The Way Ahead

With a groan, Edwin pulled himself into a sitting position. He had managed to not fall asleep but had still laid on the ground for the better part of an hour before moving. Vaguely wondering if laying on the ground in exhaustion counted as a habit at this point, and if it were a good or bad one if it were, he cautiously approached the edge, even more conscious about ensuring he didn’t slip on the stone now that he had personal experience as to just how deadly it could be.

Heh. Caution: Stone slippery when wet.

Crouching down, Edwin ran a finger along one of the new divots in the stone, marking where the Stonehide Bear had dug its claws in as an attempt to slow itself. They had to be an inch deep, and stretched for a good ten to fifteen meters before ending suddenly at the cliffside, itself seeming to be missing a few stones compared to its previous shape. Whistling to himself that the bear’s claws were that hard and sharp, not to mention just how massive it must have been for its struggles to be unsuccessful.

Level Up! Visualization

Edwin rose, cautiously keeping his balance, and returned to less treacherous terrain. Following his tracks back was hardly difficult, the wake of destruction left by his former adversary- yeah, he liked thinking about it like that- leaving a trail clear as day.

Level Up! Survival

Interesting. Survival seemed to level based on general survival and wilderness competence, like tracking, but only decreased food and water dependence? Or did skills have other hidden effects they didn’t display? Now that he had a bit of time, he might be able to poke around a little bit, though without proper tools it might yet prove difficult to adequately measure. Though if it was subtly providing knowledge on survival tips, how could you accurately measure that? Maybe a test involving a ton of questions on survival tips and tricks, taken after every level up, so long as that leveling wasn’t triggered by learning anything survival based… where would the knowledge come from, though? And would it be directly downloaded into the brain or something? Further testing was obviously required, but how?

Idly, Edwin ran his hand over the roots of a tree that had been uprooted rather than splintered by the creature. Did the bear leave this kind of a path everywhere it went? It couldn’t have. There was no way that kind of thing was sustainable from a predator. Actually, how did that big of a creature ever survive? How did something the size of a truck get enough food to live? Maybe it spent most of its time in a hibernation-like state, only waking up when it sensed prey large enough to bother with, or it was otherwise disturbed? With magic it was probably possible. Though he had to be careful when just blanketing anything strange with the explanation of ‘magic,’ because that way lay superstition.

Arriving at the chear grove, he grabbed a couple of the fruits and started munching on them. Now that he was no longer famished, he could properly savor the flavors present, and it actually was pretty good, especially for a wild fruit. Despite its appearance, the texture of its flesh was closer to that of a watermelon and the flavor was vaguely citrus-y, though it also reminded him of a plum. On a whim, he turned one over in his hand, studying it.

Identify.

When there was no response, he frowned, the motion making a bit of milky fruit juice dribble down his chin, which he quickly wiped off. Why hadn’t that worked? Did he do it wrong? Focusing on himself, he tried triggering the skill again.

Level Up! Identify

Infant Extraplanar Human

Oh come on. That’s so singularly unhelpful, he mentally grumbled, and I thought I fixed that besides.

A quick glance at his Status confirmed it still showed that he was supposed to be a 22 year old Extraplanar Human. Unless 22 was still an infant on this planet? That didn’t match up. Still, it did show that Identify wouldn’t always be fully accurate per se. That information was worthwhile. Anyway. Having confirmed that he was using Identify correctly, he tried again targeting the chear. After a notification once more failed to pop up, Edwin ran over the possibilities.

Okay… hypothesis: it only works on animals. So I need to try and find something that isn’t an animal which it does work on, or an animal which it doesn’t.

Attempting to Identify the ground at his feet failed, as did trying to target the insects buzzing around. Even a bird, perched on a branch in a tree at the edge of the grove, didn’t register. Same with the tree itself, and a minnow he saw swimming along the bank of the river, and a caterpillar crawling up the trunk of one of the chear trees.

Level Up! Seeing

Okay. I must be doing something wrong. At least one of those should have registered. Hmmm… Are they out of range? Edwin tapped his leg. That seemed particularly likely. The skill had said something about range increasing with level? He tried to re-summon the Identify skill description, but found he couldn’t do so. One way to test.

He grabbed a stick off the ground and walked over to where the caterpillar was now crawling along a branch and maneuvered his stick to pick up the insect. Then, angling it in such a way that the butterfly was about a foot from his face, he tried again.

Identify.

Scintillating Butterfly Caterpillar

Okay, that worked. He held out his arm, extending it as far as it would go, so the bug was probably about two meters away from him, all told.

Identify.

No result. He pulled his arm closer and tried again. Still no result. He repeated the process a few times, until his arm was about half-extended, and the skill worked.

Level Up! Identify

It was… a little over a meter? A bit more testing found that the range had indeed increased, though not by much, just a few centimeters… probably. He’d need to figure out some kind of way to make consistent measurements. There was no way he’d be able to figure out proper SI units from first principles, but he might be able to get close, if he was lucky. Maybe he could get a skill for it?

