Despite the urgency of your situation, the burns on your face are a painful reminder that you can’t deal with the spider without a weapon.

A quick scan of the surrounding forest shows it to be surprising empty of anything big enough to use; the sticks nearby little more than twigs.

You need something large and heavy.

Without hesitation you begin to search the brook, hoping to find a rock large enough to deal with the spider. Time is of the essence.

It takes you only moments before you manage to find something that fits your needs. Despite requiring two hands to grip the large rock, you pull it out of the river and lift it over your head with surprising ease.

However those few moments were too precious as you look up to see the spider standing over Derrick’s unconscious form.

You’re too late as the spider bites down into Derrick neck, sinking its fangs deep inside. Even unconscious Derrick lets out a cry of pain and you can see the veins in his neck bulge an ugly green as the spider injects its poison into him.

You rush over and awkwardly swing the rock. “Power Strike!”

The rock is heavy enough that you manage to knock the spider away from Derrick. It skitters angrily at you before it slowly makes its way back.

You ready the rock, waiting for it to get close enough.

“Power Strike!” You cry out as you swing the rock downwards in an overhand smash.

The slow moving spider is an easy target, and you feel a sickening crunch as the spider’s shell shatters underneath the strength of your blow.

A few drops of yellow fluid land on your skin, and you hiss as it burns, but the pain is nothing compared to the face full of acid you had experienced earlier.

The spider twitches briefly as you lift the rock again.

“Power Strike!” You bring it down once more.

With a final crunch the spider stops moving and as it does a bright light engulfs you, the same one you felt when you left the tunnel.

A warmth runs through your body, and you feel the pain in your face and hands fade away, turning into nothing more than a lingering memory.

You reach a hand up nervously and are shocked to feel smooth, unblemished skin where the acid had melted away your features.

A blue box pops into your vision, but you wave it away without reading it as you turn to Derrick.

The green veins in his neck have spread to his face, and you stare in horror at the sight, not sure what to do.

As the veins move higher and higher, finally reach Derrick’s temple, his eyes shoot open and he lets out a horrific, pain-filled yell, louder than any of the sounds you or the spider made during your brief fight.

He focuses on you for a moment, his eyes pleading for help, before his head falls to the ground and his eyes roll back until only the whites are visible before he passes out.

A skittering noise from above draws your attention and you look up to see several purple spots slowly growing bigger.

Your face pales in horror as you realize that Derrick’s scream of pain was loud enough to attract their attention as more and more of the creatures begin to descend.

You can’t stay here any longer, you need to leave.

You grab Derrick and sling him over your shoulder before you take off at a run into the thick foliage.

As you barrel through the underbrush, you can feel it catch and scrape against your skin. You feel your clothes tearing and shredding as they snag on thorns and branches, numerous cuts appearing on your arms and legs. But you don’t care. Your only goal now is to get out of there before any more of the spiders descend.

Eventually you stumble into a small clearing, panting and gasping for breath. You look around quickly for any threats, having no idea how far your legs took you, nor how long you’ve run, but you know you’ve hit your limit. There is only so far you can push your tired body after all the events of the past day.

You see nothing evidently dangerous and you can no longer hear the skittering noise of the spiders following in your wake. It’s all you can do to gently set Derrick down on the ground before you collapse next to him.

You lie there for several minutes, your heart pounding in your chest. You know you’ll have to get up soon, the seriousness of Derrick’s condition, if nothing else, demands it. But not just yet. Just for a moment or two, you’ll rest your tired body.

You wake up to the lonely hooting of an owl. Above you is the night sky, barely visible through the leaves. Your breath comes out in a frosty mist and you rub your arms with your hands as you try to put some warmth back into your frozen limbs.

A moment later you bolt upright and look next to you only to see Derrick, still as stone.

Your heart freezes in your chest as you watch his unmoving form.

You tried to save him, you really did.

Maybe if you hadn’t searched for a weapon and instead acted immediately he would still be alive. Maybe if you had chosen magic power over physical might you would have been quicker to deal with the spider when you lost your weapon.

But you didn’t. You made your choice and now it’s too late. Derrick is already dead.

You bow your head, giving him a moment of silence, but that’s all you can afford.

You’re in a strange place with strange abilities and even stranger creatures.

You’re cold, tired and hungry. You need to make some kind of shelter and you’re already surprised that no creature has come along and taken a bite out of you. It’s not safe here.

You wish you could afford more time to grieve, perhaps even long enough to bury his body, but you don’t have that luxury.

