When I woke up the next day I stretched as I clambered to my feet before taking a drink of water from the spring and quickly ate a breakfast of another of the strangely filling cake things before groaning as I realised that I had to make something else before I could go hunting for the sake of hygiene.

Once I had made the bucket, I used it to fill up the bowls that I used to clean myself I quickly did my business and returned to the clearing to meditate for a bit in the hopes that it would help me calm down as my whole body was shaking from a mixture of excitement and nervousness

“Right,” I muttered opening my eyes and slapping myself on both cheeks. “Let’s do this thing.”

Clambering to my feet I picked up my hatchet and made my way out of the clearing and slowly approached the barrier that protected me from the outside world. As I got closer, I noted that the barrier was more translucent than it had been the other day allowing me to see more than just the silhouettes of things clambering over it.

Looking through the barrier was now akin to looking though a fogged-up window; you could see through it but actually identifying anything was difficult as they were little more than colourful blurs.

Coming to a halt in front of the barrier I tried my best to see what was on the other side, I didn’t really want to go all the way through the barrier without having at least some idea of what was on the other side but even after wandering along the perimeter for a few minutes I hadn’t noticed anything noteworthy on the other side so, taking a deep breath I stuck my head through, prepared to leap backwards at the first sign of trouble.

Somewhat embarrassingly my caution seemed to be unneeded as all I found on the other side were more of the same trees and fern-like plants I was already familiar with as well as some colourful flowered plants that I hadn’t seen before and some strange flying insect-creatures that flitted from plant to plant. A quick check with my Identification Skill revealed them to be nothing of any real interest, in fact the Skill didn’t seem to work on them at all. Taking a deep breath, I stepped through shivering slightly at the strange sensation caused by the barrier and looked around a bit more carefully before double taking in surprise something leapt out of a nearby tree and enveloped one of the larger insects, a fuzzy thing with multiple pairs of wings. The strange thing then bounced off the ground and came to a rolling stop a few feet away from me.

I froze as I stared at the thing which currently looked like a bristly orb about the size of an unhusked coconut which I quickly Identified and blinked in surprise as some writing appeared in mid-air above it that read; ???(Lvl1). Apparently, the information that Identify gave me about a living target was limited to a name and its Level but apparently the creature in front of me didn’t have a name for some reason. Unfortunately, any further thoughts immediately flew out of my head as the thing revealed its true form uncurling like the worlds ugliest flower bud.

It wasn’t anything I really wanted to spend too much time looking at if I could avoid it but if I had to describe the thing in front of me then I would say that it looked sort of like someone had taken a starfish or perhaps a squid and spliced it with a spider so that it could survive on land. It had ten ‘legs’ that ended in bony spikes sprouting out from a central body that was covered in tufts of short bristly hair. I couldn’t see any other distinguishing features which made me assume that like a starfish it was blind and had a mouth on the underside of its central body. It’s lack of any visible eyes also suggested that it used the hairs on its body to detect either movement or scent like an insect’s antennae.

I knew this because as soon as it uncurled the creature started scampering towards me and I cursed out loud as I realised that because I had used Identify several times I only had around 25 MP left but I still raised my left hand and fired a Mana Bolt at the thing which swerved sideways with surprising agility as the bolt flew towards it and then leapt at my face like the alien monster that it was. Quickly I swung my axe at it like I was trying to hit a homerun, the stone blade making contact with a dull thud and sending the creature flying backwards towards a tree.

Firing another Mana Bolt at the thing as it flipped over causing it to spiral out of control with a strange hissing sound before colliding with a tree looking remarkably unharmed.

“Well shit,” I muttered struggling not to take my eyes off the thing in front of me and look down at my axe in the hopes of seeing if I had actually done any damage with the attack at all as it latched onto the tree with the spikes on the ends of its legs before it struck the ground but from what I had already seen I couldn’t spare even a second of distraction.

