James rolled over in his sleep. Several of his muscles strenuously protested this happening. He woke up with a groan and slowly pushed himself to sitting. There was still no clock in the room, but he mostly felt refreshed. He didn't have any more creepy nightmares, so that was a positive way to start the day.

He took a deep breath and then slowly stood up. James did a few light stretches he somehow remembered from high school gym class, and it did loosen him up a little bit. He looked over at his clothes and now his ever-present armor. Before he put it on, he said the names of the pieces in his head.

Gambeson. Breeches. Greaves. Vambrace. Gorget. I'm pretty sure there will be a test on this at some point. Prometheus feels like a test sort of guy.

James looked himself over and seemed to be suited up properly. He walked to the first room and poured himself some water. As he chugged it, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Prometheus opened the door and stepped into the room carrying a covered dish. He set it down on the table, and Jame's stomach made a violent gurgling sound. He quickly sat down and uncovered the plate to reveal what looks like potatoes and some shredded bird. It was probably pelican again, but he didn't particularly care as he dove into the meal.

"I was too tired to think about it last night, but why didn't I get any magic healing icy hot yesterday?" James managed to pause bites long enough to ask the question.

"You need to get stronger. You've increased your Body, but you are nowhere close to the ceiling, even for your level. Part of that is rebuilding the muscle fibers, just like on earth. Too much healing will slow the process down."

That sounds rehearsed. He knew I was going to ask that question. If I'm ever getting any brownie points, I need to think out the obvious ones myself.

"That makes sense, I suppose." James was nodding slightly. "I still think magic healing should speed the process up, not slow it down."

"Advanced healing might," Prometheus looked slightly engaged at the moment, "but we don't have anything like that. It's better to tough it out and get used to it."

James's fork hit the plate, and as he looked down in dismay, he realized that he'd finished the meal. He looked over at Prometheus across the table.

"So what does survival training entail anyway? That's a pretty nebulous category there." James was picturing John Rambo mixed with Robinson Crusoe and just a dash of Bear Grylls.

Prometheus nodded slightly. "Just what it sounds like. Earth has made humanity soft. There is currently none of the safety or convenience that every single person from a first-tier country is completely dependant on. We will eventually cover hunting, tracking, foraging, skinning, butchering, fishing, cooking, first aid, and rough construction. I will most likely add additional depth to any subject that you manage to show some ... competency."

James didn't care for the pause at the end of his teacher's statement, but given that his own body had been trying to kill him before, he supposed it might be fair.

"We might as well get started then. I assume daylight is wasting."

James stood up, and Prometheus did the same. The dish stayed on the table for once as both men moved to exit the room. They strode straight ahead down the hallway and paused at the grey door. Prometheus looked back at his student, a serious look on his face.

"This world has become dangerous. It was never as tame as Earth, but the invasion killed most of the weaker life here. The eldritch energy caused unchecked mutation before we learned to counter it with Æther. Never assume you are safe. You need to always be on guard."

James nodded in response. He wasn't sure what his future held at this point, but he was determined to move dying to the back of the list. They walked through the doors, and he looked upon some simple stone stairs leading upwards. After four flights, they came to another plain grey door. Prometheus opened the door and stepped outside.

James looked out on a sunny meadow with trees a couple of hundred yards in the distance. The sky was a shockingly bright blue with a few fluffy clouds breaking up its sapphire expanse. James took a deep breath, and the fresh air smelled great. He took a few steps out to follow his teacher.

Suddenly, Prometheus shoved him hard in the chest. James stumbled backward through the doorway and fell. A moment later, a seagull the size of an eagle speared through the place he had just occupied. Prometheus's eyes literally seemed to ignite as his face twisted into a rictus of pure rage. The demigod's right fist lashed out and seemed to actually catch fire right before it disintegrated the seagull's head. He turned his gaze towards James.

"You are the weakest creature in the area. Everything will be trying to eat you. Everything. Do not let your guard down while you are outside." Prometheus's voice was completely calm despite the recent show of force. His eyes turned back to normal, and he grabbed the body before it disappeared in a tiny purple flash and a small 'pop.'

James stood in the doorway for a solid minute. His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at Prometheus. He'd been told that the giant of a man was a demigod from myth and legend. James had never seen any real evidence of it until that point. He did not want to end up on the receiving end of the flaming fists.

"I don't like birds." Prometheus made this statement with no heat in his voice. He was back to the lovable bored instructor again.

