The stars shone with an unnatural lustre tonight, Lloyd gazed into the night sky with awe, unlike the old sky that was riddled with light pollution, the heavens were now clear as day. the moon cast a silver light over the land and if he looked hard enough, he could see the vibrant nebulas from the place where he met the system. But this wasn’t what Lloyd was looking at, if he really focused on blank space or with his eyes closed, he could see something.
A mysterious pattern in the air. It was so minute he couldn’t possibly imagine what it was, countless movements in a single millimetre, yet he could almost see what colour it was, but the colour was ever changing. When he tried to use his electrify skill, he could see it condense and congeal around his hands, and if he tried, he could form crude shapes from it just by thinking hard enough. All of this happening so quickly was very strange, but when he thought about it, hadn’t it always been there? Thinking back pre-system he could remember seeing this but… more muted. It was like comparing a light mist to a thunderstorm, but despite the differences it had still been there. He just hadn’t realised.
All throughout the night, Lloyd stared into the sky trying to understand the patterns but was unable to. The complexity of the patterns movements was simply too far beyond him in his current state, but while he didn’t manage to understand the meaning his night of pondering had gained him one thing, another level. It seemed his mage class had awarded him with experience for trying to build his understanding of the mysterious energy.
Level up available, you have reached lvl 2 in your class.
Lloyd invested his free points into endurance this time, and he could definitely feel the boost from all his new stats, if he tried hard Lloyd could jump over a meter in the air without a runup. after the level up Lloyd decided to try and get some rest, he lied down on the grassy patch under the living tree and started to drift off.
When he woke up the sun was just starting to shine over the ocean in the distance, Lloyd stood up and took a deep breath of icy air which was weird since he had felt warm the previous night. It was either the thick jacket he brought with him, or his newly acquired stats and Lloyd was heavily leaning towards the second option. Lloyd thought about setting out to explore now that it was light out but decided against it when realising how hungry he was, Lloyd sat back down and opened his sack and noticed something strange. When he looked at the compy he expected to see lots of dry blood, but it was still fresh and the cuts were still leaking blood, it looked like the sack had preservative capabilities. While this was very useful it wasn’t what he was interested in right now, he needed food.
Looking down at his stocks Lloyd was in trouble, he only had a single loaf of bread. Well and the dead Compy, and meat did sound nice right now. But how would he cook it? The only fire starters he had were possibly the pieces of metal from the boat and some of the stones on the plateau, but that would have to do. Lloyd went around the trunks of the trees and picked up a handful of dead leaves and some sticks, he laid them down in a pile and sat down next to them. He slammed the metal and rocks into each other in hopes of creating a spark but after twenty minutes all he had got was one spark that fizzled out before hitting the leaves. After a while, Lloyd flopped onto the ground in defeat. After all the system had done, he really couldn’t start a fire. Surely magic should be able to start a flame in seconds but of course he couldn’t, for no reason at all he couldn’t start a simple fir…
“Oh, fuck I’m stupid” Lloyd grunted in annoyance.
Lloyd sighed and shot out electrify at the pile of kindling, instantly it burst into flames. It seemed he would have to think more open mindedly in the future. Now that it was burning Lloyd threw a few small logs onto the fire and turned his eyes to the dead Compy. He dragged over a large flat rock next to the fire and laid out the carcass, he grabbed a sharp piece of metal out of the sack and used a rock as a whetstone before digging into the Compy. First, Lloyd cut of the legs to have as drumsticks, but unlike with a chicken leg he didn’t have to pluck feathers, he had to descale it like a fish. This was a lot harder said than done as the mana infused scales were like chainmail, so prying them off was difficult and time consuming, but once he was done the meat looked great, the legs were about two feet long and had a soft turkey like texture.
Lloyd continued this method for the rest of the body discarding the entrails and head but removing fibrous sinew from the tail for later use. Once he finished cleaning the corpse Lloyd stuck it on a spit with the ribs open to get a nice even cook, he also roasted the drumsticks and started gnawing on one. But aside from the meat he now had some very strong animal fibres and very durable scales, he thought about it and these pieces of scaley skin would make very good armour. It was certainly high enough quality, but even if it was, what kind of armour could he make? it was too small to make a helmet, chest plate or leggings -not that he could have either way- so it would have to be bracers or shin guards. After thinking for a while Lloyd decided to make bracers as even a shin guard was a bit complicated for him. Lloyd grabbed a bit of fat he discarded earlier and started greasing up the inside of the scales, he then used the metal to cut it into a proper shape. After that Lloyd poked holes into it and used some sinew from the tail to connect the two sides at the bottom forming a tube shape, he then copied this for a second one.
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Trying them on Lloyd found them surprisingly comfortable as the scales didn’t really scratch his arm due to his increased durability, and the sinew felt almost like elastic. Lloyd then tested them and tried to stab them with his makeshift knife, and to his delight it bounced of harmlessly. Lloyd looked down at the bracers proud of himself, glad something was going his way. Then much to his surprise Lloyd saw a popup appear, it seemed he’s created his own new item.
