I decided to put off any of my thinking until I got back to the beach, focusing all of my attention once again on trying to detect any approaching enemies. I was in no position to fight anything else, and if something DID appear, I’d have to risk further injury by running. In my current state, I was struggling to move as quietly as I could while I held on to the massive open wound in my side. I was reasonably confident that something had been pierced, and a whisper of knowledge told me that it was surprising that I was still conscious, much less approximating walking.

My efforts to keep quiet and aware seemed to be useful, though, and I soon found myself ticking up in both Stealth and Perception, spending half the skill points I’d gained with my Warrior level.

Stealth → 2

Perception → 2

My senses sharpened slightly and my footsteps landed just a tiny bit softer as I walked the last section of the path before it turned the corner towards the beach. In hindsight, this path was probably the animal run towards that pool I’d found. I let that thought trickle in as my vigilance lowered slightly when my foot touched the sand. For some reason, the beach and the monolith still felt ‘safe’. I didn’t have any particular reason to feel that way, though I did at least have three clear lines of sight. I dragged myself over to the base of the monolith and sat down on the stone.

The movement jostled my wounds once more and I winced at the flare of pain. Finally sitting down, I kept one eye on the entrance to the forest as I leaned back against the stone. I briefly considered the fact that this might be sacrilegious in some sense if this monument was holy enough to qualify for an offering, and then decided I didn’t much care at this point. I took a laboured breath and lay out the facts.

I was wounded. Heavily. I was down to 3 HP, and I’d somehow crippled myself in a way that I’d lost 20% of my max HP. My brand new clothes were already full of holes and covered in blood. My essence was back up at 550, but I had nothing to spend it on other than a class level of Commoner, if I wanted it.

I really didn’t.

I fought through the throbbing pain and focused on assessing the contents of my inventory, eventually receiving a stream of information with the details.

Inventory

Assorted edible wild greens Edible mushrooms Medicinal Herbs Viper Corpse - 130pt (*2) Boar Corpse - 550pt

I’d forgotten about the various greens and things I’d retrieved on the way to the pool, not that they’d be much use right now unless I planned on eating them raw. I had no other supplies other than the bodies. The numerical values next to them reminded me of the offering option the note with the clothes had mentioned. In light of understanding all of my options, I struggled to my feet, turned around, and willed open my personal space. When the black portal opened in front of me, I reached in and pulled out one of the snake corpses with another mental push.

I stared at the still-warm body briefly before shuddering and placing it on the stone. I then murmured what I soon realized were my first real words in this new world and new life I’d found myself in.

“I dedicate this to the Master of Games.”

The voice that came out was a raspy, gravelly thing, more out of lack of use than any particular timbre or characteristic. Seeing as how it wasn’t salient to my current survival, I ignored it for the time being, focusing more on the shimmering aura surrounding my kill as it dematerialized. In its place was another note. I picked it up.

Hey there!

It’s only been half a day and you’re already back and dedicating stuff to me - so thoughtful!

In the future, though, you can just mentally dedicate items from within your personal space. No sense having you drop everything off or shouting my name over and over again, right? Well, maybe if you were actually part of my clergy, but in your specific circumstances I think it’d be easier to keep things between us, and between worlds.

In light of that, I’m going to invest a bit of additional energy and add a node to your mask access. Next time you’re connecting to your mask, think “Shop” and you’ll see what I mean. Gotta let you spend your points somewhere, right? Besides, it seems just right for my domain, though I doubt you’d understand what I mean at this point.

Don’t expect me to be doing this out of my good will, though - I’ll be shaving off some of the value of offerings to pay for it. I can grant you most mundane items, so feel free to take a gander at your convenience. Some of them may even be useful in your current predicament!

Good luck with your ongoing adventures - I’m loving the action so far! Keep exploring the island, I’ve left lots of surprises and secrets around to be discovered.

The One and Only MoG

I smirked despite myself. For an entity with the kind of power they seemed to have, they certainly were irreverent. I briefly wondered if that was common or more related to their specific bailiwick.

For the moment, I tried to once more push past the throbbing pain in my side and focus my thoughts on the new “Shop” my patron had provided. After what seemed like a significantly longer period of time than had been necessary to open up my space or call up my inventory, a new stream of information flowed into my awareness.

Shop Interface

Adventuring Gear Crafting & Profession Equipment Knowledge Other

I grinned. Finally, some options. Curious, I mentally prodded the first section.