James closed his mouth and scanned the sky briefly before he once again took a step outside the grey doorway. The sun shone over him, and it felt glorious. The breeze tousled his hair and brought the rich scents of the ocean to him. He didn't see any other creatures around, but he stayed in a ready stance.

Prometheus gave him a quick nod and led him away from the doorway toward the trees in the near distance. James kept close behind, trying to be as alert as possible while still listening. Prometheus started in on the lesson while they were moving.

"We will do a loop through the forest's edge and then go down to the beach. I will show you any forage material, and you will be expected to remember it and gather it in the future. You will be responsible for any animals we encounter."

****

Three Hours Later

That is two blackbirds, a lizard, a squirrel, and a rabbit. A damn rabbit. I hate this place. Everything is trying to kill me. At least I know what three kinds of edible plants look like. I'm pretty sure the only point of this was to let the animals take shots at me.

They walked towards the sound of the ocean. James had learned his lesson from the birds and kept alert for any shadows on the ground. Blood still slowly dripped from the long shallow cut that ran from his nose to the edge of his left cheek. A quick jerk of his head to the side had saved his eye. There had not been enough left of that bird to be worth saving. Every encounter had left a mark. The other bird had managed to cut up his right ear. The squirrel had cut up his right arm as it tried to climb towards his face, though the vambrace had prevented the squirrel from landing a bite. The lizard had tried the same thing with his leg. The rabbit had hit him in the greaves, and it still hurt.

That damn rabbit had a head made of stone. I'm surprised it didn't have a horn on it. It's definitely rabbit season from now on.

Prometheus looked back over his shoulder. He gave a small nod seeing James still at the alert before he continued his lecture.

"You are already familiar with a way to gain the energy to upgrade your ReGS. Anytime you kill a creature with Eldritch energy, you'll gain a portion of it. The stronger the creature, the more energy you gain. There are several other methods. The most common is to kill all the defenders and clear out a warped gate. While it is the most dangerous it is also the most efficient."

Prometheus paused for a moment, and James noticed a shadow quickly approaching on the ground. He waited until it was only a few feet away before he quickly lept to the side. He brought his club up parallel to his body as he jumped away and managed to clip the seagull that had dove in to attack him.

He heard two separate cracks. The first was from the wing that he managed to hit, downing the bird. Unfortunately, the second one was from his wrist, having had enough abuse from the cute woodland creatures all hopped up on meth. However, there was no time to worry about it as the bird righted itself and launched at his face again. Ignoring the icy nail of pain in his arm, he brought the club down in a full overhead swing and caved in the bird's skull.

Gold and purple energy flowed into him once again. Ætheric and Eldritch, now that he knew the names. As his core filled to the top again, the heartburn feeling mixed with localized battery acid in his veins.

Your core is full. Would you like to initiate advancement to level 2?

State 'Yes' to begin.

"Prometheus, I can level up again. What should I do?"

Prometheus smiled for once. "Go ahead and do it. I would recommend Mind for this one, but the choice is yours."

"I'm surprised. I would have thought you would say Body."

"Mind will help you more right now. It will improve your reflexes and give you more room for improvement. It will also make it a little easier to make progress sensing the Æther. You do still want magic?"

James simply spoke one word. "Yes."

Your ReGS and Core have evolved to Level 2.

You have gained 1 Attribute Point.

Please assign the Attribute point to complete the process.

Body 2 + Mind 1 + Soul 1 +

Immediately after upgrading Mind, James felt his nerves light up like they were powering Times Square. The sudden and intense spike of pain started in the center of his head and traveled down to his eyes. After an internal blinding flash, the changes ceased, and James staggered for a moment before catching himself. Minor tingles still ran up and down his limbs for a minute before they finally subsided.

"I stayed conscious that time, so I guess it's an improvement. Will they all be this bad?" Jame's voice wasn't steady, but he got the words out.

"I've been told the first couple was the worst. They are a major change over base-level humanity. I would avoid doing it in combat unless you don't have any other choice. Now let's go fishing."

"What?" That last part threw James for a bit of a loop.

Prometheus didn't respond; instead, he continued towards the sea cliff. James hurried up to follow and noticed the first steps of a narrow stairway cut into the cliff face. He followed Prometheus down and almost made it to the bottom before he slipped on the ocean-slicked rock. Prometheus completely ignored this as he strode out onto a small pier that was almost invisible from the top of the cliff.

"Here is where you will learn skinning, butchering, and fishing. They may have gone out of fashion on Earth, but here they are essential if you feel like eating anything remotely fresh."

