Chapter 2

To Know; To Endure

Opening the bag, Jay lay out all the things he had gotten in an arc around him, spread the things out for easy inspection. He began looking from the left.

A knife with a wooden handle, its short blade, less than a finger long and not dull nor sharp, looked like something more suited at a dinnertable than for combat. It was barely a weapon. Jay reached out to pick up the knife, but it slipped in his grasp and it fell back to the ground. He tried picking it up and gripping it again but not long after it was in his palm it slid from his grasp. It was almost as if his hands were both too weak and too clumsy to hold the hilt.

He let the knife be and continued his inspection. The next thing was a length of thin thread with a needle attached to it, presumably for mending clothes. There was nothing special about the needle or the thread and Jay soon lost interest.

The next thing was better, it was something he knew he needed: a canteen filled with water. He had seen that he had a stat for Hydration, which meant he had to drink water or else he would get some negative status effect like the Exhaustion he got earlier. View Hydration, he thought, needing to know before he tried drinking water how much he got from a specific amount of water. A Screen opened before him.

Hydration (Max) (% Consumption)

306 (450) (99.97%)

Explain Hydration, Claudine, he thought after looking at the stat. It seemed to have decreased more than Stamina, if not proportionally so. There must be a difference between Stamina and Hydration.

Hydration is filled by drinking liquids containing water. For every minute of active movement you spend 2 points of hydration. While resting you spend 6 points per hour. Drinking water-based liquids or Hydration Potions are the best way to Hydrate yourself, Claudine explained.

Thank you, Claudine, Jay thought.

The hollowed out cap of the canteen had to serve as his measuring apparatus and he filled it to the brim then swallowed all the water and opened his Hydration Screen again. Waiting for a while, hydration rose by a total of forty points. And he had at least twenty canteen-caps of water left in the flask, he guessed with some certainty. Water didn't seem to be of the utmost importance. He relegated the gathering of water towards the bottom of the growing list of things he had to do only to survive.

Continuing the inspection of things, he picked up a little box and opened its lid. Inside were nine neatly separated match-sticks, fairly thick, seemingly for use to start a camp-fire or something. That was the conclusion he came to at least. He close the lid, feeling the box with his fingers and noticing that the bottom was especially rough. He figured that was where he had to rub the match-stick's tip for the friction to make it catch fire. It seemed that was also something he hadn't thought of: he probably had to keep warm or he would freeze to death or get a cold or something. This place was almost too much like reality for his liking.

The last thing he looked at, and the last thing that had been in the scruffy yellow bag was the now nineteen remaining hard round biscuits. He picked up one and looked at it, trying to figure out what it was made from. Nothing came to mind, so he broke off a piece of bread and chewed it; its sandy texture not pleasant, but not bad either. He pushed the other piece of biscuit into his mouth, chewed a couple of times and washed it down with another small cup of water. The biscuits tasted like rough paper, but did the job, so he couldn't complain.

The last thing to inspect was the scruffy looking yellow bag. It had a slightly ripped seam on the side and the opening's cloth was slowly unraveling. A short, rough rope was the only thing to close the bag with. In conclusion, the bag was probably going to fall apart if used to carry anything heavier than what had already been in it.

Claudine, since this is a game world, is there any way of storing these things except carrying them in this scruffy bag? Jay thought.

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. Use 'View Inventory' to open up your Inventory Space.

Thank you Claudine, Jay thought, View Inventory.

A screen with lots of little squares opened up, ten squares by ten squares, making the slots total a hundred. Jay pushed one square with his finger experimentally. As if a cabinet door was opening in thin air, a compartment that Jay could almost crawl into opened up close to eye-level. There was a distinctly alien feel about the opening as it seemingly stretching into a deep deep darkness. Jay stretched out a hand and reached into the opening and light poured out from the corners of what he now saw was a cubical compartment made from nothing he could identify; a sort of see-through, yet pitch black wall gave off illumination to show what was inside the cubical.

This inventory system felt natural for some reason, strictly contradicting his inner turmoil about how weird it was. He looked at the inventory screen again and saw something at the top. A number zero and a number ten inside round brackets.

Carrying (kilograms) (Carrying Capacity)

0 (10kg)

It seemed his Inventory could carry ten kilogram of weight because of something. He didn't know what, but there had to be a correlation with his Stats somewhere. He didn't really care what it was right now, however. His life was at stake here and he couldn't move to save his life, literally. It was what he had to prioritize. He tossed in the canteen filled with water, the little knife, the thread and needle and twelve small biscuits. He put the rest of the biscuits in the yellow bag, figuring it was easiest to have some of the biscuits available and eat them while he thought about what to do next. Closing the Inventory Slot he had just used, he opened another slot and piled his fifty copper coins in a space of its own, a place where he would only keep money.

