Chapter Two:

Terrified but Intrigued

[A Rare Event has occurred! A new race has joined the System.]

[Give a warm welcome to the new Humans.]

[System has updated to accommodate their presence.]

[Have fun playing!]

Adi groaned softly as every ache in her body slammed into her at once. Sitting up from the stonework, she rubbed her head. The pain and the echo of the system message in her skull proved her circumstances were in fact reality.

Next to her, Antlers slept, curled towards the warm fireplace. They snored softly. It was adorable.

Adi slowly got to her feet, stiff and sore. Quietly, she stretched out, then went over to the squirrel's body. What was she going to do without a knife? She wondered if the fireplace could be used to cook.

Speaking of the fireplace... Adi hobbled back over, holding her hand over the dome.

She jumped as the black dialog reappeared, then chided herself. Looking back down at the options, she blinked.

[Central Hearth. Input temperature or select from options.]

[Temperature> _____]

Maybe becoming a Basic User had changed the language, or perhaps dialog windows presented in the user's native tongue.

Adi stepped away from the fireplace and the dialog vanished. What else could she interact with? She eyed the squirrel's body, her stomach growling. Feeling foolish, she held her hand out over the squirrel's body. She was about to give it up when a dialog appeared.

[Two-Mouth Dire Squirrel]

[Scavenger Options:

1/8 raw hide 4 lbs dire squirrel meat 2x dire squirrel rolag dire femur spear]

Adi frowned, looking past the box at the squirrel's body. It was way more than four pounds, and though she didn't know what a rolag was or how to tan hides, she was certain that her options all short changed her.

She sighed. Four pounds of usable meat was better than eighty pounds of unusable squirrel corpse. Another prompt asked her for confirmation at her decision, and when she said 'yes,' the squirrel's body disappeared. In its place, on a piece of something like butcher paper, were a few neat fillets of pink meat. Careful not to touch the meat itself, she gathered it up and then returned to the fire pit and set the meat down.

"Hey," she said, gently shaking Antlers.

A snore caught and they grumbled, "I don't wanna."

"You're speaking English now?" Adi asked in surprise.

They stilled, then rolled over to peer sleepily up at her, then around at the cathedral. "Oh," they said, sounding disappointed. Giving a yawn, they sat up, rubbing their eyes. "My [Comprehend Languages] is working now, that's all."

She surmised their skill hadn't worked on her before because humanity hadn't been integrated. "How's your leg?"

"It hurts, but so does everything else," they said. "I didn't expect a warrior to have any healing, so when you started toward me after defeating that thing—" They shuddered.

Adi laughed. "I'm not a warrior. Does this thing have a cook setting?" She thumbed at the hearth.

Antlers stared at her, then blinked, looking at the hearth and down to the meat on the bricks.

"The monster—you looted it?"

"The squirrel, yeah. It would have been better with a knife, since we could have gotten all the meat, the hide, and the bones." She paused, then added, "But I guess it would be pretty messy. I've never skinned anything."

They gave her that look again, wide-eyed and staring, ears held perfectly still. "Why would you ever do that?"

"It only gave me four pounds for that whole thing!" Adi said, triggering the hearth's dialog. "Talk about highway robbery." She selected 'options' and the dialog populated with a list. She started scrolling through preset options like 'Cool,' 'Cold,' 'Frigid,' 'Hot' muttering, "Cook, cook, cook..."

"Ah! A grill option!" She selected it, and the dialog vanished as the dome in front of her transformed to a metal grate across a fire. "Hell yeah."

"You... can also cook?" Antlers asked.

"I mean, I'm no Chef Boyardee, but I think I'll manage," Adi said, scooping up the squirrel meat. "Ugh, I don't want to touch it without water to wash my hands off."

"Oh, sanctuaries are always equipped with a cistern," Antlers said, looking around. "There." They pointed deeper into the building, where another raised circle of stones laid. Adi got closer and checked inside. Sure enough, water.

"Need something to scoop with," she muttered. "Don't wanna contaminate it."

A soft, uneven clip-clopping drew her attention to Antlers again as they approached, still limping. They held their hand out over the cistern and a dialog popped up. This time she could read what was in front of him on the floating black box.

[Sanctuary Cistern]

[-Purification Active-]

"The wards are still active. Anything put in here will be cleansed," they said. "You needn't worry about defiling it."

"Handy." At learning it was potable, she cupped her hands and took a long drink. When she was done, she said, "Let me put the squirrel on to cook and then we can clean up your leg."

