《Monarch of technology (Litrpg, Basebuilding)》
Announcement (You can ignore this if youre a new reader)
Hey everybody! Im finally beginning on a full rewrite of the story, what I''ve written until now was both a test to see if it got enough interest, and an learning experience for me since this is my first time writing ever. Ive gotten a-lot of help from experienced writers and I think its time to really start turning this work into a book worth reading. From now on I,ll restart from chapter one while rewriting the story! Thanks for everyone,s feedback and help up till now! Thanks to everyone I''ve been able to improve a-lot and figure out everything i need to really start writing a quality story. See you all when I release chapter 1!If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
(Dont worry, the story wont be something totally different, much of what happens will stay the same, except hopefully a-lot better)
1 - The awakening
A wave spread throughout the universe, passing many planets without anything happening, one would almost suspect it was harmless.
At least until you noticed that once every few billion or so planets there would be a planet that would just disappear in the passing of the wave, as the wave would slowly pass over the planets in the span of a couple of days, the planet would start undergoing changes while reality around the planet slowly weakened. Until after a few days said planets would just vanish from their realities.
The wave and the weakening of reality going unnoticed by almost every planet until it was already too late.
The chosen planets themselves not actually dying or getting destroyed, but something more akin to a transportation happening to them.
After reality weakened to a certain extent, space would collapse inwards and a wormhole would be created. All planets hit by the phenomenon would then vanish from their original reality into the local wormhole, only to reappear in a new one. A reality where many species gathered and where the galaxy was filled with life.
A reality with many new resources and different and amazing energies. A reality where life was both dangerous and filled with opportunity. A reality which many species called a better reality than their original. And for the lack of a better word of a higher caliber.
And now the wave was quickly getting closer to a small blue planet in the Milky Way. The small blue planet filled with life and covered in tiny lights. The planet which the natives called, Earth.
¡ª
Jake Miller was whistling to himself as he walked through the forest. A few weeks back he had won an all-expenses paid hiking trip throughout the wilderness. Initially hesitant about leaving the comforts of society and needing to walk for days on end, eventually he had relented to the idea of experiencing new things.
Jake was a young man in his early twenties with brown hair, sitting at about 189 centimeters (74 inches) tall. He was wearing a green hoodie and black pants, with a backpack hanging from his back filled with all kinds of tools for camping and hiking through the wild.
He had already been walking for a little more than a week now, and if he were to be honest he was enjoying it both more and less than he had expected. More because the experience was quite relaxing, something he hadn¡¯t really taken the time for in years. And less because he missed working his job as a freelance engineer.
Nevertheless, he was happy about just spending some time away from the busy city he lived in, happy about getting to appreciate the wild nature all around him. He had already left any semblance of civilization behind about 4 or 5 days ago.
Slowly as time ticked away and his steps kept piling up, he eventually walked unto a big clearing, the trees surrounding him tall with beautiful dark brown bark, the light shining through their vibrant canopies, spreading a web of light all over the ground.
Jake took in a deep breath as he looked over the clearing, a satisfied smile plastered on his face. In the distance a very tall rock could be seen, about 30 meters wide and 50 meters tall if he had to make a guess. The walls of the rock going almost straight up all the way to the top.
For today his goal was to reach that rock and set up camp for the night. As he looked back over the nice clearing though, he couldn¡¯t help but want to take a small rest, he had been walking non-stop for a few hours after all. And a little break in a nice clearing never hurt anyone now did it?
He nodded at the thought satisfied with his reasoning, it wasn¡¯t at all because his feet had started to hurt from all the walking he''d done today. He walked a bit further until he reached a nice spot in the middle of the clearing. the birds around him chirping every now and then. As he sat down to rest and listen to their melodies for a bit, the warm sun shining on his clothes he just stared up at the beautiful bright blue sky.