Stepping back towards the barrier so that I could leap backwards if the situation got too much for me and hopefully avoid getting my face gnawed off, I raised my left hand again and fired another Mana Bolt at the thing which dropped to the ground and scuttled towards me again.

Once again it leapt at me and this time, I tried to blast it out of the air with a Mana Bolt but as it shot towards me, I freaked out a little and lost control of the spell causing a wave of expanding Mana to erupt from my hand instead sending it thudding to the forest floor.

Gasping in surprise at both the unexpected effect of losing control of the spell and the onset of the now familiar feeling of running low on MP. I was really running low on options now, my axe didn’t seem to have done any damage when I had hit the thing and now I was out of MP, moving quickly I drew my knife from its sheathe, I had the feeling that my axe hadn’t worked because the blade wasn’t sharp enough to cut through the things rubbery skin, at least not with the Strength that I had so my only option was to try the knife which had much better Stats. Thinking about it I also reversed my grip on my axe, hopefully the spike on the other side would have a better chance of dealing damage to the creature which once again leapt at me.

Ducking under the airborne monster I swung the knife in my hand upwards the blade ripping through the things flesh and splashing me with the greyish liquid that apparently passed for its blood. Wiping the vile smelling liquid from my face I shouted in surprise as the thing rebounded at me literally using its multiple legs like springs to launch itself back into the air. This time I got a close enough look at it that I could confirm the presence of a toothy orifice on its underside surrounded by rows of teeth. Thinking quickly, I tossed my axe at it and the thing caught it on reflex, wrapping its body around it like it had with the bug and I stepped aside as it fell to the earth. Once it landed, I quickly stabbed the confused creature with the knife before leaping backwards as it uncurled from my axe with a hissing sound. My previous attack had nearly severed one of its legs, but it could still move faster than I could back pedal and soon I was dodging attacks from an unexpected source, the thing was now using two of its legs to attack me as it moved forwards, the appendages stretching slightly giving them increased range as they stabbed at my legs.

Deciding to take a gamble on my high HP regen I decide to stop moving backwards and leap forwards and kick the thing into a tree gasping in pain as the spikes on the ends of its legs tore through my flesh leaving furrows of torn skin that I could see through the pants that I was wearing.

Grey fluid spattered the forest floor as the thing flew through the air and realising that I now had enough MP to fire another Mana Bolt at the thing as it landed this time the attack did visible damage ripping the leg I had already damaged completely off the body causing it to keel to one side as it hissed in pain.

The grey fluid was running freely from the stump of its leg as the severed appendage writhed next to it as it staggered to its feet. Warm blood trickled down my leg as I watched the thing closely, it was now moving much slower and seemed to be hesitating due to the damage that I had already caused it. As for myself I was currently freaking out wondering when something more dangerous was going to hear us fighting. This thing was only at Level 1 and it was already something that I was having difficulty fighting. Luckily it seemed to have fairly simple attacks so once I got used to fighting, I should be able to deal with things like it easily enough especially once I had more MP. But right now, I was struggling, if whatever I did when I lost control of my earlier Mana Bolt hadn’t worked out this thing would be eating my face right now.

However, I had to work with what I had and if I continued to let this thing dictate how this fight was going I was going to lose and as shown by its inability to react to unexpected things like my kick this thing wasn’t very intelligent and as such I decided to charge at it while it was still reeling from surprise and pain grabbing my axe off the ground as I went and slamming the spike through the top of its body. The thing spasmed weakly stabbing me multiple times with its legs as I hefted it up off the ground and slammed it back down driving the spike out the other side of its body. I swore every time one of the spikes on the end of its legs struck home, but I now knew what had been bothering me throughout the entire course of this fight. Predators usually didn’t go after prey bigger than themselves unless they hunted in groups and while it could be argued that it was possible that the creature I was now viciously stabbing with my knife might have known that I was the same Level as it, I personally doubted that it was intelligent enough.

