When Bernard woke he found a series of messages from Aegis waiting for him.

Congratulations! You have been awarded the feat Thorns for defeating a voidling much stronger than yourself!

Congratulations! You have reached level one in your class, Arboreal Warden, you may select one of the following feats! Well-rooted, Photosynthesis, Hyphal Network, or Iron Bark.

Congratulations! You have earned enough energy to advance to level four! Would you like to advance now? Warning: accepting levels results in temporary loss of various senses and/or ability to move, Aegis recommends you do so only in a safe location!

Alert: Multiple simultaneous level increases have been found to be hazardous to mental health, proceed with caution.

Notice: Acquired void energy can be utilized by Aegis to generate items as well as increasing user's level. Access Aegis Store by speaking the words Aegis Store aloud.

Note: Prices in Aegis Store are significantly higher outside of Exclusion Zones, users should attempt to reach one before making purchases if possible.

Bernard wiped the nervous sweat from his brow. "Thank God I read all of those before accepting the levels." He considered his options for a moment. "Aegis Store?" He asked the air in front of him tentatively.

A window not unlike the list of possible classes popped up in front of him, listing purchasable items along with the energy cost to acquire them. A cost that ultimately meant nothing to him. "How do I find out how much energy I have to spend? Do I have a status men-" He was interrupted mid-sentence by another little window opening up. It was… not very helpful. He felt like just about everything he found there was blindingly obvious. "Oh, look, I'm dehydrated and hungry, so good to know. Concussed, I would have never guessed that multiple heavy blows to the head could cause that without this window, thanks. Scrapes, bruises, cuts, and their locations, because I don't have nerve endings literally telling me about them constantly.

"Oh, wait, this is actually useful. Void energy acquired… why is it ticking down?!" He started to panic slightly when he realized the energy he needed to buy the things he needed to live was slowly bleeding away.

Aegis users possess an upper limit to their ability to store void energy based upon their level and number of evolutions, any void energy collected beyond that limit will slowly dissipate.

While Bernard found that little factoid useful to know, it also burned away time, which burned away his purchasing power by the second. He hurriedly turned his attention back to the store window and began to scan through the options as quickly as he could. After a minute of scrolling through lists of generally useless stuff, at least in his current situation, most of which was even grayed out for some reason or another, he grew irritated. "Does this stupid store have a recommended purchase list?!"

He was surprised when the store window blurred and re-organized itself, although he realized he probably shouldn't have been after the very same thing happened with the class selection window. Right at the top of the new list was a pair of options that really stood out to him. He did some quick addition as he glanced at his status window and nearly panicked again, he had enough to buy them both, but wouldn't in moments. Without having time to think it over he simply reacted and bought both items, sighing in relief when the transactions went through instantly.

You have purchased item: Warden's Armor, Rarity: Variable-Growth. Note: This armor's form varies based on the user.

You have purchased item: Warden's Armament, Rarity: Variable-Growth. Note: This weapon's form varies based on the user.

Bernard rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation of his rather expensive new items as a cloud of silver light gathered in front of him. A pair of objects began to take shape in the mist, and he reached out to catch them when the mist began to fade. He frowned at them. "Big acorns? Really? How am I supposed to… wait, seriously?" He realized mid-rant that perhaps the store quite literally meant growth items, as in items he would have to grow. He groaned.

The first thing he did was re-open the store page and search for growth items. Sure enough, the ones that weren't Warden specific had astronomical costs, and all of them had little images of the item in question when you selected them. He just missed it the first time because he was in such a rush. So while a warrior could get, say, an ax made from a giant tooth and use it right away, he had to plant seeds and wait for his gear to grow. His stuff was cheaper by far, but would take time to be useful, while the ax would be immediately useful, but probably harder to grow.

At least he hoped that was the case, otherwise his class specific growth items were essentially garbage. Regardless, he had to move on. He pulled up his pending feat selection next.

Well-Rooted: You are much harder to move while both feet are planted firmly on the ground.

Photosynthesis: You can gather nourishment from sunlight as long as you are hydrated.

Hyphal Network: The forest has a voice, and you can now listen to it while in contact with the root system of any tree.

Ironbark: Your skin takes on certain aspects of the ironbark tree, increasing your resistance to physical attacks.

Bernard mulled over his choice for a while, as some of the options were pretty tempting. He dismissed Well-Rooted almost immediately, as he would prefer avoiding situations that involved other things moving him as much as possible for the time being. Perhaps that would change in the future in this insane new world, but until then he would try his hand at dodging.