He sat there for a few minutes just enjoying the view and the sounds of the forest. Until the birds stopped chirping at least, he heard ruffling feathers coming from the branches and he saw a flock of birds leaving for the skies. The sun hid behind a cloud and the clearing surrounding him got eerily quiet. The wind giving him a bit of a cold feeling now that there was no sun to warm him up anymore.
Jake stood back up and dusted some dirt from his pants, deciding that now the sun was gone and he had rested a little he should get going again, he grabbed his backpack and was about to set back off until he heard a noise.
He heard a little rustle behind him, he turned around focusing on whatever he might have heard. Silence still filled the clearing, slowly Jake started feeling a bit nervous about the situation. He didn¡¯t know why but he just felt something was.. off..
Maybe it was because the situation was a typical moment in a movie where something bad happened. His imagination had always been vibrant. Much to the dismay of his parents when he was young and scared of the dark.
He kept his eyes locked on the part of the edge of the clearing where he had heard the rustle. Then another noise came his way, the noise of a small branch cracking and a leaf being stepped on.
A tiny bit of anxiety filled his heart, even though he knew this was probably nothing, he couldn¡¯t help but feel anxious at the noises that came from the forest while he was standing there, all alone and far away from any civilization.
If anything bad were to happen right now he wouldn¡¯t have anyone else around to help him. As this realisation hit him he only made himself feel more nervous. As he kept staring in the direction of the sound he slowly prepared himself to start running.
Then out of nowhere a small white bunny leaped from the bushes out into the clearing.
Jake stared at the tiny white bunny for a bit and then let out a laugh. ¡°I cant believe I got myself so worked up over a tiny bunny¡± he chuckled to himself.
Jake was about to turn around when out the shadows of a nearby tree a big creature lept onto the rabbit. Jake stiffened up and felt the feeling of anxiety shoot back up into his throat and heart.
In front of Jake a large feline creature could be seen, chewing on the tiny rabbit that was now dripping blood onto the grass. The feline creature looked like a big cat or a panther, except there were a few big differences, the creature had green fur with black dots covering its body, it had two tails and bright green pupils.
But the biggest difference between the cat-like creature and normal panthers was that it had 3 eyes, two smaller eyes and one slightly bigger eye in the middle of its forehead.
Jake stared in shock at the creature as it snacked on the tiny rabbit. He didn¡¯t know what to think right now, all he knew was that he felt scared and that he shouldn¡¯t just be standing around gawking at the panther-esque creature. he felt his hands trembling and his feet felt heavy.
The panther didn¡¯t even glance at Jake, it just kept eating, enjoying its meal.
Jake knew he had to do something, but what should he do? Thoughts raced through his head and he was in a state of frozen panic, not willing to move and unable to really think. He just stood there as the sounds of bones snapping made him feel a bit of nausea.
This went on for a few more seconds until he had enough. He gave himself a hard slap to the face, immediately calming down his mind a little, enough for him to start thinking about what his next steps would be.
The first thing he should do was lose any unnecessary weight. He slowly took of his backpack and put it on the ground, making sure to not make much noise as to attract the attention of the green panther.
The next thing he should do was get some sort of weapon for self-defense. He quickly grabbed the cooking knife he had brought with him on his hiking trip.
With the knife in his hand and any unnecessary items not on his body, he turned back towards the panther.
The panther had apparently finished eating and was now staring at him with all three of its eyes.
Jake felt the knife in his trembling hands as he gripped it tighter in his hand, both to stop them from trembling and in preparation of any sudden movements he might need to make.
Out of nowhere green lightning started to arc all over the panther''s body, its pupils lit up and even started glowing a little.
Then the panther started running at Jake, way faster than he had expected too, in what felt like the blink of an eye the panther was already in front of him, jumping right at him. The only thing he managed to do in his surprise was throw up his arms to protect his head and torso. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As the panther slammed into him he was sent flying backwards with a good 1 or 2 meters of airtime, and then a whole bunch of meters spent rolling over the ground.
When he finally came to a stop he felt very disoriented, his chest hurt like hell and he had trouble breathing through the intense pain he got every time he breathed in or out.