Sure enough as the things struggles stilled I heard a rusting sound and a much larger mutant starfish thing shot out of the undergrowth far faster than the one that I had just killed followed by several more and upon seeing this I turned and ran without even waiting to Identify the thing not even waiting to rip my axe from the body of the one that I had just killed and leapt through the barrier as soon as I got close enough.

As I passed through the barrier one of the things following me smashed into it causing the barrier to crackle angrily.

“Well, that wasn’t fun,” I said grasping my heaving chest. I was sure as hell going to have nightmares about giant monstrous starfish things breaking through the barrier and eating me alive tonight. That had been way too close for comfort.

As soon as my heart returned to a normal rhythm, I decided to check the notifications that were blinking at me from the corner of my vision. First, I brought up the information on the new Skills that I had earned.

Dodge Unlocked!

This skill improves your ability to avoid attacks.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Agility.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Dodge.

Knife Mastery Unlocked!

This Skill improves the user’s ability to use knives and similar weapons. Allows the User to learn knife-related weapons skills.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Coordination.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Knife Mastery.

Stab Unlocked!

An attack that deals a small amount of extra damage. Cost: 5 SP

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Coordination.

1 Aspect Points Awarded for unlocking Stab.

Mana Blast Unlocked!

This skill unleashes a wave of pure Mana that deals a small amount of damage and knocks back anything it strikes. Cost:15 MP

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Intelligence.

1 Aspect Point Awarded for unlocking Mana Blast.

I rubbed my chin as I looked through the descriptions of my new Skills, the first three were pretty much what I expected even though I wished that I had unlocked a Weapons Mastery Skill for my axe instead of my knife but then I hadn’t used my axe as well or as much but I was happy that I had received an active Skill as well. Mana Blast on the other hand was something that I could see myself getting a lot of use out of especially when I actually had enough MP to use magic more often.

Next, I decided to check the Skill increases.

Skills increased!

Mana Manipulation increased to Lvl 4

Mana Bolt increased to Level 2

Dodge increased to Lvl 2

Mana Blast increased to Level 2

Available Aspect points increased by 3

I now had a total of 10 Aspect Points which was quite nice to see but before I did anything with them, I decided that cleaning my injuries had to take priority, this was especially important as I didn’t know what sort of bacteria or viruses might be present on this planet. As I headed back in the direction of the spring, I noticed that I still had a notification waiting for me and opened it with a thought.

Quest Unlocked!

Meeting the locals

The species that live on this planet are have yet to be studied.

Objectives

-Name and study as many different species of local flora and fauna as possible.

-Discover what species of local wildlife are safe for Yajash to eat.

To aid you in this Quest you have the Zoology and Botany Skills have been unlocked. Aspect of the Scientist Unlocked.

Rewards

Experience. Source of food. Increased likelihood that the Yajash that will accept you in their society.

Zoology (Specialised) Unlocked!

This skill increases your ability to study different types of fauna in their natural habitat.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Intelligence and Perception.

Botany (Specialised) Unlocked!

This skill increases your ability to study different forms of flora in their natural habitat.

Increases Growth Rate by 1 Intelligence and Perception.

I whistled as I read the three new notifications, I hadn’t expected to receive Skills or an Aspect from a Quest like this but all three looked like they would be useful, especially as the Skills provided boosts to my Intelligence which the new Aspect would probably give me as well. The Quests description also explained why I hadn’t been able to see a name for the things that I had Identified earlier. However it seemed likely that it would take time before the Zoology Skill payed any real dividends especially if I didn’t get a hold of a corpse to study, on the other hand I could attempt to learn more about the plants that I could find in the clearing to increase my Botany Skill, the only question was; how exactly I was going to do that.

Picking up the bucket I had made earlier I filled it with water and then walked over to the bowl that I had used when I had cleaned myself yesterday and removed my shirt and pants before attempting to clean out my wounds which already seemed to be scabbing over, a product of my heightened Vitality. After I had finished cleaning my wounds, I picked my blood encrusted clothes back up and did the same to then grimacing as I poked a finger through one of the holes in my pants. I had only had these clothes for a couple of days and they already had more holes in them than clothes I’d had for years back on earth. I had figured out the other day when I was playing around with Identification that they were made of shaped plant fibre which meant that I might be able to fix them but at the moment any attempt to do so would be a very shitty patch job.

