Chapter 2

♪ Let it Gooo, Let it Goooo! ♪

“aaahHH-Hhha” Tru yawned as he woke up, his arm dangling off the edge of the cliff he had fallen asleep near. About to tumble over the precipice, he lightly trembled as he carefully backed away from the ledge. So that wasn't a dream... I'm still here. What am I though? Couldn't have been reincarnated here or I'd be a baby, right? He was a mix of excited and anxious about the new circumstance he found himself in. Am I dead? Did God save me just in time to send me here? No couldn't be. There's no way I could have survived that with my clothes so ruined. He must've just sent me here instead of heaven. Tru was a curious person and often found himself running down rabbit holes, chasing thoughts into innumerable possibilities.

But I guess that doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm here, I have a source of food, and that Orichalcum Golum seems to like his spot in the ground. [name: Orichalcum Golum] was displayed upon thinking of the creature. One thing that could totally ruin me is by assuming a monster, or human's level. I can't see it with [Analyze]... at this point. That notification from earlier said it was at least 50 lvls higher than me and I had no other way of telling... Seriously, be careful.

Tru diligently looked up with his head on a swivel. Now that it is Day time, he can clearly distinguish each of the things labeled by the [Analyze] skill, although, with the overwhelming amount of new data before his eyes, he was having difficulty processing all the information at once. Nevertheless, he continued to inspect his surroundings whilst only using the windows pertaining to what he was trying to learn about. No sense in just wondering what everything is at once. First thing's first, there's no water in sight. I'll have to figure out what to do about that. The first symptoms of dehydration had begun to manifest. It's a good thing the [Trught berry]s and [Red Moon berry]s were labeled. I can't tell a difference without it. Walking over to the Red Moon berries, he notices the bushes rustling. Much to Tru's surprise, a pair of red ears pop up suddenly. “Oh dang is that a rabbit?” he whispered under his breath. The red rabbit, labeled [name: Hungry Rabbit], then perked its head nervously above the berries and met Tru's eyes with its own. “You're eating my only source of food buddy. At least don't waste it by smearing it on yourself!” Tru could see that the bunny was actually white but appeared red after crushing so many berries on its fur.

After tilting its head at Tru, the bunny continued eating. About to shoo away the meal snatcher, he had a wonderful idea. Grabbing a handful of berries, Tru held out his hand in the hopes that the unsatisfied hare would accept his offering.

'bling'

'You have successfully given your food to another. +1 SP is granted to Strength and Spirit.'

[~General Stats~]

[Strength: 25 +1]

[Agility: 50]

[Stamina: 50]

[Intellect: 15]

[Spirit: 20 +1]

It totally worked! Tru thought with excitement. “You and I are gonna be great friends little guy.” Smiling big enough to inadvertently close his eyes, he stretched out to pet his new friend, only to notice that the [Hungry Rabbit] had started eating something from his hand when he reached out. I didn't have any berries in my hand to feed him though so what is... The shock setting in, Tru realized that he was now missing his right index finger. His heart began to race, increasing with speed as it threatened to jump clean out of his chest. Watching the carnivorous rabbit chow down on his extremity, bones crunching with every bite, he fell and began to scream as he rolled around sporadically. What seemed like waterfalls started flowing out of his slightly dehydrated eyes.

The [Hungry Rabbit], after having a taste of human flesh, started inching its way towards Tru one hop at a time. I'm about to be eaten by Bugs freakin' Bunny! Thoughts of despair ruling his mind, Tru made his way toward the only plausible safe space. Rushing towards the cliff, he didn't even notice the bunny seemed to lose interest in the chase and started lazily eating the delightful berries again. Our tax associate was still panicking as he attempted to climb down the cliff with one hand. “AHH! My finger is still bleeding! What am I supposed to do here?!” The moment he finished his sentence, his foot tangibly slipped, but not down and off the cliff. No, it slipped through the very [Garnet] itself. His foot looked like it had literally been absorbed by the cliff. “WOOAH!” he yelled again. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to suffer the wrath of God just yet though. He had an excellent hold on the cliff with his left foot and hand, saving him from death by slippage. Nothing happened to his foot after passing through the cliff. “You almost killed yourself there... The rabbit stopped chasing you. Get a hold of yourself. Breathe... Chill out and think of how to stop the bleeding.”

