The Way Ahead

Edwin woke up surprised, parched, and starving. Surprised because it was apparently sunset already? No wait. That was birdsong. Sunrise? Sheesh. He did not intend to sleep at all, really, let alone through the night. He supposed he continued to be fortunate that there weren’t predators here. Well, they hadn’t found him yet, at least. That kind of fortune was not something he wanted to depend on, though. Especially when it came to sleeping out in the open.

Despite Edwin’s growing awareness of a twig digging into the space between his shoulder blades, he didn’t get up immediately. Instead, he called up his status. While it didn’t show numbers, he could still get a sense of how strong a given skill was, and it provided an actual sense of pride and accomplishment to tell in a quantifiable way how he was improving.

Status.

Name

Edwin

Age

Very Young

Race

Human?

Class

None

Attributes

None

Skills

Athletics

Basic Mana Sense

Breathing

Flexibility

Sleeping

Status

Visualization

Walking

Paths

CharLimitCanttalkmuchNocluewhathappenedDidmybesttohelpyouli

Daredevil

Explorer

Linguist

Lumberjack

Path Less Traveled

Realm Traveler

Way of the Empty Hand

World Traveler

He vaguely wondered how he was supposed to level up his status. Just summoning and dismissing it stopped leveling it relatively quickly, though he half-remembered it leveling yesterday before he fell asleep. Was that his effort to not see the notifications? It had only half worked and he needed to fight himself to not check them, even hanging perilously above certain death, but it was better than them hijacking his visual processes and attention every time. He casually tried to ‘turn off notifications’, but while he supposed there was no way to tell if it worked, it didn’t feel like it had latched onto anything. Maybe he needed a higher level in his Status skill? How could he manage that? Could he edit his status?

Hmmm…

Level Up! Status

Level Up! Status

Level Up! Status

Level Up! Status

About 10 minutes later, he had managed to ‘hide’ his Skills, Paths, and Attributes, whatever they were. That left him with four categories, at least three of which were inaccurate.

Without information about how to get a class- was it level based? He didn’t seem to have an overall level, just for his skills- that was probably accurate, but he was absolutely human. It didn’t accept his insistence that he was just a ‘human,’ but after another couple minutes of wrangling, which felt almost like haggling, he had gotten it to display ‘Extraplanar Human’ as his race, and his age now actually showed 22. He got the vague sense of a clock clicking as he studied it, but he couldn’t get any concrete measurement of how long he had been on Joriah.

Level Up! Status

Level Up! Status

Level Up! Status

Fixing his name, by contrast, was as simple as enunciating the thought that, My name is Edwin Maxlin.

Level Up! Status

Satisfied enough with the inaccuracies being fixed and the increased levels for the time being, he finally decided to do something about the stick digging into his back. It certainly wasn’t getting any more comfortable as he continued laying in the same spot.

His muscles straining- he certainly hadn’t been this active since before he went to college- Edwin lifted himself off the ground, first onto his hands and knees, then crouching, before finally standing up fully, stretching as he did so to help try and relieve some very sore muscles. With a yawn- followed immediately by his body yelling at him that he really needed some water- he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and set off towards the waterfall. Really, it spoke to how utterly exhausted he must have been last night to have fallen asleep with its roar constantly in the background.

While he no longer had to navigate a perilously thin slice of land, dodging the occasional tree, even being on relatively flat ground still wasn’t easy. The Sleeping skill apparently either was too low a level or just didn’t help with how bruised and scraped up he was, though he did feel a lot better and nicely rested, especially considering his sleeping conditions. Dragging himself towards the river, he was rewarded after just a few short minutes when he arrived at the top of the waterfall. Tons of water rushed by every moment, swept off the mountainside and into clouds of white which swiftly fell from sight. Falling in that river would mean he’d be very quickly either becoming the greatest swimmer of all time or finding out if he had developed general immunity to falling from the sky. Either way, he wasn’t about to risk it. Unfortunately, the side of the river he found himself on had no bank, the river curving slightly and carving a steep bank into the rock, putting Edwin a couple feet above the rushing waters, and there was no way he was leaning over the river- putting him once again on mostly-bare rock made almost frictionless from the endless mist of the falls- to get so much as a sip of water.

