Michael accepted Olivia's hand up, noticing as he did so that he was no longer wearing any of the armor that he had gained in the Tutorial. He first thought that whatever had knocked him out had also destroyed his stuff but a brief discussion with Olivia revealed that any items gained in the Tutorial that weren't given as rewards, stayed in the Tutorial. This explained why he had none of his armor anymore. It also made him feel a lot better about all the items he had lost over the year.

"So what else should I know?" There was obviously a lot that he didn't know and it was nice that he finally had someone to ask.

Olivia had a bit of difficulty remembering what had changed back then. "Um, oh yeah. You should have gotten a notification about getting full access to the System right?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing that includes an inventory and access to the System store right?"

"Yes and no, you do get access to the inventory but access to the store requires the town crystal which we won't have for a while. Don't worry, you're not missing out on anything, most items worth buying cost thousands of credits and people rarely have more tha-" She paused, and looked at him with suspicion. "Yeeahh, most don't have more than a few hundred credits. Then there are those annoying weirdos who have tens of thousands of credits just laying around." Michael was wounded, the accusations biting deep.

"Hey, I don't have tens of thousands of credits. I only have-" He quickly checked "- 10,431 credits." Olivia just stared at him until he started to feel uncomfortable.

"Uh huh. Moving on, there's the Inventory. You open it in the same way as the Status, with a bit of mental focus or simply by saying it out loud. You can also access a Settings screen to let you alter various aspects of the System such as the size, shape and format of the screens and various other aspects. Once you get a class and a profession you gain access to those screens but for right now you don't have to worry about those."

Olivia paused to let the information sink in before continuing. "Okay, before we continue, I'm going to gather the rest of my team. I know I said not to tell anyone else about the trial but if we're going to be helping you, then they need to know. You can wipe that worried look off your face, I trust them with my life, they're good people." Olivia raised her hand skywards and shot a bolt of fire into the sky, which hung in the air some twenty feet up.

"Okay, Damien should be on his way, he's our scout. I'll grab Sam and Anne, you hang here." With that, Olivia walked over to the tent and ducked inside, leaving Michael standing there feeling a little, well, 'managed'. He idly wondered if Olivia did this to her friends as well or if he just got some sort of 'this guy's an idiot so I'll have to sort him out' deal.

Olivia came out with Sam the dwarf and a somber Anne following her. "Anne, Do you mind getting us seats?"

"Uh, sure Liv." she mad a couple swiping gestures before seemingly poking at something in the air, and a set of five wooden chairs materialized on the ground in front of her. Feeling a little shocked at the casual display, Michael looked around and found that no one else even blinked, Sam and Olivia moving forward to help Anne set up the chairs in a small circle.

"Damian, you here?" Olivia spoke into the air, not looking at anything in particular.

Anne jumped a solid foot into the air as a voice, and the man accompanying it, materialized behind her and said "Yup, got here a second ago". He might've said more but he was too busy being punched in the face. Anne apparently packed a lot of strength in her small frame as the man, Damien, was sent flying. Watching the exchange, Olivia just sighed and asked Anne to heal him back up. From the way she said it this was apparently a common occurrence.

Once everyone was seated, with Michael getting a few looks from the others, Olivia cleared her throat. "Okay, what I'm about to tell you stays between us. Absolutely no one must ever know. Seriously. If word got out, well, I don't actually know what could happen, but I doubt it would be good. So before I continue, if any of you want to back out, now's your chance. I'll understand if you don't want to get caught up with this." She paused to let the others speak.

Damien was the first to speak. "Seriously? What the hick? What's going on? Is it something to do with sleeping ugly over there?" The scout was a 5 foot 10 tall, dressed in dark green leather armor with blonde hair and deep green eyes. Michael didn't like the guy, he was unfairly good looking and he obviously knew it. The 'sleeping ugly' comment certainly didn't help things.

Before he could react, Olivia spoke. "Yes, it has something to do with Michael, but I can't really explain until you all give me your word that it stays between us. I'm really sorry, I wish I could say more, but this is important. All I can ask is that you trust me, I would never put you guys in danger unless it was important."

"I trust you Liv, not sure what's going on but I'll keep whatever it is a secret." Olivia shot Anne a look of gratitude.