With a range established, though, he could properly test things.

Level Up! Identify

Level Up! Nutrition

Level Up! Identify

An hour later, he had Identified a ton of insects and a few fish (and eaten more than a few chears), though he hadn’t gotten close enough to any birds to target them. So far as he could tell, there weren’t any animals he could find that didn’t have an Identify result. The one exception to that were some gnats that were swarming near the stream, though he couldn’t tell if that was because they couldn’t be targeted or if he personally just wasn’t able to target an individual gnat because of his failure to focus on one in particular. The time hadn’t been completely wasted though, not by any stretch of the imagination. Both because he had slightly satisfied his curiosity (though not to the extent he could make a final call on his hypothesis), and the notifications that had just appeared a few moments ago.

Congratulations! For engaging in scientific research, you have unlocked the Researcher Path!

You have unlocked the Research skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

How do you improve Research?...accept?

Research

Uncover forgotten truths, discern the unknowable, discover the new

Learn new things easier

Improved ability to make connections per level.

I don’t think that clarifies anything. Does it help… problem solving? Pattern recognition? Or is it like, I see how these things are connected? Is this useful for detectives? Students? Heh. Conspiracy theorists? And connections… Does that apply to just mental connections, or does it help with stuff like networking? Probably not that one, but still… I need to have a word with whoever makes these descriptions.

He still didn’t know what the Paths did, exactly. Looking at them on his status just gave him an empty feeling, like they were supposed to fill up and do something. All of his Paths were equally empty, though. And how were they different from skills? All good questions that he really should answer, though with the time he spent- not wasted, spent; that was his story and he was sticking to it- analyzing Identify, he didn’t have the time to spare at the moment.

Stuffing a handful of chears into his pocket, Edwin set off on his continued exploration along the mountain river. It was mid-afternoon and a few miles later before he came to the next point of real interest, strange trees and a few shallow spots in the river notwithstanding. Here, the river branch he was following, much smaller than the raging torrent he was used to, was a gentle stream flowing over a small drop, just some 10-15 feet tall. While Edwin wasn’t about to go rock climbing- his arms were still shaking far too much for that, though it was probably more psychological than physical at this point- he didn’t need to. There was a cave practically right next to it.

Well, calling it a cave was perhaps a bit of a misnomer, in all honesty- in reality, a large, jagged boulder had fallen next to the small cliff at some point in such a way they formed a bit of a shelter. While the space wasn’t terribly large, perhaps five feet across by ten feet deep, it was more than enough for Edwin to fit inside with some room to spare. The roof, if you could really call it that, had light seeping through, and there was a thick layer of moss- actual moss this time, it was even green! Edwin still checked it to be sure, though- coating one of the walls, but it looked like with a bit of work it would be a secure enough shelter from the weather and any more creatures that weren’t the size of a truck that might try to attack him. Its proximity to water just made it better.

After a quick check to ensure it wasn’t hiding any spiders, Edwin decided to settle in. Moving the smaller rocks inside was tough, but, with the exception of one stone that was mostly buried in the soil, doable. He piled the removed rocks up outside, and breaking off a particularly leafy branch from a nearby tree, managed to sweep/rake out a lot of the twigs that had accumulated inside.

Level Up! Improvisation

Huh. So did it also apply to just using objects for non-standard purposes? Would it pair with his throwing weapons skill so long as he was just using random clutter? Would it eventually get to the point where he would be better off using the wrong item for a job just to get the bonus? And how did it figure out if something was ‘improvise-worthy’? Anyway, he wanted to get this in a decent setup before nightfall. Yes, he had slept the last two nights just out on the open ground, but getting a half-decent bed situation for tonight would surely do wonders for his mood. Fortunately, there were enough dry leaves and very leafy branches around to make a nice semi-mattress, particularly when combined with most of the moss previously on the wall of his new cave. The next step was trying to patch up the holes in the ‘roof.’ That was mercifully simple, as he piled leaves and twigs everywhere he saw a gap, then covered them with some really nice, thick clay/mud from the river, forming a decent seal where the two rocks met.

Level Up! Visualization

Level Up! Improvisation

His immediate goals for the night complete, Edwin rinsed his muddy hands off in the waterfall, bemoaning his inability to properly clean the dirt caked all over himself. Once clean-ish, he retrieved his saved chears from his jacket, hanging on a nearby branch. As the light started to fade, the last thing he set out to do was to grab a really big fallen branch and drag it so it acted as a bit of a door for his shelter. It never hurt to be sure, and his encounter with the Stonehide Bear had somewhat reinvigorated his fear of predators.

It was a cold night for sleeping, especially without the bone-deep exhaustion of the night before, but after tossing and turning for a while, Edwin gave a mental ‘tug’ on his Sleeping skill, which, while it didn’t send him off to the Land of Nod immediately, certainly helped.

Tomorrow, he promised himself, he was going to figure out how to get a fire started. Tomorrow.

Level Up! Sleeping