The pier was only about eight feet wide and thirty feet long, but the drop-off was steep, and the beach nothing more than sharp-looking rocks. It at least seemed to be very solid, with whole tree trunks for the pilings. James strode out after him as they walked towards two coils of rope near the end.

Prometheus cleared his throat.

"I'll explain how to clean the kills. You will do it."

The next two hours were a bloody and awful mess. James managed to clean the kills, but it wasn't pretty. Eventually, all the usable protein was gathered up by Prometheus and once again disappeared. He set the offal and other wastes aside on the pier.

"Finally. Hopefully, this is one of those things you'll get better at quickly. Without protein, you will not make fast progress with your conditioning." Prometheus isn't smiling, but James is sure he's amused. "Not get the rope on the left and make sure it's tied to the pier. DO NOT wrap it around any part of your body. Bait it with some scrap and throw it out as far as you can."

James did as he was told, and they both stared out at the ocean. He didn't have any vivid memories of fishing at the moment, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't usually a quick endeavor. His teacher didn't seem to mind the silence, but it was starting to make James itch after about ten minutes.

"So what are the warped gates? We never really covered that and it sounds important."

Prometheus thought for a moment before replying. "It's a tear in the fabric of reality. It leads to what is essentially a pocket dimension that is a bridge between the two universes. It's stabilized by a sentient core and protected by a variety of eldritch creatures. They are more dangerous than their mutated counterparts and should never be taken lightly."

"It sounds like a dungeon from video games and anime." James was smiling as he thought over everything he ever knew about D&D. It's not much. "So, do the monsters drop loot?"

"That's stupid. Why would they want to encourage people to kill the defenders." Prometheus actually gave this one an eye roll. "There are a variety of valuable uses for both the creatures, the shards, and cores. Even so, they must be destroyed as quickly as possible as their function is to release eldritch energy until our world is saturated enough for them to truly cross over"

"So valuable items and it saves the world? I can see why that one is top of the list. So what other ways can I level up? The way you paused before the bird showed up makes me think there are more."

"You can absorb the eldritch energy from shards and cores, though they will lose their value if you do so. Other than that, you could sit and passively absorb the eldritch energy inside a warped gate. But," Prometheus looked directly at James to emphasize this point, "If you don't have a party to watch your back in there this is just a particularly stupid form of suicide. The guardians will be renewed with time and it will consume your Æther reserves to do it."

A new addition to long-term plans. Raid dungeon. Get rich.

James was once again bored. After all the last few days' crazinesses, he had become a bit wired for constant action.

"Do you mind if I keep trying the Ætheric movement while we wait for the fish? I feel like I'm getting closer." James broke out his version of the big eyes. They probably weren't very useful, being an adult man, but anything was better than staring at a rope in the water.

"If you do it silently, that is fine. I will pull in any fish, but you will be expected to kill them." Prometheus sighed at the end. It had been a long day for both of them, though for very different reasons.

James sat down in a rough lotus position and tried to focus where he now knew his core lay. Working with the Godstone after his quarterstaff beatdown the previous night had paid off after about fifty attempts. He currently had no use for the Æther his soul drew in, so it sat full, feeling like it sat somewhere between his lungs, just below his sternum.

The previous night James was too tired to try and do anything about it, being contented with the small victory he had achieved. James focused and felt around the ball of Æther. After some time he noticed that there were small gaps at points in the walls containing the sphere. With enough mental effort to make sweat start to bead, he tried to pry a piece of Æther away from the ball. He made contact but couldn't seem to get a grip. James took another deep breath and imagined phantom fingers pinching the energy along the edge. He failed time and time again until finally a little piece floated free in his mental grip. Jame's sudden elation did him in as the mote quickly rejoined the rest.

Deep breath, James. You can do this. Super magical powers are getting closer, you just need to focus.

James continued to make some small amounts of headway. It was interrupted every so often by the need to bludgeon a fish to death on the pier. The new Body and Mind increases showed their worth as it didn't take more than a few shots to down each furious fish of the various types.

The sun was getting low by the time James finally had coaxed a mote of Æther all the way down to the tip of his finger. He couldn't shout or celebrate, as it took all his mental effort just to hold it there. He didn't know what to do next and he knew talking would break his concentration.

I know we said healing, but maybe it's magic missile time. I just gotta give it a push and instant arcane mage baby.

James refocused and pushed the piece of power out from his finger with every bit of mental effort he could summon. As his fingertip erupted in a small explosion of skin and blood, he was finally freed up to speak.

"Fuck, that hurts!"

A demigod laughing loudly at him from a couple of feet away did not help matters in any appreciable way.