They blinked, looking down while Adi went back to the grill, picking up the fillets and setting them over the fire. The fire sizzled and spat immediately. She took the paper and herself back to the cistern, washing her hands and seeing if the paper could also be washed. The answer was no, and she ended up putting it as a soggy pile off to the side of the cistern.

"Sit on the edge here," Adi directed, patting the stones of the cistern. As if uncertain, it took Antlers a few seconds to move and get themself sitting. She knelt down, moving their fraying robe out of the way and then picking at blood-soaked bandage. Once she got it free, she stood up to try and wash blood out of it. As the red gunk came loose, it dissipated into the water, clearing immediately.

Antlers watched her curiously. "There truly is no end to your abilities. No wonder your presence disturbed so many."

Adi glanced up at them. "My presence?"

"Not you specifically, of course," they said. "Humanity, when it first arrived weeks ago."

[Gained Skill: Washerwoman!]

Adi shot a glare of annoyance upwards, wringing out excess water out of the bandage. It had more or less returned to its original color. "News to me. I only got here about thirty minutes before running into you."

Antlers sat forward, ears going up as they gasped, "You fought that thing at Level 0?"

"I think I was Level 1 after the crabs, technically, but I didn't have access to the uh, game mechanics before integration, so... yes?" She wrung out the cloth.

They sat back once more, eyes still wide.

Adi knelt back down, wiping at their wound. They flinched with a hiss. "Sorry," she said, trying to be gentle as she started wiping again. "I should have warned you."

Moments passed with only the sound of sizzling meat before Antlers asked, "Why did you help me?"

"You were screaming."

"You had no reason to fight for me."

Standing up to wash the rag and her hands, Adi shook her head. "If you want ulterior motivation, you're the first person I've run into. Go ahead and clean up the blood from your pants if you want."

"I have no Skill for cleaning."

"It practically hands the things out like candy," she pointed out. "You just start doing the thing and it'll give you the skill."

Antlers laughed. "That is far from how things work."

She set the rag down to go check on the meat. "Your mom's not here."

They sounded genuinely confused. "What?"

"I said your mom isn't here, so you'll have to do some work," Adi reiterated with a sigh.

"My mother would never do the laundry," Antlers said incredulously.

Adi considered how to turn the meat. A stick, probably, but she'd have to go out there to get one. She settled for trying to turn it with her fingers quickly.

"Ow!" she said, sucking on her fingertips. Too late, she realized she could have used the wet cloth. "That would have been smarter."

Antlers was still sitting where she left them when she looked back up. She marched back over. "Look, Antlers—"

Their hands went to their antlers. "What? Did something happen to them? Are they broken?"

"Uh—oh, no, it's just what I was uh, calling you in my head," she admitted. "You're like a deer and you have antlers, so..."

They gasped. "A racial descriptor as a name? That's like calling you hairless!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Adi said, chagrined. "I'm Adi."

They sniffed, straightening. "I am Eurias, first son of the Kafher House. Address me as Your Grace."

"Of course, your--" Adi started, then stilled and narrowed her eyes. "Alright, what did you just do?"

"Nothing."

"No, I felt stuff."

"You must be referring to my [Noble Aura]."

"You have a skill that makes people want to kiss ass?"

Eurias deflated. "It sounds much less noble that way."

"Yeah, I imagine. Turn it off."

"I cannot simply turn off a Racial Trait."

"An entire race has that thing?"

"It's part of the first standard serthyen Evolution Package."

"Okay, well, I'm not calling you 'your grace,' and you're gonna wash your own clothes. Come on, robe off." She started pulling on his robe.

"I—what?" he exclaimed, flustered.

[Gained Skill: Authority Issues!]

"I have antlers," he said as Adi started to pull it over his head, arms flailing. "It opens in the front!" She dropped the robe as he sullenly undid the front clasps, shrugging out of his robe.

"Now put the dirty part in the water and scrub," she said.

[Persuasion leveled up! Persuasion now Rank 2]

Something was burning. "Oh heck," she said, running over to the squirrel meat with the wet cloth in hand. She pulled the crispy meat off the grill and onto the stones of the hearth.

[Gained Skill: Poor Man's Cook!]

"Alright, that's just offensive," she said, but after inspecting the meat, she couldn't say it was an unfair assessment. "At least it looks... edible." She changed the hearth back to its heating option, then checked on Eurias.

