"Okay," Alexx said with a nervous chuckle, "I was getting worried for a second there. So is there anything to STR besides-" Alexx's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, I'm an idiot."

"I'm not disagreeing with you but why?" asked Zed, walking up behind them with some food.

"I think I got a new Skill yesterday, but I never actually created it because of everything that happened with Loran," Alexx said, hastily opening his menu.

"You forgot about creating a new Skill," Loran said flatly, feeling a strong desire to both pat Alexx on the back and smack the back of his head.

"Hey, after everything that happened with you yesterday, I think I'm allowed to forget about something like this."

"Alright, point taken," Loran said, "So what does it say?"

"Uhhh, yep, here it is," Alexx said after pulling up his notifications. "Let's see... so it was my jumping around yesterday that created it, and the relevant stat was my STR."

"How helpful," Zed said sarcastically. Normally if someone discovered a new Skill their stats would be around the required amount, but with how high Alexx's STR was compared to his level it could be anywhere between 30 to 80 STR. Until someone else learned the Skill as well there was no telling exactly what it was. "Anyway, make the Skill already, I want to see it."

"Okay, so what should I call it?"

"It just lets you jump better right?"

"That's what it says. 'Performs a powerful jump that launches the user in a chosen direction.' that's it."

"Call it leap," shouted one of Bates' teammates who had overheard the conversation.

"Who asked you?" Loran asked.

"Nah, that sounds good enough," said Alexx. "Leap it is."

"Come on, we can think of something better," said Zed. "Leap is so basic."

Alexx shrugged. "Yeah but it's just a jump Skill."

"He's got a point," said Loran, "I'd probably die of disappointment if a game had a Skill called Inferno for a basic fire attack."

"Alright fine, let's see it already."

"Give me a second." Alexx flinched as the Pioneer System activated. "God, I will never get used to that," He said as he stood up. Alexx then got a curious look on his face. "I wonder what happens if jus-OH SHIT!"

From his relaxed standing position, Alexx's body suddenly dropped down before launching himself into the air, straight into a thick branch overhead. The sleeping players all awoke just in time to see Alexx falling back to the ground, landing face-first in the grass.

Everyone was silent for a moment, taken off guard by the suddenness of the situation.

"Ow," Alexx said without moving.

With the tense silence broken, the camp erupted into laughter, the only exceptions being Calix and one of the builders who ran over to check if Alexx was alright.

Zed was practically doubled over, repeatedly asking "what the hell was that!" as he tried to catch his breath. Even Loran was biting his knuckle, trying to contain himself as he walked over to Alexx.

"M-Mr. Alexx are you okay?!" Calix asked.

"It's alright, just a bruise," Alexx said as he sat up.

"Hehe, so what exactly just happened," Loran asked.

"I have no idea," Alexx said as he rubbed his head, "I just activated the Skill and suddenly my legs are moving on their own. I couldn't stop it!"

Suddenly Loran didn't need to hold back laughter anymore, his amusement quickly being replaced by annoyance. "Oh damn it, I thought this game wouldn't have any Skills like that!"

"Skills like what?" Zed asked, finally calming down along with the rest of the camp.

"It's a Player-Lock Skill," Loran groaned. Almost all the players that heard him groaned as well.

"What's Player-Lock?" asked Alexx.

"Basically, a Player-Lock Skill is a Skill that forces the player using it to perform certain actions," he gestured at Alexx, "such as crouching and jumping."

"Yeah, I can see how that would be annoying," said Alexx. "I thought I had a little bit of time to think first but it just forced me to do it."

"Oh it gets worse," said Zed. "A lot of high-level Skills need a few seconds to activate. Not too bad if you can still move around, but some Player-Lock Skills leave you stationary. Use them at the wrong time and you're just an easy target."

Alexx's eyes widened, imagining being unable to move for even one second when fighting a pack of Moss Wolves or a pair of Iron Ants. "Yeah, that just seems like a good way to get killed."