Naturally, the other side, being on the inside of the curve and thus mostly shielded from the torrent of water eternally rushing by, had a nice bank and perfect access to the water.

Because nothing can be that easy, can it? He mentally sighed, trying to figure out a way across.

Level Up! Visualization

There weren’t any trees around, and beyond the fact there wasn’t even the slightest chance he felt like trying to make that 20-foot jump from one side to the other, the slick stone- well, aside from that one patch right there with a bush in it that- no, stay focused Edwin- the uniformly slick

stone would never give him enough traction, making it an utter non-starter of an idea. There were trees around, but with no tools nor the energy to use them, there was no way to fell them-

Other than whatever the Lumberjack path might do. Not that I know what Paths do, or what sorts of effects they have, or how to progress along one, or anything even close to that. Sheesh, couldn’t this thing have come with an instruction manual?

-and even if there were, he didn’t have any way to let him build a bridge or pole or anything useful out of them.

It was maddening, being so close to the water yet so far away. Then again, there’s probably a matching bank on this side if I explore upstream a little ways, he realized, certainly easier than trying to weave a rope out of ivy or whatever. Actually, would it even need to be woven?

Edwin poked at the ivy covering some of the nearby trees and ground leading up to the rock (it didn’t look like poison ivy, not that really meant all that much when pretty much everything looked slightly different), and found that while it detached from the tree trunk it was on surprisingly easily, it didn’t break or come down from the canopy with any force he could apply, even when he put his full weight on it.

Nope, still not trying it.

His luck seemed to not be uniformly terrible, though, and he was able to find accessible water after a short-yet-painful walk. He almost collapsed, quickly getting on his knees to cup water in his hand and drink it, blissfully cold, crisp, and clear water, probably from a glacier and it was running fast enough it should be fine, right? With water, he could probably manage to survive. Food was still an issue, but he trusted that, given his progress in skills over the past three days, he could probably manage to forage something or find his way to civilization before he starved. Three weeks was lots of time, and- a thought idly flitted across his mind about why he hadn’t gotten some kind of Survivalism skill or whatever yet- his time as a Scout back on Earth probably prepared him well enough for this, right?

Thirst satisfied for the time being, Edwin allowed himself to relax with a sigh as he looked at the two notifications that blinked at him while he was drinking.

You have unlocked the Survival skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Congratulations! For surviving in the outdoors with no assistance and finding water, you have unlocked the Survivor Path!

Interesting. Were those related? It brought up interesting questions about what it took to unlock a skill- was it connected to Paths somehow? None of the other Paths had unlocked a skill alongside them, but these two seemed pretty clearly connected.

Or they were just both triggered by the same thing. Correlation is not causation, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe demonstrating survival skill is what let me get the Survival Skill? And I hadn’t demonstrated it adequately before now? Is that why I didn’t get the Climbing Skill or any kind of Focus Skill? I feel like I ought to be offended if that were the case. I’m fully capable of focusing when I want to. Oh hey, is that- I can keep my thoughts on track, no problem. Really. Honestly. Oh, who am I kidding? But climbing is strange. I figured Athletics might just have been as close as it got, but…

“Further testing required.” He promised himself, “Further…” standing up was a struggle still, but far more manageable now that he was hydrated, “Testing… Required. Oh right, skills. Accept.”

Level Up! Survival

Survival

Because some people clearly need the help.

Subsist on your own longer

Reduced dependency on food and drink per level.

I swear, this thing is mocking me. Also, I need to see if I can hide the initial level-up messages when I get a skill. It’s getting annoying. But I can absolutely put up with a bit of mockery for something like that. It gives me so much more time! Well, depending on how fast it scales and how hard it is to level. I wonder if I’ll just no longer need to eat or drink. That could be nice.

“So! Food and shelter, then I’m all set,” Edwin broke himself out of his thoughts with a clap of his hands and a definite target to work towards. The river served as a useful landmark, one that he would absolutely need as he explored. And what better place to start his exploration than the cliff edge? There was bound to be a killer view, and it might let him know if there was any kind of development nearby.