"Aye, Ah' swear. 'Sides, ah' can tell the lad's a goodun'. Us dwarves got a nose fir this sort a thing."

Olivia looked both grateful and at the same time annoyed, somehow. "Uh, thanks Sam. Could you knock off the accent though? This is kind of serious and it's really not helping." She turned to Michael. "You'll have to excuse Sam. He managed to produce a Rare quality item in the Tutorial and got to change his race thanks to the Intermediate Boon. It gave him several advantages but did not include that stupid accent."

"Fine, just for you I'll deny my dwarven heritage for a moment. What about you Damien, you in?" Everyone looked to the blonde scout.

"No duh, you think you can do all that foreshadowing and then not let me know what's going on? Like hippo." His eyes widened, and he quickly pulled a pencil and a piece of paper out of one of the many poaches on his belt before writing something down. Michael stared at him confused, before Sam leaned over and said "Ignore him, he likes to keep track of any weird things the profanity filter throws out."

Damiens standing rose a few notches in Michaels eyes, at least he had decent tastes in hobbies. They'd have to swap notes later on, though Michael doubted Damien would be able to beat serendipitous, that one was undefeatable.

"Okay, this is a copy of a notification that Michael gave me, it should explain a few things." She then made a few gestures in the air before flicking something invisible to the other members of the team.

The reactions were varied. Sam started laughing like a loon, Anne's jaw hit the floor so fast it might have dislocated and Damien froze, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

Anne was the first to recover. Snapping a look of disbelief Michaels way, she looked at Olivia and asked "Is this real, did he really complete the Survival Trial?"

"Yeah, as far as I know you can't fake a System notification. He really did complete the Trial." She paused to let that sink in, before continuing. "I want to help him, get him levels so he doesn't stand out to everyone he meets. You know what it's like in town, Mark and his goons would tear him apart for even the possibility of getting the trial rewards."

"But they can't get access to his inventory unless he gives it. Killing him won't get them the rewards" Anne said.

"If they can't get him to give them the rewards then they'll kill him just because he's a threat. If you weren't the best healer in the town, they would have already killed or crippled us. You remember last month don't you? When Sam got drunk and spoke out against Mark? They would've killed him if you hadn't stepped in." She sighed, a deep and weary sigh. "They're not good people, and I'd like to believe that they wouldn't do anything, but we both know that's not going to happen."

Sam spoke up, sadness clear on his face "We should've run them out of town long ago. I knew some of those boys, didn't want to believe they'd gone bad, but" *sigh* "I'm afraid they're too far gone."

"I'm happy to help him, if it'll pork off Mark." Olivia looked at Damien with a hint of surprise, then nodded.

"Anne, can I assume you'll help?" A nod came from the healer. "Okay, I'm glad we're in agreement. Now, Michael, if we're going to help you, we need to know everything, starting with how in the name of all that is good on this god-forsaken planet did you complete the Survival Trial?" With this question everyone's attention was laser focused on Michael, making him feel nervous.

Taking a deep breath, he began. "Well, you know how the Path section of your Status says 'None'? Yeah, uh, mine says something different...

Michael had started by explaining his Path, then gave an overview of his Attributes and Skills. The group was a bit underwhelmed with the Attributes and Skills, until Olivia pointed out that he was still only level 1. he then laid out the various Perks and Achievements he had gotten, and had to fend off some extremely dirty looks. Even Michael had to agree, it was a bit overpowered. Almost like his life was a novel and the author had gone a bit overboard.

Still, he had gone through a lot to get here. The dirty looks lessened when he shared some of the stories from the last year. Like how at one point he had to regenerate an entire foot because a stray shot from a Crazed Lava Elemental had vaporized it.

Eventually he got to the subject of rewards, at which point he finally looked through his inventory.

Inventory:

- 1x Intermediate Boon Die

- 1x Tier 1 Skill token

- 5x Upgrade Token

- 1x Tier 2 Skill Token

- 1x One City Token

- 1x Advanced Boon Die

- 1x Soul Companion Egg

- Endless Storm

- Endless Quiver

-

"Um, do I want to bring out something with Die in the name? Seems like a dumb way to die, kinda like stabbing a dragon in its butt."

