The sun was just barely beginning to peak over the horizon, glittering sunlight seeping in through the trunks of the trees, filtered by the leafy canopy above. Golden rays coated the ground in an orange blanket of light as the previously cloudy and dark sky ripped apart to share its newfound blueness.

A woman sat on the ground, chewing at a piece of gamy, overcooked meat while she thought.

Name Unnamed Level 5 Health 180/180 Stamina 89/100 Essence

0/4 Power 9 Constitution 4 Endurance 5 Vim 6 Essence

1 Spirit

21 Health Regeneration

100/day Stamina Regeneration

120/day Essence Regeneration

500/day

Her recent level up gave her five more stat points, which she pumped straight into spirit, without question. This part wasn't confusing; it was the two other implications of the level up that asked a lot of questions.

First, she received a notification.

Class Unlocked

Upon reaching level 5, the ability to choose a class has been unlocked

Class Selection

Labourer

Killing monsters no longer rewards experience

Using skills now gives experience

Non-combat skills level up 50% faster

Fighter

Stamina-consuming skills level up 50% faster

Requirements: 10 in Power and Endurance

Requirements: Kill 10 entities using physical skills

Mage

Essence-consuming skills level up 50% faster

Requirements: 20 in Essence

Requirements: Kill 10 entities using non-physical skills

Hidden Class

Acolyte of Life

Life skills gain a 50% boost

Requirements: Life Aspect

Requirements: Heal 1000 health through life skills

Requirements: Deal 1000 damage through life skills

Not once was there any indication of a class for her to choose from but here it was; for such a monumental change, she suspected that it didn't occur for every level up and so, she'd have to take this very seriously; really think through the options and properly do the maths.

So she did.

First of all, labourer was easily cut out. All her skills consumed essence and levelling up by killing monsters was very fast as it was; there was no way she'd forego mage to pick labourer. Similarly, she had no stamina skills so fighter could easily be ruled out.

That left a choice between mage and acolyte of life.

To compare, she chose leech. Currently, it did 20 points of damage every second for 3 essence. A 50% boost would either mean it did 30 points of damage or did 20 points for only 1.5 essence every second. Given the system's proclivity towards integers, she suspected it'd be the former option.

That means, without acolyte of life, leech would have to be level 5 to do comparable damage but at a higher expense of essence, at 5 essence per second. Just thinking about it this way, she felt her mind settle into a decision with which one it'd rather prefer. If she chose to think about it in the long-term, when leech was level 10, it could no longer level up, rendering her class useless at that point if she chose mage. With the acolyte, however, it'd always be useful and its effect would increase as skills got stronger, being its strongest at level 10. Additionally, it also made lower level skills more useful early on.

And, finally, there was, perhaps, the largest obstacle to picking mage; the requirements. Needless to say, she was a far-cry from 20 essence currently and she didn't presently have any plans to increase it. That alone would've made the decision for her, but uncertainty in whether she'd even be able to level without picking a class firmly cemented mage as not being worth it.

That's it; she picked the acolyte of life class with minimal hesitation, the window disappearing before her as soon as she confirmed the thought.

Then...Nothing. She felt no observable change, no discernible difference. To her own, mundane eyes, no effect could be perceived. This called for closer investigation.

She brought up her skills window to check in on leech.

Leech (3/10)

Drain 30 points of health every second from a living entity

3m range

Cost: 3 es/sec

The class worked. A rush of giddy joy filled her as she stared upon its effects.

Yes! Leech has gotten stronger and is now back at a one-to-one level of efficiency! Levelling the skill won't feel so bad anymore. How does a boost work for the other skills?

Checking, reservoir stone had its transfer rate increased to 15 essence per second, a difference that didn't matter since 4 essence per second seemed to be all she needed currently. Cleanse showed no visible change either, having no numbers to effect. Maybe it was boosted but just in a way that can't be represented by the system? I don't know and, frankly, I don't think I'd be able to find out on my own. Not unless it was quite obvious.

However, that was only one difficult decision made--there was skill one more; what was she going to spend her skill point on? She had settled on buying well of spirit but now, after the class level up, she remembered that reservoir stone could also be upgraded into a passive. After confirming that skills she had yet to purchase showcased the effects of the 50% boost, she checked out reservoir stone as well.

Reservoir Stone has reached levelled 10.

You can choose to spend a skill point to upgrade the skill or turn the skill into a passive.

Reservoir Stone+

Instantly fill or drain an object full of essence.

Cost: variable

Reservoir Stone (passive)

Constantly absorb essence from your environment

Transfer rate: 15% of environmental Essence

1m range

The passive was what interested her, though she had no idea what effect it'd have and so would struggle to make any calculations with it.