He started to move his leg in and out of the rock face, noticing that it wasn't part of the rock wall at all. This is just an illusion, he thought, cautious that it may be inhabited by another monster. How much of the cliff's face is it covering? Tru shifted his foot around trying to discern the edges of the invisible opening. This is big enough for me to slip into completely, he considered. It may be dangerous, being so dang well hidden and all. But I'll die if I don't find a safer place to stop the bleeding. Without wasting another second he carefully climbed around the corner into the illusion.

When Tru finished climbing around the corner into the hideout, yet again, his heart skipped a beat. Not 3 meters away sat a skeleton in a wooden chair. Not a magic wooden chair with runes carved into it or a golden throne. Just a plain old wooden chair. The reason the chair seemed out of place was thanks to the haughtily dressed college professor; or well, what appeared to be anyway. It was dressed in robes that looked awfully similar to university regalia lined with purple and gold tinged trim and tassels, to include a tefillin on its forehead to which was attached a small book titled “My Infinite Knowledge.” Tru rushed to the skeleton and tore off part of the robe. After tying it tightly around his finger, he started to feel woozy. I shouldn't fall asleep. Couldn't I die? But just like that, our new mountaineer passed out.

____________________

“Ahhhh-hhaaaaaa," he gently yawned for the second time in one day, the main star beginning to set. Sleeping for 10 hours was exactly what he needed after the bleeding was successfully stopped. Putting his hand down to push himself up off the [Garnet] floor, he felt a sharp jolt go through his arm as the nerve endings in his finger sent the signal to his brain screaming 'PAAAIN!' Tru fell to the floor, in denial that he no longer had a finger, thanks to the gradually fading adrenaline. “This beats the 'wrath of God' at least. Where am I? What's around me?”

[name: Masada Schafer. The last surviving member of the Abascan College of Magic.]

[name: Wooden Chair. It's a wooden chair.]

[name: Brightgem. A rare gemstone that gently illuminates the surroundings with mana.]

[name: Beast Creation Scroll. A scroll that manifests an Eidolon from the applicator's mana.]

[name: Powpow Bread. Food commonly used by travelers for its long shelf- life.]

[name: Leather Water Skin. A worn-out, leather pouch of water.]

...

Ignoring the other items, as soon as he read the label for water-skin, he swiped it from the old dead guy and guzzled it down. “ehh-aaaah” he breathed out contently, his thirst quenched. “That's the first drink of water I've had since I came to...” Checking his skills again, he remembered thanks to his linguistics skill. “That's right. This planet is called Driscoll. Thanks a bunch my decomposed amigo. Now let's check out the other items in here.” [Brightgem] caught his eye, the idea of having a light he can power on or off bringing some semblance of normalcy to the situation. After Tru touched the Brightgem, he started to focus. “Isn't that how you use mana? You just focus and bam out cometh the mana.” But that theory was purely how he imagined it. Thinking back to his favorite martial artist, a particular quote came to mind. The actual application of mana must be something more along the lines of... well, to quote Bruce Lee, “Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, and it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

He tried moving in a fluid motion, acting out the words from one of the people he looked up to most. Standing with his feet spread and putting his hands in a fist, he felt that now familiar, sharp pain again where his finger once was. After his legs finished shaking from the pain, he calmed himself down, taking the same stance with the difference being that his hands were open. With his palms facing upwards, he moved his hands out and around one at a time. He continued moving in fluid motions only to feel silly for spending so much time on something that clearly had no effect. “Maybe Mr. Infinite knowledge over there has some insight in that book on his forehead.” Tru tried removing the book but found instead that it was a small case that opened.

