<29 July 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>

  [Theo and Julia]

  The sound of birds chirping woke them both. Theo handed Julia a Granola bar and they sat quietly munching their meager breakfast, after this meal they were down to five granola bars. Theo stood stretched and finally spoke.

  "Okay, so plan is water, food, shelter, other. In that order."

  "Any ideas?" Julia asked.

  "No," Theo said sullenly, "lets scour the overlook, and if we don't find anything, we can start to work our way down the trail to the mesa. If you find anything that might be useful, please by all means, bring it back to camp. I don't want us to split up but I think that we have to. If you encounter any danger, you sprint back here, and stay in the wards you set up, and yell as loud as you can. Deal?"

  Julia was hesitant, but she nodded. "I think it is for the best as well. Why don't we plan on meeting up every three hours."

  Theo nodded. "Okay good. Other than the fact that my watch is just as bricked as the phones Why don't we call it noon. I think that is roughly three hours."

  Julia chuckled and put on her best rough-and-tumble-cowboy voice, "See ya at high noon partner."

  They each took a water bottle and a granola bar. Theo, grabbing his empty pack, headed to the north west and Julia went to the north east, they planned to work in line with each other from north to south so that if one of them called for help they could potentially hear better.

  [Theo]

  The first thing Theo did was walk to the cliff and look out over the world. Where yesterday they had tried to see what each mesa held, today he was looking for what was between them. As he looked off the north west corner of the overlook, he saw about a thousand feet below him the lip of the Mesa of Eternal Summer, and roughly a thousand feet below that he saw the valley between the mesas. In that valley a large lake with a river feeding it from the north, and a river leaving it from the south sat.

  "Well at least we have a source of water we can head towards if we have to." Theo muttered to himself. He turned slowly to his right, following the valley that surrounded them, and saw another river that came from the north and flowed out of sight to the east. The trees in the valley looked gargantuan. probably two hundred feet tall, which compared to the ten footers that were growing on the overlook and the fifty footers that he thought he could see on the mesa of summer below him, it was intimidating.

  As he kept turning he noticed a strange plant that he had never seen before, it shimmered in the sun where it hung off the side of the cliff. It seemed to have strange golden berries. It was only a foot or so over the edge so he lay on his stomach and leaned over to pick some berries. The berries were warm to the touch. He didn't recognize them so he simply placed the large berries into his day pack hoping they survived until he and Julia could figure out how to identify them. He looked around for anything else that might be useful, and other than Julia looking around her side of the northern most end of the overlook, he saw nothing so he started south.

  [Julia]

  Julia was admiring the view for a moment, when she noticed Theo lay down and stand back up, he caught sight of her, and then turned south and began working his way to the tree line to search for water and food. She shook herself, "Okay lets get on with it."

  Julia looked around the small field of Prairie grass that comprised the northern most end of the overlook and came to the same conclusion Theo had, that there was nothing they needed at the moment here. So she walked south, taking her time to be on the lookout for plants that could be eaten. As she got into the tree line, she noticed some familiar bushes to her left, and walked over to find a small glade in the trees that had blackberries and strawberries growing there, she picked a small handful of each for herself to eat, and made a mental note of where the plants were.

  "I think we can make jams and jellies down the line to preserve them without much else," she mumbled to herself as she pressed further south. She walked for a dozen or so steps when she saw a strange stone that she was sure was not there the other night.

  "Well we were in a bit of a rush and looking for a camp rather than odd things." Julia said as she walked around the small cube of sapphire blue crystal-like stone. It was six inches to a side and had a beautiful sheen to it. She reached out her hand and touched the stone feeling the same warmth she had felt when she had gained her class. She carried the stone with her as she moved on.

  She continued on and shortly came across a golden spire of crystal almost seven feet tall. Comfortable heat radiated from the crystals and a light, similar to the light of a setting sun emanated from it. "Okay this could not have been here last night. Where the hell is this all coming from?"

  [Theo]

  As he crossed into the tree line and lost sight of Julia, he got nervous. From what he knew of the woman she seemed intelligent and he did not think that anything else would happen, but he could not help but worry for himself and his new compatriot. As he walked, he spotted a bush covered in raspberries.

  "Sweet, I love raspberries!" Theo exclaimed with a smile, pocketing a handful of the berries to munch on as he walked.

  Theo continued his zig-zagging pattern and walked in toward the center of the overlook. He stepped into an oddly square clearing and felt something. He could tell that this land had an effect, but he was not sure what it was. He decided that he would deal with it later and continued his trek.

  The next thing he found several minuets later, was a glowing crystal spire. "This I would have noticed last night."

  Theo walked around the spire, feeling the heat coming off of it. Finally he broke a piece off of the larger spire, and placed it into his pack. He continued his search for water.

