Zach started walking toward the nearest patch of trees in the direction of the mountains. He figured it was best to get to higher ground to start looking for the next part of the dream, or a road. He didn’t care either way as nothing seemed quite real yet.

‘Dear, subconscious,’ he thought in a proper English accent, ‘I’m glad you’ve decided to give me such a realistic looking dream. However, I would like to be moved to a less wild scenery as soon as possible.’

While navigating the terrain, Zach summoned his information window. His eyes narrowed on his Health.

[Health: 49/50]

He was confused. He examined his body, looking for the source of the injury. Had he been able to feel pain, the process would have been faster. As such, it took him several minutes to discover his foot had a small cut.

He sat down in the grass to examine it. If he had just been able to feel the pain, he wouldn’t have ended up in this state. If he had shoes, he wouldn’t have ended up this way either.

It reminded him of a real life medical condition that some people had. Such people were always riddled with injuries. If they broke a femur playing volleyball, they would keep trying to play. If they burnt their tongue on hot food, they would be unaware and keep eating.

‘Dear subconscious, I’m glad you are having fun, but I don’t like seeing myself bleed. Can you cut it out?’

Zach heard the sound of a flowing stream. He walked over to it, careful not to get dirt in the cut or to step on any more sharp objects and dipped his foot in the water. Cool liquid flowed around the wound.

He brought it out and examined it again. A small trickle of blood started to pool around the gash so he grabbed a leaf and pressed it to the cut.

He needed shoes.

Examining the leaf in his hand again, he noticed it was wide and somewhat tough. It had little white hairs protruding from its sun exposed side.

[Terra Plant Leaf, Rarity E]

Zach tensed up, but let the surprise dissolve as he exhaled.

‘Subconscious, please stop scaring me with your monotone voice.’

He decided to activate the [Observation] skill on purpose this time, so he wouldn’t be surprised. He focussed on the details and the aspects of the plants around him.

[Terra Plant, Rarity E]

[Fire Firn, Rarity E]

[Rope Weed, Rarity E]

[Picante Tree, Rarity E]

[Picante Fruit, Rarity D]

His eyes settled on the fruit, his stomach growling. Maybe eating it could help him recover the lost health point.

Before he could stop himself, Zach took a bite out of the fruit. Suddenly his face heated up and he coughed.

‘Ah, Subconscious! It’s hot! Really hot!’

He dropped the fruit and ran to the stream of water. He cupped his hands and brought the water to his lips, ignoring his common sense that drinking said water was highly unsanitary.

‘Why is such a sweet smelling fruit so spicy?’ he wondered.

He resolved himself never to eat another fruit, even if it had a higher rarity than the pen.

After climbing out of the stream, Zach looked around for materials to make his shoes.

[Observation increased to level 2]

The [Rope Weed] and [Terra Plant Leaf] were his materials of choice. Using them, he made a matching pair of leafy foot coverings.

‘There. Shoes.’

Several messages flew across his vision yet he was able to read each one of them.

[New Skill: Clothes Making (level 1)]

[Item Acquired: Terra Plant Sandals (Rarity E):]

- {A pair of sandals with questionable durability.}

Zach tried them on and was pleasantly surprised that they stayed in one piece, though, it felt like he was wearing a sheet of paper.

Shortly after, Zach found a piece of [Flint] and merely by hitting it against another rock he gained yet another skill.

[New Skill: Tool Making (level 1)]

Curious, he found another flint piece and used his new skill, making a slightly sharper [Flint Tool].

Another idea popped into his head. He brought the useless flint up to his cheek and threw it into the river.

[New Skill: Stones Throw (level 1)]

Apparently, it was pretty easy to gain skills.

He found another rock and threw it again. It went much further than before, and had better accuracy.

After some experimenting, hitting rocks and sticks in various combinations, he found he couldn’t gain any more skills, so he started walking down stream again.

‘Welcome to the wilderness tour with Zachary Trenner. As you can see, my subconscious is a huge prankster. If you look to your left, you will see rope weeds, terra leaf plants, and fire ferns. There’s not much else to look at over there.

‘But if you look to your right, you will see an amazing cascade of water known as a river! And beyond that are more trees. This concludes our wilderness tour, we will continue with the main program of Being Lost. Thank you for your time.’

After almost a couple hours of traveling and talking to himself, he saw some ducks floating in the water.

His mouth drooled.

{Stones Throw} he thought, then launched the rock. A duck squawked before laying motionless in the stream. Before Zach had time to feel guilty, several messages appeared.

[Defeated: Bungalow Duck (level 1)]

[Stones Throw leveled up]

[Item: Bungalow Duck Carcass]

- [Acquire? y/n]

Zach immediately clicked ‘yes’.

[Item Acquired: Bungalow Duck Carcass]

It’s floating form vanished in a shimmer of light.

‘Hmm. Where did it go? Did my subconscious give me an inventory?’

