Looking around the area Adil started moving the bodies around, turning them upside down and inspecting their armour. He figured that he could improvise something to use from at least some of the metal in the ground.

Swift took the time to meditate, he could feel a new power within him and wanted to see what it was. He felt a strange warmth that was both deep within him but like that of a roaring inferno. He tried to draw it out. He focused the energy through his hand and fire coalesced around his fingertips. With just his will Swift cast a bolt of fire, sending a small burst forward to dissipate on the rocky cavern wall.

Adil quickly stopped what he was doing.

"Did you just?"

"This is my calling, I am now a pyromaniac,"

"You mean pyromancer?"

"Yeah, either one."

Adil mentally facepalmed and then went back to his search, leaving swift to meditate. Swift tried to experiment. To understand his limits, he focused on the bursting power roaring within him, the root of his fire.

Swift mentally reached inside himself and pulled at his energy, it grew, like an erupting volcano. The fire came out without resistance, overwhelming his being. Swift wanted to hold it back but couldn’t, he didn’t even know-how.

Swift opened his eyes and was frozen in the realisation of what he had just done. Swift was suddenly and rapidly engulfed in flames, an explosion of fire erupting from him. Thankfully too quickly for him to feel pain.

“Fucking hell" Adil exclaimed jumping back.

Trails of fire and ash were scattered around Swift's charred corpse, his face and eyes looked to have exploded and much of his blood was burnt to his skin. Adil was backing away from the grotesque sight. Energy suddenly shot from the ground and hovered in the air, a wind fathering as threads circled about one spot in front of Adil. Then it began to take shape; a ghostly ethereal figure became more contrasted and solid, slowly reforming a body bit by bit. Tendrils of mana starting from bone and building to skin. Before long the Swift was alive again. His body reformed with a new set of nooby cotton clothes.

Attempt failed!

(1/2) (try not to die so much)

“Are you ok?” Adil asked the now newly formed Swift in all his confusion. “Didn’t feel a thing,” Swift replied with a smirk. Then looked over at his mutilated body in concern.

"Well, that me had seen better days," he replied. Adil just looked at him with an expression fo exhaustion,

"what?" Swift tasked.

“Please don’t do that again,” Adil asked as though Swift was just going to go for another try.

“Can’t make any promises,” Swift said in reply. He got an awkward stare in response.

"What I'm kidding," he said making it out like he wouldn’t but secretly suppressed his urge to try. He really wanted to find out how large an explosion he could really make.

Adil took another glance around the skeletal corpses, decrepit old things, the leather from any straps had worn away.

He thought about carrying some of the armour or even taking bits off for small amounts of protection. In the end, he only found a small piece of armour something he could graft into his leather arm piece for some added forearm protection. Taking the dark metal piece he wiped the grime off it and strapped it to his forearm.

Looking towards Swift, he had managed to take the leather armour off of his old mangled body, strangely still intact. Unlike his body which seemed to have incinerated itself.

“Still good?” Adil postulated.

“Yeah,” Swift said standing over his charred remains, an arm had come off the body and was within a piece of armour. He shook the armour until the arm fell out.

The amour had changed slightly in colour and trimmed around the edges but it still held together. He picked up his short sword and was set up just as before.

notification Swift

Acquired item State

Cotton clothes burnt

Short sword well-made

Leather armour burnt

"Round two?" Adil asked.

"Ye boi," Swift earnestly replied.

They went to both leave and exited the cavern in the same way they had previously. The maze of rocks gave them two clear directions, one leading towards the goblins and another potentially more dangerous, unknown direction.

“The other way,” Adil said to Swift as he noticed him eyeing the path to the goblins.

The thought about what would be awaiting them this time made them pause before continuing. They left the Cavern, walking in the opposite direction of where the Goblins were.

The maze of rocks was still just as messy, climbing over jagged spikes and ducking through overlapping walls being the only way to get through. Adil went ot get a view. He climbed one of the larger rocks and looked around. In the distance towards the goblins, and further out that way a black sky hung against taller black mountains. In exasperation they knew, this time, they had made the right choice. Not that way.

They kept low and avoided any open spaces as they carried on along their course. Eventually, as stomachs began to grumble the area became less barren. The vegetation was not all dead and tufts of yellow grass popped up in different areas.

Suddenly swift saw in the distance a fast-moving and small creature, it was in fact, a rabbit. He quickly motioned to Adil.

“RABBIT! Kill it quick!” He shouted.

Adil looked at him with apathy

“..I’m vegetarian,” he explained.

“What?” swift rhetorted. “But we could die?"

“We will respawn anyway”

“And then die again... Hungry."

