The extreme tutorial, in particular, provided exceptional attribute boosts unseen anywhere else, even on Idroa. This, in turn, set all its survivors to become flagbearers for their races, especially the ones who took the extra step and killed their teammates for their rewards.

Giada Marino - Scholar - Intricacies of the System

____

Collapsing his status screen, Silas turned around and suddenly pulled back in shock, his eyes buldging out of their sockets. The hog, which had been lying still, had vanished, and the bloody ground beneath it had split apart to reveal a perfectly square hole too small to have swallowed the beast. Out of it rose a wooden crate similar to those in the safe zone but coloured a decadent shade of purple instead of neutral brown. His gasp attracted the attention of the other two, and they similarly froze at the sight.

As the crate reached ground level, the split soil re-merged perfectly and hid any sign of the hole below. This had to be the System’s work. Silas exchanged glances with Aengus and Mia, and they moved as one towards the crate. Inside, they found a bronze, conical helmet and three sanguine truffles.

Aengus reached for the helmet and pulled it onto his large head after a struggle. “It boosts my constitution!” He tore it off and passed it to Mia.

She confirmed the boost. “It’s added 3 points to my constitution.” She swayed slightly as she stood, and her face was drawn and her skin ashen. There was no doubt she had overdrawn on her telekinesis.

Accepting the helmet from her hands, Silas noted it added 3 points to his constitution just like she had said. Taking it off, he inspected it. It was surprisingly warm to the touch, and he found he couldn’t bend it, not even the thin nasal bar. Running his hand over it, he noticed depressions across the metal which were near-naked to the eye. This was no matter, however, as he utilised his high perception to trace the engraving with his finger, realising with surprise that it was the shape of a man’s muscular chest.

With some thought, he figured the engraving was actually the part of the helmet providing the attribute boost - a rune, in a sense. Noticing its faint aura, he tried passing mana through it - Mia had taught him how to move mana with his mind in their free time. Although his control was shaky at best, he had a feeling this would work. At once, he received a strong magical response from the rune, one that made him think of rigidity and health.

Giving the helmet back to her, he asked her to do the same. Her surprise seemed to wring out some of her weariness. “Something is pushing my mana back,” she said with a raised brow, her eyes stretched wide. When asked if it made her think of anything, she frowned. “Strength maybe? The signal isn’t so clear… Wait, why are you asking?”

He disclosed his findings, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “How? I’m supposed to be better than you at this.” There was a pause. “Out of curiosity, what’s your perception at?” She eyed him like a fox spying on the henhouse.

“24.”

She blinked once, twice, then sighed. Aengus, who had been inspecting the truffles, suddenly perked up and gave him a strange look.

“What?” Silas asked. Perhaps it was just the fatigue, but he felt strangely vulnerable as the two of them stared at him.

Before his thoughts could devolve into paranoia, Mia answered. “What do you mean, what? How is your perception so high?! Mine is at 11!”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “It was just like that from the start. How is your arcana so high?”

She clicked her tongue. “Touche.”

At this moment, Aengus cleared his throat, then once more until both their attentions were on him. He tilted his head up and waited. Then, noticing their blank stares, he mouthed the words for Silas to conveniently repeat back.

“How is… your strength... Oh. How is your strength so high?”

The man-giant pointed at himself. “Me?” he asked with faux-shock. Shrugging, he continued, “Well, since ye asked, I’ll tell ye. I too was once a wee laddie like ye, always ashamed of my size and envying bigger men.”

When Silas tried to interrupt, the larger man swiftly shushed him. “It’s okay; I understand. Well, I ate till I was full every day and trained till I would collapse, and I just kept growing,” he said with a great, wide grin. “Don’t ye worry, I’ll train ye up to follow in my steps. It’ll hurt a lot and sometimes ye’ll cry but trust me, by the end—”

Rolling her eyes, Mia interrupted. “Alright, we get it, you’re a masochist.” Silas agreed with this as the man-giant truly was a training freak, his thick, hide-like skin covered with scars. “Let’s check out the truffles now.”

Aengus grumbled something about “Young’ uns nowadays,” under his breath, but gave in to their glares and picked up a truffle.

