Forever

Apparently, all he had to do was push the energy through his body and bam, he got a free level, or at least the initial one. There was a small bit of relief felt that he didn’t have to trap and kill small animals for a quick initial level. Relief fading, Salim opened his menu and noticed that [Hunter] had been removed in place of a more esoteric class.

Classes Available

Wanderer

Alone by trade, the Wanderer travels from place to place, never staying put and always searching for new experiences.

Channeler

Channeling energy through your body, you have the potential for great arcane power.

Gatherer

Edible berries, balms, and incense are all useful with the right knowledge, poisons more so.

While not as practical for survival, it offered magic, something that instantly made him want to pick the class. He was a big fan of sword and fantasy video games, and magic seemed like a great idea when stuck out in the wild.

I’ve figured out how to survive these past couple weeks, haven’t I? I should be fine without navigate…

The class was tempting, and could potentially answer the questions he had about the more mystical aspects of the world he found himself in. Already the class had given him information by replacing [Hunter] and he assumed that his ‘channeling’ of energy led him to gain the class. From that point, he concluded that there would only be three options to choose from, and the selection of which was tied to his first level.

Trapping the frog and killing the centipede both seemed to fit the idea of a [Hunter], and perhaps him being in the woods was enough to trigger [Wanderer] and [Gatherer]. The theory seemed to line up in his head, although he didn’t feel like experimenting with weird classes since he still needed to survive. But it did make him wonder what class he would get if he survived another mudslide or did a two-day hike up a mountain?

His head still theorizing, he decided to go with [Channeler], for the simple reason that he wanted magic.

You have chosen the Channeler Class.

Where energy flows, purpose grows

You have gained 3 new Skills.

‘Energy Manipulation’

‘Energy Sight’

‘Energy Toleration’

You have gained 5 stat points.

Looking at the skill menu, Salim carefully began reading, trying to gleam more info from their unhelpful descriptions.

Skills

Energy Manipulation (Class)

Lvl. 1

Allows a finer touch with contained energy.

Energy Sight (Class)

Lvl. 1

Lets you see the unseen world.

Energy Toleration (Class)

Lvl. 1

Tolerate the stress of the unseen world.

His skills were clearly meant to channel ‘energy’ with seemingly no guide on how to actually harness it. The descriptions of the skills also seemed a little suspect, with everything being labeled as energy and not another technical term. It was possible that the descriptions and names were completely incidental, but maybe it based all the descriptions and names off his own understanding and knowledge.

It was a little concerning that the system was privy to what he called the tree sap in his mind, although it was able to improve his [Acuity] and [Resolve]. Perhaps in the future the system would make more sense and stop giving vague descriptions and unhelpful names, although that was when he had figured out the questions himself.

Alright, let's figure this out. [Energy Sight] should work like [Keen Eye], so let's do this-

Woah.

As the skill pushed his energy towards his eyes, Salim felt the dregs of moonlight still inside slowly twisting their way up his throat into his eyes with lethargic haste. The burning sensation he felt using the energy before was still there, it just hurt way less, most likely from[Energy Toleration]. It still stung, feeling like acid reflux, as the energy boiling up from his stomach, but now the pain was easy to ignore.

There was a small realization that he wasn’t sure if channeling the painful energy into his eyes was a good idea, but he wasn’t able to stop until the entire process was completed. Ethereal liquid pooled behind his eyes, building up pressure slowly at first, then more painfully. Closing his eyes to deal with the buildup, Salim tried to cut the skill off, but it wasn’t a light switch he could just flick on and off.

Looking around, Salim blinked tears out of his eyes as the sheer vibrancy of the world unfolded before him. The grass glowed with a solid lime hue, waving in the morning breeze, almost making him forget for a moment that he was trying to get the burning energy out of his eyes. Slowly, grabbing hold of the strands of energy flowing upward, Salim pulled the liquid back down to his core as fast as he could, ignoring the headache that came from his actions.

Finally, when the pressure behind his eyes faded, Salim looked around again, the grass going back to its normal dull shade of green, still waving in the morning breeze. Clearly the skill had worked, but he wasn’t going to try it again with the moonlight: tree sap being better both as a painless and convenient alternative. Now he just needed to find a convenient way to get the dregs of quicksilver out of his body, he just needed to be able to withstand the pressure.

My stats, I forgot! Salim almost smacked his forehead as his level up had been completely thrown to the wayside with his shiny new class stealing all his attention.

Lvl. 1

Stats

Confirm

Might: 10

-/+

Finesse: 10

-/+

Resilience: 10 (15)

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth:5

-/+

Shoving all his points into [Resilience], Salim waited as the leathery, sandpaper feeling enveloped his body, toughening the skin and hopefully increasing his pain tolerance. Trying again, he once again slowly started filtering the caustic energy into his eyes, holding a tighter grip on the threads leaving his core, just in case. This time, while it still hurt, the pressure was manageable, and he was able to look around without crying.

The lights were gorgeous, like the whole world had turned into a neon painting, as the leaves gleamed green and the tree a hearty brown. Even the morning sun emitted some sort of energy, transparent orange waves painting the surrounding air with a soft, almost invisible glow. There was so much to look at, but Salim couldn’t keep it up forever as the pressure slowly built up to an intolerable level and the last remaining drops were about to run out.

