Adam felt a surge of - something. Some energy inside himself as he allocated the points. He presumed this was either where the changes had been made or his pool of mana refilling quickly. He felt better now he had made a commitment. No point thinking too hard about his current health as there was little he could do about it.

Now he had some mana available Adam inspected his attributes in a bit more detail. Health - Indicates damage that can be taken before body is injured. Stamina - Energy available to prevent fatigue. Interesting. Not much information there but it seemed he wouldn't get hurt while he had health and wouldn't get tired while he had stamina available. He didn't bother inspecting the other attributes, partly to conserve mana, mainly because they were pretty self-explanatory.

Quick mana check = 4.6 remaining. One last thing to review. Classes. Adam activated inspect and concentrated on the class system showing more information than before. The system rearranged things automatically this time.

Class Description Skills God - level 1 (hidden) You are a God. Inspect; Discern Gain five levels in current skills to unlock next skill. [Transfer] Unlocked Scout Unlocked by exploring surroundings. Use to gain information about surroundings and hostile forces.

Please select initial skill. [report]; [stealth]; [eagle eye]; [survey]; [beacon]

Next skill unlocked at level 5.

Interesting. God Class was as uninformative as ever. Nothing new or interesting there except that his current skills were in that class. Adam had assumed, due to their nature, that they might have been linked to Scout Class. Also he could tell when his next skill would unlock alongside a list of skills for Scout. Quick mana check = 3.6. He groaned. Learning the system was turning out to be pretty tricky with the mana limitations. He would try to read/absorb the information quicker. Transfer - Allows the allocation of a transferable class to others. Adam wasn't really clear what that meant at the moment, presumably it would become more obvious with time. Or at least he hoped it would. He moved on to the scout skills: report - Allows the user to remotely share information with reporting officer; stealth - Allows user to hide from simple detection methods; eagle eye - Increases visual awareness and details obtained at distance; survey - Allows user to map basic information and resources of areas that have been explored; beacon - Allows user to place one signal post per level. Mana check = 2.2; good, the speed reading helped a little.

He couldn't decide which skill might be most helpful at the moment. Also, how hard would it be to get to level 5 to unlock a second one. Report was no use until, or if, he met other people. Survey didn't seem much help when he had Inspect and Discern but could be helpful if it used the skill points rather than mana. Beacon again didn't seem that interesting at the moment and Adam wasn't sure what was meant by a signal post and whether this would be useful. Stealth would have its advantages as would eagle eye. Considering the revelations since first activating the class and skill systems Adam decided that the best choice was waiting for now. He had time to choose and nothing that was pressuring him either way. The initial excitement of his discoveries had worn off and he was already thinking he might have been reckless in making the allocations he had done so far.

The decision not to decide set Adam stood and brushed the sand down off his legs. His feet now dry he pulled on his socks then shoes. Person had decided to lie down for a nap so Adam poked them awake and then put a grumpy Person who was currently rubbing sleep from their eyes up on his shoulder. Adam was surprised to see that the sun had moved quite far across the sky and that his shadow was lengthening. The brief blasts of [Inspect] to gain information didn't take that long. It must have been the time between digesting what he had learnt and picking and adjusting things that had flown by.

"Looks like it's time to get back to camp." Said Adam. Person nodded in agreement and pointed in the direction of camp. Adam considered this and shook his head.

"No, lets go back via the fruit trees," he said "I want to collect some more fruit." It wasn't a question but Person nodded again. Giving their blessing to the idea. Adam sighed. He wondered how long he would stay sane with these being his only interactions with others. The sigh turned to a chuckle as he considered that it had only been a day and he was already thinking this.

Adam shouldered his pack; took one last drink from the river and set off in the direction he had come. He decided to experiment a little on the way. If stamina stopped him becoming tired; what would happen if he decided to jog rather than walk. Back home he had hated jogging; his only real memories of it being the runs done at school when it was too wet to use the playing fields. Not only had it been tiring but was always wet and cold at the same time making the whole experience horrible. It was still quite mild and there was no rain so if stamina meant jogging wouldn't make him tired as well then Adam thought he might actually enjoy it.