  As the first of their check-ins loomed, Theo cut back into the center of the overlook, intending to head to the camp when he came upon a small plinth of stone roughly a foot tall, on top of it seemed to be a slab of obsidian, two inches thick and roughly six by eight in length and width, on the surface a singly sharp angled symbol had been carved.

  He picked the stone up, and the plinth dissolved into the ground. Theo was hesitant, as he had seen Raiders of the Lost Arc one too many times, but nothing happened so he stuck the stone into his pack, and walked into camp at nearly the same time as Julia.

  [Theo and Julia]

  "Hello," Theo said with a grin, "glad we both made it back."

  "Me too," Julia said good naturedly, "So did you find anything?"

  "I did," he said pulling out the strange berries and the weird obsidian stone. "I also found a raspberry patch."

  "Oh, yay!" Julia said with excitement as she pulled out the strange cube placing it on the ground, "I also found a berry patch it had strawberries and blackberries. I also found this."

  "It's kind of odd how much food is in the area isn't it?"

  "I guess, but we are also talking about levels and skills." Julia said, "it seems like this system, whatever it actually is, wants people to get stronger, so it makes a certain amount of sense that it would not want people to struggle to survive."

  "I guess," Theo nodded, "Here is the real question, how long can we live off of berries before we run into severe malnutrition?"

  "I don't know," Julia picked up one of the strange golden berries that Theo had picked up, "what are these?"

  "I have no clue, they were growing on the side of the cliff and looked interesting." Theo said, picking one up himself, he squeezed the berry, it was firm and warm. He squeezed harder and it suddenly burst unleashing a flood of juice and golden flesh over his hand.

  "They seem to be almost like a gourd." Julia said rotating one of the berries centimeters form her eyes. "So do I eat it or should we wait?"

  "Let's wait a while and see if this burst berry does anything strange to my hand, if not then we can go from there."

  a half an hour went by with the two of them chatting about what they should do if they can't find any real water, or if protein becomes an issue. Julia looked at Theo's hand, "It looks like you hand is okay, how does it feel."

  Theo examined his hand, and it felt fine, "I think it's okay. So do we just go big or do we play it safe?"

  "Neither of us played it safe by opting to stay here, so I think we continue the trend and go big," Julia said with a noncommittal shrug.

  Theo handed her a berry, and took one in his own hand. He raised it in the air, "to long life and a life of love long held. May this not be the end."

  They looked at one another, and both popped the berries in their mouth, biting down and filling their mouths with the juice and flesh of the berry.

  "You really are a drama queen aren't you," Julia asked as they prepared to go back to their respective sides of the overlook and continue the search.

  "Yeah, yeah," Theo said, secretly grateful that they had been okay, "how was I supposed to know that it was a delicious?"

  Julia laughed at him and then stretched a little bit. She caught Theo giving her a quick once over, but decided not to say anything. "Alright, break time over! Lets get back to it."

  "Understood," Theo said giving a mock salute, "be safe and holler if you need me."

  Julia turned and disappeared into the woods, with Theo heading the other direction.

  [Julia]

  Julia quickly made her way back to the warm crystal that she had found last and began to work her serpentine pattern back and forth once more. As she walked, wondering if she should gather loose wood for the fire since she was close to camp, she came across a rock that felt off. She looked at the rock, images of mimics flashing through her mind. She picked up a small stone and lobbed it at the strange rock that was nearly as large as she was. There was no sound, and no impact. The small stone sailed through and came out the other side.

  "What the heck," Julia said. She picked up a small stick this time and threw it. It also passed through the stone, "Weird."

  Julia picked up a longer stick and poked the stone, and after a few moments, she realized there was something there, it was smaller than the stone, but not as hard as she would expect the stone to be. After passing the tip of her finger through it rapidly, just to make sure it was not a mimic. Julia stuck her hand completely through what she had determined to be an illusion.

  After several moments of feeling what was inside, the illusion burst and she was left squatting down next to a small leather pack. She picked it up carefully and could feel several items inside of it. She shrugged and tossed the straps over her shoulder deciding to examine it more later.

  As she pondered the strange pack that now resided on her back, she proceeded with her searching, and several minuets later found yet another of the warm glowing crystals. She rested for a moment next to the crystal.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "I wonder if we can move these crystals," She asked out loud to the world around her, "like could they be used to keep us warm if we go to the snow topped mesa?"

  She pondered the crystal for a moment as she basked in the heat it provided, finally she decided to move on, She soon found a patch of wild carrots that straddled the border of the trees and a large field of prairie grass that covered the south of the overlook and much of the way down to the mesa.