Loran shrugged. "It varies. A long activation time usually comes with a powerful effect, so pulling it off can be worth it, they're just difficult to use effectively. Personally, I've just played too many Indie games that forget to give you a way to cancel out of the Skills."

"You're joking," Zed said with slight disbelief.

"Nope," Loran said, his eyes unfocusing as he remembered all the times he died from a slight miscalculation.

Zed's eyes widened with shock. "How. How do you get into game design and forget to add something like that?"

"I don't know, but it's more common than you would think," he turned back to Alexx. "Anyway, do you want to try that again or can we get back to planning?"

"You guys can talk about that," Alexx said, cracking his neck, "I need to make sure I can use Leap properly before we actually start exploring."

With that, Alexx crouched down before suddenly launching himself straight out of the campsite. Loran and Zed watched as he began turning in the air and botched the landing as he landed on his side.

"You think he'll actually be able to use the Skill today?" Zed asked.

"Probably not, I've never seen a movement Skill be Player-Locked, there's no way that won't cause problems. He'll be better off just jumping normally."

Zed grunted his agreement before turning back to Loran. "So, what's the plan?"

~~~~~

With no reason to argue, Loran, Alexx, and Zed soon began making their way through the woods towards the eastern mountains.

The three moved at a brisk pace, scaring away all of the smaller woodland critters. The group was unusually silent as they tore a path through the tall grass.

"Okay, stop," Loran said suddenly.

"See anything?" Zed asked.

"Nothing hostile," Loran responded for the fifth time in the last hour.

"Alright," he sighed, "just tell me when you're done." Zed walked over to a shady patch of grass before lying back and closing his eyes.

Loran ignored him as he pulled out a rolled-up piece of leather and a stick of charcoal. He struggled for a second thanks to his injured hand, but the motions were getting easier.

Almost three hours had passed since they left the campsite, and although they had come across a few Moss Wolves and Hell Pigs nothing seemed willing to pick a fight with the three players. For Loran, it was ideal since he could focus on mapping out the area, but for Zed, it was far more boring than he ever thought it would be. Since there had been Iron Ants at the campsite he had thought they were already fairly close to the nest or that there would be more ants in the area, unfortunately, it seemed like the game was trying to disappoint him.

As Zed relaxed and Loran marked their position on the map, Alexx was steadying his breathing. Alexx may have said he could maintain this pace for a few hours, but actually attempting it was harder than he had anticipated. He was still getting a grasp on his newly discovered physical abilities, so keeping up with the others without overexerting himself was requiring significant concentration.

Loran quickly finished marking their position and put the charcoal away, looking back at the rest of the map. In the last three hours, they had covered around 15 kilometers, marking down regular intervals as well as any landmarks they came across.

With that said, 'landmarks' was a bit of a stretch. The woods were mostly flat terrain with an endless expanse of white trees. Aside from a moderately sized pond and a massive Maple tree, they hadn't seen anything of note.

'Maybe I should start marking off any Maple trees we come across?' Loran considered. '...no, they're not quite rare enough to be landmarks. Although maybe we could start marking them as road signs.'

Looking up, Loran stared at the mountains in the distance, now significantly closer.

'We can definitely get there in a few more hours, but I don't think we'll have much time to explore the mountains themselves. At least, not if we want to get back to camp before sundown.'

"Alright I'm done," Loran said as he rolled up the leather map and put it away, "are you guys ready?"

"Yeah," they both said.

"Hey Loran, if we manage to find any ants, you think we can stop to fight them?" Zed asked as he stood up.

"I think we'll have to regardless," Loran said. "They're faster than us, have a wider perception range, and generally aggro on sight. Now stop talking, I need to focus."

"Don't worry, we'll find the nest soon enough," Alexx assured Zed.

Loran stared upwards as the three continued on towards the mountains, his heart pounding as if he were sprinting rather than jogging.

By this point, Loran was sure that the Iron Ant nest wasn't in this direction, but that only made him wonder what they would find once they reached the mountains that had loomed over them since the start of this game.