“Huh, there's a ring inside? Okay, that's not as helpful as I hoped.” But unbeknownst to him at the time, Tru had pulled out a long-lost relic of ancient magical knowledge. Before touching it, he smartly wondered if it was a special ring. The label popped up.

[name: Ring of Space. A ring containing in it an entire universe of empty space accessible to the wielder.]

“Perfect! Yet another trope I was hoping for in this world.” Tru acquired the ring and kept looking around with a bit more scrutiny after potentially missing such a valuable item. He noticed that there were what looked like cuts going fairly deep into the skeleton's ribs where the open robes couldn't cover. “I take it your college wasn't very well-liked by someone with those kinds of gashes in your bones. Rest in peace.”

Rummaging through Masada's belongings felt somewhat like grave robbery. Still, this was a survival situation. The dead have no use for something that could help the living. Tru thought to himself, This is a matter of my survival. This is not the time to feel conflicted.

Among the many books, scrolls, and pages of what seemed to be important to the deceased man, there was a mostly empty book with a pen [Analyze] dubbed

[name: Pen of Ink. A pen that converts a small amount of mana into ink.],

and

[name: Masada's Journal. A journal, belonging to Masada Schafer, containing his last thoughts].

“I'll check your last thoughts later, Dr. Schafer,” Noticing the usefulness of having a means of logging his new experiences, Tru swiped them from the hands of Masada. “I gladly accept these sir.” he respectfully gestured to the man who had already helped him in his quest to live.

In Masada's possession, some of the written work piqued the interest of our fledgling adventurer and so he fit them into the ring and tested how it worked. The simplicity astounded Tru as he simply touched the ring to what he wanted to store and poof, it was gone. It only worked on what he wanted to put away and had no effect by touching something he didn't want to be stored. When he wanted to retrieve an item, a list of items stored by him appeared in a window before him. Purely on impulse, he tried to click on one of the items in the window, hoping it would display information, but his finger passed through as though it were a hologram. Sadly enough to him, the window was unable to be interacted with. “These windows really are transparent. Could they be projections from the mind?” Shaking his head, he stopped the trail of thoughts before he followed an unfruitful, possibly unsolvable question. “Whatever. [Epic of Helmdrig]!” he said excitedly, hoping that this hypothesis was correct. Sure enough, the haggard old book appeared in his outstretched hand. Shuddering with excitement that he gets to be an MC in his own story with the [Ring of Space], he proclaimed, “Yahweh is awesome! Thanks, God.”

Tru's excitement seemingly drowned out the pain of loss he had from losing his finger. That excitement evaporated when he went to put the ring on, missing the finger he thought to put it on first. The realization that he lost his finger hit him like a proverbial truck and sitting down against the wall, beginning to be overcome with anguish, Tru fought against the tears welling up as he reflected on the past couple of days.

Our protagonist grew up in Pitkin, Louisiana, a town of fewer than 600 people. His parents were the very stereotypical red neck type, thus his name. Truck Coon had been exceptional in school, showing up his parent's intelligence from a young age. Despite his resentment towards them for being the root of all the bullying he suffered, there were still some aspects of his parents he admired; the most influential traits being their work ethic and devotion to Christianity. That same devotion was something he strove for in school. As he grew up, he knew he didn't want to stay there and left for New Orleans to seek opportunities through college. After getting his bachelor's in business, Truck went on to his internship at Koenig Partnership where he grew a stronger understanding of taxes and 3 months later got a job at the competitive accounting empire. He wasn't sure it was the right move until he met the beautiful new associate that shared a desk with him. Just as things began looking up, however, he died. The realization that all his hard work was meaningless, never getting to know his new workmate, and that his career, which had just started, was halted after the first day, sank in. After reflecting on his very real circumstances, his natural ability to adapt kicked in. Using his left hand, he slapped his cheek hard to literally snap himself out of it.

Tru continued looking through the items strewn across the small room, after putting the ring on his left index finger. “What's the name of everything around me?”

