I woke up to the gentle light of dawn, the soft rushing sound of waves, and a stream of notifications flooding into my consciousness.

You have completed a day with sufficient rest!

You have healed 1 HP.

Achievement Unlocked!

First Blood: You have fought and slain your opponent in your first combat.

Rewards: 50 Essence

Achievement Unlocked!

First Blood II: You have fought and slain your first sentient opponent.

Rewards: 100 Essence

Achievement Unlocked

First Offering (Battle): You have offered a kill on a divine monument for the first time.

Rewards: [Pending communion with entity]

Achievement Unlocked

First Offering (Harvest): You have offered a harvest, grown or gathered, on a divine monument for the first time.

Rewards: [Pending communion with entity]

Special Achievement Unlocked

Divine Right (Battle): You have offered the first kill of your life on a divine monument without knowledge or expectation of reward.

Rewards: [Pending communion with entity]

Special Achievement Unlocked

Divine Right (Harvest): You have offered the first harvest, grown or gathered, of your life on a divine monument without knowledge or expectation of reward.

Rewards: [Pending communion with entity]

You have unlocked a new class!

I frowned, then turned and walked back to the other side of the monument, where I’d left the corpse and handful of leaves and berries from the night before. Unsurprisingly, they were gone. In their place was a bundle of cloth with a letter on top. I sighed. I hadn’t known exactly what I was going to do with the monkey, and hadn’t exactly built up the nerve to consider eating it, but losing the meagre food I’d managed to collect was… frustrating, to say the least. I walked over to the bundle and picked up the letter.

Good Morning, or whenever you get around to reading this.

I have to confess, I hadn’t expected us to be in touch quite so soon! I figured it would happen at some point during your adventures on the island, but the very first day?

I appreciate the offering! I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I’m going to assume it was anyway.

I have no doubt you’ve now come across your first achievement! As you have discovered, your actions, decisions, and the method in which you do things mean something in this world.

You’ve given me some lovely offerings. Normally, this would lead to me giving you some of my divine power as a boon or spellcasting. Obviously, that won’t work with your unbound nature. So in consideration of your situation, I thought some clothes might be nice.

I’ve also attached a little bit of raw essence to this letter, and if you’re holding it, that essence will be investing into your Mask as you read. Hope you enjoy the additional abilities!

They’re not without ulterior motives, naturally. While I can’t give you any direct benefits, I’m sure we can set up an arrangement… if you use your mask’s new abilities and ‘dedicate’ future kills to me, I’ll see you remunerated in some format. It won’t be much for things you’ll be fighting at the moment, but every little bit helps, right?

I’ve enjoyed your adventures so far - I hope you continue to be so entertaining!

The MoG

As I read, I did feel a warmth rushing into my temple, but I also couldn’t be bothered at the moment. Instead, I brushed off any sand as best I could and quickly began to don the outfit. I think I had been subconsciously putting aside the fact that I had nothing to wear, since it seemed like there was nothing I could do about it, but as I put on the outfit I was overwhelmed with a sense of relief.

My haul consisted of some black underclothes in the form of a halter top and shorts, and then some beige-ish drawstring pants and a short-sleeved shirt that closed over with a large loop-and-toggle fastener. Not the height of fashion, to be sure, but light, durable, and infinitely better than nothing.

Immediate concerns taken care of, I decided to focus on the latest stream of information that had flooded in through my mask.

Mask of the Unbound:

Rank: Artifact

Type: Utility, Growth

Level: 2

Essence: 1000/2500

Description: A unique artifact provided by the entity known as Master of Games as part of a Great Bargain.

Abilities:

Provides manual entrypoint to System networks through successful skill checks. Allows access to information on objects or entities targeted based on user’s Appraisal, Knowledge, Lore, and other relevant skills. On command, opens an aperture of a maximum of ⌊√(Soul Level)⌋ meters in diameter to an extradimensional space (Soul Level) cubic meters in volume. Living entities cannot occupy the space, and any contents are subject to temporal stasis. A DC 10 Concentration check will provide a list of the contents of the space, and a DC 15 Concentration check is required to retrieve items. Items can be stored at will. On command, you may transfer any item within your personal space to a designated partner’s personal space. Current limit: 1 - (Master of Games). Further abilities unlocked with additional levels.

Apparently I had my own inventory, now. That would certainly help with the whole “dragging my kills back home” aspect of things, and I could imagine the option to “turn in” loot in the future would also be attractive. Part of me tried to picture myself crafting my own items out of the resources or enemies I’d encounter, and it didn’t resonate.

The opportunity to profit in some way off of what I suspected I would probably have just left alone in the future was pretty appealing. I couldn’t see myself stripping kills for parts. On the other hand, I was rather surprised at how easily I was taking to the idea of killing my opponents. After my lack of reaction to some aspects of yesterday, and this, I was beginning to suspect that there had been some changes to my personality, or some reactions were being suppressed. Whatever the case was, there was some sort of disconnect between what I expected my reactions to be and what they actually were.

It wasn’t something I could deal with at the moment, so I put it aside. A grumbling stomach reminded me that I now had no food, thanks to the “offerings” I had made earlier. Still barefoot, but at least garbed, and with significantly more hit points, I ventured once more into the forest.

Status

Name: ???

Age: 18

Heredity: Human

Soul Level: 1

Essence: 300/1000

Favoured Class: ???

Classes:

Human Paragon 1

AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10

hp 19 (12/19)

Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +2

Speed 30ft.

Melee weapon Savage Unarmed Strike +0 (1d4)

Size: Medium (Bipedal); Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Base Atk +0; Grp +0

Str: 10 (0)

Dex: 10 (0)

Con: 10 (0)

Int: 10 (0)

Wis: 10 (0)

Cha: 10 (0)

Traits: Able Learner, Educated

Feats: Toughness, Dauntless, Savage Unarmed Strike 3/3

Skills (Favoured - *) (12/12):

* Acrobatics - 1

Appraisal

Arcane Energy Lore

Arcane Energy Manipulation

* Athletics - 1

* Autohypnosis - 2

Bluff

* Concentration - 2

Crafting (+)

Cryptology

Diplomacy

Divine Energy Lore

Divine Energy Manipulation

Escape Artist

Handle Animal

Healing

Intimidation

Investigation

Ki Lore

Ki Manipulation

* Knowledge (+)

System - 1

Linguistics

Martial Lore

Mechanical Lore

Mechanical Manipulation

Natural Energy Lore

Natural Energy Manipulation

* Perception - 1

Profession (+)

Psionic Energy Lore

Psionic Energy Manipulation

Sense Motive

Sleight of Hand

* Stealth - 1

* Survival Lore - 2

* System Lore - 1

* System Manipulation - 1

Abilities:

Unbound (Legendary)

Adaptive Learning (9/10)

Equipment:

Mask of the Unbound (Lvl 2)