The deer man was grumbling as he fumbled with the cloth in the water, clearly inept.

"Here," Adi said, stepping next to him and leaning over to put her hands on his. "Like this." She showed him the motions to rub cloth together and swish filth out in the water. "See?"

"You do it so much better," he complained. "My hands are not made for this."

"Unless you know a way back to civilization, you're stuck with me and I'm not doing your work for you. I have my own shirt to wash."

His ears drooped further at her proclamation.

She walked a few feet away to take her shirt off. Normally, she wouldn't strip in front of strangers, but he'd seen her in her bra already and the wounds on her torso needed cleaning. "How did you end up on your own, anyways?" She plunged her shirt into the water, noting the myriad of cuts on her arms and consequently in the sleeves of her shirt.

His lips started quivering at the question, shoulders raising and ears dropping. Those were the only cues Adi got before he melted onto the floor, wailing, "I'm a criminal!" Water dripped down on him from the robe, which was halfway out of the water. "Can you believe it, a serthyen, committing an infraction? I disturbed the very foundation of society!"

Adi stared at him, flabbergasted. Such an extreme reaction had been unexpected, to say the least, from a grown... actually, was he an adult? She didn't know.

However, his distress seemed genuine. She put her shirt aside and crouched down next to him, patting his shoulder. "What happened?"

"The portal put me in the woods and I was wandering, searching for a sanctuary when that terrible thing attacked me," he cried, tears rolling off his furry cheeks onto his undershirt.

"I mean what crime did you commit?"

His sniffles paused. "Oh." He rubbed his nose on his sleeve. "I don't know."

Adi refrained from several mean comments, resting her forehead on the back of her hand. He was obviously taking this very seriously. Taking a breath in, she asked, "No one told you what you did to be sent here?"

He peeked out from under his arm, looking up at her with his big, sad, golden eyes. Her heart twisted. "It had to have been horrible to warrant an immediate sentence. I-I probably forgot to bow to the Advanced User, or—or left an inadequate temple offering—"

"Eurias, do criminals usually get a trial?" Adi interrupted.

He gave a miserable flick of the ears. "Mmm-hmm."

"You have enemies, right? Since you're a noble or whatever?"

"I'm serthyen."

"And that means...?"

"Serthyens are born to rule!" he said, still sniffling.

Adi tempered the prickliness she felt at the arrogant statement. As much as she'd like to take some rich kid down a peg, he was her only companion. "I'm sure that some serthyens do other stuff."

Eurias gave her another look. "[Born to Rule]," he rephrased. "It's duty for others to serve and for us to lead."

That made Adi frown deeply, even as a part of her jumped to agree—the [Noble Aura] at work, she was sure. Since it sounded like a whole thing, she decided to bench the topic for now and get back to the point, she said, "If people normally get a trial, what happened to you was probably unlawful, right? Maybe someone was looking to get you out of the way or something."

"No!" Eurias gasped, looking at her with his ears back, his eyes full of tears again. "Who would do such a thing! Banishing someone to the Core is a death sentence—that's murder!"

"Back up. The Core?"

"This wretched planet," Eurias explained. "It's been used as a 'humane' alternative to capitol punishment for centuries." He rubbed his nose on his sleeve again, blinking. After a pause, he looked at her, one ear angled forward. "Come to think of it, the Council sent humanity to its world of origin, so how are you here?"

"Uh, well, this is Earth, just like, evil," Adi said.

"Come again?"

"It's Evil Earth," she said. "Like, crabs tried to eat me, then the seagulls had razor wings, and squirrels are not supposed to be that big or have two mouths. What the fuck needs two mouths?"

He stared at her. "How can this be your planet of origin? It has no sentient life."

"I don't know. Parallel universe? Freaky dystopian future? Doesn't really matter." She stood up, fetching two pieces of squirrel meat. "Here, eat something."

"With my hands?" Eurias asked in astonishment.

"Do you have any silverware?" She sat down next to him.

Grumbling, he reluctantly took a piece of the meat, looking it over. He nibbled at the edge of it, and then spat. "That is awful!"

Adi gnawed at it too, chewing the tough meat with a grimace. "It's pretty gnarly."

Eurias' eyes were wide as she took a second bite. "How can you stand to eat it?"

"We don't have a professional chef or whatever you're used to," she said around the gamy meat. "I personally don't want to wait to get hungry enough to eat anything."

