Ow, ow, ow. Adam woke with cramp in his legs. He was still huddled up in the corner of the tent twisted in his blanket. A pale light was visible through the crack in the opening that was still letting in the cold morning air. He simultaneously shivered and stretched causing an intense pain in both his legs. Cramp developed into pins and needles and Adam was stuck in the age old conundrum of lying still in the hope it passed or getting up to walk it off. A full bladder made the decision for him and he got up to cautiously look outside the tent.

The campsite was empty. A few scrapes in the earth the only signs of the vermite invasion from the night before. Maybe more like an incursion than an invasion. Nope. Small tent, four vermite, Adam was sticking with invasion. On exiting the tent Adam had several notifications that he ignored for now. He used his favourite bush and returned to the tent to get away from the chill air. Obviously all the gathered fruit was missing - having been stolen by the vermite. Other than that he. seemed to be exactly where he started the day before. Well not exactly, he checked his status.

Adam God Class (hidden) - Level 1 Attribute Value Regen (per hr) Health 100/100 5 Stamina 100/100 10 Mana 15/15 2 Skill Points 0 1

At least most his attributes were back up to full. Having no stamina was not a pleasant experience and what had happened when it ticked over into negative figures could have been catastrophic. No skill points; but his regen was back to normal. So stealth must have worn off in the end. He wondered if it stopped when he passed out or when he ran out of skill points. Person must have been feeling helpful, or sorry for Adam as they started up a little charade at this thought.

Hands to side of head; whirring fingers then hands drawing a line. Adam intepreted this as meaning the skill continued. Person nodded and smiled. A bit of logic told him that he could have worked this out himself also. The regen meant the other stats had recovered in the night but he had no skill points so obviously the skill had continued. He shuddered to think what might have happened were this not the case. The four vermite he had seen didn't really seem as scary in the light of day; they were no bigger than a small dog but stood up on two legs. Considering this he wouldn't pick a fight with a pack of four dogs either but was more confident now that he could survive the encounter. This revelation made him feel better. It didn't really help the situation he was in; but step one was survival and he had managed that. This reminded him of his priority list from the day before. As he did this he thought for a second about the magical world with levels and systems and renamed the list to something more appropriate.

Quests Complete? Exp Don't freeze to death overnight 100% 5* Don't get attacked and killed in the night 100% 15* Work out where I am 20% 40 Collect Y/N 20

Of course he was collecting the exp.

*Ping*

He could sense the completed quests if he wanted to, but was pleased to see they weren't cluttering up his list anymore. As he was considering what he would need to do today the list started to update. This was interesting. It was obviously up to him to choose what to do but the system was allocating the exp gained. Wait a minute. Was that right. Did the system choose what to allocate or just knew what exp would be gained. He played with the list in the hope it might give him some more information. Nope. Hmmm, Person had been helpful once today so Adam looked at them in anticipation. A shrug of the shoulders was the reply. He looked at the new list.

Priorities Complete? Exp

Work out where I am

-continue exploring area

20% 40 Survive the night 0% 10 Get a better weapon 0% 5 Find a way to bring water to camp 0% 20 Brush teeth 0% n/a Find food and water 0% 5 Find out where the vermite come from 0% 25 Make camp more secure 0% 5 Buy some ice-cream 0% n/a

Adam stopped at that point. It seemed he could add anything to the list but inappropriate items or things that were too easy didn't get any exp allocated. Yesterday he gained twenty exp for finding food and water and today it was only five. Not too confusing to work out. He tried adding something far beyond his current means to test the system and the entry was struck through.

Reach the top of the mountain range 0% {locked}

The system must have an idea of what he was capable of and set the amount accordingly. This could give him an idea of how difficult any challenges he set himself were. Adam filed this information away for later.

Before getting dragged down the rabbit hole of checking every single window and whether anything else had updated overnight Adam's stomach let off a loud rumble. Without the novelty of discovery the day before he would prioritise basic necessities today. Thankful that the vermite had not scavenged his pack he placed it on his shoulders; picked up his club and set off in the direction of the fruit trees.

A short walk had cleared his mind enough to be drawn back into exploring the system that governed life here. For a start he needed to know his limits better. It seemed exhausting your stamina caused you to be exhausted and therefore was a very bad thing. Or was that the negative stamina effect. Either way, not something to test again. Until he had a defendable fortress or similar to guard him after he passed out. He was not going to just rely on luck tonight.

Stamina Check = 100; regen = 10/hour. Time to test the system. Adam broke into a gentle jog. The first couple of times he tried to recheck levels while jogging it broke his stride and he had to stop. He couldn't concentrate while running, not yet at least. New plan - run for the count of twenty then walk and check figures. Adam started his jog at what he was designating 'medium' pace. On twenty he slowed to a walk. Stamina Check = 98; regen = -1/hour. He kept his concentration on the regen figure as he walked and it ticked over to zero after another count of twenty. Good. This method got him to the fruit trees much faster. He also practiced continuing to concentrate on his stamina regen while jogging which was easier than trying to find the figure after he had started. A gentle jog seemed to keep the level between -5 and -10/hour. His recovery had started by ticking back to zero on slowing to a walk; but by the end had remained at around -2/hour despite him now resting. Fortunately it had only taken a few minutes or rest to now be back in the positive at 2/hour. Current Stamina Check = 86.

