Ma was outside still when Adam woke. He felt determination down the link along with a sense of purpose. Her attention turned towards him as he got out of the tent and stretched.

"Back?" She asked, checking him over as if to make sure he was the same person as yesterday. He realised that with stealth activated she had not been aware he was there all night.

"Yes." He answered rather than break the illusion that he had the power to disappear at will. She nodded and then turned to the outer fence pointing excitedly.

"Better." She squeaked. Adam looked closer at the fence. For most of its length he could see that the fence was now not as tall but thicker and sturdier like the area he had been working on the evening before.

"Much better, thank you." Said Adam. "You did this last night?" He asked.

Ma pointed to one corner of the fence where the leftover scraps of hazel had been the night before. Looking closer he saw there was a new fenced off area surrounded by a shorter fence with a burrow hole in the middle.

"Me. They." Came the reply. Having shown Adam what had been achieved in the night. Ma made her way over to the burrow. "Sleep." She squeaked, turning before disappearing into the hole. "Sleep. Wake. Food?" It was simple communication but Adam understood and nodded. When the vermite woke, there would be food. Reminded of food Adam looked at his pack. He was glad to see it was untouched from where he left it. Checking inside it was as he had left it. The vermite hadn't touched a thing. Adam pulled ouf an apple and started eating.

He was disappointed to see no change on any of his quests other than converting the vermite. He quickly scrolled through the system checking each page in turn.

Quests Quests Complete? Exp Explore Mine, entrance 1% 50 Explore Forest, outer 0% 50 Explore Mountain, slope 1% 100 Convert vermite 16% 30 Explore the seabed along Coast 5% 15 Clear Coast of threats 0% 25 Upgrade outer fence 50% 10 Followers Followers Level Attributes Class Sharky 2 HP 53/170; Stamina 43/60; MP 0/0; SP 3/5 Scout Ma 1 HP 30/30; stamina 40/40; MP 1/1; SP 2/2 Please allocate* *can only allocate secondary classes Status Adam God Class (Hidden) - Level 3 (Secondary Classes not shown) Attribute Value Characteristic Value Health 100/100 Vitality 10 Health Regen 5/hour Recovery 10 Stamina 140/140 Vigor 14 Stamina Regen 14/hour Fortitude 14 Mana 23/23 Intellect 23 Mana Regen 2.8/hour Clarity 19 Skill Points 10/10 Perseverence 10 Skill Point Regen 1/hour Willpower 10 God Power 3/3 God Power Regen 2/day Unallocated Points 0 Class Class Skills Level Cost Exp needed to level God - level 3 (hidden) Inspect 3 0.025mps 80 Discern 3 1mp 80 Transfer 1 2gp 20 Gain ten levels in current skill(s) to unlock next skill. [Creation] Scout - level 2 stealth 2

4sp to activate

2sp/hr

40 Gain five levels in current skill(s) to choose next skill. Options: [report]; [eagle eye]; [survey]; [beacon] Current exp available 64

Wait, there was a new skill for God class. He used Inspect. [Creation] - Allows the creation of basic materials. Too many questions flooded Adam all at once. It sounded like he could literally make things from thin air with this skill. Concentrating he discovered that it was not from thin air but from mana. Good, not needing his precious GP. Next, what was a basic material. He looked around, hoping that Inspect would help him out. Apple - fruit. edible. basic material. Wow, he could make food. A quick scan around the camp told him that wood and stone were both basic. The ferrite and flint he had brought from the mine were not. This was exciting. Depending on the cost he could have just used mana rather than spending hours collecting wood and bringing it back to camp. This was a clear goal moving forward, unlock Creation.

One more thing before heading out for the day. Adam increased the level of Transfer twice. Some additional information appeared in the description.

Skill Level Cost Level up Description Transfer 3 2gp 80

Allows conversion of one [intelligent] being into a [follower].

Increasing level increases possible interactions with followers.

There was more information here somewhere. He could sense it within the system. Somewhere between the knowledge he had on his current followers and the skill transfer. He mentally poked and prodded for a minute. What was different between transfer now and before it had been levelled. With some prompting form Person he found what he was looking for.

Individual Skill Menu [Transfer] Transfer Allows conversion of one [intelligent] being into a [follower]. Level Additional features 1 Can allocate Classes to followers 2 Can allocate Professions to followers 3 Can allocate a Divine Blessing for every five followers. 4 unlock to discover additional feature

It didn't look like he was going anywhere soon. What was a Profession and a Divine Blessing; time to explore the system for answers. A quick mana check revealed 21.1 remaining. Such a difference from when he first learnt Inspect and had used all his mana just exploring one menu. At least now he had the time and resources to work things out. Adam dusted off a rock, sat down and began to concentrate.