Olivia looked at him like he was an idiot. "Michael, I don't want to sound mean, but you know you're an idiot, right? It obviously means die like the singular form of dice." And, now Michael also thought he was an idiot. In his defense, he hadn't slept in months. Being knocked did not count as a suitable substitute. "Okay, since I'm obviously an idiot, what do you think I should deal with first?" He said as he sent Olivia a copy of his inventory screen. She studied it for a second before saying "The intermediate and advanced boons. The skill and upgrade tokens can only be traded in at the System store. If the city token is anything like a town token, it'll require a lot of resources that we don't currently have so that one's moot. No idea what the Egg's about, but it'll probably take a lot of time to deal with, so don't touch it yet."

Michael was a little stunned at the quick and accurate analysis but quickly grinned and focused on taking out the two dice. With a small flash of light, two dice materialized, one a ten sided die about two centimetres wide and the other a twenty sided die about four centimetres wide. Michael picked them up and looked them over. Both seemed pretty normal except all the faces were blank, including Michael's, he had been expecting something more impressive. After a moment of thought, Michael tossed the intermediate die, the one with only ten sides, up in the air. Everyone's eyes followed the die as it rose and fell, landing in the dirt. Pictures rapidly flashed on the surface for a few seconds before settling on a picture of two halves of a stickman separated by a small space.

Michael looked up at Olivia "Ha, See! I told you I was going to die!". If looks could kill, Olivia's would not just have killed Michael but would also have retroactively killed every person in his family tree going back six generations.

Fortunately for Michael's peace of mind, he didn't see it, as he was currently reading a notification.

Intermediate Boon Gained!

Portal Transfer:

Spend 1,000 Mana to create a portal to a known location.

All transfers cost Mana according to density of transfer.

Lasts 24 hrs or until mana runs out.

24 hr cooldown.

Non-upgradeable, Non-transferrable

Michael read over the description. It seemed simple enough: plug in a destination, supply the Mana and a portal opens. Satisfied, he closed the skill description and looked up to find several curious gazes as well as an annoyed gaze. "Portal Skill. Costs 1,000 Mana so I'm not going to be able to use it for a while."

Curiosity sated, the audiences gazes were redirected towards the second, more powerful die. Rather than throw it immediately Michael took a moment to build up suspense. When Anne started glaring at him Michael felt that maybe that wasn't the smartest idea an threw the die. The multifaceted object, so small yet filled with promise, landed on the dirt with a thud greater than what should have been possible from such a small die. Unlike the intermediate die there was no flashing images. Rather, the die burst into a shower of golden lights which swirled through the air, briefly pausing in mid air before slamming into Michael, picking him up, flipping him thrice, and setting him gently back on his feet.

Advanced Boon Gained!

Skill Awakening:

Awaken a unique skill within another.

Awakening a skill within another ties their Fate to yours.

Number of Skill Awakenings is equal to Magic / 10.

Non-Upgradeable, Non-transferrable.

Michael looked over the ability description, thinking it over and trying to understand the full meaning of the ability. His first reaction was to curse the system that gave him an ability that was only useful to others. After a bit of thought he realised that the key lay in the 'Fate' part. He had no idea what that meant but he figured it would be nothing but beneficial for him. For instance, he could give someone a life saving skill and then they would later end up saving his life.

After he had taken a moment he explained the ability to the team who were waiting patiently. The reactions were varied to say the least. Damien straight up said no and walked off, giving zero explanations as to why. Anne looked at him sceptically, completely sure he was a pervert but not quite sure how. Sam laughed at him, saying fate was a tricky mistress. Olivia on the other hand, had her head down trying to figure out what the part about fate meant.

After a few moments she looked up at Michael. "Do you mind using it on me?"

Anne objected immediately. "Don't Liv! You just met the guy, you have no idea what he's like. Heck, he's probably a perv!" "Hey! I'm not a perv!" "We have no idea what tying your fate to him will do!"

Olivia turned to Anne. "I know all that. I know it's risky, but I'm going to do it anyways. I need the edge over Mark, and something tells me this will do it. Besides, my intuition say we can trust him. The idiot is so trusting he couldn't be evil."

Anne stared at her friend for a few seconds before sighing. She'd seen Olivia get like this before and knew that she wasn't going to talk her out of it. She turned to Michael with a look so fierce he subconsciously took a few steps back. "Listen up you possible perv, if you mess with Liv in any way I will literally emasculate you. With a spoon." With her threat delivered she sat back down.