[name: Masada Schafer],

[name: Wooden Chair],

[name: Brightgem],

[name: Beast Creation Scroll],

[name: Powpow Bread],

[name: Leather Water Skin],

[name: Amulet of the Deer],

[name: Robe of The Scholar],

[name: Wool Tefillin],

[name: Nimble Tabi],

[name: Abascus Rope],

[name: Rejuvenation Powder],

[name: Orichalcum Chest],

[name: Bracelet of Hearth].

Putting everything into the [Ring of Space] seemed to be the most logical thing to do at the time, save for the [Rejuvenation Powder] which he promptly used on his now stump of a finger, the wound still fleshy and raw. The injury closed completely in just a few seconds, leaving Tru thoroughly disappointed. “I was hoping this stuff could grow back my finger... Looks like what's lost is lost. Dying should bring it back though. Hopefully.” Just thinking of dying gave him the shivers, being reminded of the [Wrath of God] effect upon death. “Not worth it. Nope. Definitely not.” On the other hand, Tru was relieved that his nub wouldn't get infected. He could tell somehow, almost like the powder had notified his mind what had been done to his little stump once it finished.

The next things that stood out to him were the [Amulet of the Deer] and [Nimble Tabi]. Appearing in his hand, Tru saw a window of specific information pop up. “[Analyze] seems to display more information when the object is actually in my hands.”

[name: Amulet of the Deer]

[description: A necklace doubling the agility of the wearer]

[~General Stat Bonus~]

[Current Agility Bonus: +50]

[name: Nimble Tabi]

[description: Cloth shoes worn by agile, acrobatic assassins. Increases agility by a set amount and gives the skill Assassin's Path]

[~Item Skill~]

[name: Assassin's Path.]

[description: Footsteps from crouching, walking, or running are silenced for 1 minute]

[~General Stat Bonus~]

[Static Agility bonus: +100]

“Aaaaand those are going on immediately. Let's check out the stat menu.” Noting the difference between status and stat, he hoped it would just display the stat numbers and in this instance, he was correct.

'bling'

[Name: Truck Coon]

[~General Stats~]

[Strength: 25 +1]

[Agility: 50 +150]

[Stamina: 50]

[Intellect: 15]

[Spirit: 20 +1]

[~Unique Stats~]

[Charisma: 0]

“Interesting,” Truck exclaimed, “the base stats and bonuses are two separate things. I'll just assume the general stats are my natural ability and the given bonuses are additions. Which probably means they can be lost.” After taking the amulet off, the agility stat lost the +50 bonus. “No worries. I just have to take care of these things I guess... But now that I think about it, I didn't get a bonus when the rabbit ate my finger.” He paused to consider before concluding, “I probably have to willingly give something. I guess the reason for the sacrifice matters, not just the 'ritual'.”

Putting on the [Robe of the Scholar] had no notifying effect. It was just a warm robe to help combat the brisk mountain air. Similarly, the [Wool Tefillin] gave no bonus aside from the shield of warmth to his head.

Next, Tru pulled out the [Beast Creation Scroll].

[name: Beast Creation Scroll]

[description: The caster's mana is used as the base to create an Eidolon, shaped to the desired form of the caster. Created Eidolon does not lose HP so long as the caster has mana, and becomes an extension of the caster's body. Eidolon's level 1 [~General Stats~] will be equal to the castor's base [~General Stats~] at the time of the creation. Note: The created Eidolon cannot be a currently existing creature.]

[cost: [Beast Creation Scroll] and 100% of the castor's current mana.]

“This... This is why Yahweh had me start all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. I mean, that rabbit was terrible, but I could have been more careful. He must've figured I'd find this and have a way of protecting myself.” With a grin on his face, Tru realized just how ridiculous this scroll was when combined with the [Red Moon berry]. But just as quickly, that grin left him to make way for an arduous look, the thought of [Red Moon berry]'s and the [Hungry Rabbit] reminding him that he would need to devise a plan to obtain the berries without getting close to the predatory rodent. After slapping his face with both hands twice this time, he stood up and made his way over to the entrance of his safe haven.