His left arm wasn¡¯t feeling great either, it had taken the brunt of the hit and Jake was pretty sure it had a few broken bones. After trying to move it around a little bit he was relieved to find out it wasn¡¯t going limp on him yet though. He wasn¡¯t able to move his hand anymore but his upper and lower arm still worked well enough to take another hit, maybe two.
And to make matters worse in his forced acrobatic stunt he had let go of the knife. when he finally regained a little sight of his surroundings as the world around him stopped spinning he immediately started searching for the knife.
Adrenaline rushed throughout his body and he felt strangely calm, yet also energized. As if his body was finally switching into survival mode. With the adrenaline helping him focus he quickly looked around the clearing for his knife.
Without a weapon this would be a lost battle anyway, better to put up a fight he thought.
He couldn¡¯t even run away anyways since clearly the panther-esque creature was faster than him, not to mention running away was the worst thing you could do when being attacked since it let your hunter know you were prey.
When he saw the knife next to some rocks about 20 - 30 meters away from him he immediately switched his eyes back to his right where the panther was.
The panther in question, not having moved from its spot after having sent him rolling over the ground.
Either the thing was playing with him, or it was being wary of him. Both situations were good for him since it gave him time to get the knife.
Slowly though the panther started moving in his direction again.
He knew he had to get to that knife before the panther got to him, still though his entire body ached after the pain dulled thanks to the adrenaline. And he hadn¡¯t ever dealt with an animal attack like this. Not to mention a crazy new panther that had green lightning for some reason.
He took a deep breath and focused back on the tiger which had slowly continued moving towards him. Now was not the time to panic he reminded himself. He could wonder about why he got attacked by some crazy lightning tiger later.
But if he waited much longer maybe his shot of reaching the knife would pass by.
¡°Shit, now or never I guess..¡±
He stood up and ran, a little slow at first but quickly he went into a full on sprint. The panther changing pace from its leisurely walk to a bit of a sprint too.
As he looked back over his shoulder at the panther quickly closing in on him from behind he knew right away the panther would get to him before he got to the knife.
He knew he had to do something, but what could he do?
And then it hit him, he remembered a documentary he had watched when he was younger, the documentary had talked about what you would need to do in the case you were ever attacked by a larger animal.
You would need to scare off the animal by intimidating it. Meaning you needed to make yourself as big as possible and start yelling at the creature.
Make the animal clear you are not easy prey and have the strength and the will to fight back.
Jake decided that even if it wouldn¡¯t work it was worth a shot, so he spread his arms wide and started yelling out of the top of his lungs as loud as he could.
If this were any other situation he would have felt like an idiot, running with wide open arms while screaming as hard as he could.
But nonetheless, his idea did have an effect as the panther slowed down a little, it was still gaining distance but it was just a little slower. And whatever time this got him was time he needed.
He was now about 10 meters away from the knife with the panther being only 6 meters away from him.
He could slowly hear its steps getting closer, he listened closely to the footsteps of the panther. Because if he heard it try to make a jump he would immediately try to dodge by launching himself sideways.
Hopefully he could dodge this way or at least avoid enough injury so he could get to the knife and fight back against the panther.
He was now just 4 meters away from the knife, while the panther was just about 1 meter away from him.
Anxiety gushed through his heart yet he forced himself to stay focused and keep running. Just waiting for any changes in the sounds he heard coming from the panther.
And then he heard it, instead of the next few rhythmic footsteps he heard and felt the creature jump at him, the instinctive feeling of knowing it jumped and in what was almost reflex he launched himself to the side.
Sadly he hadn¡¯t been fast enough as the panther,s claw scraped against his already hurt left arm, this time tearing a deep gash into his flesh as his left hand went limp and blood started leaking out.
He didn¡¯t have any time to cry or take care of it though, he had to survive right now, this mentality so deeply ingrained into him thanks to his distant ancestors forced him to stand back up and keep running. His mind tuning out much of the pain as he just focused on reaching that knife, telling himself he would be safe if he reached the knife.