Adventuring Gear

Bedroll - 1pt Blanket - 1pt Folding Chair - 4pt Cot - 2pt Soap (*5) - 1pt Tent (Small) - 20pt Tent (Medium) - 30pt Tent (Large) - 60pt Tent (Pavilion) - 200pt

...

The list went on and on. From netting to backpacks to canteens and compasses, pretty much anything you could need to brave the wilds or unknown was listed. I even found a 10 foot pole listed, for some reason. Perhaps most importantly, they had rations listed. It probably wouldn’t be the most appetizing thing, but as long as I had the points, I didn’t need to worry about starving, so that was nice. Unfortunately, food was not my top priority, considering the giant hole near my stomach. I moved on to the next section.

Crafting & Profession Equipment

Fishing Gear - 50pt Trapper’s Gear - 50pt Cartographer’s Kit - 80pt Alchemist’s Kit - 100pt Alchemist’s Lab - 1000pt Carpenter’s Kit - 20pt

...

Yet another massive list of entries, anything from Gambler’s Gear to Woodcutter, but I finally found some options that were useful for my current predicament.

Healer’s Kit - 100pt Surgeon’s Tools - 40pt

I prodded the former for more information.

Healer’s Kit: A collection of bandages and herbs used to treat wounds, mitigate infection and staunch bleeding. Provides a minor bonus to Healing checks to provide first aid or long-term care.

This sounded like what I needed. I delved for further information on the Surgeon’s Tools as well.

Surgeon’s Tools: Needs, Forceps, Sutures, and other equipment used during mundane surgery. When used in conjunction with a Healer’s Kit, it improves the bonus to Healing checks from minor to moderate.

Unfortunately, despite my searching, I couldn’t find anything like a healing potion, analgesics or even alcohol for disinfection. It seemed like the shop was more geared towards tools and didn’t provide a lot of shortcuts. Digging into the Knowledge category flooded my consciousness with a massive amount of information on titles, none of them cheaper than 300 points. Clearly, knowledge didn’t come cheap. A quick glance showed the cheapest title with anything related to Healing or Anatomy at 1000 points, so I quickly gave up. The Other category was currently completely empty, much to my chagrin.

Nowhere could I find any weapons, either. Weapon making tools and kits were around, but nothing that would be serviceable beyond an improvised weapon that I could see. For now that wasn’t my primary concern, so I instead returned to my inventory and “dedicated” both of the other corpses.

You have dedicated a kill to the Master of Games! You have received 100pts.

You have dedicated a kill to the Master of Games! You have received 500pts.

My status now had a new line with a total - 700. I guess he’d shaved a bit off the original offering as well. Still, I had a bit of currency, and it was time to do some shopping.

Status

Name ???

Age 18

Heredity Human

Soul Level - 2

Essence - 550

Shop Points - 700

Classes (Favoured - *)

Human Paragon 1 (500 Invested, Next 1000)

Warrior 1 (500 Invested, Next 1000)

AC 10 (touch 10, flat-footed 10)

Max HP 31

Current 3/25

Vitality : 80%

Fort 2

Ref 0

Will 2

Speed 30ft

Base Attack 1

Grapple 1

Melee weapon

Savage Unarmed Strike +1 (1d4)

Size Medium (Bipedal)

Space 5ft

Reach 5ft

Str : 10 (0)

Dex : 10 (0)

Con : 10 (0)

Int : 10 (0)

Wis : 10 (0)

Cha : 10 (0)

Traits : 2/2

Able Learner

Educated

Feats : 3/3

Toughness

- Dauntless

Savage Unarmed Strike

Skills (Favoured - *) : (14/16)

* Acrobatics - 1

Appraisal

Arcane Energy Lore

Arcane Energy Manipulation

* Athletics - 1

* Autohypnosis - 2

Bluff

* Concentration - 2

Crafting (+)

Cryptology

Diplomacy

Divine Energy Lore

Divine Energy Manipulation

Escape Artist

Handle Animal

Healing

Intimidation

Investigation

Ki Lore

Ki Manipulation

* Knowledge (+)

* Knowledge - System - 1

Linguistics

Martial Lore

Mechanical Lore

Mechanical Manipulation

Natural Energy Lore

Natural Energy Manipulation

* Perception - 2

Profession (+)

Psionic Energy Lore

Psionic Energy Manipulation

Sense Motive

Sleight of Hand

* Stealth - 2

* Survival Lore - 2

* System Lore - 1

* System Manipulation - 1

Abilities

Unbound (Legendary)

Adaptive Learning (9/10)

Equipment

Mask of the Unbound (Lvl 2)

Inventory

Assorted edible wild greens

Edible mushrooms

Medicinal Herbs