Unbound

Chapter Five - 005

Turns out, a night spent in a pitch black forest full of hostile creatures was not relaxing.

Felix managed to fall asleep early on, as the day had exhausted him. But something that sounded like a mix between a hacking cough and a basso roar sent him stumbling to his feet. Adrenaline racing, he stood stock still, holding his walking stick and staring into the darkness.

It was almost completely dark. Where were those five moons he saw yesterday? It was almost like he was in a cave, the sky a dark plane above him. Then he noticed the tree beneath him.

The Kingsap was glowing. Softly, too softly to notice even on a moonlit night, but more than enough to stand out like a beacon in this dark. He studied the slashing patterns of the smooth bark beneath him, dragging his fingers across it's sloping surface and up one of branches that was as thick as his waist. Halfway up, he found a gash in the branch, a small jagged hole where a bird or something must have gone looking for bugs. The glow was brighter here, radiating off a drop of pale purple sap.

Felix pulled his hand back, fingers sticky and glowing as well now. It was oddly calming, this sap. It felt like a soft breeze, and smelled like fresh cut grass on a warm morning. Without thinking, he raised his fingers up to his tongue and tasted it.

Colors burst in his vision, like a kaleidoscopic rainbow and he tasted sunshine and morning dew and the deep dark loam of fertile earth. It was thick, like a dense honey. It reminded him of summer days, somehow. Felix sat down and settled against a thick branch.

This place was strange and wild and weird all rolled up with RPG game mechanics. He didn't know where to go, or what to do, and yet in this moment, he felt calm. Relaxed. Above him, the clouds thinned and small silver sparks twinkled in the black.

He fell asleep.

Blink.

Blink.

Felix woke the next morning bleary eyed and stiff from his position against the Kingsap branch. He rolled his neck, pressing down on his shoulder with his left hand, stretching out various kinks.

"Ooofa." He was tremendously sore. He hadn't worked out like that in...well, ever.

Then he noticed the "!" icon in the corner of his vision. It had been blinking at him all this time, and Felix toggled it as he sat with a muffled groan.

Congratulations!

Your Title Gourmand Has Garnered You Insight!

You Have Learned A Skill From The Sap Of The Kingsap!

Meditation (Uncommon), Level 1!

You seek the center, to become One with All. Increases Regen rates by flat percentage.

"Whoa." That burning sensation returned, in far greater force, as if something was worming its way into him. His breath caught beneath that pain, but it faded in seconds. Felix fell backward with a groan, panting.

He had completely forgotten about his Gourmand Title. It had netted him his first Rare skill from the Dread, and now an Uncommon skill from a magic tree. What did that Title say? He brought it up.

Title: Gourmand(Rare)

Eat Your Foes! Learn Their Strength! Knowledge Fuels You!

+1 to INT and WIL!

Learn their strength? So did that mean the Kingsap was particularly good at meditating? How does a tree meditate? He leaned back on his elbows, looking up at the swooping branches and fluttering purple leaves. It swayed slightly in the morning breeze, almost hypnotically. It made sense; at least as much sense as anything else in this world.

He blinked.

World. He had been avoiding that particular thought for the past day. He was very clearly on another world. Planet. Solar system? Probably. He was very, very far away from home. And for the first time, the weight of it settled on Felix like a suffocating shroud. His heart raced, he broke out in a flop sweat, and he was halfway to his feet before recognizing that he had no where to run.

He was stuck here.

No friends. No family. No people at all, at least none so far. Just angry beasts looking to eat him. He couldn't---

Breathe.

Felix closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Just breathe.

He felt the tree beneath him, smooth to the touch and oddly warm. He took a breath. The wind rustled across his face, pleasant and cool. He released a breath. He heard the tree creak as it swayed, moving ever so slightly to the rhythm of the breeze.

He opened his eyes.

Meditation is Level 2!

Felix huffed a surprised breath, half laughing. Shaking his head, he stood up.

"Day two."

His second day in the Continent was similar to the latter half of the first. After some quick, painful stretches that further confirmed how out of shape he was, Felix took off running. He made irregular laps around his small glen, leaping from rock to rock, holding his heavy walking stick.

He encountered only a few creatures, mostly more Tree Voles. The cat-sized rodents watched him from the nearby branches, steadily munching their way through the canopy. Whatever lived in the smelly dugout nearby wasn't there come sunrise, though the smell of musk and urine was even stronger. He figured it must range far afield during the day, hunting maybe. If he were lucky, it wouldn't come back until he was back in the Kingsap.

Throughout the morning, he used Analyze. After Level 10 it activated smoother and quicker, small blue boxes of Name and Lore and Properties appearing and disappearing all around him. He barely thought about it; it was like breathing.

