Iris was Iris, Rosa is Rosa. Wait, is this a fantasy game?

The ladder seemed to have the halo of the divine around it.

Rosa needed to get that ladder. It was high enough to get her halfway up the wall. She was so excited to collect it that she nearly went charging across the open expanse to get it.

Nearly. The thunderous crash coming from a nearby street had her tumbling back into reality right quick.

"Run!" Rosa heard a woman screech in the distance. Alternating her destination, Rosa quickly ran to the shack to hide.

"Mommy-" A young boy's terrified cry was cut off. Rosa entered the shack, she closed the door as quickly as she could.

"Ding! You are hiding. Presence is down to 9." Rosa huddled in silence. Straining to hear anything in the surrounding area. After ten to fifteen minutes, another system message appeared.

"Ding! You are trying to learn skill: Enhanced hearing. Do you wish to learn it?" Rosa clicked yes.

'Like I would turn down any skill in this mess.'

Rosa thought bitterly. Her hearing seemed to sharpen as the skill took hold.

She heard footsteps beyond the courtyard wall behind her.

It wasn't the clip clip sound of hooves, more of the soft pitter patter of paw pads. Definitely not the noisy steps of a human wearing shoes.

Rosa held her breath as it passed by. Once she was sure it was a house or two away did she dare to breath again. The monster didn't detect her by proximity.

'The monsters are checking back alleys now. That's how they're finding people.'

Rosa had been cursing the system ever since this whole debacle started. In Iris's memories, the protagonist that awakened systems usually got a huge boost in power. In stories, the system saved the day by allowing the main character to conquer their problems easily through whatever the system gave them.

'My system might not have given me super powers, but it probably just saved my life.' Rosa closed her eyes as she listened. There was the sound of the wind and faint echoes of fighting in the distance.

There was nothing in her immediate area.

"Ding! Gathering system has awakened. Thank you for your patience." Rosa blinked and sighed. A bright green multi-tabbed window opened up. Her jaw nearly dropped.

'No wonder it took so long.' Each tab was clearly labeled and beautifully artistic. Fishing, botany, apiary and animal husbandry were just some of the many tabs. The tutorial was straightforward.

First you selected the tab you wanted, like gardening.

Second, equiping the tools to use. More tools with higher stars meant better harvests.

Third, a skill tree would appear on what you could gather. Each branch of the skill tree consumed different action points. For example: you could get food or seeds from a mature plant but, seeds cost more action points.

There were a few bits of extra information provided by the blue system. Rosa had three action points. Action points were earned through ???. She could regain action points in a day by eating.

Crafting used action points.

Rosa paused at that information. Technically, she only needed to craft something to get her over the wall. However if she used up all her action points getting food, there would be no escape today.

That was unlucky.

Even if eating restored points, there was no guarantee if it was instantaneous.

'I'll worry about that later. Right now, I'm close to food, water and a possible means of escape.'

Rosa shoved all the tools she had from Inventory into the gardening tab. The shovel, pickaxe, rake and hatchet returned to the inventory.

"Your gardening is too low. Please lvl up."

That's when Rosa noticed the experience bar at the bottom of the page. That mean the trowel, sickle and cultivator could be used.

'Fine. Let's see what I can get' Rosa peered out and saw no one in sight. Listening, there wasn't anyone within a house away.

Ducking down, Rosa made her way to the garden. When she got into reaching distance, a white circular orb light appeared over the entire patch. The gardening screen popped up with extra text appearing under the tools.

"You can gather seed or food here." Two skill trees lite up. Rosa clicked on food. The skill tree enlarged with multiple choices opening up.

'Carrot, onion and beet can be gathered' quickly choosing carrots another choice appeared.

"You can gather 1 carrot bundle 1 star. Or 1 carrot 2 star." Rosa lifted an eyebrow.

'More carrots is better in this instance right? I will feel fuller and have more action points back.' Rosa literally felt her energy drain as the white orb vanished with her choice.