Michael gulped, suddenly a lot less sure about using the ability. Still, despite the very real threat to his potential kids, he really wanted to see what the ability did. Facing Olivia he activated the ability. Swirling motes of light, an almost exact copy of what appeared when he got the ablity, burst from Micaels chest and flowed through the air like leaves on the wind. The motes of light landed on Olivias body and dissolved into her skin. When the light show finally stopped, Olivia was faced with a skill notification.

Skill Gained!

Summon Elemental:

Tier 2, Level 1, Unique Skill

Spend 100 Mana to summon an elemental to do your bidding. The power of the Elemental increases in relation to affinity. Elementals last 1 hour or until killed. Number of Elementals summoned increases per level.

Michael's Status, as promised

Status

Name

Michael Volker

Age

33

Level

1

Experience

0 / 100

Class

None

Profession

None

Path

Boundless Adventure

Race

Human

System Credits

438

Tier

1

Health

240 / 240

Mana

230 / 230

Health Regen

29.7 per min

Mana Regen

28.6 per min

Attributes

Strength

18 (+3)

Agility

20 (+3)

Vitality

20 (+6)

Dexterity

18 (+3)

Perception

19 (+3)

Magic

20 (+5)

Skills

General

Basic Alchemy lvl 5

Novice Archery lvl 10

Beginner Camping lvl 7

Beginner Cleaning lvl 3

Beginner Climbing lvl 5

Basic Construction lvl 4

Basic Cooking lvl 6

Novice Dodge lvl 5

Beginner Exploration lvl 8

Basic Farming lvl 2

First Aid lvl 7

Basic Fishing lvl 5

Beginner Herbalism lvl 4

Novice Heal lvl 7

Identify lvl 3

Basic Leatherworking lvl 4

Magic Missile lvl 9

Beginner Mana Manipulation lvl 6

Limb Regeneration lvl 3

Basic Skinning lvl 7

Novice Stealth lvl 9

Beginner Taming lvl 1

Novice Throwing Weapons lvl 7

Beginner Tracking lvl 8

Beginner Trading lvl 3

Basic Trap Making lvl 5

Novice Unarmed Combat lvl 5

Basic Woodworking lvl 7

Affinities

Nature

49%

Water

32%

Light

23%

Fire

21%

Earth

18%

Metal

7%

Life

6%

Death

5%

Earth 18% Metal 7% Life 6% Death 5% Path Perks

Experienced Diver - Experience gain increased by 100% when in a Dungeon.

I can Dungeon all Day! - Mana and Health Regen increased by 100% when in a Dungeon. Food and Sleep is no longer required whilst in a Dungeon.

Skilled Adventurer - Gain and raise skills 5% faster.

Monster Sense - Able to detect Monsters within 50 feet. The closer the Monster is, the more precise the detection.

Experienced Dungeoneer - Can access the basic information of the Dungeon you are currently in.

Dungeon Citizen - Once per day you can create a 'Safe Space' lasting 24 hrs. Safe Spaces discourage monster presence and partially hide allies from detection.

Discerning Looter - Looted items have a 5% chance to be of greater quality.

Fearsome Fighter - Chance to create Fear effect on Monsters at the same or lower level than you. Greater level difference creates greater Fear effect

Fearless Fighter - Gain Fear Resistance. Fear Resistance no longer affected by difference in levels.

Danger Sense - Gain a vague sense of danger. Sense increases in relation to size of danger and Perception.

Achievements

Extravagant Wastrel - Gain 5% of the items worth in System Credits when you throw away an item.

Perfect Genes - Attributes are easier to acclimatize.

Insane Attributes - Base Attributes are 5% more effective.

Murderhobo - Deal 10% more damage when homeless.

One With The Universe - Increase Mana and Health Regeneration by 10%.

Traits

Powerful Blows - Melee attacks are 10% stronger.

Quick Feet - Movement speed increased by 10%.

Healthy Body - Gain Disease and Poison resistance starting at 15%.

Ambidextrous - able to use both hands equally well.

Sense Intent - Able to vaguely sense the intents of those around you.

Magic Absorption - Absorb 5% of incoming magic and convert it into Mana.