Hyphal Network sounded cool, he vaguely remembered reading that it was a kind of communication network between trees and he was curious as to what they talked about, but ultimately he dismissed it as an option as well. He just couldn't see how talking to the forest would improve his immediate chances of survival. Learning more about his surroundings was valuable, sure, but assuming he would even be able to understand them right away, it would do little to protect him from another pig-ape appearing and feasting on his innards.

Ironbark had him staring at his large acorns. This was where he would have to roll the dice. Being harder to hurt was a direct improvement to his survival chances if, or when, he had to fight more weird monsters, but being able to live on sunlight and water would improve his ability to survive without having to hunt or forage for food. Not having to leave whatever shelter he finds for anything but water should drastically reduce the odds of encountering more monsters.

He ultimately decided to take the non-combat option and pray that his new seeds would grow into something useful before he encountered another monster. After all, being a bit harder to hurt wouldn't help him much if he didn't have a reliable way to fight back, and he was far from skilled or experienced when it came to fighting anyway. A pair of schoolyard brawls when he was twelve had done absolutely nothing to prepare him for life and death battles with other humans, let alone crazy monsters.

After he chose Photosynthesis a strange tingling sensation crawled across his body and he watched with a mix of awe and horror as the hair on his arm, and probably everywhere else, took on a greenish tint. He couldn't help but be glad he didn't take the Ironbark feat. Once the transformation finished he found he could instinctively feel that he was photosynthesizing. It was a bizarre experience, he was hyper-aware of the very few spots the sun touched his skin, and he could feel his hair.

He brushed his hand along his arm experimentally, then took a deep breath before plucking a hair from his head. He was more than a little relieved to learn that it didn't feel any different from what he expected from a plucked hair. He couldn't even imagine the hassle it would have been to have somehow developed nerve endings in his hair.

"Alright," he muttered, "next up is shelter and somewhere to plant these weird seeds. I sure hope I didn't screw up already." He considered directions to go for a few minutes before realizing it probably didn't matter. Or more accurately, he wanted to go north but had absolutely no idea which way that was. The only method of finding north he knew required the ability to see the sun.

More accurately he knew there were other methods, including making a crude compass, but he hadn't the faintest idea of how to actually do any of that. He had seen enough Revelation Channel wildlife and survival shows to know that things like which side of the tree moss grows on was useless, but he, unfortunately, hadn't paid much attention to anything that would actually help him navigate in a jungle. It had been interesting, but since he had never planned on even finding himself near a jungle, let alone get lost in one, he hadn't retained much.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, that way I guess." He said with a bit of a shrug, deliberately avoiding the direction he knew for a fact held a partially chewed human body. It felt a bit wrong, leaving the unnamed man to rot or be eaten by scavengers, but he knew he didn't have much choice in the matter. It wouldn't be all that bright to dig a grave without tools in a predator and monster filled jungle he knew nothing about, while also having no idea where to go for food, water, or shelter.

He kept his eyes peeled for clearings or trees that might be easier to climb. He did want to eventually get back to his own country after all, and that meant going north. Not that he had much reason for that desire beyond it simply being something to strive for. A goal to keep him motivated and working towards something.

He desperately hoped that when he got out of this godforsaken rainforest he would find some transportation he could use. He didn't much care for the notion that he might have to walk thousands of miles across demonstrably hostile lands just to reach the border.

After an hour or so of trudging, he determined that where he had landed had been the closest thing to a clearing he was likely to find, as the canopy only grew increasingly dense as he traveled. Before long he was walking through a green-tinted gloom that rivaled dusk back home. He supposed it could actually be dusk, but it had only been noon when the world went crazy and he desperately hoped he hadn't been lying unconscious in a deadly forest for hours.

As he considered turning back and returning to the area he appeared in he spotted a tree that changed his mind. Its leaves were broader than anything he had ever seen, easily longer than he was tall in both length and width, and its gnarled trunk stretched further into the canopy than he could see. It looked easy enough to climb, and the shape and size of the leaves should make it easy to collect water from the frequent rain storms this forest was supposed to get.

He buried his fist-sized acorns before he started to climb the tree. The branches he could see were thick and clustered, and he was confident he could find a place to safely sleep if he needed to. Which meant that until his growth items had grown enough to be useful this tree should make a decent enough shelter. He just hoped that the acorns could grow in the gloomy forest floor.