Forever

Being awakened by the shivering cold of morning dew and chilly air was not a pleasant experience. Wincing as his body shook from the low temperatures, Salim tried to warm himself by moving around, pushing himself onto his feet, trying to shake the dampness that had covered his skin. After a while of unsuccessfully shaking, he turned to stare at the rising sun as its beams flew through the thin trees, blinding him.

Wandering with the hopes of finding water, Salim began to idly begin to gather sticks, small stones, and whatever else he could carry along the way. Trying to find the driest sticks possible, he eventually amassed a pile big enough to light, along with several shriveled leaves that he had been lucky enough to find. Sitting down, Salim began to whittle away at a rotted piece of wood that had lying next to his sleeping spot and looked usable.

About twenty minutes in, he gave up; he forgot how out of shape he was without the extra stats boosting his physique, as he could almost feel the blisters begin to grow on his hands. Putting the warm sticks down, Salim stared up at the sky. It was almost evening, and he had spent all the day trying to unsuccessfully light a fire.

Sighing in frustration, Salim threw the stick he had attempted to light, hitting a small tree with bouncing along the ground after they failed to do anything.

The tree! Right, why did I forget? Walking over to the small tree, Salim took out a jagged stone he had found during his wandering, before carving into the trunk and watching the glowing green sap spill into his mouth.

It only took a few seconds for his reserves to become completely filled, having only two points in [Depth] meant his reserves were incredibly small compared to his previous life. After waiting for a few moments to see if he got a level, Salim began to mess with the energy. The substance was much more excitable than the moonlight; it would actively follow wherever he tried to push it, which was both less strenuous but also harder to control.

After a certain point, Salim would lose control over the substance as it shot into his limbs and filled them with jitters. As soon as the energy fully left his core, Salim had the familiar box shoved in his face.

You channeled foreign energy through your body for the first time.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

You have gained your first Level.

Select Class in Menu.

This method seemed much faster compared to making fire from scratch, although he'd have to experiment a bit more if he wanted to level up through magic.

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.

Salim considered [Gatherer], simply on the basis of not having chosen it yet, but [Channeler] spoke to him, promising magic and a more obvious way to progress. [Wanderer] might have been in contention just because of how convenient the skills were, but he wasn’t eager to see if he would lose out on a skill since he already had [Wayfind].

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.

Feeling more in control with now that he regained his skills, Salim felt a wave of calm wash over him as his skills felt like him regaining access to a missing limb. In the meantime, he decided to dump his initial stats into [Resilience] for the added comfort. Sleeping in the dirt was killer on his back and feeling the exhaustion after hiking for hours were things he wanted to avoid, so he wasn’t too conflicted on putting his stats anywhere else.

Lvl. 1

Stats

Confirm

Might: 8

-/+

Finesse: 9

-/+

Resilience: 7 (13)

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth: 2

-/+

Salim stared in disappointment, it was easy to forget how quickly he advanced before he died. Wincing as his muscles and organs thickened, Salim began to walk back to his berm underneath the fallen tree. Standing next to the rotting wood, Salim wanted to test something before he squeezed his way back.

With his reserves being close to nothing and still very empty, Salim tried to reach for the mana he had felt before his death. Pulling deeply on his empty core, he felt the slightest tug as a small droplet of mana was pulled from the very bottom. Not able to do much with it, he let the energy fall back to the bottom of his core.

Salim waited expectantly but didn’t receive a level up, maybe I didn’t have enough mana? Or maybe I need to push it out? He wasn’t sure, but wouldn’t miss the miniscule amount of mana that he had managed to generate. Gripping it tightly, Salim activated his [Energy Sight] and fed the droplet to the skill.

With a slight jolt to his eyes, the skill took hold, letting Salim see the hidden world for about half a second before the skill cut out painfully. Letting loose a grunt of discomfort and closing his now watery eyes to alleviate the stinging, Salim sat down, using the fallen tree as a backrest. Trying to wipe away the tears with the back of his hand, Salim only made the pain worse as small bits of dirt got into his eyes.

Blinking vigorously, Salim felt rather inept as he bumbled around in pain. Trying to wish away the substrate in his eyes, he tried to find something to clean his hands with, to no avail. With pitch black now blanketing the forest, it was hard to pick out individual sticks, let alone something to clean his hands with.

Night! He had gotten distracted again, thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any wolves prowling around. The moon seemed rather dim as it rose up over the horizon, Salim scrambling to get inside his small hideout to avoid being touched by its pale beams. But even as the liquid moonlight reached his body, it couldn’t seem to pierce him.

Somehow, he was able to actively resist whatever the moon was trying by pushing the moonlight out as soon as it tried to breach his skin. He still decided to hide under the tree, even with his ability to resist the light, Salim didn’t feel like tempting fate.

He had no clue if resisting the moonlight had any adverse effects, but his ability to look at his core and body was lacking without the class upgrade. Why he hadn’t been able to resist the moonlight in his last life he wasn’t sure, although Salim assumed it might have to do with him absorbing it before he ever got the class. At the moment, he had no way of checking or finding out the answers to his questions, eventually drifting asleep to the sound of bugs and birds.

