Forever

The morning light pouring in from the entrance of the hollow woke him, burning into his eyelids. Groaning and trying to stretch, he froze when his hand knocked against the dead wood of the tree. Then he remembered; where he was, what had happened.

He decided to push the panic of being in an unknown place out of his mind, he needed to get a grip. Looking through his menus, he decided to use the relative safely of the tree to try reading more of the help menu, hoping that he could use some of the information.

Help Page No. 2

The Stats page is used to show the user's overall capabilities and can be enhanced through training, level-ups, or maxing skills. The Titles page accompanies the Logs page as it details unique identifiers that make the user unique.

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Not much, but it did show that he could increase his stats through other means, even if he didn’t have the time to work out while stuck in the middle of the woods. It did catch his attention that skills would be ‘finished’ and that it would give a stat boost of its own, it was probably one of the easiest ways for him to gain stats instead of risking his life against monsters.

Help Page No. 3

Levels are the culmination of the user, the simple metric used to denote the level of power possessed. This is increased through impressive feats or actions about class. Classes are guidelines that help shape users toward their life goals and are provided based on past actions or circumstances.

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Only three pages, that was all he was given. Squinting his eyes at the floating box, he tried to tap where the next page button should be to no avail, he felt like he had gotten ripped off. More than a little pissed and covered in dirt, Salim pulled himself out of the hollow and onto the wet grass outside.

Grabbing the stick he had painstakingly dug into a sharpened point the other night, he set off, continuing his plan of wandering until he found a hint of water. It was much harder today, his body growled as he stepped over a rock, sending hunger pangs throughout his body.

He thought back to the strange feeling that had brought him to the hollow the previous night, it was too intense of a feeling to be his imagination. Thinking about the system boxes he could reasonably assume it was the skill titled [Wayfind], helping him find the resting place he was looking for. Pondering for a moment, Salim tried to draw on the feeling, searching for water and eventually, he began to feel the pull again. It wasn’t nearly as strong as it was before, but it was better than blindly wandering around a gigantic forest, plus it doubled as meditation and let him focus on following the feeling instead of overthinking every shadow that lurked in his peripheral.

Along the way and in between bouts of him losing his grip on the skill, Salim looked through the bushes and small trees that littered the forest floor. Not having much luck initially, he eventually stumbled upon a large vibrant bush that had small nuts covered in a hard shell. While he couldn’t get them open with just his hands, taking a rock from the ground and bashing it until it cracked seemed to do the job.

Inside was what looked like a brown bead that was a bit softer than the shell that covered it. Nibbling it to see if it was edible, his teeth sunk into it before he tasted a strong earthy flavor. It wasn’t his favorite, but it seemed edible, and he didn’t have anything else to eat, so he wouldn't be picky for now.

Noting that the tree with the nuts was fairly common in the forest, Salim felt his mood noticeably improve: starvation was now a lot less likely to do him in. That is, until winter a dark part of his mind thought, but that was so far off when he was trying to make it for a single week.

Slowly making his way towards what he hoped was drinkable water, Salim took the time to try and clean himself with the still dewy leaves. It was a task set to fail from the start: sleeping in the dirt along with general sweat and lack of clothing left grime that just set into the skin. Giving up after what felt like half an hour of scrubbing, he was left with grime smeared across his chest that somehow felt worse than before.

Soon the sun had risen above his head, but with the high tree canopy from the redwoods, he was thankfully spared from everything except a strong sweat. Thinking about the redwoods, Salim thought back to the previous night, how the trees glowed with faint light in a way that he could only describe as mystical.

Staring at the tree yielded nothing; from the bark to the leaves, it all looked normal to a guy who didn’t know a thing about ecology. Maybe the bark was edible? All he had to go off that theory was a few TV show survival videos, but the fact that the trees glowed might make them inedible.

Taking a break from his wanderings, Salim peeled some bark off the nearest tree and stared at it. The bark stared back, revealing none of its secrets. Peeling a strip off the chunk of bark, he bit into it and didn’t find it too appetizing. The taste of wet wood wasn’t pleasant, but it seemed edible.

With wood in his mouth, he stared at the tree, looking at the section of wood that he stripped. From underneath the ripped section, small dots began to appear. It was hard to tell with the sunlight bearing down, but as he covered his hand over the section, the dots were noticeably glowing green.

That was it, the sap was what caused the tree to glow faintly. Salim felt slightly vindicated by the fact that his mind didn’t play tricks on him, but the question remained, why was the sap glowing?

Curiously, Salim touched the sap and felt a cool witness spread itself along his fingers. Looking at his fingers, he watched as lightly glowing sap evaporated, disappearing without a trace as soon as it left the tree. More intrigued, he kept messing with it, poking and prodding the sap but getting no more information out of it.