There still was a small pool of the liquid that never seemed to go away, although it was much smaller as it was drained by the use of [Energy Sight] and his attempt to get rid of it during the night before. As he cut the flow of energy to the skill, Salim looked around, observing his surroundings now that light streamed across the plains. He was now sure that he was in some sort of grassland, trees being sparse and grass extending to the horizon.

Feeling dumb and regretting not picking [Wanderer] Salim set off to try and find some natural landmark to orient himself, going from tree gathering to large shrubbery as he stalked his way across the land. Navigating without a skill wasn’t as bad since he wasn’t lost in a forest, but he wasn’t finding anything except grass, grass, a bush, and more grass.

Having learned from his previous experience, Salim took frequent breaks underneath any cover that he could find, making sure not to overexert himself. Making steady progress, he thankfully wasn’t in a state of complete dehydration by the time the sun made its goodbyes and Salim had positioned himself in the cover of some trees. Getting caught in the middle of nowhere with no cover as the moon beamed him was not on his bucket list.

Although I don’t really need a bucket list now, do I? I really need to figure out some sort of living situation soon, walking around for water is getting old, fast.

Situated beneath the canopy, Salim began to idly moved the energy in his core, pushing it side to side as he waited for the moon to rise. He made sure not to fall asleep immediately because he wanted to use his [Energy Sight] on the moon just to sate his curiosity. Something was going on with it, and while he couldn’t do anything about it, he at least wanted answers.

Getting bored with just sitting and waiting, Salim tried to push the moonlight out of his arm, similar to how he got his first level. This time he didn’t experience nearly as much discomfort as his skills protecting him, letting him fit the energy through his arm more naturally instead of brute forcing it. He still had to use force, but in a way that was less painful and forced just his palm to emit light instead of his entire arm.

Alternating between flashing his hand in pseudo Morse code and taking a few breaks for his tingling arm to go back to feeling normal, Salim lost track of time as the moon rose. He slowly figured out how to manipulate the energy, being able to roughly move the liquid around his core. Eventually he might be able to twist and bend like his skills did, but it would take a lot of practice that he didn’t have at the moment.

Night came too quickly for Salim, beams of moonlight filtered through the canopy above, trying to reach down and touch his skin. While he had depleted most of the liquid moonlight in his core, he wasn’t masochistic enough to go through the painful experience of having the stuff re-injected into him. That being said, he did want to check out what was going on with [Energy Sight].

Bracing himself, Salim empowered his skill, infusing it with his eyes as the light beamed down from above him, and looked. The beams looked solid, a far cry from the sun's soft transparent waves that blanketed the ground. The light was almost harsh and gave off an eerie glow as Salim prepared to step into it and look at the moon.

Stepping into the wall of light, he hissed, wincing as the light cascaded over him, the energy racing into his core as the hair rose across his arms. Almost blinded by the silver light, he stared up at… The moon?

Far above was a beacon of pure silver light. It was exhausting to stare at, but not painfully so. The giant silver orb was beautiful, panes of light arced down from the sky like tesseracts forced to take shape so he could perceive them.

Suddenly, the light seemed to shudder, shifting in and out of reality soundlessly, an invisible world writhing in front of his eyes. Stumbling backwards as the light oppressed his eyes and mind, Salim tumbled over a root and ended up slamming into the ground. Wincing as he pushed himself up and moved away from the offender of his fall, Salim realized that the light had slowed, returning to its solid dormant state.

Peering back up into the light, Salim took a final look at the moon before he planned to shut off his skill, as he was feeling pressured from the moonlight. He paused.

What in the world?

The moon stared back.

Right in the center of the glowing orb was a gigantic silver eye that was currently looking directly at him, unblinkingly. Shocked, Salim froze, not knowing what to do as the energy once again began to warp around him. As the energy whipped into a frenzy, the eye began to slowly change, color staining its eye from silver, to blue, to some dark purple, the solid walls of light alternating in unison.

Finally reacting to the otherworldly event, Salim dove for cover, awkwardly tumbling into the small grove of trees beside him. Closing his burning eyes, Salim made sure his skill was off, taking away the chaotic, horrific world and replacing it with a much more normal one.

Gone were the shafts of solid moonlight, gone was the apocalyptic eyeball moon, all replaced with a normal, (slightly chilly) starry sky. He stared out at the vast ocean of darkness from underneath the trees, contemplating the insanity that had just taken place.

Salim shuddered, so I’m just afraid of the moon now? What the hell was that?

There was no answer, but frankly he wasn’t sure that he wanted one. It was straight out of cosmic horror, and while he wasn’t feeling different, he wasn’t shocked if he was becoming insane after witnessing whatever unholy abomination resided in the sky. His heart rate was still pounding, causing his chest to hurt as it desperately tried to escape anywhere but being ultimately trapped under the tree.

After calming himself down just enough to feel like he wasn’t suffocating, Salim had to reconsider his place in the universe.

Laying on his back, head swimming with thoughts, a tear dripped from his eyes, all he could do was cry. Cried all his worries out to the world in a desperate shriek, not at the unfairness of what had happened, but the immensity of it. Eventually he couldn’t cry out any more, and slipped into a restless sleep.