“Whoa,” Edwin’s comment may have been drowned out by the roar of the absolutely enormous waterfall, but it needed to be said. Whatever mountain he was on- and it was absolutely a mountain, there was a snow-capped peak he could clearly see if he turned around- rose miles and miles above the forest below, which was thick and strange. If the top of the mountain was anything like what he saw below, it made sense that he might have gotten lost or went in circles a few times.

Trees stretched out for miles, blanketing the mountainside as the slope descended thousands of feet before leveling into a sprawling carpet of trees of all kinds. He strained his eyes to look as far as he could-

You have unlocked the Seeing skill!

Accept skill? Y/N

- and while he could see the endless expanse eventually came to an end, it was difficult to tell what lay beyond. That was only further complicated by the glittering variety of foliage he could see from here. As it turned out, the tops of the leaves weren’t black, but whatever structure made up the leaves made them ever so slightly reflective, and scattered throughout the mostly-green sea were patches where the trees were slightly blue, or red, or multicolored in a way that reminded Edwin of bubbles. Was there thin-film interference present on the leaves? That would be cool to explore. Even the greens were a painting, shades he had never seen back on Earth leaves. Still, the variety made it hard to tell if the change in the distance was water, grasslands, a different type of forest, or something else entirely. It was far too distant to make out any kind of details, though, let alone reach. Maybe there was civilization in the forest- it looked perfect for an elven enclave- but there wasn’t a frat’s chance at a scholarship that he could find it on his own. The view was spectacular, though, and he must have spent a half hour alternating between marveling at the primal beauty of the sight and hoping he could spot something significantly less primal and more developed.

Level Up! Seeing

Level Up! Seeing

Level Up! Seeing

Level Up! Seeing

Level Up! Seeing

Seeing

All the better to see with, my dear

Enhanced visual senses

See farther per level.

Very useful. He had to wonder at what point whatever bonus his levels presumably gave him would become apparent. None of his leveling had given him any obvious advancement, with the exception of his Status, which made it seem like it would take possibly dozens to hundreds of levels for any kind of tangible boost from his skills.

Assuming, of course, the skills actually do provide a benefit and aren’t just a marker of progress, but then why would they exist at all? He mused.

Anyway, he was still starving, and so needed to find some kind of food. He had yet to see any plants which looked safe to eat, though he had admittedly not been looking all that closely, mainly focused on finding signs of water. Now that he had found water, though, he could probably trek up the riverbank and find some kind of fruit-bearing plant. With renewed determination, he continued his endless hike across the rough ground, tinkering slightly with his status on the way.

Level Up! Walking

Level Up! Status

Determination or not, though, it was still incredibly painful, and trying to stay close to the river to not get lost certainly doesn’t make it any easier, he thought as he scrambled over a larger rock.

Level Up! Athletics

Level Up! Flexibility

This was probably a good rate? He was absolutely pushing himself, and if fiction had taught him anything, that most likely meant this would be a fast improvement speed. He still wished it were faster, though.

Hungry or not, it was much easier walking next to the river than wandering through the woods. At least now he could get water whenever he wanted. His exploration bore fruit (heh) less than a mile upstream as the river split slightly, the offshoot forming a slow-running pool. Next to the pool, there was an almost picture-perfect wild grove, lush green grass surrounding a handful of what looked to be fruit-bearing trees, and framed in by a massive boulder covered in black, stringy moss. Back on Earth, this would have been the target of countless photographers. The beauty of the place only made Edwin more suspicious. What kind of fruit grove in a fantasy world wouldn’t be tended to by a dryad or something? Looking at the fruits, which bore a resemblance to a pear with the skin of a cherry, he was paradoxically relieved to see a few of them bore signs of being pecked on by birds. Wait, how could he see that so well at this distance?

Level Up! Seeing

Ah, that was how. Did his skills really provide that much of a benefit already? He’d need to reevaluate how much his skills were actually helping, if their effects were that subtle. Still, animal damage made it seem less likely that there was some supernatural force tending to the tree, though why the lower-hanging ones hadn’t been eaten by animals escaped him. Nonetheless, he approached it with caution, “Hello?” he asked the clearing, “Is it alright if I take some fruit? I haven’t eaten in three days.” When there was no response forthcoming, he picked up a couple of rocks from the shore and carefully ventured forwards, tossing the stones at the tree in case it were a mimic or something. Nothing happened as it clattered off the trunk, nor as it struck and knocked off a leaf. As his final test, he threw one as hard as he could at one of the fruits… and promptly missed. It took him a good half-dozen stones before one finally connected, making the pear-thing explode into a shower of juice, and providing yet another bonus.