At first, Felix held his stick close to his chest, throwing it out wide when his balance failed him. After a while he tried to hold it out in front of his chest the entire time. As the day before, his Stamina quickly bottomed out. Twenty minutes of resting and meditating and he was back at it. Rinse and repeat.

How much Strength is represented by 1 point in the Strength Stat? Is that an extra 5lbs of lifting weight? Felix considered the facts as he lifted several large stones, repeatedly. Now that he had a whopping Strength of 5, he was more than double his starting Strength, if that's how it worked. He wasn't sure, but he felt stronger than before.

As the day before, he scavenged was remained of the flitweed for Stamina regeneration, and ate a plant called dewcatcher he had spotted during his runs.

Name: Dewcatcher

Lore: Collecting water from the air and made of sturdy stock, it is a filling and nutritious plant eaten by local prey animals.

Properties: Contains enough water, fiber, and basic nutrients to sustain a small animal.

Alchemical Properties: Unknown

Without fruit or meat the dewcatchers were all he had to live on. The problem was, he was running out.

His glen was only so large, and his activities the day prior had stripped a good portion of herbs from it. His flitweed was basically gone, only a few scattered shoots here and there. With Meditation that was less a concern, but even still, his regeneration was not fast at all.

Felix would have to leave, soon. He had a day, maybe two left before everything useful here was gone.

Sweating and panting, his muscles were filled with a tingly warmth and he felt loose and limber. He had spent three hours on his exercises this morning, and he felt remarkably good. He shook his head. Felix would never have thought that back home.

He toggled his notifications.

+2 STR

+1 VIT

+1 END

+1 AGL

+1 INT

Running is level 5!

Running is level 6!

Meditation is level 3!

Meditation is level 4!

Herbalism is level 4!

Physical Conditioning is level 2!

The burning kept up again, but by this point Felix was associating it with growth. It wasn't great, but he kept getting better, so he couldn't fault the sensation. He opened his eyes and reviewed the notifications again.

Dang. Nice. He was making considerable gains, he felt. Again he had no baseline for comparison, and maybe natives gained twenty skill levels in an hour normally, but it felt good regardless. He felt in control.

But now I have to find food and water. And to do that...

Felix glanced back toward the northwest, back the way he had fled from the Sharpwing Skink. He frowned. That lizard had almost killed him, and it hadn't broken a sweat. Felix didn't have any illusions; he couldn't fight back against a level 20+ monster at Level 2. He didn't even have any fighting Skills, aside from Staff Mastery and that was...well it wasn't nothing, but he had a long way to go before he could fight anything.

There was another copse of trees to the north, however, and he stood up and headed in that direction. He'd come to notice a series of scratches in the barks of trees a few dozen feet from his glen, scratches that looked to be made by very sharp, very thing blades. Territory markings, if he had to guess. Maybe he could circle around the Skink's territory and avoid it altogether.

He still had the plan of finding civilization and getting help, though that became shakier by the hour. This place was truly wild, and Felix wouldn't be surprised to find he was thousands of miles from anyone.

That's a fun thought. Thanks brain.

Felix walked for twenty minutes, moving as carefully and quietly as he could. His heart was pounding in his chest at every rustle of leaves, every snapped twig, or shifting branch. Then he heard it.

Buzzzzzzzzz.

He dropped low, taking cover in a patch of huge fern leaves as one, two, three Sharpwing Skinks flew by. Each one was a different color, but all variations on blue, green, and yellow. They had almost flown past when the trailing Skink, a yellow spotted green one, slowed down and turned in Felix's direction as it snuffled the air. Felix's breath caught, before he forced it out as slowly and quietly as he could. He gripped his walking stick in one hand, sweat pooling in his palms.

Slowly, so slowly, the Skink hovered toward his hiding place, snorting lightly. It got so close, Felix could hear the sizzle of its acidic spit and watched as a considerable glob dripped thickly onto the ground.

Grahh!

Without warning, the Skink whipped forward, its body blurring almost as much as its wings, and Felix clenched his eyes as he heard a loud CRUNCH.

But no pain.

Felix carefully opened one eye and looked up. Through the ferns, he could see the Skink flying away, happily munching on the biggest and nastiest insect he had ever seen. It was the size of his head, had wings and a hairy carapace, and far too many legs. In moments, the Skinks were gone.

Felix let out a breath that was half shudder, half relief. He carefully stood into a crouch and moved back toward his glen.

A half hour later he was back in his relatively safe glen. He took longer coming back due to stopping and hiding every dozen feet or so. The Skinks had him jittery and nervous beyond belief. Felix hadn't ever experienced so much pain as he had with the flying lizards, and avoiding a repeat performance was a top priority.