He just had to reach the knife, that was all he had to do, if he reached the knife he could fight back and come out of this situation alive, he could call for help or rescue and be back home in a few hours.
The panther quickly gave chase again but luckily for him this time it was too slow, he reached the stones and basically launched himself at the knife.
Grabbing it in his mostly intact right hand, he stoop up and took a defensive stand against the panther.
The panther immediately stopped running at him and took a bit of distance between them. warily eyeing his right hand where he held the knife.
Jake grinned as he yelled at the panther ¡°Yeah that''s right! Now I''ve got a weapon! You¡¯re dead meat now you stupid cat!¡±
He quickly regretted yelling though, as he was sure he had quite a few injuries in his chest, and his yelling had clearly upset those injuries as a wave of pain hit him.
He groaned as he kept an eye on the panther that was still just staring at his right hand.
What do i do? what do i do? His brain was trying to think of ideas but the pain was making it very difficult to focus right now. He might have talked big against the panther but the reality was he was afraid he wouldn¡¯t even be able to injure the damn thing.
As he looked at his left arm one of the biggest sources of pain he grimaced. The injury didn¡¯t look good, yet it did give him an idea. A horrible idea but one that would give him a big chance of surviving this encounter with the panther.
His grimace grew ever wider ¡°This is gonna hurt really bad¡± he swung hurt left arm open as much as he could, giving the panther a large opening to attack his left arm again.
His plan was to use his left arm as bait, give the animal an opening for it to attack and it would surely take it. Then when it would bite into his arm he would attack it as much as he could.
And to both his relief and to his distress about the pain he would soon experience, the panther took the bait and quickly closed in on his left arm.
He prepared as much as he could for the inevitable increase in pain, and when the panther actually bit in he couldn¡¯t help but groan and curse at the creature.
¡°I hope this hurts you two tailed furball¡±
As he said those words he raised his right hand with the knife and brought it down into the panther''s neck. He would have gone for the eye, but it was currently hidden behind his arm.
The panther let out a roar and immediately let go of his arm as it stumbled back, blood gushing out its neck onto the ground. Its three eyes focusing on him as green lightning started arcing around its body again.
Jake felt his heart sink at the sight of the creature using that green lightning again because whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t a good sign.
He took a protective stance as he readied his torso and head for what would certainly be a heavy hit, potentially lethal hit. No use dodging when it,s so close better to avoid the heavy damage.
The panther launched towards him again, this time a bit more unstable since its last attack. Probably because it was losing a huge amount of blood, and with the loss of that blood a-lot of its strength and other bodily functions. Yet it was still extremely fast.
As the panther was about to hit and dig into him with its claws, one of its paws took a wrong step and the whole panther tumbled over. A small mistake like a misstep at the speed the panther was going at was a crucial mistake. The panther was sent tumbling sideways, its claws missing him by what must have been a hair''s width.
As he immediately turned around to look at the panther that had flew by him, all he could see was a big green cat unable to stand back up with a knife stuck in its bleeding throat.
For what was about a minute but what felt like an hour Jake just stared at the panther until it fully stopped moving.
And as soon as he was sure it was dead he fell down onto the ground, his everything hurting, he was sure the stress of this incident alone would take 10 years off his life.
He just looked back up at the blue sky, as the cloud went away and the sun returned and shone its comforting rays upon him. The smell of blood filling the clearing as he just laid there, totally exhausted unable and unwilling to move right now.
The incredible pain numbing him from doing anything besides lay there for a bit while just staring at the sky.
He tried to stop himself from thinking about what had just happened to him since he felt like he would start puking if he did. So instead he just laid there for a while, ignoring his pain and just appreciating the sky, and appreciating him being alive to see it.
And then something happened, the sky above him started warping. At first he thought this might be a hallucination due to blood loss or something else, but as he kept staring, the sky kept twisting upon itself, and then the trees started twisting. And then he started twisting, it felt like his body was being rearranged from the inside out.
