Traits:

World Traveler: Your soul has absorbed the energy of a foreign world, increasing your potential for growth. You will gain more XP than normal.

Prodigy: You learn and improve at very fast speeds. Skills will level up faster than normal.

Friend of Fire: You have become familiar with the hostile presence of heat and flame. Acquire level 5 Fire Absorption.

Iron Willed: No matter the danger, you never waver and lose sight of your goals. Gain passive resistance against mental detriments. Gain 10 Willpower.

Dauntless: You have successfully defeated many enemies of great strength without fail. While fighting enemies more than 10 levels above you, all stats temporarily increase

Wow.

That looks really great.

Each one of those five traits looked like game-changers. I got more XP, skills leveled up faster, I got extra stats, skills, passive abilities, all of which looked super strong.

These traits things are just like stronger skills!

Huh, they are exactly like skills.

Wait. These things are literally just more skills.

Aren't those traits just passive skills? They have cool abilities, sure, but if you just changed the name and put them into my skill list, I wouldn't have questioned it. Why are they different at all?

I was getting a little sick of these lazy game designers.

If you're going to put in a new category of stuff, something you want to be cool, don't copy off of yourself! Jeez!

I took a deep breath.

Calm down. You already knew that this god or whatever was super lazy and a terrible designer. You knew this. Don't get angry, you've got better things to be doing.

First, let's go through these skills one by one and figure out exactly what they do.

World Traveler was a little strange. It said that because of traveling between worlds and absorbing some sort of energy, I would gain more XP. That made zero sense to me. What about world-travel would make me level up faster?

Whatever, let's not complain about an objectively amazing ability.

Prodigy made more sense to me. Because I managed to get a lot of skills and level them up, I would level them up faster in the future. Nice and simple. However, it did make me start to wonder exactly why I was getting these things. Was it some sort of reward for completing the skill acquisition period? It looked like they were unlocked by things I did during the acquisition period. For example, I got World Traveler because I traveled to a different world, and Prodigy because I learned and improved a bunch of skills.

Friend of Fire seemed decent enough. The only reward I got from it was a new skill, which was something I would need to check out later, along with my magic skills.

That being said, the name "Fire Absorption" sounded great to me. I could already envision myself, walking calmly up to a nasty Abitsimus, wading through a wall of fire before one-punching it into the stratosphere.

Yes.... yes!

Sadly, I doubt Fire Absorption will give me super-strength, so I'll have to wait until I'm level 100 before uppercutting a demon gorilla.

Back to analyzing.

I also obtained the two traits "Iron-Willed" and "Dauntless". The first one seemed good, at least for a passive buff I don't have to think about. It nearly doubled my Willpower, but I still don't know what that stat does in the first place so overall, not very helpful. There was also the fact that Iron-Willed gave me some sort of resistance against mental detriments. If that meant I wouldn't get PTSD when this was all over, great.

Dauntless, on the other hand, felt much more substantial. Basically, whenever I fight a dude more than 10 levels higher than me I would get a small buff to all my stats. Even though I wouldn't know how much stronger I would become until I got in a fight, it sounded really good.

I sighed, dismissing the tab floating in front of me and closing my eyes for a few moments.

It was important to take a moment and savor the quiet. To slow down and think.

Right now, I'm weak.

Sure, every time I kill a demon and get XP I become a little stronger, but that wasn't going to cut it if I wanted to survive.

The advantages I have are my skills and magic. My traits give nice passive boosts, but that's all they do. I shouldn't devote any more time to thinking about them.

What I need to focus on and improve are my skill levels and magic proficiency.

I have the basic necessities of survival: food, water, and shelter. I have nothing else.

I opened my eyes.

First things first, let's make some tools.

....

I had dragged a single large Cirilka into the cave and then attempted to cleanly separate the main shell from the rest of the body.

It was bloody and exhausting work, but after ten minutes I came away with the intact shell.

It was chipped, accidentally carved up, there were holes in it, and it was covered in blood. Not a great first effort, but better than I expected. That was probably due to my Scavenging skill.

But even if it's sloppy, that's fine. I was trying to make a bowl of some sort but this could work well for a different purpose!

I looked down at myself.

When I woke up in that cave hours ago, I was wearing simple sleepwear. A pair of grey sweatpants and a black long t-shirt. Now, what covered me could barely be considered "rags". There were huge gouges, slashes, holes, burns, and more covering my shirt. My pants were faring better, but they were still tattered.

Now would be a good time to get some proper armor.

I sloppily hatcheted away at the shell, cutting it in two and tried to bend each half into a sort of saddle-shape. I was left with two very bent pieces of crimson shell.

I lifted it up to my chest and made some modifications so the basic shape could fit. Then, I cut decently large holes in the center of each part, putting the leftover pieces of scrap-shell on the ground.

Putting one arm through each piece, I was left with what looked like a red metal vest that had been ripped in half. Each half was hanging from my arms, and when I stood normally the armor could barely keep from falling off.

No, that won't do. I can't have armor that nearly falls to the ground every time I swing my arms.

I tried using strips of shell in order to hold the two pieces together but it fell apart even after many attempts.

I tried to take chipped-off pieces of Cirilka claws and pierce the halves in place like buttons, but to no avail.

I tried wrapping bits around my body in many layers, stacked up to not fall. It did no better.

After many modifications using large amounts of Cirilka shell, I only managed to create a single small piece of functioning armor.

It was basically a large donut shell that I put my head through, in order for it to sit on my torso. It only reached down to my chest and upper back and didn't cover my shoulders much. Being completely honest, it kind of looked like a bib.