You have no idea what could be lurking in the darkness of the forest, but whatever is out there, you’re positive it’s not friendly.

What you do seem to have, is a brief moment to get your bearings. You need to figure out what all these boxes are. They keep popping up and you haven’t had time to go over them. They clearly hold important information; without your new ability you never would have been able to handle that spider.

If you’ve been safe in the small clearing for this long, spending a few more minutes while you figure things out shouldn’t make a difference. Remembering how your ability was voice activated, you hope the boxes are the same.

“Tutorial.” You say out loud remembering what the first box you read when you came out of the tunnel said. Nothing happens and, as silly as you’d feel from talking to yourself like that, Derrick’s body next to you keeps your mood somber as you continue.

“Chapter One.”

Apparently that works as a box you’ve seen before pops into your vision.

Chapter 1: The First Steps.

Reach Level 10.

You try touching it, but your hand simply goes through it. You read the words out loud, hoping for some change, but still nothing.

Shrugging to yourself, you continue on.

“Status.”

Another, bigger box appears in your vision, again one you remember.

STATUS

Level: 3 (46%)

Title(s): NA

Health: 150/150

Mana: 100/100

Attributes

Strength: 15 (+)

Agility: 15 (+)

Vitality: 15 (+)

Intelligence: 10 (+)

Wisdom: 10 (+)

Perception: 10 (+)

Charisma: 10 (+)

Luck: 10 (+)

Free Points: 2

Skills

The Perfect Body:

Increase Strength, Agility, and Vitality by 50%. Cannot be upgraded

Power Strike Level 2 (41.66%):

Delivers a blow that deals 165% physical damage, costs 10 Mana.

The first thing that catches your attention are the changes. You remember where it previously read level the numbers were only one and zero percent. There are now also several plus signs next to the numbers under the Attributes section, as well as another row reading Free Points. You can also see your new ability, or rather skill, Power Strike.

Experimentally you try touching the box only to have your hand go through it once more.

Reading it out loud, however, produces a different result. Even as the first word leaves your mouth a new box appears in front of you.

Level: A numeric representation of your experiences as well as a rough estimate of your power.

You read it over, unable to help but think how game like the whole thing sounds, before continuing to explore the box.

As you go through each word a new box appears telling you some basic information about what the word means.

Title(s): Accomplishments and achievements of note.

Health: A numeric representation of your physical well-being derived from your Vitality Attribute.

Mana: A numeric representation of your ability to cast skills and various abilities derived from your Intelligence Attribute.

Attributes: A list of the various aspects that make up your life represented in a numeric form.

Strength: A numeric representation of your body’s physical strength equally distributed throughout your body.

Agility: A numeric representation of your body’s speed, flexibility, and reflexes.

Vitality: A numeric representation of your body’s hardiness, health, and the ability to recover from physical damage and exhaustion

Intelligence: A numeric representation of your Mana and your magical abilities.

Wisdom: A numeric representation of your ability to recover Mana and your ability to recover from mental affects and mental exhaustion.

Perception: A numeric representation of your ability to perceive the world around you as well as the strength of your sixth sense.

Charisma: A numeric representation of your force of presence.

Luck: A numeric representation of how the world around you works in your favor.

Free Points: One of the few ways to increase your Attributes. A single point is rewarded on each Level Up.

Skills: A list of the various abilities you possess.

There was a lot to take in, but after thinking about it you could only conclude that your life now appeared to be a video game. That or you were bat-shit crazy.

Delusion or not, it looks like you're stuck here.

Your best guess is that your level increased because of the spider you killed, and doing so rewarded you with a way to increase your Attributes which would determine how powerful you were.

Unfortunately you had no idea what you should do with your Free Points. You think about it for a bit, and finally came to the conclusion that you should try and make the best of the abilities you have. And you just so happened to have a skill that does that.

The Perfect Body.

An extra fifty percent increase to your physical Attributes was not something to sneeze at. After all, looking at the numbers and doing the math, you probably only started at ten in strength, agility, and vitality just like all your other attributes. With the bonus from the skill that would make the fifteen you currently have.

You glance over at Derrick’s cold corpse. You don’t know what kind of ability he received, something magical you think, but you know you definitely don’t want to end up like him. You will survive!

If you want to get the most out of your skill, you need to maximize your chances. That narrows your choices down quite a bit, but the question now is; which of the three Attributes should you raise?

Where will you put your Free Points?

1) Strength.

2) Agility.

3) Vitality.