On the other hand, scouting out the area had provided some gains.

You Have Learned New Skills!

Stealth (Common), Level 1!

Move quietly, stay hidden, remain unnoticed. The key to a long life is not being found by ravenous beasts.

Breath Control (Uncommon), Level 1!

Control your breathing, mind over matter! A step toward better bodily control.

Stealth is Level 2!

Stealth is Level 3!

Felix was inordinately pleased. The Stealth Skill would be extremely useful in scouting more area, and the Breath Control Skill seemed tailor-made to accompany it. It made him wonder once again whether he was making these Skills himself, or being granted Skills that already existed.

Regardless, his situation was much the same as before. He had to get out of this glen to survive, but couldn't survive long against the various monsters. They were too high level.

And the Skinks are too territorial to let me through, he sighed and leaned against the wide trunk of the Kingsap. If only I could find weaker beasts, then I could...

Felix sat up, a revelation like a jolt of electricity across his spine.

The bug! What level was it! He searched his uncanny memory, hoping he had...yes! Felix had been using Analyze so much recently that he was almost subconsciously activating it all of the time. Most of what he got back was the same, as he'd tagged most of the surrounding flora; it was like white noise. But for the price of a sharp headache, his Keen Mind let him pull up each and every one, including the bug.

Name: Emberfly

Type: Insect

Level: 18

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: Born grubs in various local trees, they transform into emberflies after twenty days and have a poisonous sting.

"Yes!" Felix punched the air before wincing and holding his temple. Level 18 wasn't much better than Level 23, but he'd take it!

Wait! The Lore mentions grubs transforming into the Emberflies. That means--

That meant he might have something his own size to pick on.

Hunting for grubs was harder than Felix expected.

To transform into an Emberfly, which was the size of his head, the grub was likely half that size. That was still huge, so he'd started off confident in finding a big nasty bug in short order. Three hours later and over two hundred trees inspected, he had still come up empty.

The search hadn't been entirely wasted though. Felix had kept an eye out for useful herbs and plants, grinding his Herbalism Skill and stuffing his strained pockets with what he could. Some more Yarrow was the best find, though he also found a small clutch of mushrooms called Witchcaps. The little things purified blood (whatever that meant) and provided a tiny health boost.

By pure luck, near the end of his search Felix spotted a strange pale grub undulating over a rotting log in a dry, shallow gully. The thing was roughly two feet long, mottled burnt umber and fleshy white. Eyes like jelly-filled sacs of blood sat on its face as it munched on the log beneath it. It had to weigh thirty pounds, at least.

Name: Copse Grub

Type: Insect

Level: 13

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Lore: Born of eggs placed in trees, copse grubs spend their lives devouring the tree from the inside out. Once done, they transform into Emberflies.

The grub looked full and fat, having nearly devoured its entire tree at this point. The log was eaten through in several placed, bored out and covered in gnaw marks. It's body was also coated in a liquid that (even at a distance of twenty yards) Felix could guess was unpleasantly goopy. It was, in a word, gross.

Gross or not, this is the lowest level creature I've seen yet. He hefted a sharp rock from the ground. They were littered all around the area, making stealth extremely difficult. Time to squash a bug.

Moving closer carefully, Felix ended up only two dozen feet away behind a rocky outcropping and a few clustered saplings. Breathing quietly and steadily, he hefted his rock and took aim.

Here goes nothing.

He threw.

And the rock landed with a dull thud in the dirt, easily ten feet shy of the grub.

Jesus, that's embarrassing. He wiped his hand across his face, glad no one saw that pathetic throw. Luckily, the grub didn't appear to have great senses; it didn't even react to the impact. Felix quickly gathered up a few more rocks and tried again.

This time, the rock hit the log, but still missed the grub. The weird bug twitched toward the noise, but didn't make any other movements.

With a resigned sigh Felix moved closer. Only ten feet away now, and separated by a stand of thick trees (Beranthia Conifers, he idly Analyzed), he readied another throw.

He had made a point of gathering up maybe thirty rocks, all around the size of a baseball. They were hard and had a few jagged edges, hopefully enough to penetrate the slick flesh of this bug.

C'mon. C'mon.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Felix spun out of cover and whipped the stone as hard and as fast as he could.

SQUELCH.

You Have Learned A New Skill!

Thrown Weapons Mastery (Common), Level 1.

Don't just stand there, throw something! Skill level slightly increases accuracy and power.

Yes! I did it!

Victory never tasted so sweet. A strike and a Skill! Now he just had to pummel the thing until it ran out of Health and kicked it. Felix grabbed two more rocks and turned around to throw them.

That's when the grub exploded.