That was the only thing I could make. I had no resources to stick or tie the armor together, and because of that, it couldn't stay on my body. With the limited tools currently at my disposal, I could only make the simplest things.

I had no idea how much time I had just spent on that since my timer was gone, but I knew it had to have been more than an hour.

I guess I'll just make what I originally thought of.

This was much easier, as all I had to do was slowly bend and deform a smoother shell until it looked like a large and deep bowl. The bowl was large enough that I had to carry it with both hands a fair distance apart, and was honestly more like a very big red bucket.

I set the bowl down on the cave floor, holding it up with a couple of big rocks. Then, kneeling directly over it, I started concentrating on my water magic.

As I began focusing my attention on the insides of my soul-space, what I saw surprised me.

In the very center of the soul-space was some kind of construct made of a wispy material. This construct floating aimlessly in the heat was similar to the elements I could access, but it didn't react when I touched it.

It was much smaller than the elements but it still looked a little cramped in my limited soul-space. I estimated that the strange object probably took up a sixth of the remaining area.

Shrugging to myself, I decided to send my consciousness into the construct and see it's properties. Maybe this was some sort of new element!

I was astonished when I entered the object and found that instead of an element, it was a blueprint.

As my mind pierced the outer layers of the construct, my mind was filled with abstract diagrams, feelings, and memories of how to properly use a single specific spell. That spell was the same one I had learned previously; Create Water.

While this was useful, it was all things I had previously figured out myself. How to move the soul-space, how to control the elements, how to push them out. The images were basically cataloging the steps I had taken to casting the spell. But there was nothing new.

I snorted and left the construct. What use did that have? I already knew everything it contained. All it did was take up my soul-space.

Wait a second.

I looked around the soul-space again, confirming that the construct definitely took up a good portion of free area.

Was I going to get another one of these every time I learned a new spell?

If that was the case, I would run out of the area in my soul very quickly.

I shook my head and focused on the spell. I could worry about that after it became a problem, I had too much to do at the moment.

With ease, I manipulated the water magic and ejected it from my soul space and into the air. Now that I had done it once, the second time was no problem.

I positioned the water magic to be in the center of the makeshift bowl and started compressing it.

This step wasn't any easier than last time, sadly. It was still very straining to crush and squeeze the magic, and nothing I knew could help with the process.

But after a few seconds, I managed it and the magic exploded into a large orb of water that filled up the bowl.

I stared down at the freshwater.

There were bits of dried blood and dust swirling inside, thanks to the grimy interior of the shell I had used.

I raised it to my lips.

Best fucking drink of my life.

....

I wasn't able to finish the bowl. There had been a lot of water, more than the last time I used the spell, and there was too much for me to drink, even though I hadn't had a good sip of water in hours.

How many hours had gone by, anyways?

It felt like forever since I had woken up, even though it couldn't have been more than half a day.

So much had happened.... and I had just gone along with it.

Of course I had gone along with it. I couldn't exactly refuse reality, no matter how much this situation felt like a joke.

....

While I was thinking, a tiny.... thing wandered into the cave.

It looked like a massive tarantula, around a foot long, probably larger than anything on earth. It was completely pitch black and had a huge bulge underneath the back part of its body. Its skin was covered in pulsating bumps that looked like oversized warts.

It was incredibly disgusting and scared the shit out of me.

Tiletik Spiderling: Level 2

Are you afraid of spiders? Don't worry, even though this little guy looks like he just crawled out of the pit of nightmares, he's actually super weak! Tiletik Spiderlings are still just babies and are too cowardly to stray far from their mother. They use their super-sticky webs to catch small prey, and they can eat sixteen times their body weight per day.

The Tiletik Spiderthing crawled cautiously into the cave, and I stared as it moved on those horrifying legs.

That thing is huge...

Its ruby eyes suddenly met mine, and it immediately leaped towards my face in a blur of motion.

I can still easily remember the image of that horrifying little fucker midair, his mandibles extended, and pure white web already flying out of his backside.

But even though my mind was miles too slow, my Reflexes had already sprung into motion.

"Time Dilation!"

The words sprung, unbidden, from my mouth as I dodged the side, a line of web flying past my face.

The world slowed around me.

I gauged the distance between me and the still-moving spider and determined that it was just far enough away.

A devilish grin began to (very slowly) grow across my face.

My hand started to move upwards, and I released the effects of Time Dilation.

As the world sped up around me, my fist flashed and I backhanded the spider to the ground, hearing a wet crunch.

I nearly caught it with a stomp, but it dashed forwards and started climbing up my leg!

"Crap!"

I flung my leg outwards and kicked the Tiletik into the cave wall, injuring myself in the process but hurting the spider more.

The spider still wasn't dead and was moving fast.

For some reason, it felt like my body was weaker than before. I didn't have the strength behind the attacks I did while fighting other demons. Did this spider give me some debuff or something? It's only level 2! It shouldn't be this tenacious!

The Tiletik jumped at me again, but this time I grabbed it and threw it against the wall.

Stunned, it wasn't able to react in time and I stomped down on it hard.

You Have Slain: Tiletik Spiderling

+12 XP Acquired

Finally!

But hey, no new skills or level ups?

I suppose I would have to get used to that since the skill acquisition period was over. I'd have to make do with only XP.

Trying to remember the description of that spider demon, I sighed. I hadn't focused on the text at all, I was way too freaked out about how that tarantula looked.

I was pretty sure there was something important in that description, though.

Hmm...

Something about a mother?

Eh, it doesn't matter. If I couldn't remember, it probably wasn't important in the first place.