Sighing I hang the clothes from a nearby tree to dry once I had finished cleaning them and made my way over to the spring to think about the fight, I had just been in. I could say one thing for certain; if I hadn’t done as much preparation as I had I would probably be dead with Spell Targeting being the MVP and allowing me to hit the thing in mid-air which was something I was certain I wouldn’t have been able to handle without unlocking that Skill.

Still it had also told me a lot of the things that I was doing wrong; I had used too much MP on Identifying things instead of making sure to keep a certain amount of MP reserved for an actual fight so that I could actually use my magic. However, I knew that if I hadn’t thought quickly and acted in ways that the thing, I had been fighting hadn’t expected then I would almost certainly be dead right now, hell if I had taken another few seconds the big one would’ve gotten me.

I was also pretty pissed about having to leave my axe behind and not being able to use Essence Drain which might’ve allowed me to use my Biomass Absorption Skill to heal myself when I needed to, or at least given me an idea of how much Essence I could drain from a corpse.

Of course, now that I had finished navel gazing it was time to reap the rest of my rewards, so I brought up my Aspects Screen and placed all 10 points I had into Aspect of the Mage. As I did this, I once again saw a vision of my inner world and found myself observing the inhabitants, while many had been wiped out, the ones that remained seemed to be thriving and upon a closer look I saw that they had changed significantly, while they were still single-celled organisms they now had more complicated parts with different things zipping to and from them.

Blinking I returned to my body and grinned as I saw the new screens appeared in front of me. In all honesty it was addicting seeing myself growing stronger like this and reading these screens only increased that feeling.

Aspect of the Mage has reached 10/25 providing you with the following benefits.

A mage is dependent on Mana to power their spells and without this they quickly find themselves in bad situations.

MP increased by 20!

Intelligence is the main Stat that affects how powerful a Mage is, allowing them to come up with more powerful spells that increase their advantage in battle

Intelligence increased by 3!

Aspect Points: 0

Soul Aspect increased to Level 35!

Since the event that wiped out a large portion of life in the oceans of this planet the ones that survived have evolved to become stronger and more efficient than ever with specially developed organelles allowing for even more varied species that can thrive in different situations.

Unassigned Stat Points increased by 2!

Constitution increased by 1!

Growth Rate increased by 1 Unassigned Stat Point!

At this time there is a large variety of organisms in this world are ones that form a shell of earth and stone to protect them from the ravages of nature.

Toughness increased by 3!

Earth Affinity increased by 3%!

Well now, this was an interesting new development, I had thought that getting a direct increase to MP was possible but it was good to see that this was indeed the case, especially considering that it was a much larger increase to my max MP than an increase to my Intelligence would be. It was also interesting to see how my Soul Aspect was developing, the extra Unassigned Stat Points would be very useful, but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to use them to increase my Intelligence or Wisdom right now. This combined with the extra Intelligence meant that I now had 35 more MP than I did a few seconds ago.

My Soul Aspect had also given me a very interesting bonus in the increase to my Earth Affinity which was sure as hell going to become useful when I started making the new spells that I wanted.

Shaking my head, I put any further thoughts about what I was going to do when I Levelled Up out of my head for now, I decided to move on. I knew what it was I had to do; start training again. I had a feeling that those things that had tried to ambush me after killing one of their number would be sticking around and trying to figure out how to get through the barrier to get to me for quite a while which meant that there wasn’t going to be any more excursions outside the barrier today.

Now that I had a better idea of what I would be dealing with I could start experimenting with creating new spells and other Skills that might be useful. Picking up my trusty drawing stick I started writing a new list of Skills that might be useful.

Once I had finished scrawling out a few ideas below the other things on my list I blinked as a new window appeared in front of me, one that I had no control over.