To say the least, it was an incredibly uncomfortable feeling, especially when his everything was already hurting.
And then for just a second everything went black, and when he regained his sight the sky and everything else had stopped twisting.
He was left lying there for about 5 seconds thinking about what the hell had just happened, but he wasn¡¯t given any time to rest because after 5 seconds he heard it.
And then he heard something that scared the crap out of him, out of nowhere a pinging sound could be heard. He felt it resounding in his mind, clearer than any sound or voice he had ever heard in his mind.
Along with the sound a text appeared in front of him.
System initializing, please hold¡.
¡°I think I might actually be going insane¡± Jake mumbled to himself as he stared at the text in front of him.
2 - Systems and choices
System initializing, please hold¡.
Transportation complete¡
Starting synchronization with universe¡
Introducing energies¡Adjusting atmosphere¡
Adjusting nearby solar system¡
Synchronization complete¡
Starting planetary adaptation process¡
Intelligent life detected¡
Introducing awakening system¡
Locking down solar system¡
Congratulations earth! You have met the requirements and have been transported into a new universe. Your planet will now undergo a period of evolution and change as your world adapts to the new universe. You will be locked off from the rest of the universe until Earth has been deemed as sufficiently stabilized, after which you will gain access to the rest of the universe. Good luck.
Jake stared at the row of messages that had played out in front of his eyes in quick succession.
¡°Yeah I''m going insane alright¡± He laughed nervously. He might have really believed he was going insane if his entire body wasn¡¯t trying to tell him otherwise though, his everything was still hurting a-lot.
Pushing the thought that what he was currently seeing wasn¡¯t real aside. He moved on to the pressing matter at hand, the weird messages floating in front of him.
He read and re-read the messages a few times to get a better idea of what was going on.
In short, the messages told him Earth had been transported into a new universe and Earth was undergoing a period of isolated adaptation to the new universe.
A new universe! he hadn¡¯t quite wrapped his head around it all yet, but surely this meant new and amazing things were waiting to be discovered. Not to mention there had been a message of a change in solar system and atmosphere. And even something about some sort of system!
All stuff that sounded extremely exciting!
¡°Yeah no, not right now¡± He would be excited and start wondering about what could have caused all this and how this would affect reality and his life, but right now he just wanted to lay down and maybe do a little manly crying in some corner. He was way too tired to deal with changes to reality after a near-death experience.
¡°Before having to deal with everything as i know it changing please give me a little break, please reality?¡± Somehow he felt like saying it out loud would help or something, or maybe that was just his imagination going wild but it couldn¡¯t hurt either way right?
Requirements met¡
Starting awakening process¡
Error!
Injuries detected - Unable to continue..
Healing injuries¡
Continuing awakening process..
Congratulations! You have awakened to the Class: Technomancer!
User may now choose 3 starting skills¡
Loading list...
A long list of what looked like descriptions of abilities appeared in front of him.
He just stared at the messages for a while before letting out a defeated sigh.
Well, atleast my body doesn¡¯t hurt anymore, he thought to himself as he looked over his formerly wounded arm. Right now it looked just like it had before his fight, actually if his clothes weren¡¯t still ripped and torn at places it wouldve looked like he hadn¡¯t even been in a life-on-death fight.
Somehow his mind felt more refreshed aswell, like he had the energy to continue for just a little bit more instead of dropping down to the ground for some rest right away.
Turning his attention away from his freshly healed body and towards the newly appeared list with a few rows of descriptions of what at first glance seemed to be supernatural powers, or as the system said skills?
¡°Is the system adapting our lingo into its messages? Seeing as it used a term from games and is appearing in english¡±
He took a minute to calm down and think about the situation. With all the information he currently had he made a few conclusions. First of all, his earth would start adapting, adapting meant evolving. And an evolving earth would surely mean a-lot more danger. Who was to say if the weird panther he had encountered wasn¡¯t somehow because of all this as well, or in any case related.
