to take a moment to think.

There were really only four choices. Archery was a given. She had a feeling Forestry would be fundamental to surviving in the woods. Which left the choice between Animal Mastery and Alchemy. The stronger the bond between her and her dogs the stronger they all were, but Alchemy was the gateway to fast heals and life-saving remedies... if she could ever figure them out. After a moment she settled on her now favorite rule: familiar over strange.

"I choose Archery, Forestry, and Animal Master as my preferred Skill Trees."

~Thank you for your choices. As a reward please choose one Skill Tree to receive a free Skill.~

"Archery."

~Congratulations! You have gained a Skill in Archery, Eagle Eye—greatly sharpening your gaze over long distances when aiming your bow.~

Celebration could come later, after she got Koda home safely.

She finally moved forward and got him home. He settled down on his bed while she placed a bowl of water and some healing herbs seared onto steak next to him. She could hover anxiously and be completely useless or she could actual finish what needed to be done. It was time to retrieve the cart.

Sugarbear followed her as she went down the path, much more carefully this time. Her ears were sharp for any foreign sounds and she could only imagine Sugarbear's were too. For the first time she remembered the deer. Her first kill. She saw it now, a bundle of bones. Easy to miss off to the side. She left it there, eyes focused ahead, Sugarbear on edge at her side. Their efforts were soon rewarded when they heard noises coming from just around the bend. The last few steps towards the wheelbarrow and all its prizes.

Freezing, she gave Sugarbear the wait command with her hand and crept up to one of the larger trees, keeping it between her and the noises the whole time. Trying to stop her trepidation from stalling her, she took a glance around the old oak's bark. One of the monster deer was eating the boar.

Vomit rose and she swallowed it down again. Why hadn't she moved the corpse away from the cart? Sure, it was something like 500 pounds or more—probably more, but she could have dragged that, maybe. Or used some pulleys. She never imagined the once peaceful forest creatures were now so horrific. The vision of it trying to eat her face played across her mind again but it was so fantastic she never comprehended, never imagined it was truly real.

This, this was reality now. She couldn’t keep trusting flora and fauna to stay the same, to stay safe.

She took a breath and tried to calm down. This was a great chance. She was dangerously close, yes, but the thing was too distracted to notice. She could take it down in one shot. One shot. One shot. She kept repeating to herself. She didn't want to risk Sugarbear if she were wrong. Breathing in and out she felt herself go still, entering that calm where neither time nor space existed. Her arm came up, she swung around the tree with practiced ease. It took less than a second but felt like a smooth eternity, as she had all the time in the world to line up her bow, aim for the eye, and loose. The deer didn't even have time to raise its head before the arrow burrowed into its skull and dropped the beastie then and there. Cassidy let out a breath and everything came rushing back into real time. Her arms started shaking and she fell back towards Sugarbear crying. This was reality now.

She brought the wheelbarrow home to a sight of winter wonderland as what looked like large white butterflies fluttered around her lilies of the valley. She was frozen in wonder at not just the sight but the realization lily of the valley was poisonous to deer. Truly, too beautiful. As she walked by, one of the Icy beauties landed on her arm only to bring intense pain. Cassidy was yelping even as she slapped it away and a large frostbitten welt developed where it landed. Too many changes today; too much strangeness. She dropped the wheelbarrow where it stood and grabbed up a stick. It was time for batting practice.

With no further issues and a massacre of frozen butterflies outside she had just enough time to board up the doggie door on her back door and drag a mattress into the attic before night fell. She passed out on the coverless bed. Her puppies soon joined her on either side, Koda oozing a green poultice across the mattress. She didn't turn them away.

The next day was codename: Secure the House! She ended up finding yesterday’s missing drill while she was moving her housemates’ mattresses into the basement, that and the caulk. She just had to finish moving everything else of value from that side of the house into the basement and then she could seal up the door. It was a shame there was no room for the couch but she did manage to squeeze in her favorite chair and a very nice coffee table.

There was no telling what disarray the rest of the house would fall into once she cut it off and left it to take care of itself. Speaking of disarray, after tearing her blouse to pieces she realized the great value of clothes and their short-term life in this new world. So, after moving all of her things into the attic, she went to raid her housemates’ closets. Almost everything was shoved into bags for storage, leaving only a few impractical shoes behind. Once everything was squirreled into place downstairs she got started on fortifications. The door to the rest of the house was sealed with caulk all along its edges—Both sides. Then came the boards, stretching wall to wall and nailed into the very door itself. She ran out of wood before she could board it up entirely. Another adventure for another day. The windows came next. She took her drill to the edges of the sills and made holes for every strand of the chicken wire, filled the holes with caulk and then shoved in the wire to let it dry. She did both sides of the windows hoping to deter any hostile but she doubted it would hold up against anything that truly wanted inside. It was the best she could come up with though and it did give a modicum of safety compared to the open window with its glass shining bare in the sunlight.

Much to her surprise, all was not the normalcy she so desired. The frozen corpses of butterflies still littered her flowers, even freezing some of them overnight. They still looked in pristine condition. This time she rolled with it. One thought of her fridge and her dying generator had her picking them up with tongs to preserve her frozen meats and keep the fridge cool. She’d have to stay on the lookout for these ‘Icy Wings’ as she termed them in case the originals didn’t last long.

She waited for Koda's side to heal up before venturing back to the barn, it only took a few days with the poultice. A new fact she decided to ignore along with the whole concept of a changing world. She did keep her steps quiet when walking outside despite this denial and eased her way down the path to see what had become of the boar and deer in the days she'd holed up inside her house.

When she got to the turn, she saw they were picked clean. Not even a smell of rot came off the bones. Her body froze as she eyed the area, looking to see if whatever body disposal monster was still around but all was silent. She went forward and pushed the disturbing sight off the trail before continuing to scout down the path. All was clear this time without a monster in sight and she went back with her wheelbarrow so she could collect more boards. Not only for the door, but to store them just in case something did get in and break apart her work. She knew she would not want to be coming back to this barn in the future, too much trauma.

Everything went well and she was left to face her next problem. She was out of dog food and there wasn't enough meat left in the fridge to last her dogs through the week. It looked like hunting was a reality she had to face again. Her gaze fell outside the window. Pale green irises like ghosts compared to the vibrancy that grew on the other side. She'd be spending a lot more time out there with the monsters.

She was just waking up the morning after another hunting excursion. Several aches and pains greeted and a green poultice was spread across the bandaged bite on her arm. That’s when she was jolted up by the voice she’d come to fear.

~After one week of adjustment we now offer you a trial period...