  After harvesting several carrots and leaving the rest for later she continued searching and quickly a patch of raspberries that had a single bush of the large golden berries that Theo had brought back. Julia decided it was break time and sat down in the warmth of the sun as she slowly ate raspberries and juicy golden berries.

  [Theo]

  Theo moved quickly back to where he had left off his search. He walked to the edge of the overlook and gazed once more at the fantastic view in front of him. Having learned to look down thanks to the golden berries, he glanced down and noted an entrance to a cave roughly twenty five feet down the cliff. The cave looked like it was roughly circular with a diameter of about eight feet.

  "Spelunking later," He said to himself turning back to the area he had yet to search and gazing out on the southern prairie grass field. He found a cluster of blackberry bushes and picked a handful to munch on as he continued the search.

  He followed the tree line to the midpoint of the overlook before turning back and winding through the prairie grass. after a while he came upon a singular strawberry bush. He stopped and stared at it, as underneath the bush was a massive strawberry that was not connected to the bush.

  "That isn't suspicious at all," Theo said, the sarcasm nearly suffocating him with how thick it was, "okay, first test."

  Theo, in a tried and true method of human kind, threw a rock at the giant strawberry. As soon as it hit the strawberry, the berry burst and dissolved into a shower of golden light, much as the reward chests had the previous day.

  On the ground, Theo found fifteen gold, twenty seven silver, a coil of leather cord, two bone needles, and a bundle of cured meat that Theo estimated to be roughly five pounds.

  "What the hell is this? Is this a stash that someone left behind before all of this? Or is this a new System thing?" Theo was very confused, "If it was here before why did it look like a giant strawberry. It has to be a System thing."

  He thought for a moment, wondering what he should do, or if he should even trust the goods that had just fallen into his possession. Theo shrugged and scooped everything into his pack.

  As he finished and continued, on his way he saw Julia take a seat amongst some bushes and smiled before continuing his search, planning on coming back up her side if he finished first.

  As he worked his way down, he found one more of the large glowing warm crystals, and then he felt more than saw the edge of the land he had claimed. He 'felt' the edge with his mind. He instinctively knew that he could claim a fair bit more land, but he somehow new he would hit a limit.

  He walked over to the edge and heard a strange thrumming noise under him. He looked down and roughly five feet under him was another cave. He lay down to see if he could reach the edge, and it was a couple feet past the tips of his fingers confirming his earlier estimate of five feet.

  "Welp we can try this one and see if it is worth it to look into the others." Theo said before climbing back to his feet. He notes that Julia has risen to her feet once more and was moving towards him once again.

  [Julia]

  After consuming several mixed handfuls of berries, and taking a break while she watched Theo work his way down the west side of the overlook, Julia had come to a conclusion, "Theo sure is nice to look at."

  She had thought this to herself as she watched him dutifully search the rest of his side of the Overlook and then start working back up her side. Now as she watched him out of the corner of her eye, she could not help but find him attractive. "At least the guy I'm stuck with is good looking and seems to be a gentleman. I guess it could be much worse."

  [Theo & Julia]

  "Welp, you find anything good?" Theo asked as he offered her a hand, and pulled her to her feat with ease.

  "I did, I found some strange stash that seemed to have ilusions on it." She patted the rock bag on her shoulders, "this was in it."

  "Interesting," Theo said, then handed her a piece of cured meat from the strawberry stash he had found, "this came from a similar stash that looked like a giant strawberry."

  Julia took a bit out of the meat and let out a happy sound, "it's good."

  Theo smiled and took a piece for himself, "So, now what is the plan?"

  "Well," Julia said, taking another bite from her meat stick, "if we are serious about making a new home here, I think we should get to it."

  "Well that raises questions." Theo said, his brows furrowing slightly with concern, "what's the plan as far houses, and if we build a house, are we living together, or are we doing separate cabins. Do we do one big cabin with two bedrooms? What are your thoughts?"

  Julia blushed slightly at the thought, "I think we should focus on getting a roof over our head for now."

  Theo nodded, "That should be relatively easy, we can do a simple one room cabin with two bunks for now, and then decide what to do from there. Does that sound like a plan?"

  Julia nodded, "I have never done anything like build a cabin before, so you will need to instruct me how and what to do."

  "Honestly, I have a task for you, but you will probably hate it, and it will drive you slowly insane." Theo said with a chuckle.

  "What is it?" Julia asked a note of regret already tinging her voice.

  "We need lots and lots of moss, so I need you to gather it."

  "How much?"

  Theo smiled, "More than you are imagining that is for sure. We nned to pack it between layers of log."

  "Oh," Julia said, deflating somewhat, "so like a A lot, a lot."

  "Yep," Theo said, trying to sound reassuring, "A lot A lot."

  Julia stretched slightly then squared her shoulder, "Well, no time like the present."