Swift placed a hand over Adil and said calmly. "Listen, if this is an isekai there are two things you gotta not fucking do. First have a mental break down going Oh no how do I handle being in this new world, and second. Have some screwed up empathy trip, cus you gotta kill something, like, this ain't Kansas anymore motherfucker."

With a solemn expression, Adil gave in

"Whatever man," he said and lifted his bow to aim.

They stalked the pray, a feeling of shadows wrapping around them as they moved. They began to feel more Intune with their surroundings, blending in and silent. A loading notification was in the corner of Adil's awareness. A message that he seemed intuitively aware of like a computer working inside his mind.

Skill acquisition commencing. assessing skill functionality, Simulation complete. Calibrating muscle-memory. Skill formulated.

Notification

skill acquired, sneak.

Skill

Stealth

You have an innate awareness of motion pressure and limb placement to conceal your footsteps. Blending in with your surroundings feel second nature.

Ignoring the notification Adil focused on his task at hand. Adil took out his bow and aimed his first shot, the more he held the bow the stronger he could feel a connection to it, as though he could the size and shape of it in his hand. Then he fired. It missed, and the rabbit just about noticed and ran off.

“Uuh.” he exclaimed in exasperation, his hunger overwhelming. Another progress notification comming into his awareness.

Simulation in progress, enhanced time allocation due to spectacular failure. skill formulated.

Learnt Skill

Archery

A skill affected by dexterity. Your essence has bonded with the bow so that it can act as an extension of our arm.

"This is so damn weird."

Adil now felt the bow as though its movements were Intune with his own, if he closed his eyes he could feel the bow's shape and even flexibility. Like a sudden change made the bow feel second nature.

As they came to accept the loss of their food source they decided to carry on and as they did the land started to grow the occasional tuft of dry grass, slowly tuning from barran to a savannah. Soon the sun had set and the area turned to darkness turning much colder, a chill hit them as though the heat of the day was a far gone dream. Then Adil saw it, in the distance a collection of bushes and not just any, but ones lush with berries and fruit.

The team went over to the area desperate for any sustenance they could find. As soon as he got there Adil grabbed a berry from the closest bush, but it collapsed in his hand deteriorating to a flaky mush.

notification

Failure

This is a special mana bush, to pick the fruit from this bush you must feed the plant mana.

You lacked the ability or willingness to try in a way that a skill could be formed for this.

Acquired item State effect

Withered herbs ded none

“WHYYYY” Adil shouted out.

He had only picked up the plant and could not understand what happened. “The berry literally withered away. I’m not joking, we finally got something to try and eat, and it in my literal hand, it just turned to mush.” Or

Adil threw the mush on the ground and in a surprising burst of energy started fervently stamping on it. “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you” He said to the bush.

“Are you sure you’re doing it right?” Swift asked.

“Do you want to try?” Adil asked in elation.

Swift went and grabbed a herb from the bush.

“I got a notification, apparently this has been turned into garbage because I didn't have herblore,"

“Oh really? And that makes so much sense, doesn’t it?” Adil exclaimed, looking like a curious Nicolas Cage. His hunger was getting the better of him and he collapsed to the ground.

Swift attempted it one more time, he had now learnt the skill but didn't feel he should relay that information to Adil in his delicate state or fear that he could start screaming about the bees. Trying to feel around the plant and see how he was meant to take it off Swift connected his mana to the plant. His mana seemed to be accepted and slightly pulled, he felt that there was mana in the plant but this could not be held in the fruit, in order to sustain it he pushed mana into it creating a distinct change within the fruit.

“I think I get it,” Swift said

He pulled the berry from the plant knowing it would last on its own.

Notifications Swift

Acquired item State Effects

Badlands berry Fresh +25% focus

Learnt Skill

Herblore

your ability to harmonize with plants has been enhanced.

Swift handed Adil a berry to eat. The reverence Adil gave it was akin to discovering an oasis in a desert.

“Please sir, can I have some more.” Adil asked before Swift with a smirk dropped the berries in his hands and went back to gathering.

Swift gathered as many as he could, finding off bushes on the way along their path growing more varied and bountiful. He had differing success across the plant variation but managed to hoard enough to be satisfied. Though he didn’t get all the berries from each bush, as he felt his connection strain when he took too many or if they were not ripe enough.

Notifications (31)

Acquired item, State, Effects

Badlands berries (18) Fresh, +25% focus

Taint grass (6) Fresh, unknown

Sundering oat (2) Fresh, intense vomiting

Glue berry (4) Fresh, unknown

lunar fruit (2) Fresh, unknown

Level up!

Herblore level 2

10% increased chance of finding rare herb effects, 10% increased chance of gathering herbs, 10% increased speed in gathering herbs.

*That was fast* Swift thought.

he popped a berry into his mouth

"Ohh, coffee," he said with a smile