The next couple of days were slightly better than the first, following his morning routine of getting up, find food, and beginning his walk towards water. [Wayfind] had finally started guiding him towards drinking water, although the tug was incredibly faint. The eternal journey towards water felt like a Sisyphean task, as he never seemed to get closer as the days passed. During the journey, Salim began to experiment more with the tree sap, finding that the energy provided a substantial boost to his physical stats when channeled through his body.

Harnessing energy, you have broken a tree

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

His wrist still stung from impacting the soft wood of the tree, but his sense of accomplishment didn’t fade. He looked at the green wood of the split branch he was able to punch through and flexed his arms. The level up was encouraging, but if he was honest he had just been taking out his frustrations on the tree, with the level up being a happy accident.

You have journeyed at considerable pace for several days

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

It was good that he still got level ups for his exploration, although it did not fail his notice that the time period was significantly longer when compared to [Wanderer]. It had internal logic to it, that a class would level up faster with certain actions, but it was annoying that breaking a branch was worth a several day journey. The two level ups let him enhance his physical abilities to quicken his pace, although he didn’t forget to slowly upgrade his [Depth].

Lvl. 3

Stats

Confirm

Might: 8 (10)

-/+

Finesse: 9 (10)

-/+

Resilience: 13 (17)

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth: 2 (5)

-/+

His boosted stats bolstered his march as he hiked through the thin trees, pushing branches and bushes out of the way as he went. Days became increasingly monotonous as his mind fogged over, and while he did mess with the tree sap, there was only so much he could do with a [Depth] of five. Boredom was an ever consuming maw that hungered for more as he felt himself sink deeper, and deeper, and deepe-

“Salim.”

A voice called out from behind a tree, sounding incredibly familiar. Turning as fast as he could towards the noise, Salim felt his heart accelerate as his mind caught up, realizing who the voice belonged to.

“Nadalie?” The words came unbidden from his mouth; despite it being early in the morning, he suddenly felt like everything had become dreamlike, his mental state unbalanced. Stepping from around the tree was Nadalie, except… Something was wrong.

She was wearing the clothes he had last seen her in, a baggy sweatshirt and some shorts, but her features were off, warped, as if someone had airbrushed over her face. Completely lacking any blemishes, her expression was wrong, like someone was trying to hold in a laugh, but the humor was completely devoid from her eyes. Salim took a step back in fear.

“Who are you?! Did you bring me here? Why did you do this to me? Why do you look like her?!” Questions rose from his throat as he screamed at the not Nadalie, voice cracking as he slowly yelled louder and louder. Trying to breathe, Salim stared at the creature as it opened its mouth in a mechanical fashion.

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.” laughter rang out from its mouth in a strangely rhythmic way as the rest of its body stood completely stock still. It was like a puppet replica of his girlfriend had been made and was being made to dance in front of his very eyes. Shocked into silence, all Salim could do was stare, the situation so bizarre and absurd that he felt concussed.

“Salim Jonathan Douglas, nice to meet you.” The words jumped from their tongue as the sentence was strung together in a staccato cadence. Paying full attention, he could tell that the voice wasn’t completely correct either, sounding slightly hoarser than what he could remember. It almost sounded like Nadalie, but the cadence was obviously off, like the voice was being played through a translator app.

They continued standing completely still, statuesque, probably waiting for him to respond, but he felt stifled, unable to speak a word. Most likely realizing that he wasn’t going to respond, it slowly stalked towards him, stepping deliberately through branches and jutted out rocks.

“Sorry for the laugh, but I thought this initial meeting would go differently.” She said, not looking sorry in the slightest. Wanting to run away in confusion but also feeling the burning desire to figure out what was going on, Salim found his voice and responded.

“Who are you. Don’t say that you're Nadalie, I know you aren’t.” He shifted his feet so that he could start booking it away from the fake Nadalie at a moment's notice.

“I am an admirer, one that has looked from afar,” it admitted, face twisting into a pathetic attempt at a smile. It could have been an attempt to look genuine, but on his girlfriend's face it looked plain wrong.

“So you abducted me then? Why? What purpose-” Salim was cut off by it speaking over him.

“I did not take you, perhaps that came out incorrect. No, I have been watching from up above.” Its eyes glowed with silver light as Salim took a step back. Images flashed in his mind, white, purple lights, the eye. He began to sweat as a feeling of unadulterated dread came over him.

The moon? What about the moon? This isn’t making any sense. Salim rubbed his head as he wiped sweat off his brow, “What are you talking about?”

The creature's eyes stopped glowing, “Salim Douglas, this may not be easy for you to understand.” Straightening its body as it fully addressed him, “I am the moon.”

Salim stared at the being in awkward silence, it made as much sense as the past month of his life, but he wasn’t sure how to respond to the statement. The horrifying eye in the sky that burned his skin and possibly killed him, was personified as his girlfriend, standing right in front of him as all the memories rushed back into his head. His legs gave out as he tumbled to the ground in shock.

Dazed and confused, Salim could only stare at the sky, the creature completely out of his mind, processed his memories. Head empty as he feebly tried recontextualizing everything he had experienced, to no avail. Like a drowning sailor, he felt like he was floundering in the depths of things he would never understand.

“Calm down, I will explain what I understand is going on after you finish the panic attack.” It spoke the words with mechanical precision, looking down at him from the side of his peripheral vision. It turned away and walked out of his vision as Salim hyperventilated for what felt like the millionth time on the forest floor.