Myles’ mouth tasted of bananas. Ripe bananas. And his entire body was suffused with a bone-deep ache that he hadn’t even known was possible, almost like someone had taken him apart, atom by atom, and then put him back together again, only with some extra bits attached, leaving his body feeling achy and somewhat unfamiliar.

Ding!

It was not an actual dinging sound, it wasn’t even any actual kind of sound, it was more like... a realisation. Like how you get a eureka moment sometimes where you just figure something out and knowledge that eluded you before suddenly becomes obvious.

And this was what suddenly became obvious to Myles:

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill [HEALING COMA].

HEALING COMA_ Lv. MAX

Type: (active)

Enter a healing coma that will let you recover five times faster.

Notice: the healing coma lasts eight hours and you CANNOT be woken up until it is complete. Skill can only be used once a week.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

Myles didn’t panic. He barely even took note of the new information, because now that his body was slowly picking up other sensations again, he was beginning to notice that he was lying on hard, rough ground.

The seventeen year old tried to open his eyes; his lids fluttered but remained shut. He tried again, succeeded, and several blinks later, his vision focused.

It was evening. At least Myles thought it was, since he couldn’t really see the sky too well, but he could see that he was outside in the woods.

How had he gotten here? he wondered. The last thing he remembered was... what was the last thing he remembered? It took some work but it came to him: school. He had been sitting in class—not sure which—listening to his teacher drone on. And although for some reason the memory felt... off, that was the last thing Myles could remember.

He tried to sit up, not much success there, so the young man aimed for something lower; rolling onto his stomach. This took way more time and groaning than it ordinarily should, but eventually, Myles managed it, after which he just laid there for a few more minutes.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill [REGENERATION].

REGENERATION_ Lv. 1/99

Type: (passive)

Improves the natural healing ability of your body per skill level.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

‘This again?’ Myles thought. ‘What skill? Slot in where? What even is this?’ He tried to focus on the knowledge, and suddenly, everything made sense... mostly.

NAME: Myles Tyberius Rend

SYSTEM DESIGNATION: System Prime

INVENTORY: 0.00% (to put an object in your inventory, you must be holding it in your hand/s. The overall weight limit for the inventory is 1 tonne.)

SYSTEM SKILLS: 3/3

GIFT OF SYSTEM_ Lv. MAX

Type: (passive/active)

Pass on the system to another sapient being by having them ingest your DNA. Pass on the system to your progeny.

SYSTEM SCAN_ Lv. MAX

Type: (passive)

Instantly know if a person possesses the system on sight. Can also reveal the details of a person’s system with some effort on your part.

SHARE SYSTEM_ Lv. MAX

Type: (active)

Share your system information with others on command.

Notice: this skill only works with other members of the system.

SKILL SLOTS: 00/15

SKILL LIST: 02 (the system allows for you to have an infinite number of skills, but only fifteen can be equipped at a time. If a skill is unequipped all levels are instantly lost.)

Well, that’s new.

*****

After several minutes raking through his memories for anything related to the system (an endeavour which alerted him to the fact that worryingly huge chunks of his memories were missing—but that was a problem for another time) and coming up empty, Myles had to give up and accept that this was a recent development, especially since he had only just gotten his first two skills.

Sometime during his memory search, Myles had finally pushed himself up to a sitting position and was now rested against a tree with a disturbingly stony bark, which was certainly not helping matters with his still very aching body.

He remembered the skills.

HEALING COMA_ Lv. MAX

Type: (active)

Enter a healing coma that will let you recover five times faster.

Notice: the healing coma lasts eight hours and you CANNOT be woken up until it is complete.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

REGENERATION_ Lv. 1/99

Type: (passive)

Improves the natural healing ability of your body per skill level.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

Myles mentally selected ‘yes’ for both. He did not know what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been what happened. Which was nothing. There was no sudden relief from the pain or other indication that he was healing faster. All he knew was that he could activate [HEALING COMA] at will, and that his skill slots had gone from 00/15 to 02/15.

Maybe [REGENERATION] just needed to level up a bit, he decided. Because he certainly would not be using [HEALING COMA] until he got back to civilisation.

Internal matters now temporarily settled, Myles rose with the support of the tree he was currently seated against, and as he did he realised, the bark of the tree did not just feel like stone, he rapped his knuckles against it; it was stone. Now Myles did not know much about trees, hell, as a city kid the number of trees he’d seen in his life were no doubt still in the double digits, but even he knew that trees were not made of stone.

Myles looked up and around him. In the low light and with his earlier distraction, he hadn’t noticed, but now he could see that none of the trees around him had leaves. At all. Their branches all stood bare and unmoving. He was in some sort of petrified forest.

How did he get here? Where even was here? He wondered, trying to ignore the shadows between the trees which were starting to seem to move whenever he saw them from the corner of his eye. And, more importantly, how was he going to get out?

