After walking and walking, I decided to take a rest when the sun was too its peak. ‘Now that I actually had a break to think,’ I thought to myself ‘I can properly look into this whole status thing.’

‘Status’ I concentrated on the words, and a bright blue box appeared in front of me.

[Basic Information]

>Name: Alexis

>Age: 17

>Titles: Gods Blessing

[Advanced Information]

>Class: Scribe (+ Inventor)

>Class Level: 1 (1)

>Remarks: A bright mind with a soul heritage from the earth system, slowly growing in all aspects.

[Stats]

>Strength: 17

>Dexterity: 18

>Constitution: 12

>Intelligence: 16 + 3

>Wisdom: 15 + 3

>(Soul: 2.01)

[Affinity]

>Mana: 5/20

-Element:

>Divinity: 14/20

([Blueprints])

(>Crude Pendulum Clock)

([Notes])

(The System has been modified to not show items with parenthesis under any circumstances)

(If you think there is an issue, please get help by *REDACTED*)

‘So there were a few major things I can take away from this.’ I pondered to myself ‘One, I am without an elemental affinity, which I’ve heard normally shows up under the element area. If that is good or bad, I’m unsure but for the mean time, there is nothing I can do about that. Second is soul, which somehow increased while I was with them, so I have to see why its increasing and what benefit it brings. Third, my class is also an inventor as well as a scribe, which might mean it is a hidden class of sorts or special in some way. That is probably going to explain why my status screen is so weird, but at the moment I have no way of confirming that. Last but not least, blueprints.’

‘Status Blueprints’ I concentrate, and low and behold, a status screen purely on blueprints appears in front of me.

[Blueprints]

Crude {

>Crude Pendulum Clock (0%)

- Shows you how to create a Crude Pendulum Clock. A great device to know what time it currently is if set right. May lead to more opportunities after perfecting this product.

}

‘Huh, so it will show me how to create this device that somehow knows the time? How does that work exactly? Lets at least try it and see what happens, I doubt it can hurt much.’

‘Blueprint Crude Pendulum Clock’ and a few red squares appeared in front of me in different shapes and sizes. Quite a few of them were shaped like a star ( * ) with some of them being interconnected and a few strings with metal pieces on them. The word “Gear” came to my mind for whatever reason. I couldn’t seem to understand it, but I wanted to try. I tried rearranging the shapes mentally, and to my surprise it worked! I was able to move them around and move them in mid air, but sadly that was as far as my adventures got me. I couldn’t seem to crack the secret as to how they went together. ‘For now, lets just move on and set up some form of shelter.’ I thought to myself ‘It will probably take the rest of the day to do it properly.’

I quickly went to a few outcrops and searched for a small out cove, preferably without too much depth which may indicate its a dungeon. I spent a while just searching for a good spot, and when the sun had about a quarter left before it went down, I finally found a decent cave that checked all the boxes.

I quickly used my short sword I got from Jeff to cut some bark off the trees using a technique I got from the thieves I lived with, as we used to spend a few days in the woods after a heist and I watched them set up camp quite a few times and sometimes was forced to help so I know the ropes. I then cut some small tree branches down and gathered some dead ones to make it easier to light, and went back to my cave. After repeating this a few times I had enough for the night. While sleeping in a cave the thieves were making jokes about a bug called a Mana Leech they always tried to avoid, so I figured I might as well do what they always did to prevent them as well. I would place the campfire right next to the entrance to prevent these so called Mana Leeches and went deeper in to avoid the smoke coming from the fire. I would have to add fuel to the fire every so often but it would work for now.

I quickly took an old flint I found on the ground, took my short sword and did what the thieves did, strike it and thankfully it made sparks. It took me a while and the sun was really close to setting but I managed to do it in time and added a bit of firewood, rationing it out to last throughout the night.

After going to the other side of the cave, albeit cold, I tried my best to sleep. I tossed and turned for a while and eventually went to sleep.

I was spectating myself as I went around a small enclosed room with a bunch of pots and a few stalks of what looked like a plant I saw a few times while coming here, and a pile of long strips of what looked like the stalk cut up in a pot of water. I first cut the stalks up into thin strips, then I rolled them, and put them in a large piece of water. Afterwards I took out another set of strips from another pot which has already been soaked, ‘for a day’ the words came to me like a lost memory. Then I laid the strips parallel to each other than another set up and down, then took a wooden hammer and pounded them. This went on for a small amount of time, which was hard to judge due to Alexis feeling like a spectator, then put in another pot and let sit ‘for three days’ again the words came to me. After that I took out of another pot a new set of plant matter emerged, which looked a lot like the hide paper I’ve seen at stores so much for extraordinary prices, but much more refined. Then I used a small flat flint and scrapped the paper until it was flat and took a stick of charcoal and drew on it. Surprisingly it started to work fine and I started drawing strange characters on it that I somehow recognize.

“I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that wont work.” - Thomas Edison

For some reason that felt inspiring to me in this moment, even though I didn’t know who ‘Thomas Edison’ was and why he found ten thousand ways that didn’t work, but that was where the scene cut out.

I wake back up to my fire dying and it still being midway through the night. I quickly put some more wood on it and try to kindle it and thankfully it comes back to life. I try to reflect on what I just remembered ‘That didn’t seem that hard, then why wasn’t it done before? Surely this can’t be as simple as it seems.’ I ponder ‘I am going to try this tomorrow and see how well it works.’

I went back to the corner of the cave, not seeing the blue box appear in front of me as I closed my eyes.

[Blueprint ‘Crude Papyrus Paper’ has now been unlocked!]