For instance, well of spirit, at first level, gave her 20% more spirit. That's 25.2 spirit, or 25 as the system would display it. A full 4 points is basically another level up! 4 points means an extra 80 essence regenerated per day, which means it'd take around a minute and a half less time to regenerate all 4 points of essence. Could reservoir stone improve her essence regeneration by a comparable amount?

The answer was maybe. Was it worth a purchase? Honestly, she couldn't justify it; well of spirit had concrete benefits and they were large enough she couldn't just ignore them.

And ignore it she didn't, for her skill point was quickly spent. It's a shame well of spirit doesn't fall under 'life', though; I would've liked the boost to apply to it as well.

Name Unnamed Level 5 Health 180/180 Stamina 89/100 Essence

0/4 Power 9 Constitution 4 Endurance 5 Vim 6 Essence

1 Spirit

21 Health Regeneration

100/day Stamina Regeneration

120/day Essence Regeneration

584/day

Interesting; there's no reported change with my spirit but my essence regen clearly shows that my spirit has increased.

Satisfied with all the changes she had made today, and now with a full stomach, she clambered back onto her feet, ready for another whole day of travelling.

The rain had petered out sometime over the night and now, a bright and cheery sky presented itself at her, but that didn't mean she could just go back; the rain would take days, perhaps weeks, to drain through the mud and soil. One, the ground had been so saturated and waterlogged that there'd be ponds all over the place for a while with all the water that had fallen.

Two, she felt a desire well up inside her to explore some more. So far, she had encased herself in the forest, not travelling very far at all and staying around the same places; her increase in strength gave her confidence and it was that confidence that called out to her to explore the world. To live a little.

Essence stone and knife in hand, she set to walking.

Her trek the previous night was long, hard, and arduous, but it was determined; she had tried to stay in a straight line, travelling uphill, which meant, hopefully, the stream should've stayed to the right of her. So, her first port-of-call was to relocate the stream and stay near that.

A task much easier said than done.

The forest was large, with trees scouring the vision as far as the eye could see. Unless you had a distinct and unusual interest in trees, you'd probably struggle to ascertain the differences between trees of the same species. When you're in a forest, this means that you'd struggle to recognise anywhere without some non-tree landmarks, like a rock formation or a stream of water.

What this meant, for her, was that she couldn't actually be sure she had even walked in a straight line--she couldn't actually be sure if she was walking in a straight line currently. Her feet sloppy pressed down against the moist ground, sinking in a few centimetres all the time, and the uneven and unsteady surface did nothing to help her balance.

She walked for about half an hour before she came upon something of interest--not the stream, unfortunately. It was a squirrel except, it was a bit larger than normal, and a bit more aggressive-looking.

But a squirrel is always a squirrel. She had killed enough by now to have developed a tried-and-true strategy for dealing with them; sneak up on them and just use leech to kill them.

Crouched down low, she wandered slowly from bush to bush, regulating her breathing and trying to suck in air in slow, measured breaths. Her feet were placed carefully, making sure to avoid the sodden leaves all over the place lest she squelched or crack under her feet.

She made her way to within a few metres of the creature, finally able to activate leech. She already had established the mental construct for reservoir stone, keeping that going in her head in the background as practise, as well as filling her essence stone with essence whenever she got the chance, so she slipped into the viscous embrace that was the whirlpool inside of her. She visualised the passage between her and the squirrel, leech lactching onto it.

Pure, red vitality flooded into her, energy overtaking her body. Normally, a squirrel would be dead in a second but this one took a bit longer; two seconds to fully die, falling over as its fur turned grey and brown, its muscles atrophied and bones visible underneath the thin layer of flesh.

Note: the big squirrels have around 60 points of health.

For the next few hours as she attempted to locate the stream, she came across a few more squirrels, both of the big and small variety, and eagerly took them out. For the latest large one, she set up a small campfire to cook it, both to see if it tasted different and because her stomach had begun to growl at her. An amused expression overcame her as she wondered whether a loud stomach would give her away when she was hunting, not that she wanted to test it.

Unfortunately, the quest for water was growing further and further out of reach; the sun had travelled the majority of its path in the sky and she had yet to find what she was looking for, the elusive brook hiding from her. A grim smile found itself on her face when she realised that after a night of torrential downpour, water was the hardest thing to find for her.

And, just like that, another day had passed, night falling on the forest like a smothering blanket.