Myles searched his pockets; a dead smartphone and housekeys. And unless those keys could open portals through space, both useless. He looked around; trees, trees and more trees in every direction, then up; glimpses of a—now that he was really looking—very strange sky through the sparse holes in the thick coverage of leafless branches.

He needed higher ground. He needed to see just how far away from civilisation he actually was, and if it turned out to be too far, find shelter and hopefully water. That was the rule of three, right? Shelter Water Food? At least he thought so.

Fortunately, the weather was warm, a little too warm even. But he couldn’t count on it to remain like that, a storm might move in at any moment and then where would he be?

So yes, he needed higher ground. The only question was how to get it.

Ideally, Myles would climb one of these trees, they were quite tall and their branches looked sturdy, but with the way he was feeling right then he didn’t think...

Ding!

Congratulations! [REGENERATION] has levelled up.

REGENERATION_ Lv. 2/99

Well, that was good to know, but he still didn’t feel noticeably better. Plus, he’d never even climbed a tree before... wait a minute, this system thing gave him skills right? It gave him the [HEALING COMA] skill because he must have entered some kind of coma after sustaining the injuries that were currently making him feel like shit, and then he got the [REGENERATION] skill after that because his body was still healing. So if he were to climb one of these trees didn’t that mean he would get a climbing skill, or something along those lines?

Myles hoped so. He wanted to go wandering through this creepy forest even less than he wanted to climb a tree.

He looked around for the perfect tree to climb, his inexperienced mind more concerned with low branches than anything else. Finding one he thought suitable, Myles walked over and tried to pull himself up the trunk, then promptly fell back down with a cry as he felt his muscles screaming in pain.

He will not be climbing that tree. Not like this.

There had to be something he could do though, some alternative path to take. Myles remembered his skill, the first one he’d gotten. With it he could pass out until morning, waking up fully healed (hopefully) and then tackle this tree again.

There were also so many ways this could go wrong; it could rain in the night, or a dangerous animal could come across him, to name a few.

But did he even have a choice? One way or the other he was spending the night in this forest, that much was obvious. He could either do it the way where he gets uninterrupted sleep and wakes up feeling less pain (hopefully), or the other way, which was becoming less appealing by the second.

Screw it, Myles decided. He looked for the softest patch of rocky ground available (read: picked a spot at random as everywhere equally sucked), spread himself out on it, then with a short prayer for good luck, mentally activated the [HEALING COMA] skill.

Myles blinked. Then blinked again. Why wasn’t it working?

He sat up and...

Ding!

Congratulations! [REGENERATION] has levelled up x4.

REGENERATION_ Lv. 6/99

Ding!

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill [TOUGH COOKIE].

TOUGH COOKIE_ Lv. 1/500

Type: (passive)

Increases the ability of your body to withstand physical damage per skill level.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

It worked. It had just been so smooth that Myles hadn’t even noticed. He stood up and tested it. Yep, no pa—Ow! Take that back. Some pain. His whole back ached, though not too badly, which wasn’t really surprising since he had just spent eight hours straight lying on hard, rocky ground without moving a single time.

He slotted in the [TOUGH COOKIE] skill; a skill that made him tougher? Sign him up. And unlike [REGENERATION] it capped at level 500. Just how tough a cookie would he be when he capped it? He wondered idly.

The sky didn’t seem to have changed. Which was weird. But then the glimpses of it he caught even now still looked strange, so he decided to set it out of his mind until he could see it for himself.

Myles returned to his selected tree and tested pulling himself up the lowest branch. There was some pain, but not nearly enough to stop him. Good. He started to climb.

It was slow-going, and murder on his nails. Myles had never climbed anything before and he’d also never been particularly athletic. But as he’d hoped, the system came through for him.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill [CLIMBING].

CLIMBING_ Lv. 1/25

Type: (passive)

Increases your climbing ability per skill level.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

Ding!

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill [NIMBLE].

NIMBLE_ Lv. 1/500

Type: (passive)

Increases overall agility per skill level.

Would you like to slot in this skill?

«Yes» || «No»

Both skills were slotted in as quickly as they appeared. And this time, Myles did notice their effects. He started to get a... feel for climbing. Started to grip slightly more comfortably, set his feet more securely, the funny poses he had to take feeling just the teensiest bit easier.

But even with his skills, which were steadily ticking up in levels, it was not an easy climb. Not on his hands or bare forearms. Or even on his sneakered feet. His clothes ended up ripped in too many places to count by the sharp, inflexible tips of numerous branches, drawing blood more often than not.

Higher and higher Myles went, losing himself to the climb. Even as the branches became thinner and he got ever closer to his goal, and the eerie, constant silence of this strange place that he’d only just noticed seeped into his soul. Myles climbed. Up and up and up, skill levels ascending as he did. Until, well over a hundred feet from the ground, panting and sweating and aching, there was nowhere else to climb to. And Myles looked at the world. And his heart sank.

For, in that moment, when he set his eyes upon this strange new world he suddenly found himself, Myles T. Rend realised one simple truth: he would not be going home again.