He was visibly upset by the idea, and hesitantly took another little bite. With a great amount of effort, he chewed and swallowed, ears back in offense. "I think I will starve."

She rolled her eyes.

[Congratulations managing a difficult social encounter with a being much higher level than you!]

[Maximum Level Reached. Please evolve to continue leveling.]

[Because you are at the level cap, your bonus has been transferred to a skill used in the social encounter.]

[Gained Rank x4: Persuasion]

[Authority Issues leveled up! Authority Issues now Rank 2.]

"Ugh, I wish it would stop doing that," Adi said, rubbing her head. "How do I evolve?"

Eurias looked at her in shock, ears going up. "You've achieved Level 10 already?"

"Yeah, it gives out levels like candy."

"Why do so many on in your culture hand out candy?"

Adi waved a hand. "It's an expression. How do I do it?"

Eurias held the meat in his mouth, holding his hand over his wrist. "Do that," he said after getting his food back in hand.

Adi mimicked him, a dialog popping up.

[ADELINE CHANTREA KRAMER, HUMAN LVL 10]

Stats – POINTS AVAILABLE Skills, Traits, and Perks – RANKS AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS AVAILABLE

"Aha," Adi said. "Looks like I've got points and ranks available, along with evolution."

"Stat points and skill ranks apply immediately, but if you evolve now, you'll be unconscious for a few days," Eurias said, ears down.

Adi frowned. "That's inconvenient.

"Only here," Eurias mumbled. "Usually your friends and family can come and go."

"Are you calling me a friend?" Adi wanted to know, smiling with an eyebrow raised.

Eurias ears went back as he stammered, "I don't have friends."

"Yeah? Is that a serthyen thing?"

His shoulders shifted up a bit as he avoided her gaze. "No."

Now she just felt bad. Adi gave an awkward, "Oh." After a moment, she waved the dialog away and shifted towards him to say, "I was teasing you. I don't mind being your friend."

His ears flicked forwards, backwards, and then he gave her an indecipherable look. "You're not just saying that?"

"I mean it," she promised. "And not just because of your kiss-ass aura thing."

Eurias picked himself up from the ground, pushing back some strands of hair back behind one of his big fawn ears with a wet hand. "Good, because I have no use for sycophants."

"I've never had much interest in being one," Adi assured him as she returned to her own work.

She scrubbed her shirt as clean as it would come, wrung it out, then walked it over to the hearth, slapping it onto the glass dome to dry. She went to check on Eurias progress. He was struggling, to say the least, but making headway. So she harassed him into stripping his pants off so she could clean the bloodstains out. At least she wasn't the only naked one now.

"How do the purification thingies work again?" Adi wondered abruptly in the middle of her scrubbing. "Like, if you stuck your leg in there, would it work against any bacteria in the wound?"

"...I suppose it might."

Against his protests about water and wetness, which in fairness did seem like a bigger hassle for someone covered in fur, she bullied him into soaking his leg for a few minutes. While he did that, she put his clothes on to dry, then came back and stuck her arms into the cistern. Who knew what kind of bacteria seagull wings carried.

While soaking, Adi turned her wrist over again, activating her personal menu. "I'll just take a look at my choices," she murmured as she pressed the evolution option.

[EVOLUTION OPTIONS – Select Option to expand. All options include a lifespan increase of 100 years.]

High Human Stat and Skill Increase More Arms Custom Package

Adi laughed at the third item. "I'm terrified but also intrigued."

"What are your options?" Eurias said, eyes bright with curiosity.

"'High Human'—whatever that is—a stat and skill increase, 'more' arms, or a custom package," she said.

"It sounds as if the standard package is High Human," Eurias said. "What does it confer?"

She started expanding the choices. "High Human: trait [Magical], skill [Learn Languages] (5 ranks), perk [Environmental Adaptability], constitution increase (3 points)."

Adi hummed to herself as she looked through the next option.

[Stat and Skill Increase]

[Allocate 5 Stat Points: Mana, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution]

[Add 30 ranks to the following skills: Authority Issues (1), Field Aid (1), Obstacle Runner (1), Persuasion (6), Poor Man's Cook (1), Scavenger (1), Staff Fighting (1), Undermounted Riding (1), Washerwoman (1)]

"What's the difference between mana as a stat and the magical trait?" Adi asked, flipping to 'more arms.' The description read 'Gain an extra set of arms.' The phrasing of the package and the description that failed to mention where the arms would be or whether they would be functional was suspicious.