Novice Compy bracers (Common)
Bracers made from an F-grade Compy by a burgeoning armourer. These bracers are highly resistant to slashing attacks, grants the wearer a small amount of resistance to mental attacks.
This was a huge surprise as Lloyd would’ve thought himself incapable of creating an item that easily. But the bracers themselves weren’t his only gain, he’d also gotten a title from this endeavour.
[Common crafter] – successfully craft a common item while below level 10, a sign of a future talent. As simple as it may seem, not many can achieve such a thing. + 1 all stats
This title was very interesting for Lloyd as it was his first title that gave stats, while the + 1 to everything was pretty useless right now who knew how good a title would be for making something a few rarities higher.
Getting back to his grilled compy, it was now done cooking, so Lloyd grabbed it and put it into his preservative sack. Lloyd went over to the ironbark tree and broke off a branch, one thing that he had learned while making the fire is that the ironbark had some of the properties of iron, making it extremely durable and conductive of electricity. After getting the branch off the tree and making sure it was sturdy, Lloyd grabbed his makeshift knife and slowly sharpened the end into a spear. Once he was done, Lloyd covered the fire in dirt and set out down the rock.
Soon enough Lloyd reached the sight of his fight with the compy, now having a general idea of the area he set out to explore, and hopefully gain a few levels in the meantime. Lloyd slowly navigated his way through a maze of titanic boulders as he made his way towards the forest he’d seen from the rock. After few minutes Lloyd started to get an odd feeling, he slowed down and went to have a rest. He was suddenly brought out of his stupor by his bracers burning his arm, he just been hit with a mental attack. Lloyd looked around for what had hit him, he heard a rustling sound and out of the grass he saw some familiar faces. Three compies started circling around him baring their teeth, this time Lloyd was ready for their attacks so when one leaped at him this time, he grabbed its neck before it reached him. He then launched it into one of its comrades sending them both tumbling through the grass.
The third compy wasn’t so lucky and was stabbed in the gut with his spear before Lloyd infused it with electrify, frying it from the inside out. The other two compies were already back in action by this point and he only managed to stab one as it jumped, having to block the second with his bracer. Luckily since the compies attacked with their claws and teeth it was completely ineffectual against his slash resistant bracers. With two now dead the last compy was finished off with a kick to the head. After that fight Lloyd collected all the bodies and put two into the preservative sack while slinging the last one over his shoulder since it couldn’t fit. Lloyd continued through the rocks for the rest of the day, getting ambushed by compies periodically.
When the sun started to set that night Lloyd climbed onto one of the rocks and retired to a cave a few meters off the ground. This night Lloyd didn’t have a fire as he was wary of something finding his whereabouts in his more exposed location. Sitting in the dark Lloyd went over his gains from the day.
You have slain a Hypno-fang Compy -lvl 2
Experience gained, + 10 credits.
…
You have slain a Hypno-fang Compy -lvl 7
Experience gained, + 35 credits.
+78 more
Throughout his journey Lloyd had covered over twenty kilometres of ground and ran into over twenty compy packs. This was obviously too many dead compies for him to carry so he was currently only carrying the four level 7s he’d found as they had the strongest hide. Luckily all this fighting hadn’t come unrewarded.
Level up available.
You have reached lvl 3 in your class.
…
Level up available.
You have reached lvl 5 in your class.
Class skills available
Seeing the scope of his progress for the day Lloyd decided to check on his status page.
status
Name: Lloyd Tethys
Race: Human (F) – lvl 2
Class: lightning mage – lvl 5
Health points (HP) 126/132
Mana points (MP) 137/180
Stamina points (SP) 82/105
Stats
Strength – 26
Agility – 26
Endurance – 22
Toughness – 16
Vitality – 33
Perception – 30
Intelligence – 52
Wisdom – 38
Willpower – 30
Free points – 0
After reaching level two in his race and level five in his class Lloyd invested his six free points into toughness and strength -four and two respectively-, most of Lloyd’s stats had nearly tripled putting him on the level of or above most Olympic athletes in all categories. After becoming so strong so quickly Lloyd was starting to feel unstoppable, almost itching for something stronger that a compy to fight, and it would need to be stronger once he unlocked his new skill.
Lloyd had seen firsthand the difference a skill could make. Any compy below level 5 was effectively a fancy looking lizard, but level five and above they could get one of three skills giving them a poisonous bite, spit, or claws. The poison itself had the same sedative effect the compies had when stalking him, but much stronger. One particularly strong pack had nearly knocked him out with him barely finishing them off thanks to his bracers nullifying the effect slightly. Despite the one close call, Lloyd was more careful after that and cleared out the rest pretty, easily. So having thought how much stronger the compies got from a skill, Lloyd dove in.