Because that wasn¡¯t a normal panther, that he knew for sure.
So if everything would start getting more dangerous and god knows what other changes might start happening because of all this. He would need to prioritize his survival.
And what better way to survive than with superpowers, and as luck had it, in front of him right now was a list with just that. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Slowly he scrolled through the list, marking down any options he deemed useful or something that seemed like it had potential.
In total he was given about 57 choices with a bunch of them being very limited if he said so himself. Stuff like lightning strike.
In exchange for mana allows to user to strike a target with lightning, as the skill level rises control and power may increase.
Good for combat sure, but they seemed more like one trick pony skills. I mean what else would lightning strike give you in the future besides a stronger and more controlled way to attack.
What if he had to infiltrate somewhere? It just wouldn¡¯t do the trick, plus according to the skill if he ever ran out of mana he would be unable to use it? Yeah he,d rather not die because he ran out of so called ¡°mana¡±. At first glance it might look good but in the long run it was a very limited skill.
Luckily for him there were also some better skills out there such as; Tech barrier which had more versatile uses.
In exchange for mana allows the user to throw up a barrier. The barrier can be reinforced further if powered by electricity. As the level rises control and strength increase and extra defensive effects may be added such as: thorns or camouflage.
The tech barrier skill for example was a lot better, but even though it was more versatile and in the long run seemed like a better skill with more potential than lightning strike. Jake still didn¡¯t feel like it suited him or his tastes.
I mean what if he ever got into a situation where his mana ran out? What then? And even though it had more potential than lightning strike, it was very lineair in its prospective development. It basically all revolved around something akin to a wall with special effects.
Not to mention the unknown part of how strong the barrier would be and how much of a role electricity played in the skill. I mean his class was techomancer which sounded like a heavily tech-related based class. So surely tech and stuff related to it would play a part in his skills.
The lightning strike skill fit according to this logic, because what was technology without electricity?
Nevertheless, he noted the skill down, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a defensive measure even if there were some unknowns. Plus he hadn¡¯t seen a better defensive measure as of yet.
He kept reading through the list and marking down anything he deemed a possible choice until he found four skills that he felt had good enough potential and use. Now he would just need to pick three out of those four skills to acquire.
The first of his options was the skill; Create drone .
At an initial cost of mana, this skill allows you to summon and control drones, as the skill levels up you will get access to a larger selection of drones and earlier versions will receive upgrades. Drones can be used for a wide variety of purposes including; Combat, scouting & automation.
A pretty obvious choice; major potential, wide variety and tons of use with minimal risk. Imagine a combat drone he could control from afar, this would both give him combat capability and safety from a distance.
Not to mention all the miscellaneous uses it would give him such as scouting capability and automation of tasks! In his mind the choice was basically already made on taking the Create drone skill.
He already saw himself commanding an army of drones, or swarmes of drones protecting him from anything that might try to harm him. Or just using a drone to annoy somebody that deserved it.
Like his former neighbour; Josh who always let his dog shit in his yard even though he had asked Josh many times to stop the dog from doing that.
He was already grinning at the thought of having a drone fly over and drop his own dog,s poop in his yard! And then see how he liked it!
Plus the growth potential was insane! Not only would it give him a wide variety of uses, but the drones would also receive additional upgrades? This meant both variety and growth! What else could he ask for?
Yep Create drone was definitely a must have with all the growth potential and the amazing uses it would have.
The second of his choices was; Construction
In exchange for mana, the user can build and create structures, terrain and technology related / limited to buildings. As the level rises you can build more advanced technology and structures.
Again he felt like it was an obvious choice. The ability to create buildings and tech for the buildings was amazing! He could already see himself creating a flying fortress or a hidden base filled with all kinds of advanced gadgets and amazing defenses.
Not to mention if earth really got more dangerous, and he was out here in the wild, he would need some good shelter to protect himself from any possible danger.