Before he put in each item in the Inventory he had checked the increasing weight to learn how much each thing weighed. Before he had the Observe skill, he had to figure out things for himself. The biscuits weighed 50 gram each, the knife weighed 312 gram, the water canteen weighed 2403, the box of matches weighed 88 gram and the thread and needle weighed 13 gram, totaling 3.416kg. He had only used about a third of his total carrying capacity, which was good. He might need to stock up on food and water while going somewhere, and if a 50g of the hard traveling biscuit gave five stamina, then he could easily see how much he had to eat if he wanted to spend some time being active.

It felt more and more like his life had become a struggle to just barely get food enough not to starve. It was so weird, he had thought life here would be easy, or had he? He thought he had thought that, but couldn't remember if he actually had. It was something like the lingering afterimage of a thought more than something he actually remembered. Well, it didn't really matter right now, he had to figure out what to do next, now that he had checked through everything he owned and analyzed what was most important for him to survive right now: food to consume while training his Strength.

Or had he checked everything he owned? He looked down on his feet clad in what could only be called the inbred child of a shoe and a sock. Jay loosened the string that held the sock-shoe above his ankle. The shoe—or was it a sock?—was made from a rough cloth made from threads that should actually be called thin ropes and the inside of the shoe was clad in a softer fabric. Not really well made, the shoe was more like a bag for the foot than an actual shoe, but it couldn't be called a sock either because of its hard, yet supple, exterior. Ping!

Through the focused observation of things in your surroundings you have gained the skill Observe. You have earned 15 Experience Points.

What? He thought, Claudine, what is this? I learned the skill you talked about earlier without buying a Skill Scroll.

Yes, Claudine answered. It is possible to learn Skills by yourself and its even possible to create your own Skills or Spells. At Creation every Player gets a singular Skill representing how they attributed their initial Stats too. It is a Passive Skill that represents the Player's initial character.

What's mine? Jay asked, then thought it was pointless to ask and just opened the Skill Screen. View Skills.

Skills

[Passive Support] The Polymorphic Mind Level 1 (3%) Having your mind focused only on itself, even to the detriment of your body, has given you the ability to learn new things at an accelerated rate. Learning Skills is 50% faster. You earn 50% more experience in both Stats and Skills. Increases when ???

[Active Support] Observe Level 1(0%): 10MP Through your careful observation of everything you have gained the skill to see more clearly what something is. Gives fairly detailed information about anything you look upon. Details increase with Skill Level, higher Perception and Intelligence. Skill increases with use.

Your Special Skill is the Polymorphic Mind. It increases...

Jay interrupted, thank you Claudine, but I already checked it myself. His skill 'The Polymorphic Mind' seemed like it was very beneficial, yet maybe all Special Skills were like this? Maybe everyone got a very good Special Skill that gave extraordinary benefits to the Player? So, he didn't really know if the Skill was very good comparatively, yet it didn't matter, the Skill was still amazing.

While looking at the skills, he ate six biscuits and felt his Stamina rise; his previous Exhaustion had abated. It was time to leave the Beginner's Guild and look around the city for anything he could do or use to gain more Strength. He checked his Health.

Health (Max) (% Regenerated/min)

42 HP (150 HP) (1.06%/min +2HP/min for 33min)

Hm, that is new, he thought. He had gotten a regeneration from somewhere, probably the food, but he had to check it. Opening his Inventory he picked out four more biscuits and used Observe.

Small Traveling Biscuit (50g) (Expires in: 199 days 22 hours) The hard bread made from corn is barely palatable, yet edible. It is a good bread for long travels because of how long it takes before it become inedible. Increases Stamina by 5. Increases HP Regeneration by 2HP per minute for 5 minutes.

Observe, he directed his vision to his shoe-sock-thing.

Broken Raggedy Cloth Shoe (172g) Defense: 0 Durability: 5 / 12 This barely recognizable shoe is made from discarded ropes and cloth found in the refuse at the docks. It's at best able to help you not be hurt when walking on rocky ground. It's foul odor will attract rats and other small critters.

What the..? Jay thought, that's just messed up. I'm starting with things a beggar would discard as useless?

Yes, Jay, Claudine said. Currently you are wearing things that could be considered beggar-garb.

I truly started with nothing, huh?

Yes, Jay, Claudine answered. Every existence starts with nothing and ends with nothing. It's the nature of reality.

Jay didn't need the philosophy lesson. Especially from an artificial intelligence guide, but he didn't say that and tried to not even think it. He had better things to do. Now he just had to figure out if he should gather lots of food first or train his Strength until he at least could move around without being completely exhausted. Best to get food first and train after knowing how much food he could gather and calculate how much training that food would enable him to do.

Slowly standing, he leaned against the wall once more and shuffled towards the exit. It took a while, but he didn't mind. Walking, taking the time to use Observe on things in his surrounding, he found nothing of particular interest. Not even the players looked at with Observe was interesting since everyone in the room was the beginners of beginners, like he himself was.

After a few minutes of slowly walking and resting in intervals he reached the outside. Holding on to a metal ring attached to the large wooden door he looked out, seeing for the first time that he was on a hill overlooking the parts of the city Garam's Gorge.

