Chapter 6: A Need for Strength

  Jack woke up the next morning, tired and sore. The night was rough, and he kept waking at every noise. The image of those creatures fighting the other day kept replaying in Jack’s head. He wasn’t interested in being some giant snake’s afternoon meal.

  He needed to get stronger. The easiest way to get stronger was to band together with others, but he was alone. The closest thing to another human that Jack had come across so far was that gorilla-man-creature that he wasn’t about to approach willingly. The only things left that Jack had control over were his level, stats, and skills.

  So far, gaining skills was something that Jack was doing well. However, he only managed to increase his stats a few times, and he was still level one. He wasn’t sure what would happen when he did level up, but he was less than twenty percent away from finding out.

  He started the day the same way he did the previous, with his strength training. He wasn’t intending to make it a habit, but it was the only sure way Jack knew that could help to increase at least one of his stats. This time he paid closer attention to his Stamina as he worked. Every time it dipped close to zero, he would start to get tired and had to take a small break as it built back up. It made the training take longer, but he was soon presented with what would hopefully soon be a familiar message.

  +1 Str.

  With the workout done, Jack started going through the collection of fruits that he gathered on his trek. He hadn’t tried any of them yet. He never learned foresting skills when he was a kid and had no idea how to tell if any or all might have been poisonous. Picking up a large yellow fruit that he only had a few of, Jack took a small bite of it. It wasn’t sweet like he was expecting, instead it tasted close to a spicy eggplant. It wasn’t bad, but Jack put them aside to try cooking with them later.

  Next, he picked up a small purple and red spotted berry. It was tart, but Jack ate a bunch of these without having any issues. It was the third fruit, a blue and green melon-like fruit, that Jack bit into when Jack got his first message from the system.

  *Status Effect: Food Poisoning*

  -1 health per minute until poisoning is cured.

  Symptoms gained: Diarrhea, Nausea

  Jack was afraid that something like this would happen, but it wasn’t as bad as he had feared it could be, excluding the symptoms. Several uncomfortable hours and Heal spells later, and Jack was able to recover from the poisoning.

  *Status Effect: Food Poisoning (cured)*

  +1 Con.

  “Well, that’s one way to increase my constitution,” Jack said removing the rest of the blue-green melon fruit from his bag. “Not one I want to repeat though. Last resort, I suppose. Hopefully I can find a different way to raise that stat, and I still need to try and raise my level today.”

  Looking at the sky, most of the day appeared to have passed but there was still some time left before it would get dark. Picking up his spear and eating another of the cooked fish, Jack set out once again into the jungle, this time looking for things to hunt.

  He moved cautiously, not wanting to alert anything to his presence. As he walked through the jungle, Jack found his feet and body were moving more naturally to reduce the sounds as he passed. Up until now, Jack only noticed a small increase in ability as he gained skills in something, but now he was starting to see a significant change.

  It wasn’t long before he came across a small lizard creature. It was sitting on a branch but hadn’t spotted Jack yet. Jack took aim with his spear and launched it at the small lizard, missing it completely. It scurried away as Jack went to collect his spear again. Still, it was only the first throw, and Jack was certain he would find something again.

  *~*

  Fifteen more failures. Five times the creature spotted Jack before he got close and ran, eight times Jack threw his spear and missed, causing the animal to run as well, and twice Jack managed to find a large green beetle only to have it vanish right in front of him. Jack still didn’t know how it managed to do that, other than being a strange ability of that creature. Afterall, if he could use magic then why wouldn’t other creatures be able to? Jack couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous of the ability.

  It was starting to get late again, and Jack was heading back to Base Camp when he came across another of the Umbral Skee he encountered before. He recognized it instantly and decided to give it one last attempt. He was familiar with this one and felt certain he could take it, but still didn’t want to take any more chances than necessary.

  This time Jack approached behind the Skee; his Stealth skill helped him get close without it noticing. Once he was close enough, Jack thrust his spear straight down into one of the Skee’s back leg. The strike pierced through the Skee’s leg, pinning him to the ground. It let out a scream that came out as more of a hiss and tried to snap at Jack, but Jack held it in place with the spear. For a moment they were locked in a standstill. Neither able to do much. Eventually, Jack took the chance and pulled his spear out of the Skee and immediately brought it back down again as the Skee attempted to escape. This time he brought it down on the Skee’s head, killing it. Two strikes were all it took to handle these at his current ability.