“Probably best we eat these in the safe zone. In case any of us react badly,” Mia said, swaying. Her weariness appeared to return as her excitement dipped, and Silas reached out to support her. She smiled appreciatively.

“Right ye are, lass. Silas, ye bring these and the helmet, and I’ll carry the little lady before she falls over,” Aengus said.

They made it back to the safe zone in quick time and washed the truffles in the spring. While Silas hadn’t tasted truffle before, he still thought it was strange how it crunched like a carrot and how the bitter aftertaste remained in his mouth like a stubborn stain.

Blessed truffle partially ingested. Consume the whole item to obtain its effects.

He grumbled there was nothing blessed about its taste but persisted and nibbled it down.

Choose one of the three effects to obtain:

Fighter’s boon: +5 to Strength and Constitution

Archer’s boon: +5 to Agility and Perception

Mage’s boon: +5 to Arcana and Perception

He was struck by the generosity of the boons as 5 points to any attribute would greatly strengthen someone, let alone to two attributes simultaneously. Because of this, however, he struggled with his choice.

If he chose the fighter’s boon, he could be more like Aengus, an unstoppable monster on the battlefield, and it would lessen his prime weakness of low constitution. As for the archer’s boon, the extra agility and perception would be useful, but its effects were second to the fighter’s boon. No, what he was stuck on was whether or not to take mage’s boon.

Magic very much appealed to him, and the helmet’s engraving had only furthered his interest in the field. The extra perception would also help as he reckoned he had gleaned more information from the rune than Mia due to his inflated perception. Surely then increasing it further would give him even more information on it.

Taking a slow, deep breath, he considered both options and their opportunity costs. Eventually, he decided to take the risk and picked the mage’s boon, too enticed by magic to let the opportunity pass.

Silas Wycliffe - 3 unassigned attribute points

Level 12

Mana: 63/98 (recovery rate: 0.4 per minute)

Strength: 15

Agility: 20

Constitution: 10

Arcana: 8

Perception: 29

The effect was immediate and painful. He doubled over and hissed, failing to hold back his tears. It felt as if his skin was being pinched from every corner, including his eyelids and groin.

Aengus’s shadow fell over him. “Laddie, are you okay?”

“I,” he said, gasping for breath. “It hurts, it fucking hurts.” He blinked away tears.

Time passed by and the safe zone’s healing boost seemed to vanish as he lay there incapacitated. Even adding his 3 free points to constitution failed to alleviate the perpetual pain.

The other two made sure he stayed fed, especially Aengus who made further comments on how emaciated he was under the armour. Regardless, it soon became apparent he would be out of action for a while, and they started hunting beasts without him. He didn’t blame them as they were all under time constraints, but that didn’t make it any easier as boredom piled on top of his pain.

Eventually, however, he got used to the sensation, and it grew into the backdrop of his mind, allowing him to more easily form coherent thought. They left the helmet behind on his request, and he spent most of his time studying the rune.

It became obvious to him why his upgrade had caused so much pain once he used mana to scrutinise the rune. Perception improved the sensitivity of his senses, and arcana increased his magical capabilities, improving his ability to absorb, discharge, and manipulate mana.

Mia had also chosen the mage’s boon and while she mentioned her skin growing irritated from the increased rate of mana absorption, it wasn’t an overwhelming increase, so it didn’t cause cutting pain.

This was where his situation differed as not only had the boon near tripled his rate of mana absorption, it had also increased his already insane perception to the point he could feel the mana soaking through his skin with so much clarity it pained him. This also explained why the healing boost barely helped as this was a case of his pain receptors spamming their signals despite the lack of damage. He had taken things too quickly without letting his body adapt, and it had bit back in return.

Still, it wasn’t all bad as he could now sense deeper into the rune, understanding its finer details with some study. The rune seemed simple enough as all it contained was the creator’s ideals of constitution; although he didn’t know how they had attached said ideals to the helmet, he figured he would learn through practice.

It was because of this that on the morning of the sixth day, two days after the attack on the hog, that he tried his hand at replicating the rune on another piece of armour.