It was difficult to describe what was missing and what was there when exploring the system. Now he had the patience Adam realised he could better investigate when he had his eyes closed and his surroundings were not distracting him. He entered what would best be described as a meditative state, concentrating solely on the system he could feel defining his existence. As he studied it patiently for the first time Adam felt the edges of the information it held. Not only was it finite but it was definable. He cognitively crept along the outer parts of that awareness; feeling the concepts and rules that bound it together while not knowing what they all were.

Trying to conceptualise this so it made sense Adam made a visual representation of the system. A way of showing when he was missing information rather than continuing to rummage in the dark and then notice he had missed something important. A box appeared, inside were all the bits he knew about the system but also grey parts he couldn't focus on. Adam shook his head, the box wasn't helping. He wanted a visual prompt that would help. He concentrated and a book appeared. Flicking through the pages he could see entries for vermite and shark and blank spaces around. This was better but still not that helpful. There must be a better way. Up until now all the screens and notifications had appeared to him on windows. He thought about this. Like a computer. Immediately he could see the system rearrange itself into computer files and documents. Perfect. Some were locked, others open but with locked sub-folders. This was perfect. Mana check = 0.1

Adam opened his eyes to find Person staring at him.

"Did you just help do that?" Asked Adam. Person nodded. Then they held something up. Looking closely it was a tablet computer.

"Wait, you have all the files on that?" Person nodded again the habitual smug look sneaking onto their face. "So you could tell me when I miss something; prompt me to help out?" Person looked thoughtful for a second then smiled and nodded. "Thanks Person." Said Adam.

Adam was comforted by the fact there were system boundaries. Up until now he had been making his choices blindly. This changed things. While he might not know all the outcomes, he would be able to tell whether choice was possible and how it might impact on other things. Having done this he got back to work on the original question. Professions and Divine Blessing. In his files Profession was in the Follwer folder along with Secondary Classes. He could sense that all had entries that he could not yet open. The requisites for unlocking them hidden. There were some entries unlocked in the Profession folder though.

Profession Unlock Criteria Description Skills Builder Construct two structures Can build things Able to make more complex structures with experience Gatherer Find three types of food Searches for food or provisions Please select initial skill. [find]; [examine]; [light load]; [duplicate]

There were more options, many more that Adam could tell were there but not yet open. He was tempted to allocate a profession now. He could feel Ma nearby sleeping, the link present at all times even though he had not been concentrating on it. She had helped with the fence; maybe she would like being a Builder. A quick pulse down the link made him reconsider. He should probably ask her first. Remembering her reluctance to talk to him before when he woke her, Adam left Ma to sleep.

Next were Divine Blessings.The entry for these was found under God Class in its own sub-folder. After another apple; drink of water and break to use his bush Adam still had to sit and wait for a while to regenerate the mana needed to read the only entry available.

Divine Blessing Unlock criteria Effect Brighten Unlocked by increasing Intellect to 20 Increases Intellect by five

Ok, he could guess there were probably corresponding blessings for all the other characteristics too. This was getting better and better. Adam could imagine that Ma would be very pleased to have the blessing Brighten. He couldn't use it until he had five followers though. Concentrating on the folder he could tell there were other types that would unlock too with Brighten moving to a sub-folder. He couldn't tell if all the blessings would be called Divine Blessing or if this was the name of the sub-folder but that didn't really matter for now.

Adam sat soaking in all the information he had unlocked and uncovered through the morning. He was mentally exhausted but buzzing in anticipation of what he and his followers could do. He had determined an important fact while analysing the system. That he needed to make the first step before it would give him information. Both the secondary class and professions that were unlocked only showed once he had done certain things. So if he wanted to expand in a cetain way, he needed to do things first. More important than that though was his God class and that needed experience.

Knowing that experience was from quests, killing things with a level and followers' actions Adam turned his mind to Sharky. If he had completed either of his quests then Adam would already be on the way to levelling another skill and getting Creation. He knew Sharky had been making progress from the damage he had taken so logically Adam needed to get in range to find out how much. Hopefully Emptying his pack, he picked up his hatchet and set off out of camp aiming towards the shore in a slow run.