Not to mention the potential was great! If he could get access to futuristic defenses and tech he would be golden! He already saw himself sipping coffee from a super-advanced coffee machine. Or taking a heavenly shower under a futuristic shower! Or just defending his garden from Josh and his dog with a turret.
The only downside was that it would only let him build technology related and limited to buildings. So he wouldn¡¯t be able to create a car, but he would be able to create a robot arm attached to the building or just a remote for a tv.
Plus every engineer had dreamed about creating their own house or base with all sorts of cool gadgets and technology. Scrap that, every man ever had.
This skill was a must-have just like the Create drone skill., If only because of the survival potential it granted. But really it was because he wanted futuristic bases and technology and their uses.
Plus the growth potential was really great as well.
Now that he had already made the choice on two of the skills he would take, he would need to make his third choice from his last two options.
In exchange for mana allows the user to throw up a barrier. The barrier can be reinforced further if powered by electricity. As the level rises control and strength increase and extra defensive effects may be added such as: thorns or camouflage.
In exchange for mana the user can create ¡®Anything¡¯ classified as weaponry. As the level rises the selections of weaponry and types of weaponry will grow.
He had already taken two skills with both short-term and even more so long-term potential. But what he needed right now besides his already chosen two skills, he needed a more direct method of defending himself. Who knew how long it would take to get combat drones or a safe base set up.
What if he would be attacked again in an hour? He would need a method of defense for the now instead of the future.
Sure the future played a major factor, but he also had to consider surviving the now. The future wouldn¡¯t matter if he wouldn¡¯t reach it after all. If he died because he didn¡¯t have some direct method of defense right now then it would just be useless to have skills that had future potential.
With that reasoning, he had made his decision to choose one of these two skills as his third option.
Tech barrier would be a shield but weapon creation would give him a more direct method of defending himself. And a good attack was the best defense as the famous saying went.
Yet he still felt unsure, he really didn¡¯t feel like getting into another direct face-to-face fight after all. He was already so hurt and tired from a fight against a panther and he definitely wouldn¡¯t want to go against anything stronger.
He had gotten lucky that this system healed him when awakening him otherwise he might have bled to death before reaching a settlement that could help him.
Picking the Weapon creation skill meant he would need to get into more face-to-face fights, whereas with the barrier he just needed to shield himself and escape.
But what if he ran out of mana for the shield while escaping? And who said he couldn¡¯t just use guns or landmines or something with Weaponry creation?
Plus futuristic weaponry sounded pretty awesome, he already saw himself holding a laser gun just blasting through possible enemies while throwing out plasma grenades or something.
It is a man,s romance after all. Plus it seemed like less of a risk than just having a barrier. If i got attacked by another panther which is faster and stronger than me i wouldn¡¯t be able to run and i,d be stuck waiting for my mana to deplete.
A shield is only useful for temporary protection after all, no matter how strong it won''t be able to defend you forever so you,d always lose unless you had a way to return fire.
With that reasoning, in the end he picked Weaponry creation. When he had finalized his decision another message popped up.
Skills chosen¡
You may now pick one trait which will grant you a passive benefit..
Loading list¡
3 - Through the Forest
Jake was both surprised and excited at getting to choose a passive ability, in his experience passive abilities were often very useful and powerful.
And after seeing the first few options of new list that had appeared in front of him, this time seemed to be no different.
He immediately got to work on selecting which traits would be good candidates to choose from.
Eventually he settled on quite a few good options.
Feel the unknown, gain the ability to guide yourself towards the right path.
The body adapts easier to its surroundings, live even in the harshest of conditions and environments.
Think faster, react faster, act faster. Be able to do more in less time.
- Reliable builder - Level 1
Your creations are able to endure more and are harder to destroy.
There were other amazing traits, but Jake felt like these four were the best for him. And if he were to be honest, he was having a really hard time deciding which trait he would choose.
So he would just start with picking his least wanted skill and work up from there.
