Reincarnated in Quality Assurance

When the sun was directly overhead, Marke arrived at a flat area full of berry bushes. Birds flew and hopped from bush to bush, stuffing their beaks with berries. Stuffing their beaks with Marke’s berries. Stealing Marke’s berries. Marke let out a wordless scream and ran at the nearest birds. He thrashed his arms around, trying to hit the birds off the bushes and out of the air. The birds scattered, then settled down on the other bushes. Marke grabbed berries as fast as he could and shoved them is his mouth, barely chewing. The berries were similar to raspberries but more sour, with the same annoying seeds. Once the bush was bare, Marke ran screaming to the next bunch of birds on a bush. This continued for multiple bushes before Marke remembered the boxes that started popping up recently. He focused on a berry.

Berry

Diuretic (mild)

“I don’t know what that means. Not Poison though.” Marke said. He went back to eating berries. Once he was full, tied his shirt into a bag and collected all the remaining berries. He finished clearing the last bush right as the sun dimmed. In the sudden chill, he looked up at the sun. The area with the bushes had no trees, so Marke could see the slow-moon eclipse clearly. He managed to put a hand in front of his eyes before the sun came back out to try and blind him.

Level + 1

New traits available

New skills available

Stat points available

Marke stared at the message box for several minutes. “I am feeling overwhelmed again. Priority check. Food, water, no shelter, haven’t filled my traits, haven’t looked at skills, need to spend a stat point. I know that I can probably build another branch dome. I should spend that stat point first. Assign stat points.”

Strength: 1 (+)

Agility: 1 (+)

Endurance: 2 (+)

Intelligence: 1 (+)

Soul: 1 (+)

Marke tapped the plus for the Strength stat. “Assign traits.” Marke sat on the ground with his berry bag shirt in his lap while he scrolled the traits. He chose “Eclipse Sight” and pulled up his traits box.

Traits: 2/4

True Soul – See the Truth

Eclipse Sight – See the light and the dark

“Cross your fingers for seeing in the dark, people. Assign skills.” A new box popped up. The list of skills was similar to the list of traits, but many of them had a ‘(locked)’ modifier and listed an ‘unlock requirements:’ section. Marke was disappointed that there wasn’t a “Fire Magic” skill listed. He read through the unlock requirements of several skills but got bored with the inundation of information for which he lacked context. “Maybe I’ll just flip a coin for one of the unlocked skills. Now where did I put that coin of mine?” Marke amused himself by checking his pants for pockets that might contain coins. He noticed a twig on the ground in the shape of a ‘Y’ and decided to use that instead. “Ok, right twig wins: basket weaving. Left twig wins: intimidate.” He gripped each end of the ‘Y’ and pulled it apart. The twig broke high up on the left side. “And basket weaving is the winner. Yippy.” He tapped “Basket weaving” in the skill list.

The berry bushes began to glow a dim red. Marke blinked a few times, then focused on a single bush.

Berry Bush

Basket Material (poor)

“Neat.” Marke looked around to see if anything else lit up. Nothing did. “Anyway, I need shelter for the night. Should I weave a basket to put over me like a tent? Those bushes look tough and prickly and my hands are still shredded. Maybe I can find an abandoned den or something? Oh shoot, are there bears?” Marke looked down nervously at his shirt-bag full of berries. “I’ll have to hang this up high and hope it’s still there in the morning. Can I sleep in a tree?” Marke surveyed the nearby trees. “Maybe? I could wedge some branches together to make a platform, but I have no confidence of not rolling off in the night. If my new trait lets me see in the dark, maybe I can just walk through the night and sleep during the day tomorrow.” With no better ideas, Marke resumed his downhill walk.

Marke was pleased to find that he could mostly see in the dark after night fell. He wasn’t entirely sure if his new trait improved his sight because the slow moon was still in the sky and glowed brightly. Marke was a bit surprised when the fast moon rose and added its glow to the sky. “I guess I was too preoccupied yesterday to chart the orbits of the moons. This moon sure is fast.” As Marke walked further into the forest, the slow moon stayed behind him and the fast moon raced across the sky to set in front of him. Marke was walking along the side of a stream when the light of the slow moon winked out.

Marke spun around to face the slow moon. The moon was still hanging in the sky, but it was a dim and dark red color. Shocked, Marke nearly screamed when a box popped up.

New Title: Gaze upon the Nightly Eclipse. Shadow of the World.

Hidden reward for Soul Eclipse: Gain a level for each nightly eclipse you could observe, even if you are asleep.

Level + 1

New traits available

New skills available

Stat points available

Marke waved the boxes away and continued watching the moon. The moon did not show any sign of lighting back up, so Marke looked around at the trees near him. He climbed into one that had branches hanging over the stream. From one of the overhanging branches, he hung his berry bag-shirt. He climbed a bit higher into the tree and tried to wedge himself in place. He didn’t feel very secure, so he passed the time watching the moon and scrolling the new traits and skills. He nearly fell out of the tree when the moon lit back up. “I’m not having fun camping tonight.” He said into the darkness.