It worked. He was only jogging lightly but he estimated he was going at least twice the pace he was when walking and he wasn't tired. He wasn't really getting out of breath yet. Not having a clock, watch or being any good at guessing distances Adam could still appreciate that he arrived at the fruit trees quite quickly. He stopped to explore and check his status.

Adam God Class (hidden) - Level 1 Attribute Value Regen (per hr) Health 100/100 5 Stamina 5/100 -5 Mana 3.8/15 2 Skill Points 10 1

Wait, stamina regen was negative. Also he had used a whopping 95 stamina on what he felt was a gentle jog. No fair. He was disappointed that a God could use up almost all their stamina on a gentle jog and then ended up with negative regen because they were recovering. He supposed that he was still himself otherwise so it did make sense that he wouldn't be all powerful straight away. Even so, 95 stamina for a jog. Adam shared his annoyance with Person who seemed to agree.

At least his mana seemed to be recovering ok. He used a quick blast of Inspect to confirm that the apple and pear trees were what he thought; no additional information there. The unidentified berries were next. Bellberries - Common berries; edible when red; poisonous when green. Adam looked at the random mix of red and green in front of him; glad he had followed his instinct earlier and not eaten them. He also held the skill for a short time looking around generally. Orchard - low threat, level 1. A quick mana check confirmed that this took around ten seconds. Mana check = 2.6.

Adam decided to walk the rest of the way back to camp. He had a selection of fruit in his pack that would last the evening and hopefully leave some for breakfast tomorrow. The walk back took about an hour as Person had predicted when they had found the tree the first time. Using Inspect on the way had told him that grass was grass and that the trees were a mixture of birch, ash and elm. He realised that some people would have recognised this without a special skill to help but not being a nature lover this had been new to him. Interestingly, after acknowledging the area as Orchard, he could sense this information straight away with Inspect and did not have to hold it the whole ten seconds. This way he knew when he crossed into Foothills and then Camp. Both were designated low threat, level 1.

It was now dusk. Not yet dark; but the sun was not visible either. Adam took stock of his surroundings on return to camp. What had seemed quite safe and cosy in his mind was starting to feel a little more concerning as night was approaching. He had been camping with his Dad as a child and then again a few times with friends once he had grown up. Each of these trips had been with the benefit of being near a car or lodge though. Most the time their pitch had even had a power supply. The lonely tent sat next to a ring of stones for a fire did not feel anywhere as near as secure.

He had collected some twigs and branches on his way back. Feeling positive at the time about lighting a fire and setting up camp like he had at home. Now reality was kicking in. He had no way of lighting the fire and nothing to cook on it anyway. He took one of the larger straight branches out of the pile and swung it around like a club. This made him feel marginally better. He had a very crude weapon if needed. He sat forlornly looking around wondering what to do next noticing the slight chill in the air now the sun was setting.

Adam sobbed. It was as though, with the return to camp, the adrenaline that he had been running on all day had left him. He was alone. He looked at Person. Well, essentially alone. In an unknown place having been transported by an unknown power after his own life ended because he had died. He seemed to be in the same body he remembered, his hair the way he normally had it cut and only a day's worth of stubble on his chin. From what he had seen in the reflection in the water at the river, he was himself and the odd scar from childhood scrapes was still present. He was a simple office worker in his mid-thirties; with no real skills that he could transfer to this situation. It seemed he could learn and absorb skills from the system that was in charge but his understanding of how that worked was limited to the level that it was laughable.

He moved into the tent to escape the cold and lay down in his blanket. He took one last look at his status.

Adam God Class (hidden) - Level 1 Attribute Value Regen (per hr) Health 100/100 5 Stamina 30/100 10 Mana 5.7/15 2 Skill Points 10 1

His stamina and mana were building back up which was good. Then he remembered something else.

Priorities Complete? Exp Empty bladder 100% n/a Find food 100% 10 Find water 100% 10 Find shelter 100% n/a Don't freeze to death overnight 0% 5 Don't get attacked and killed in the night 0% 15 Work out where I am 20% 40

If it was getting cold and there was exp for not freezing to death then why had the system allocated three times as much exp to not getting attacked?