Eurias puzzled over her question, kicking his hooves in the water. "Were there no mages in your system?"

Adi paused to look at him. "As far as I was aware, there was no system, no mana, and no mages. We had concepts of all of those things, but only through games and novels—stories."

The deer man clasped his hands together in front of his chest at that. "How strange," he finally said. "Living things generate mana and the trait [Magical] allows one to draw upon it. The available magic within oneself at any one time is called a mana pool, which replenishes over time."

"So increasing the mana stat without having [Magical] is useless."

"Not at all!" Eurias said. "Servants with large mana pools are critical for many mages to perform large works."

"...so, useless when you're stranded on a death planet without a mage."

"When you put it that way... yes?"

"Alright, let's take a look at what I can do with a custom package," Adi said.

"Oh, I would hardly bother; the custom packages are never up to snuff."

"Uh-huh," she said mindlessly, opening up the menu.

[Custom Evolution Package]

[Selections will appear here]

Stat Options Trait Options Skill Options Anatomy Options

"How easy is it to use magic?" Adi asked. "Is there like a lot of learning involved?"

"It depends on your spellcrafting type, but generally training is required."

Adi hummed at that, then selected the item that most interested her.

[Anatomy Options]

Altered breeding: disable regular shedding of the uterine lining (retain birthing abilities) Additional parts: add a tail, add an arm, add an eye, add a mouth, add a heart, add genitalia, add gills Adaptability: withstand extreme cold, withstand extreme heat, withstand sleep deprivation, withstand hunger

"Oh hell yes," Adi said, smacking the first physiological option. "Sign me up."

"What?" Eurias wanted to know.

"No menstruation," Adi said. "Can you believe it? I've been on birth control for years to try and get rid of that shit."

"Menstruation?" Eurias echoed. She couldn't say for sure, but it sounded like he had no equivalent word in his [Comprehend Languages] and was echoing her pronunciation.

Adi explained what a period was, and its monthly effects, absentmindedly. The deer man stared at her in clear horror, eyes going wide.

"Half your population experiences this?" Eurias gasped. "Once a month?"

"For up to seven days, and sometimes fourteen," she said idly.

[Custom Evolution Package]

[Selections: Altered Breeding]

[Two selections remaining]

...

"How do you not die from blood loss?"

"I could have a tail," Adi said. "That'd be neat."

"Unless it's specifically noted as prehensile it would be useless," Eurias said amid his mumbling.

"Oh," she said. "Good point. Withstanding hunger might be a good one, then... I'll keep it in mind."

[Skill Options: 15 ranks available each time this option is selected. A new skill takes 5 ranks.]

New skills available: [Learn Languages], [Woodland Survival] Add ranks to current skills:...

[Stat Options: 5 stat points available each time this option is selected.]

Add points to stats:...

[Trait Options]

Select Trait to Gain: [Magical], [Master of One] (replaces [Jack of All Trades])

Adi mulled over the options for a few minutes, then made her selections.

[Custom Evolution Package]

[Selections: Gain Trait [Altered Breeding], Gain Skill [Woodland Survival], [Field Aid] +5, [Scavenger] +5, Gain Trait [Withstand Hunger]]

[Confirm evolution? Y/N]

"Alright, Eurias," Adi said. "I think me evolving would really help us out."

"I was worried you would say that," he moped, kicking sullenly at the water.

"I'll have to be here a few days either way; missing my medication tonight is gonna screw me over. I'll be bleeding and cramping by morning."

"Oh, ugh," Eurias said. "No, you should evolve."

"It's pretty warm by the fire, so sleep next to it," she said. It was basic information, of course, but given Eurias' apparent lack of real-world knowledge, she wanted to make sure. "Clean your bandage and soak your leg like this every day. I don't need to eat while I'm evolving, right?"

"Correct," he answered.

"The meat—break them up into two pieces each and eat a piece in the morning and a piece at night. You're gonna get hungry, but drink lots of water and you'll be okay. If you're anything like a human, you can go like a month without food as long as you've got water."

"What?" Eurias said, laughing nervously. "A whole month? That's unbelievable."

"Hopefully we won't have to go that long," Adi said, pulling her arms out of the water and flicking them free of water. "I'm going to go start."

"See you on the other side."

"Hah," Adi said, grabbing her shirt from the dome. It was still damp but she pulled it on anyways. "Sure." She got up onto the hearth, laying down, then activated her evolution.