You have unlocked the Throwing Weapons skill!

Accept skill? Y/N

Well, that seemed to confirm his suspicion about skills being tied to actually accomplishing something. Also that he had indeed managed to hide the first level-up notification, very nice. Still needed further testing, though. No need to fall into the Black Swan Fallacy, or whatever that was called. Not sure why he had gotten Throwing Weapons, though. Was it like Athletics? Was there no Climbing skill, or Rock Throwing skill? Was there an even more generic Ranged Weapons skill, and why hadn’t he gotten that one?

“Further testing required.” It was practically a mantra at this point, and he couldn’t wait to find time to actually test everything. He accepted the skill as he hesitantly picked one of the lower-hanging fruits from the tree, withdrawing quickly with his prize.

Throwing Weapons

The most basic and most advanced form of human weaponry: Throw a rock at it

Thrown objects are more effective

Increased accuracy per level

Interesting skill, he mused as he bit into the fruit. It tasted sublime, though that may just have been a result of how hungry he was. There seemed to be small seeds embedded into the flesh of the fruit, which helped him be just a touch more relieved with the thought that it probably wasn’t poisonous, I wonder if there’s a poison resistance skill. Maybe if I get poisoned I’ll unlock it?

His first fruit was gone in seconds. As was the second and third. By the time he got to his fourth, he was beginning to slow down. He wondered how nutritious these fruits were, or if they were just tasty. Probably provided lots of fiber, and a frown crossed his face as he hoped the biochemistry of the fruit was close enough to what he was used to for his metabolism to work with it. It tasted slightly tangy- was it citric? He might need a better source of protein, but this should work for now. He paused as three notifications appeared- the first was an offered skill, which he quickly accepted.

Nutrition

Because eating all the food in the world isn't always a good thing

Food is more nutritious

Increased health of food per level.

That was unhelpfully vague. Did it affect food he ate? Food he made? Was it his food that was more healthy? Did it just let him extract more calories and nutrients from things he ate? It was probably the most vague skill he had gotten, though the next two notifications were significantly more interesting.

Congratulations! For demonstrating highly advanced knowledge pertaining to the functioning of the body on its most basic level, you have unlocked the Micro-Biomancer Path!

Congratulations! For demonstrating extremely advanced knowledge pertaining to the makeup of physical matter, you have unlocked the Physical Alchemist Path!

There were some interesting things to take note of with this revelation. For one, apparently musing about chirality and vitamins was ‘demonstrating highly advanced knowledge,’ which implied unfortunate things about the technology of the world. Not that he really expected an advanced magitech society, but it would have been a nice surprise. Secondly, alchemy. Hopefully, that meant what he thought it did- namely, science without pesky things like physical laws holding him back- and not just chemistry sans the scientific method. He would need a word with whatever ran the magic on this planet if it were the latter. Still, with no real knowledge of what Paths were or how to use them, it would have to be put to the side for the time being. In the meantime, he was going to focus on his food.

Five cherry-pears (Perrys? Chears?) later, he was finally feeling full. It might not be sustainable in the long term, depending on what exactly Nutrition and Survival did and how strong they were, but it would keep him alive for the time being. Food and water now taken care of; Edwin’s next goal was to find some kind of shelter. Ideally it would be a cave, though he might be able to make some form of lean-to if he found a downed tree and enough thick branches to form a structure.

As he left the grove, he began to climb the boulder, finding much to his surprise that the black moss was just patches amongst a similar moss, only stone-grey and completely covering the rock. It was so thick, in fact, that he couldn’t even see the bare stone. It also felt weird, really coarse. It wasn’t like any moss he had ever seen or heard of before. And was it moving? What was this stuff?

You have unlocked the Identify skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Perfect.

Identify

Because sometimes you just don’t know what you have

Learn about your target

Increased range per level.

Oh cool, just what he needed. Did it work on plants? He focused on trying to examine the moss, flexing the same mental ‘muscle’ he used to call up his Status.

Level Up! Identify

Mature Giant Stonehide Bear

Oh.