A brief stop to pick up fruit; eat an apple and then it was water time. He was amazed that he wasn't at all tired despite the horrible night's sleep and the broken run to the trees. Stamina was great. Adam summoned and looked at his map of the area. As he zoomed in on the area he was standing all the details were crisp and clear. The fruit trees were clearly marked as well. towards the river there was a strip of the map that was similarly marked and just as clear while the rest was filled with a more vague impression of the layout. Adam was a perfectionist at heart, even if this didn't always translate to reality. Normally other tasks distracted him from what he was doing before he was completely finished. Ensuring he had a detailed map of the area was the kind of task he felt he could and would complete though. Looking at the area covered already he needed to choose a slightly different angle to yesterday to get to the river to clear more. He picked a spot on the map aiming more towards the mountains and the source of the river and set off.

Using his broken jog and firing Inspect and Discern whenever he saw anything new meant the journey to the river passed quickly. He had discovered the orchard area had patches of a type of grass similar to wheat that could be havested for grain. There were also carrots and a type of turnip cleverly disguised as weeds. After checking that snails and slugs were simply. Snail - common snail; edible. Slug - common slug. After a few more insects that were what he thought he stopped checking. The largest creature he had seen was a rabbit. Common rabbit - Rabbit. Edible. Can skin. There was also a few other small animals as expected in a field, but nothing else described as edible.

When he reached the river the bank was steeper and covered in rocks so Adam made his way back to the gentle sandy bank where he had sat the day before. Seeing splashes in the water he fired Discern a couple of times and though they came back without a hit he was sure he had seen some fish in the water. He reached his rest stop from before and set down his pack, ready for a rest. After a drink and washing his face Adam sat down to check his status.

Adam God Class (hidden) - Level 1 Attribute Value Regen (per hr) Health 100/100 5 Stamina 72/100 4 Mana 6.2/15 2 Skill Points 2 1

He was pleased with the minimal drain on his stamina from what must have been around an hour run-walk. He had blasted through a good portion of his mana on the second part of his travels though. Two per hour to regen meant it would now take half the day to recharge. Adam got frustrated with his maths skills as he tried to work this out in his head.

15 - 6.2 = 8.8

8.8/2 = 4.4hours

Surely the system could work this out for him. He concentrated on his status, willing the information to appear.

Adam God Class (hidden) - Level 1 Attribute Value Regen (per hr) Time to max (hr) Health 100/100 5 0 Stamina 73/100 5 (10) n/a* Mana 6.2/15 2 4.4 Skill Points 2 1 8 *will calculate once at base level

This was good; but not enough. Why did an answer to a question always bring on another question? Adam shook this thought out of his head. No point getting into an internal philosopical debate. Next question, how could he measure an hour. Person waved and held up a small device that looked like a sundial.

Adam looked down at this, took it and placed it on the ground. A shadow pointed out from the centre with markings around the edge to help time when an hour had passed.

"Are you taking the piss?" Adam said, looking at Person in frustration. "How am I meant to time an hour with that?"

Person looked up with an angry frown and raised their middle finger in reply then clicked their fingers. The sundial disappeared. Person looked around and pointed at the sand then clicked their fingers again. A sand-timer appeared in place of the sundial. Adam picked it up and turned it in his hand.

"Thanks Person." Said Adam, "and Sorry. I'm just frustrated. There is so much I don't know or understand and it feels like the whole system is designed to annoy me." Person nodded to acknowledge the apology then held out their hand like they wanted to shake to make up. When Adam reached his hand down Person grabbed it in a quick hug instead and smiled up at Adam.

"I just wish I had someone I could talk to." Said Adam. Person looked thoughtful, then conjured up a small chair and notepad and a pair of glasses; then they sat down and crossed their legs looking over the glasses at Adam; notepad in hand. Person looked just like a miniture therapist. Adam laughed.

"Yes Person, I know I can talk to you. I meant someone that knows what is going on." Person pointed up.

"Yes, one of Them I suppose." Said Adam. "Instead it seems I just have to work out the whole system on my own." Person pointed at themself then back at Adam.

"Sorry." Adam apologised again. We will work it out together. "But look at this," he said, waving the sand-timer at Person. "I mean, it's great", being careful not to hurt Person's feelings "but why not just a watch?"

Person looked up and shrugged. Another click of the fingers and the sandtimer turned into a watch. It was even a digital watch, which was what Adam would have preferred. He played with it for a minute. Timer, stopwatch. Even some smart features that showed his current status bars. He beamed down at Person with a big grin.

"Thank you".