  As the fight came to an end, Jack could feel the familiar energy, he had learned was experience now flow into him from the Skee. With a thought Jack looted the creature as the System prompt appeared and received another portion of Skee meat and fur. Jack pulled up his messages hoping for some more good news.

  *You had Sneak Attack Umbral Skee*

  *Umbral Skee is crippled*

  *You have critically struck the Umbral Skee*

  *You have killed Umbral Skee*

  - Experience gained

  +1 Dex.

  Jack had to stop himself from letting out a whoop of joy, but he didn’t get to enjoy the moment for long. Almost immediately, Jack heard something moving fast through the underbrush towards him. Jack jumped to the side as he heard it running towards him, barely avoiding it as he felt something rush by. At first, Jack didn’t see anything. He only knew it was there by the plants parting as it moved. He could hear it scraping and moving as it repositioned itself, but nothing was there that Jack could see. As Jack tried to find the creature, a strange distortion appeared through the air, and a black tentacle came flying at Jack.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was too fast to dodge, but Jack managed to move his arm in the tentacle’s path causing it to wrap around his forearm. It tried to pull him, but Jack brought his spear down onto the rope-like appendage, pinning it to the ground. It let go of Jack immediately, but the spear still held the creature in place. It struggled to get free but wasn’t able to budge from the hold. Jack left the spear in the ground and ran over to the invisible creature. Using the tentacle and distortion to trace the location of the creature, Jack ran up and proceeded to punch and kick the creature repeatedly.

  It frantically tried to escape, but the spear held it in place, not letting it get away from Jack. He wasn’t sure how long he punched the creature. At first, adrenaline and fear took over and his attacks were fast and frantic. But as the creature stopped moving and the danger seemed to pass, Jack slowly regained control. He thought about hitting it a few more times just in case it was just pretending to be dead, but then realized he could check his System Notifications to confirm.

  *You have dodged Triliax charge*

  *You have been hit by Triliax tongue*

  *You have pinned Triliax *

  *You have punched Triliax *

  Those messages went on for a while. Jack quickly dismissed them until he got to the ones he cared about. Jack took the moment to set his filters for his combat notification. He didn’t need a breakdown of every action.

  *You have killed Triliax*

  - Experience gained

  +1 Perc.

  *Skill gained: Pinning Thrust- Spear (Beginner)*

  Active Spear skill: can only be used with a spear

  Chance to Pin target to nearby object, when successful hit

  *Skill gained: Martial Proficiency (Beginner)*

  Who needs weapons, you are the weapon

  Damage increased when fighting without a weapon

  Reduced Stamina use when in combat

  “That was its tongue?” Jack exclaimed, casting his Heal spell on his arm. “Thing hurt like a son-of-a…” Now that the creature, a Triliax according to the System, was dead, Jack could see it better. It still blended in with the environment, but it wasn’t invisible like before. Whatever skill it had to hide it must have stopped working upon death. The Triliax was a reptile-like creature about the size of a small dog and had four eyes and three forward facing horns. Its skin, though not invisible anymore, had a natural camouflage to it.

  Jack looted the Triliax, getting several chunks of the lizard meat, and several scraps of the lizard hide as well. Pulling the spear from the ground, Jack inspected it for damage. It was starting to show wear and tear but was still holding together for now. Something in the creation process must have played a part when he made it that was more than just the parts and pieces that Jack had used, but he couldn’t tell what it was. There was no way the spear would have held up this well otherwise. Jack needed to experiment with creating different things to get a better understanding of this phenomenon, but it was one more thing that Jack needed to learn about.

  Jack could feel that he was getting close to his first level. It was an innate feeling like a chamber inside of him that was slowly filling up. He knew that he only needed a little more and then could reach the next level.

