Reincarnated in Quality Assurance

Marke spent twenty minutes or so resting from the climb out of the ravine. He spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out if drinking unfiltered, slightly muddy stream water went against his brand new first priority: ‘Don’t Suffer’.

“I guess dying of thirst would be pretty miserable, and I think this stream only appears after a storm, so I guess that means it won’t be full of giardia.” Marke shook his head and knelt in the mud to scoop water up to his mouth. The mud didn’t change the color of his clothing in the slightest. Thirst quenched, Marke took a more careful survey of his surroundings.

“Priority two: Don’t Die. I have water, I need shelter and then food. I think that’s the right order.” He shaded his eyes from the increasing sunlight and looked as far as he could. Towards the sun (on his right), there was maybe something like a forest. Towards the storm (in front of him), Marke only saw more scrubby plains. Towards the moons (on his left), Marke was sure there were some mountains. Behind Marke was the ravine, and beyond that looked like more ravines and canyons and things like that. Marke ‘hmm’ed to himself. “Open plains are bad for water and shelter and probably food. Forest is good for shelter and food and probably water. Mountains are bad for everything except maybe water. Canyons are too much work. Winner, forest!” He immediately turned and walked towards the sun.

As Marke walked across the drying scrubby plain, the sun rose slowly in the sky. Before the ground completely dried, Marke smeared mud all over his skin. “I’m not getting sunburned again so soon. Don’t Suffer.” The light from the sun continued to increase in brightness, even though Marke was sure it was high enough in the sky that it should have been at full brightness already. The forest in the distance became more visible and took on a clear green color.

Once the mud had fully dried, the walking became much easier and Marke tried to sing a song to pass the time. Unfortunately, his voice didn’t act quite right and definitely didn’t have the same range as his previous earth voice. He started making rhythmic grunts and huffs with partially voiced words. After several hours, he stopped walking and turned his face to the sun, eyes closed.

“Walking is so boring.” He put his hands on his hips and stood for a while, soaking up the warmth of the sun and listening to the breeze. The light suddenly dimmed and went cold. Marke opened his eyes and blinked quickly as the breeze suddenly roared. Instead of looking at the pale white sun, Marke found he was looking up at one of the moons, with a white halo surrounding it. “Wha-? Eclipse?” Marke stuttered. Then he yelped as the leading edge of the sun moved past the edge of the moon. He clapped his hands to his eyes and rubbed furiously. Then he had to rub more carefully for a while to get the dried mud out of his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, a box floated in front of him.

New Title: Gaze upon the Million Year Eclipse. Shadow of the Moon.

Hidden class awarded: Soul Eclipser

Marke scratched the back of his head. “Um, ok cool. Is that good? I guess if it’s once every million years it should probably be good.” Marke looked around just to confirm he was alone. “No one else around to be gazing, so I’m probably the only one who will have this. What does it do? Status?”

Name: ineedabreak

Class: Soul Eclipse

Level: 0

“Super. So helpful.” Marke waved the box away and continued walking towards the forest.

Marke began to notice evidence of wildlife. There were little mouse tracks in the dried mud and occasional holes in the ground under the roots of the prickly bushes. Something like a hawk or eagle began circling overhead shortly after the sun passed midday. Marke was not happy about this new companion.

“I’m not dead! Leave me alone you vulture!” The flying creature did not seem to care about the noise from its future meal. Marke looked around to find rocks to throw but quickly gave up. Maybe the forest would have rocks.

Marke reached the edge of the forest in midafternoon. He was sweaty, sunburned, irritated, hungry, and very thirsty. The mud had dried and flaked off his skin several hours earlier. He turned back towards the dry and dusty plains to shout his defiance. “I should have pooped on you!” Then he flipped the bird at the bird which still circled above him. A chill swept over Marke as the light died suddenly. He stumbled back. “Woah, I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry!” He looked up at the sun and found that it was behind the other moon. This moon clearly orbited the planet much more slowly that it’s twin. Marke again clapped his hands to his eyes as the sun struck out from behind the moon. “Ow! Dang it!”

Another box waited for Marke when he opened his eyes.

New Title: Gaze upon the daily eclipse. Shadow of the Sun

Hidden reward for Soul Eclipse: Gain a level each time you observe an eclipse

“What.” Was all Marke could say before another box appeared.

Level + 1

New traits available

New skills available

Stat points available

Marke shuddered as he read the words ‘Stat points’. He turned away from the box and walked quickly into the forest. “Whatever. Priority three: Self Care. I’m taking a nap just as soon as I find a place for it.” The forest was mostly clear of underbrush, so Marke just went in a straight line away from the setting sun. He stopped at a dead tree to break off a limb to use as a walking stick. The limb shattered as it broke from the trunk, leaving Marke with a short section of brittle wood. Marke made an exaggerated pout face at the stick and tried a silly whimper. His new voice made it sound like a constipated toddler.

“I guess I could try and make a fire with this dry wood. Not any shelter nearby though. Let’s try the green branches.” Marke walked over to a living tree and tried to snap off a low branch. The branch resisted snapping, but eventually splint enough that Marke could tear it off the trunk. “Success! Time to build a hut or something.” Marke tossed the branch behind himself and got to work on the next low branch. After half an hour he had a pile of branches and a pile of blisters.

Marke looked down at the branches uncertainly. “This seemed more like a good plan before I realized I don’t know how to make a hut. A shed? A lean-to?” He rubbed his dirty chin with one hand. “Priority one: Don’t Suffer. I don’t want to sleep on the ground. Priority two: Don’t Die. I don’t want something to come up and bite me while I sleep. How do I accomplish this?” He picked up a branch and examined the leaves. They were really more like large green snake scales and not soft. “Maybe sleeping on the ground would be better than these leaves. Can I just dig a little burrow under the pile of branches?”

Marke began to pull grass and other small plants out of a flat spot of ground near the dead tree. He used the broken stick from earlier to dig a shallow grave in the middle. “Gah! Don’t call it a grave! It’s not a grave. Oh gosh, it’s a grave. I can’t sleep in this. Ok-ok-ok. It’s a ‘fire pit’ now. It’s for fire.” He piled a bunch of dry deadwood in the fire pit and began to drag the green branches over to surround the fire pit. He tried a few different arrangements for the branches and settled on just making a sort of dome by layering circles of branches. He pulled the final branch over top of himself as he crouched down into the very uncomfortable leaves of the smaller branches that stuck off the side of each and every branch he used in the dome. As the light from the sun faded, Marke spent an eternity and a fair amount of popped blisters to weave the smaller branches back into the dome to both make it stronger and keep them away from Marke.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow.” Marke complained to himself as he stuck his bleeding hands under his armpits and pressed down on them. “Ow, ow, ow, ow.” Marke remarked as he looked at the pile of deadwood in the fire pit. There was too much; if he started a fire with that pile, the dome would catch and he would end up roasting in his own juices. “Ow, ow, ow, ow.” Marke said as he scooted on his butt to kick the deadwood pile over to the side of the dome with his feet. He carefully selected a few sticks to try and make a small fire closer to the far side of the dome from the pile of fuel.

After a few attempts, Marke decided that his new body didn’t have enough dexterity in his feet to rub two sticks together, so he would have to use his hands. His feet hurt, so Marke took off his shoes. He stared at his shoes for several moments before wincing. “I’m an idiot. Idiot Marke.” The shoes were not stiff soled and were really just leather foot wraps. Marke placed the footwraps on his hands and picked up a small stick. He braced a larger stick with his feet and got down to the business of inventing fire.