He sat down a few paces from the large gateway and rested for a while. He now had nothing to hang onto. If he wanted to go into the city he had to use nothing but his own muscles. He didn't know if he would be able to, knowing how much it took out of him to walk while leaning against the wall. Maybe this was a good place to stop and train his Strength until he had 3 in Strength. He had already almost gained fifty percent Experience in his Strength Stat.

It was the best thing he could think of doing, but this time he wanted to know if using his Stamina was relative to how much effort he put into his actions. He picked up a small stone close to his fist in size. Observe.

Granite Stone (361g) A regular stone.

Should be about the right weight, Jay thought, checking his Stamina and then lifting the stone from the ground to above his head and down to the ground again. He repeated this for about ten minutes and checked how much Stamina he had lost. It seemed that there was a relative scale where he would use less Stamina if he moved part of his body. He then checked his Strength and noticed that he had not gained a single percentile; that was a problem. He had hoped he could use some lesser way of training to gain Strength, but it seemed like he had to push himself to his limits to actually gain experience in a Stat.

His Stamina was now 32, and with twelve biscuits left he could raise it by 60 more, making him have a potential total of 92 Stamina before he was back to starving. He made the choice of eating two more biscuits and then stood, moving his legs back and forth to stretch and then bent down to the ground again, starting the same leg exercise he used inside the Beginner's Guild. He spent thirty minutes doing this and periodically watched his Strength as it rose. Ping!

Endurance has increased by 1. Through constant exhausting work you have gained one point of Endurance.

Oh! he never thought that he might gain in other Stats than Strength when training like he did, but it seemed like he was gaining Experience in many different Stats at the same time. It was a great revelation, which slightly lessened the frantically panicking part of his mind he had shoved at the back of his thoughts as to not be disturbed by its presence. Endurance should have something to do with Stamina if my logic isn't flawed. View Stamina.

Stamina (Max) (% Consumption)

24 (90) (99.95%)

He had been right. Stamina had gained 20 points to its Max from just one point of Endurance. Maybe this was worth pursuing? If he had high enough Stamina he might be able to spend a lot of time without bothering about eating and then replenish his Stamina in one large meal. Maybe Strength also gave points to Stamina? He remembered having 65 points of Stamina when he first checked his Status Screen, and he had only gained one Strength and one Endurance with his relentless exercise, which meant that Strength most likely had given the other 5 points. Ping!

Intelligence has increased by 1. Your constant analyzing and tries to understand your world has increased your Intelligence by one.

Woah, that's great, Jay thought. He had not thought he would get such an influx of Stats when he had only focused on gaining more Strength. It was rather unsettling actually, could it be possible to train his Strength in a faster or better way? His Intelligence had 13 more points in it than his Strength, and they had both increased by one from relatively the same amount of time. Though his Strength was only three percent away from increasing, it was still an absurd thing to happen.

Reasonably he had to believe that the difficulty to gain a Stat was exponential because otherwise you could just train for Stats instead of hunting creatures to Level up and gain Stats. Or maybe that was exactly how it was? This was something he had to understand. If it was possible and easier to raise his Stats when they were low it might be worthwhile to wait before using any Stats he gained by leveling.

Eating five more biscuits and thinking about the implications of Stat-experience he looked around. Claudine, where is the closest place where I can buy food?

It should be just down the road in front of you and to the left, Claudine said. There is a small shop for those the Beginner's Guild help, meaning those of Level 20 and lower.

It was not far away, or so he told himself. Twenty meters to a wall he could lean upon, then fifty meters going around the building for support. He hoped there would be walls to lean on all the way to the store.

Not wanting to sit around anymore, feeling it was best to spend his time actively pursuing his goals, he stood, took a step away from the wall and almost fell flat on his face again, only remaining standing because he had leaned his body back toward the wall close by. He tried again. Slowly pushing his feet against the ground, he went forth again to cross the twenty meter. He shuffled for a few paces, but his legs started feeling like they were made from jelly; they were shaking now and he was not even half-way to the other wall. Damn this weak body, he thought, pressing forward by sheer willpower. And fell flat on his face.

Fall Damage -5HP You are Stunned.

View Status, he thought, feeling it was useless to move at the moment, embracing the humiliation of being weak, feeding his inner fire with it.

Stunned for 10 seconds Decrease Movement Speed by 20% Decrease Flexibility by 20% Decrease Attack Speed by 40%

Not too bad an effect, I can just wait it out, he thought.

Yes, Jay, Claudine said.

Ignoring the fact that his guide was trying to have a stilted conversation with him, Jay tried to get up from the ground, but fell back to the ground after getting up on his knees. Damn it. It was time to crawl again.

He crawled the rest of the way to the wall he wanted to reach. When he had almost reached the wall a message popped up. Ping!

Because of your extreme lack in both Strength and Endurance you are almost unable to move your body, but your enduring will to not give up has given you the ability to combine your will and strength to move. You have learned the Skill 'Enduring Willpower' You have earned 30 Experience Points.

Willpower has increased by 1. Your constant use of Willpower to support your Strength has increased your Willpower by one.

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