Her sleep was a short and shallow one; every bump in the night, echoey sound of a creature off in the distance, startled her. Even as she shut her eyes closed, trying to ignore everything around her, a constant, mellow pain resided in her stomach. Whenever her brain would finally grow tired and she'd drift off to slip, she'd inevitably wake minutes to hours later, exhausted and fatigued but without any respite.

By the time the sun had risen again, she felt enervated. She had slept for only a handful of hours but it felt like she was deprived completely, running on fumes.

As she got to walking, her mind barely being able to focus, her stomach gnawed at her. A parched throat, dysfunctional mind, and an irresistible craving for any liquid consuming her, she trudged on like a zombie.

At one point, while walking, her legs gave out from under her--not because they were too weak but, rather, she tripped on the uneven ground, a loose and random stone bouncing down the hill, and couldn't react in time. She faceplants, body falling limp under the sudden release of weight that it had to hold up.

In a way, this was nice; it was much easier to lie down than to walk. But pain subsumed her body, an underlying sensation that precluded tranquility. She had to find water, somehow.

Perhaps she could follow a squirrel, like she had done her first day here? That would've been a smart decision--she was too overconfident, believing she'd just stumble across a stream eventually.

But then, an idea entered her mind; not a new one but, rather, one of the oldest ones she had.

Leech. Will it work? It heals me, gives me life. Water.. Water is life. Her mind was delirious, incoherent thoughts bouncing around her head, unable to form strings of words, recognisable sentences. There were just fragments.

She managed to push herself upwards into a sitting position, back against a tree and plant life all around her. She was so out of it she hadn't even used essence congruency yet, setting up the familiar template for reservoir stone to be held in. At least, this was easy enough to do; she had kept this in mind the past two days, growing used to the feeling.

Then, as best as she tried, she focused her eyes, staring solely at the bush in front of her. Her gaze was intense, unwavering as can be.

Life. I need... Water. What is water? Hydrogen. Hydrogen and oxygen. A human is water. Mostly. Leech gives life. A human is life. To heal, a human needs water. Ravings of a madwomen, they sounded like. Still, she needed to convince herself, convince the skill, that leech would nourish her with the sweet, sweet taste of spring water.

The skills were weird. Strange. They worked with her understanding but that didn't mean that understanding was cemented into the functioning of the skill. She originally used reservoir stone on a macro level--picturing herself and the essence stone as just solid bodies which particles floated between--but with essence congruency, the resolution had increased; she no longer saw whole bodies but, rather, a body constituted of a bunch of particles, a bunch of essence collected together, and ever in flux, capable of moving.

Why couldn't leech be similar? Rather than just thinking, just seeing, particles of life float towards her, could she see more than that? What the life represented? She was going to try--she had to try.

Closing her eyes, and steadying her breathing to a relaxing, constant rhythm, she focused, once more, on the bush in front of her, except, in her mind. She saw it, trying to maintain an understanding of its constitution; the cellulose, the carbon, the gases floating around inside. The minerals it was absorbing and the nutrients that passed through its roots. And the water.

She could see the whole system of life inside it; how the flow of water worked its way up from the roots, through to the leaves, and eventually, out into the air again. Every particle, every building block of life that made up this plant, slowly began to move. They began to undergo processes--photosynthesis, translocation, transpiration--as everything was transformed into life. Health.

She wanted that--she needed that.

The water. Why must it go up? Up and into the air, gone.

The bush was full of water, the ground saturated to the utmost it could be from the storm. Her? She was empty, running on fumes. A bridge connected.

The universe was chaotic; a body full of something would release it while a body lacking it would gain it. Everything would even out eventually. But not if you cut it off quickly.

The water began to flow. She could feel the essence drain, time feeling slower and more visceral here. The particles dripped towards her, sliding and gliding like water across glass. Then they found her.

A life unlike anything she had felt before filled her up. It wasn't as potent, as all-consuming as leech normally was. She couldn't feel her body mending itself in real time, pain easing away as blood clotted and solidified into brand new flesh; but she could feel energy filling her muscles.

What once felt deflated and devoid of life now felt powerful. Her throat, as dry as a desert only moments earlier, now felt as wet and tropical as a rainforest. Even her arms, after so much moving about, began to sweat, trickling down from her armpits.

It's... Worked. It worked.

Shock assaulted her mind; she struggled to believe it.

She had done it. She had used leech not to give her some vague, metaphysical quantity that was tied to her well-being but real and present water. A small chuckle escaped her lips.

I just drank a plant.

She collapsed onto her back, relief coursing through her. Her muscles were no longer tense, and her mind, the viscous and slippery thing, was beginning to feel more and more solid.

Magic. It's fucking incredible.