"You have collected 1 carrot bundle. +5 Gardening experience." Rosa didn't stay around to revel in her first attempt at garden thievery. The carrots went in her Inventory and she quickly made her way to the well. There wasn't an orb above it.

'What would gathering well water be under if not gardening?' As she grabbed the bucket from Inventory, the brown crafting tab appeared.

"You are at crafting station: Well. Do you wish to craft a full bucket of water?"

Inspiration flashed off in Rosa's mind. Real world stations were needed in order to craft things. A stove and pot would be needed to boil water. An anvil and furnance to make weapons.

A carpentry station with wood shaving tools to make what she needed for a real rope ladder.

'Another road block. I may have to improvise.' Rosa quickly crafted a bucket of water using the system. As she was drained of energy, she got +5 to the cooking skill.

'Yeah that makes sense.' Stowing the water away, Rosa made her way back around to the opposite side of the shrine. She paused, listening for noise.

Confident at the silence she looked around the corner. Nothing.

Rosa slipped around the corner and grabbed the ladder, putting it in inventory.

"Gurgle" Rosa stopped dead. That had been her stomach making noise. She didn't dare move as the noise seemed excessively loud to her. There wasn't a notification of her dropping out of sneak immediately.

She waited. No notification.

She took a deep breath and continued back around to the shrine. There wasn't any other obstacles or mishaps on the way back up to her hiding place. She even was able to shut the door fully.

'I'm not safe by any means, but I should be able to eat up here.' Rosa quickly surveyed her spoils. The carrot bundle availed five carrots that were one star. Each one gave her half an action point.

Iris's other world gaming instincts were spot on. The two star carrot was probably important to cooking higher quality dishes. Having no access to a kitchen or a fire, taking the bundle was the smarter move.

Rosa brought out the bucket of well water and the cup she found in the caretakers house. She didn't have to craft or have a prompt to drink water from the bucket.

Then, disaster happened.

'I -I have to pee!' Rosa was a little girl with a little girl's bladder.

The shrine didn't have a bathroom.

Rosa hadn't seen a 'magicked away' pot people use here for a tolit. Nor had there been an outdoor compost tolit.

Rosa quickly looked through her small inventory.

Nothing that she could use as one. She couldn't go in a corner, even a regular human could smell that and find her.

She was going to have to ...dig a hole and bury it.

'Quickly!' Rosa went back down, made sure the coast was clear and... dug a hole behind the shrine.

'Please forgive me!' Rosa prayed as she finished her business. Shrine's were considered holy land. She literally defiled holy land.

The monsters would have laughed at her.

Then maybe copy her actions after killing her.

That done, Rosa made her way back inside and up. Sneak had gone up another level on her little side trip. Apparently the system gave her a huge boost for not getting caught doing something so deviant.

'How embarrassing.'

Rosa set aside her embarrassment to get to work. She had an improvised escape rope to make.

Rosa removed the stick from the cultivator, it was nearly as tall as she was and she only wanted the head anyway. This is how she found the disassemble function. It didn't need a crafting station.

'I'm surprised it doesn't take action points.'

The rope was threaded through the hole and tied around the head in a figure eight pattern securing it tightly.

Rosa tested the rope, it seemed solid.

Then, she started the long and hand cramping task of making knots in the rope at uniform lengths attaching another rope halfway. It took her most of the morning to do.

'Now then. System, I'm counting on you.' Rosa anchored the rope to the belfry door by putting the head outside and closing the door. The door didn't fully shut, but it was enough to still be considered an enclosed space. She lowered the rope down the stairwell, it hung between stairs in the dark.

Still hiding, Rosa went to the bottom and carefully felt around in the dark for the rope. Once found, she began to pull herself up on the rope one knot at a time.

"You are trying to learn skill: Climbing. Do you want to learn skill."

Rosa's smile said everything.