  Getting excited about the possibility of leveling up, Jack continued hunting. He was at it for a while, unable to find anything, when a thought occurred to him. He took out one of the Skee’s meats from his bag and placed it in the open. Then Jack hid in some of the nearby bushes with his spear already poised. He waited, remaining very still, as the sounds of the jungle slowly began to fill the air. He didn’t realize how quiet it had become while he was fighting the Triliax, but now the jungle was once again abuzz with the sounds of insects, birds and other animals. Still, Jack waited.

  Jack waited to the point that he thought he was wasting his time and should head back to Base Camp. However, one thing this place taught Jack, was the value of patience. Sure enough, he once again saw a familiar slight blur approach the bait, but this time Jack was ready for it. He waited until he was certain it was right in front of him. Then in an explosion of speed, Jack launched himself at the creature, thrusting his spear into the Triliax. He struck out at the Triliax several times using the bait as a reference and trying to hit its head.

  It was only when Jack saw the System Message confirming the creature’s death that Jack stopped. He couldn’t see the creature well enough to be certain and wasn’t about to let it use its tongue on him again.

  *You have sneak attacked Triliax, Critical Strike*

  *You have killed Triliax*

  - Experience gained

  +1 Int.

  *Level up!: Level 2*

  +2 unallocated Stat. points

  *Quest Complete: Moving on up*

  Reach level 2 – completed

  Reward: Choose one of the following

  -Random Spell Book

  -Random Skill Book

  -Random Knowledge Book

  The last message was new to Jack. Up until now, the only time he was given a choice was during the transition to this world. The message waited patiently for Jack to make a choice but didn’t provide any further information on the nature of the rewards. “I get the difference between a spell book and a skill book in theory,” Jack muttered. “One is related to magic and spells, and the other is related to physical skills, but what is a knowledge book?” Again, no response came.

  Jack was half tempted to choose that one just to find out, but ultimately, he chose the spell book. He hadn’t had any issues so far getting new skills, and with it being random, the book may not be useful to Jack in his current circumstances. The knowledge book was the same, in that while Jack wanted to learn more about this new world and this sounded like it would help, it was still random and for all he knew, it could just be knowledge on making socks. Jack’s Heal spell was already invaluable to him, and unlike skills, he hadn’t learned any new spells since arriving. He was hoping the spell book might be of help with that, if only a little.

  *Item gained: Spell Book of Simple Flame

  Uses 1/1: Used to learn the spell Simple Flame

  Requirements: Intelligence 5

  Jack reached into his bag and confirmed the book was already waiting for him there. He wanted to pull it out and use it immediately, but he wasn’t safe where he was at, if any place could be called safe in this world. Jack looted the Triliax, gaining more chunks of meat and hide, and hurried back to his camp.

  Once he was back at Base Camp, he checked the System about the level up notification. He didn’t feel much different afterwards, but his stats had almost doubled, and now he had two unallocated stat points to spend, but he wasn’t sure where to put the points. Part of him wanted to put it in his physical stats because those stats might help him the most right now, but he had already begun learning how to raise those regularly, and his mental stats, particularly Intelligence and Charisma had barely increased at all since he began this journey. Ultimately, he decided to split the points between two, adding one to Constitution and one to Intelligence. With that done, he looked over his stats page at the changes he made.

  Name: Jack Masters Level: 2 Experience: 0.3%

  Class:? Path:?

  Health: 320 Stamina: 254  Mana: 256

  Strength(Str):4

  Dexterity(Dex):5

  Constitution(Con):6

  Intelligence(Int):7

  Wisdom(Wis):4

  Charisma(Char):3

  Perception(Perc):6

  Luck:0

  It was the end of his third day in this new world. He hoped that his family and friends didn’t think he had died, but they probably did at this point. Jack wasn’t sure if that was better than them thinking he had left them without a single goodbye.

  There was still the chance that what Jasper told him was true, and he might see them again one day. There was no telling when that might be, but if he was ever going to get a chance, he needed to get stronger. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out the spell book.

  *Would you like to use Spell Book of Simple Flame?*

  Uses remaining 1/1 remaining

  “Yes,” Jack confirmed. The book in his hand disintegrated and Jack felt a pressure hit his head like how that truck hit his car and immediately blacked out.