Not willing to attempt ingesting the substance and not being able to bring it with him, he set back off, trekking his way through the forest. He guessed that whatever the sap was, it was flowing through all the redwoods; he could always mess with it later when he wasn’t dying of dehydration.

Getting back to finding water the heat was getting to him, sweating like a pig without any water intake was not good for his short-term health. Slowly, he stumbled along the uneven terrain, barely recognizing as the scenery moved around him. At this point, he was just moving forward with dogged determination and guided by his [Wayfind] skill.

He continued pushing, his heart beating rapidly against his chest, feeling like it was almost bursting out. The pull was getting stronger, but his vision felt so blurred to the point where he was mainly just relying on feeling.

The urge to drink was all-consuming, and somehow he found himself propped up against a tree, wiping the sweat from his stinging eyes. This wouldn’t work, he needed something to drink if it was going to be this hot. It didn’t feel like he was going to get heat stroke anytime soon, but between walking for most of the day and not having exercised in years, he was squeezing out what little remained.

Pushing himself around, he turned and faced the tree, tearing as deep of a chunk off as he could. He continued to tear strips of bark off while in a dehydrated daze until he saw the faint glow of the liquid. While he was pretty desperate to get a drink, this still seemed like a rather poor idea, glowing things in nature normally meant “Stay away! I'm poisonous!”

But considering he was already dizzy and having a growing headache, he probably needed to drink something soon, and this was the only thing he could think about. Hoping that he wasn’t being completely idiotic, he pressed his face against the tree in an awkward kiss, trying to suck up as much of the sap as possible.

The feeling of the glowing sap was faint, when it was on his fingers he barely felt it. Most of the liquid disappeared from his tongue and never reached the rest of his mouth; however, he was able to drink a small amount.

Going down his throat, Salim shivered, he couldn’t accurately describe the feeling, but it was almost like he was swallowing pure excitement. There wasn’t a taste, but instead this feeling of exhilaration as the sap jumped down his throat into his stomach and gave him a shot of alertness, as if he was trying energy drinks for the first time.

Surprised, he took a step back and looked at the tree, the liquid pooling around the scab in the bark. He didn’t feel thirsty anymore, but the effects of dehydration were still there as he swayed in place. Intrigued, Salim moved to the tree again and drank some more.

Eventually, Salim began to feel better, recouping his lost water with whatever was in the tree. Getting back to his hike, he realized that if he needed to drink, both the moss on the rocks underfoot and some of the shrubbery leaves had plenty of water if he sucked on them. He blamed dehydration, but not much could be done now; he hadn’t keeled over yet, so he assumed it was fine.

The glowing sap made him feel better than fine. In fact, he had to actively stop himself from bouncing from foot to foot with how much energy he had. Nothing else seemed to be off about him, for now he would just assume that whatever was in the tree acted as a stimulant; which was a tad alarming, but he would just need to find his water elsewhere.

His [Wayfind] skill was pulling hard now, and cresting a small hill he eventually heard the sound of rushing water, which filled him with relief. The river was quite large, causing an opening in the forest where the sun could fully shine down onto the glistening running water, instead of being hidden in the shadows of the giant trees.

Walking briskly to the river, Salim was suddenly stopped by a screen popping up in front of his face, causing him to trip, splaying his body out onto the hard ground. Swearing at the damned box, he looked at the contents and fell into contemplation.

Your wandering has led you to a river.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

That changed the game a bit, he was still thinking about the menu system under the thought of pure video game logic, but maybe it was more dynamic than that. The idea that he could gain levels through actions relating to his class made him relieved. He really didn’t want to fight any more giant bugs.

Thinking it was smart to upgrade his body before he got to the river, Salim hid himself in a larger patch of underbrush and pulled open his menu.

Lvl. 2

Stats

Confirm

Might: 10(12)

-/+

Finesse: 9(10)

-/+

Resilience: 10(12)

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth:0

N/A

Tapping at the bottom of the screen, he still wasn’t able to do anything with depth, and with no help from the menus it would remain a mystery. But that didn’t truly matter to him right now, he was just wasting time while his body adapted to the increase in power.

Swinging his arms and legs, he adjusted to the slight weight difference, having been put off balance since the first time he had gone through the process. Although subtle, his body did not like being changed on a whim, making him feel like he was going through puberty all over again. Eventually figuring out how to run and jump without tripping, he began stalking closer to the water.

The river put everything at a slight decline as the land folded to meet the flowing water that had carved its way over hundreds of years. Trying his best to not fall flat on his face, Salim slowly descended the decline, using the large roots of the redwoods that jutted out of the ground as railings to hold himself.