  Theo smiled and they both got to work with what time they had left in the day.

  By the time that they were both sitting at the fire in the dark, munching on berries and meat sticks, Theo had managed to feel dozens of trees, and Julia had collected a veritable mountain of moss.

  Theo began to arrange things to go to bed by the fire once again, and Julia was doing the same under the tarp shelter. Theo lay down next to the fire, "Good night Julia."

  "Good Night, Theo." She said, falling asleep to dream of moss.

  <30 July 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>

  The next morning found Theo stretching, as Julia just started crawling out of her shelter. She took a moment to fully wake up, and then the two of them ate some more berries and meat sticks, even dipping into a bundle of meat sticks from Julia's rock bag this time.

  "More moss?" Julia asked, dreading the answer.

  "More moss," Theo confirmed, "I know it sucks, but it will be immensely helpful."

  "Yeah, yeah," Julia said begrudgingly, as she rose to her feet from where she had been sitting and moved to find more moss.

  The entirety of the day was spent by Julia looking for and gathering moss and bringing it back to where Theo was digging.

  Using the Master Tool, Theo was digging down roughly two and a half feet in a ten by twelve area, when he completed that, he gathers stones with flat tops and laid them into the floor. tamping dirt in-between them so they lay relatively flat.

  By the time Julia called it quits he had completed the floor and laide two logs on all sides.

  "Good work Julia." Theo said, stifling a yawn, "sleep good."

  "Mhmm," Julia responded, both of them falling asleep quickly.

  <31 July 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>

  As the sun rose, Julia was already up and about. Rather than gathering moss today, Theo had asked her to help him lay in logs.

  She worked with him, first laying down a layer of moss as Theo cut any grooves or notches that the new log would need. Then the two of them would lift the log into place and thanks to how Theo was cutting them, they stacked together like Lincoln logs.

  They were taking a quick break to eat some of their dwindling meat sticks, when she marveled at the two foot tall walls of the cabin. "Is it normally this easy to do this?"

  "No," Theo said, shaking his head, "I can only assume that it is the stat gains we seem to get for different things making it easier and the titles that we have."

  "Titles?" Julia asked, not really having dug into all of the tabs available to her in her status.

  Theo nodded, "You should go look at the titles that you have."

  Julia shrugged and navigated there. She realized that she had four titles. She looked at each of the blue boxes that hovered in her vision.

  "Hmm," Julia hummed to herself, "I guess that being extra strong, as well as having everything be easier is what we have going for us."

  "That was my guess," Theo said, biting down on one of the big juicy berries.

  "Well, let us not bash what we can take advantage of," Julia said with a smile, she teasingly pushed Theo's shoulder, "get up you big lug, we have things to do."

  "Big lug huh?" Theo asked with a smile, "I guess I can be rather lug-like. But I do have bad news for you."

  "Oh and what is that?" Julia asked.

  "We need more moss."

  Julia let out an exasperated groan and trudged off to find more.

  That night they ate in a state of exhaustion and then fell asleep in mere moments.

  <01 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>

  [Julia]

  As Julia worked alongside Theo, packing moss into the gaps between the logs to provide some level of insulation, she wondered at what had happened.

  "I am sitting next to a man that I have known for roughly seventy two hours, helping him build a cabin that we will share, because we are trapped several hundred miles from anything even remotely resembling another human being." Julia could feel herself start to panic.

  Theo's voice cut through her thoughts, "You okay?"

  Julia nodded, "Just... letting reality hit me a little too hard."

  "I know what you mean." Theo said, his tone somewhat dark.

  Julia knew that those words were not meant to anger her, but she felt a hot flash of anger. "How could you know what I mean?!"

  Theo looked a little surprised. Julia continued, "How could you know huh? What do you think you know about me. I met you like less than a week ago. We are trapped out here! Did you think that you were just so smooth that I was swept off of my feet at your presence. I..."

  She trailed off as she blushed, realizing that she was shouting at the top of her lungs.

  Theo stood up. "I think that you might need some time to yourself. I will go ahead and take a walk."

  Without another word he stood and disappeared into the woods. Julia, for the second time, sat down and cried.

  [Theo]

  As he left, he heard Julia start to cry. Part of him wanted to go and try and comfort her, but he also knew that she was more or less right. He didn't know her all that well. And she did not know him all that well. While they were both stuck out here, and the world was essentially an unknown at this point.

  Theo sighed, He wanted to be able to work with Julia and as it stood he thought they could end up being friends, but if she was prone to these outbursts...

  Theo was interrupted mid thought, when a strange and nightmarish creature that looked like bundles of fleshy threads stepped our from the woods and spoke.

  "I have been tasked to speak with you, System User Theo Oskar Sorrenson."