He tried to ‘summon’ the inventory. He shouted out the word inventory, and tried to click off to the side of him. These attempts failed until he remembered how he summoned his window. It was just a simple thought of ‘desiring’ to see it.

Suddenly, a grid with the title ‘inventory’ filled his vision. One of the slots had the duck.

Zach held his hands out and ‘desired’ for it to come out. In a flash of light, the [Bungalow Duck Carcass (Rarity E)] appeared in his hands. When he wished it back into the inventory, it disappeared in another shimmer of light. He repeated this with his [Flint Tool] and another slot was filled.

With stupefied amazement, Zach looked over the inventory carefully, looking for any kind of indication of a restriction. He scrolled down, and down, and down. There seemed to be no end!

‘Dear Subconscious, in exchange for giving me an infinite inventory, I will stop complaining… as often.’

In a frenzy of activity, he picked up everything that was nearby. He grabbed as many rocks, sticks, and plants as he could (minus the Picante fruits). When the size of the branches started getting longer than he was tall, they stopped getting transferred to the [Inventory].

Although he couldn’t transfer big things to his inventory, it was still an infinite storage! He was going to abuse that as much as he could.

After a while, his stomach growled ferociously. He realized he hadn’t eaten a single meal today. The sun was already nearing the horizon.

‘Well, I already have a duck. Maybe I should try cooking it,’ he thought.

He cleared away some grass and summoned the sticks he gathered earlier directly from his inventory. He piled them together and grabbed the straightest stick he could find. He rubbed it like he had seen on tv. But no matter how hard he tried, the fire would not start or even smoke.

The sky grew darker and the air got cold.

‘Stupid dream, stupid dream, stupid dream, stupid dream.’ He furiously twisted the stick.

Eventually, he threw it down in defeat.

He looked at his blistered hands, not that he felt any pain in the first place.

‘I knew I should have taken boy scouts. What am I missing?’

Fire was a combustion reaction. It needed oxygen, fuel, and heat to keep going. All he had to do was create enough heat and the fire should start.

He looked at his hands.

‘I just need more energy. More energy?’

To his surprise, his hands glowed orange. The mysterious light seemed to be right under his skin. It condensed forward until it was in his index finger. Then all of a sudden, the tip of a flame leapt outward.

‘Ah! Subconscious, my hand is on fire! Oh wait.’

Zach held the fire to the dry twigs and let the flame catch.

[New Skill: Candle (level 1)]

His eyes opened even wider as he moved away from the combusting wood.

‘So this is a magic skill?!’

That’s when the flame in his fingertip went out.

[Mana: 0/12]

At this, he quickly brought up his information window.

[Zach: Level 1]

[Health: 50/50 Stamina: 9/10 Mana: 0/12]

[Classes: {Dreamer}, {empty}]

[Titles: none]

[Stats:]

- {Litheness: 10}

- {Constitution: 12}

- {Power: 13}

- {Will: 10}

- {Intelligence: 12}

- {Consumption: 11}

[Abilities: {?????}]

[Skills: Observation (level 2), Clothes Making (level 1), Tool Making (level 1), Stones Throw (level 2), Candle (level 1)]

He quickly saw that, indeed, his mana was completely expended.

But he also saw that something else was different. He also had more points in {Constitution}, {Power}, and {Intelligence}.

‘What in the world? How did I get those?’

He figured the answer might lie in the new skills he obtained, since he hasn’t done anything else besides kill a duck.

He stared at the {Observation} skill, wondering what it did. He ‘desired’ to see more. Suddenly, more text appeared.

{Observation (level 2): Observe the world around you and create a mental record of reality. +1 intelligence per level}

It seemed his new skill {Observation} increased his intelligence by one point for every level he had leveled it up. Getting used to the displays inside his head, he quickly looked over every skill he had obtained so far.

[Skills:]

- {Observation (level 2): Observe the world around you and create a mental record of reality. +1 intelligence per level}

- {Clothesmaking (level 1): Craft wearable equipment with the materials at your disposal. +1 constitution}

- {Tool Making (level 1): Craft useful tools with the materials at your disposal. +1 constitution}

- {Stones Throw (level 2): Never underestimate a flying rock. +1 power per level}

- {Candle (level 1): The simplest form of fire magic created by channeling mana to the fingertip. +1 power per level}

It seemed Zach could increase his stats with learning and practicing new skills, but he probably could only increase {Health} and {Stamina} by leveling. His {Mana} used to be at 10. Now it was at 12, the same value as his intelligence.

He dismissed all his windows and just stared into the light of his fire.

After some deliberating, he didn’t know how to cook the duck, and didn’t want to risk getting sick. His stomach growled but he didn’t care. The warmth was comfortable and his eyelids grew heavy.

‘Getting sleepy inside a dream? Ha! It’s like... it isn’t... a dream at all…’

He rolled onto his side and let sleep overtake him.

[End Chapter 2]