Stepping down onto a sandy shoal, Salim practically threw himself to the water and tensed his body as the water was colder than he expected. Either way, he had found water and bringing some to his mouth he breathed a sigh of relief, it was like a refreshing sanctuary.

Bracing himself, he moved his body deeper into the water, not so deep as to get swept away by the river but enough to submerge his body and partially clean off the filth of the last day and a half. It brought him relief, a new breath of energy as the normal grit and grime wasn’t irritating his skin.

Getting distracted by cleaning himself, Salim didn’t notice the sun waning behind the trees until he realized that he was in the last stretch of the evening and needed to find somewhere to hide quickly. Pulling himself out of the river dripping wet, he tried to search for a place to hide like the previous night, but nothing was setting off his [Wayfind] skill.

That's when he felt it, the forest began to subtly still again, and he could almost feel the eyes watching him. Not wanting to risk getting caught by another monstrosity, Salim ran for some bushes nearby, hiding in the brush to try and lose the predator. He wasn’t sure if whatever was near him used a smell to hunt, he prayed it didn’t.

The air was tense, waiting for the fatal encounter between hunter and prey. Salim gripped the stick he had fashioned and kept his eyes wide, the trees had begun to glow visibly, greenlight trapped beneath the brown of the bark. He also realized that there was a glow emanating from somewhere around him, coating the smaller plants in its pale brown light.

With horror, Salim realized that the light was coming from him, his veins glowed brown as he attempted to cover himself with leaves and other debris to stop himself from becoming a glowing free meal sign. Suddenly he stopped, laying dead still on the ground, to his left he heard soft panting, not being able to turn his head to look at the noise, he braced himself with his hands on the ground.

The panting stopped, and Salim held his breath and readied himself to move. He began a silent countdown in his head, getting ready to move.

The creature didn’t give him time to plan his actions, lunging at him with a ferocious snap of its jaws it scraped his leg, causing Salim to cry out in pain. Not letting it continue to bite at him, he kicked out with his other foot, connecting with furry flesh and eliciting a whine before it seemingly backed up.

Frantically looking around for something to save him, Salim looked towards the shoreline where there were plenty of trees, some curved. These would be perfect to climb up and get away from whatever attacked him. Limping towards a tree, Salim waved his stick, trying to hit the creature he still couldn’t get a good look at.

As he got closer to the tree he heard a howl, along with several others responding to it, which made Salim attempt to burst into a sprint if only to be stopped by his slashed leg. He heard multiple footsteps now, all converging on his location, snarling at him. One of the creatures passed close by a tree that he was near, and he regretted looking.

These things sounded like dogs or wolves but were much larger, far more beefed up and more like a Great Dane on steroids. The glint of their teeth was enough to make his stomach roil, and from what he could guess there were around five of them.

Not able to get to one of the more slanted trees, Salim simply tried to latch onto the nearest one, but it turned out to be a big mistake. The trunks of these trees were far wider than any tree he had ever seen, so it was more akin to rock climbing than ambling up an oak.

With one limp leg he tried to climb up the side of the tree, he felt his fingers blister and then burst as his mad scramble up the redwood left splinters digging into his fingers. Still he attempted to climb, putting one leg in any crevice he could find to keep himself up, putting himself just barely out of range of the gigantic wolves.

They screamed, barked, and jumped at him trying to claw their way up the tree, ripping the bark at the base, falling back. Salim was just trying to hold on, his fingers not used to supporting the majority of his body weight protested as he felt them grow warm, the blood making it harder and harder to get a grip.

He groaned in pain as his fingers squelched against the wood, beginning to feel lightheaded. Looking down, his leg stood out against the glowing tree, blood dripping down from a nasty slash that he no longer could feel. Trying to climb as high as he could, eventually he just stayed put, with his foot resting on a particularly deep groove as the energy left his body.

Trying to fight the exhaustion, Salim did his best to dig into the tree, licking up the glowing sap that had gotten him into the mess in the first place, but it couldn’t replace the blood he lost. Feeling strung out, he simply clung to the tree for his life while his mind slipped away from him along with the blood leaving his leg.

Eventually, he wasn’t sure how long he had been in the tree, hallucinating that he had just climbed up a particularly large tree on an excursion to the park. Once he climbed down, he would be back with his loved ones. A particularly loud bark broke the visions, bringing him back to cruel reality and causing him to loosen his grip.

Then he fell, just long enough to have clarity with what was happening. He never got the chance to open his mouth to scream as he impacted the rocky ground with a wet thud and his vision went dark.