Out of the four Quick thinking felt like the skill he needed the least, sure it was amazing and being able to do more in less time was great, but in the situation where he couldn¡¯t guarantee his life he opted to go for a more survival-oriented trait for now.
Next was Reliable builder, even though it would be an amazing fit for his class, right now he just didn¡¯t have much use for it.
If he got the chance though, he would surely pick it in the future.
Now he was stuck between Adaptable and Intuition.
Both were amazing right now, Adaptable would let him survive out here in the wild and adapt to harsher conditions, which was perfect for an evolving earth, especially so when earth could be getting less habitable by the second for all he knew.
And Intuition was amazing too, an ability that let you feel the unknown and that helped guide you towards the right answer? In simpler terms, it was the ability to be led down the right path, and feel danger and opportunity.
Which meant he would be able to choose the best option in any situation and even feel unknown dangers.
To be honest even if intuition still felt a little vague, he just felt attracted towards it.
But even though the Intuition skill gave him a wider range of benefits than Adaptable would, he was still having a hard time deciding.
And that was for one good reason, if for some reason earth adapted or evolved to become uninhabitable for humans, Adaptability would allow him to survive.
Not taking the adaptability skill was a risk, the risk would be small, probably less than one percent. But was even taking such a tiny risk okay when he could avoid it?
He let out a sigh, lately he had been overthinking everything, maybe he was influenced by his near-death experience more than expected.
In the end, both skills were the right choice, both not better than the other in his current situation.
So in the end he decided the choice in both cases would be the right one. So instead of making the choice himself, why not leave it up to a coin flip, since in the end both options were okay.
When he had been younger, he had always flipped a coin when he couldn¡¯t decide.
Not because he believed in fate or chance, but if you didn¡¯t know what to pick or do and flipped a coin, you would either be sad or happy with the result. Even if you didn¡¯t know you would be before flipping it.
Thus, he used it as a way to determine which choice he would be happiest with.
He grabbed a coin from his pocket.
If it landed on heads, he would choose Intuition. And if it landed on tails, he would choose adaptability.
He placed the coin on his thumb, and then flicked it the best he could.
The coin went tumbling through the air, Jake keeping a close eye while it spun around.
When the coin hit the ground, it turned around for one last time.
The result of the coin being tails. Jake looked at the result, but didn¡¯t feel happy. In fact he felt the tiniest hint of disappointment.
So he knew what to do..
Flip the coin two more times to make sure!
In the end it landed on Tails twice and once on heads.
Thus the decision had been made, he selected Intuition as his trait.
In the end he just felt better about intuition, even if the coinflip said he should choose adaptation, he did the coin flip to test which option he felt better about. Not to let fate or just luck decide for him.
Trait selected¡
Error!..
?????????????????????????? Detected¡
Requirements not met¡
Rerouting¡
?????????????????????????? Will be unlocked at Level ??...
Engraving basic system info..
Finalizing awakening¡
With the last two messages, he felt a bunch of information enter his brain, when the process ended his brain felt stuffed.
It kind of felt like when you had been studying for hours on end and then you just felt tired and unable to focus.
But along with this feeling came new knowledge as well, basic knowledge, but knowledge nonetheless.
He would take a look at the functions later though, since he was more interested in the error message.
What was the ??? that looked kind of glitchy? And what did the system mean by qualifications? Was it something unique to him, or was it something all humans had?
Too many questions and no way of getting answers, if only he was able to access the internet and see how the rest of the world was dealing with all of this.
Sadly this far out from civilization and so deep in the forest there was no reception. He wasn¡¯t even able to call anyone.
Not that he could anyway, his phone had broken in the fight with the tiger.
He felt a little sad at the thought, he had gotten pretty attached to his phone, he had even done some custom work on it as an engineer.
Moving on from the depressing thought of his broken phone, he would have to think about what to do now.
Eventually deciding to check out the status screen the system had just informed him about.
Name: Jake Miller
Age: 26
Class: Technomancer
Level: 1
Mana: 100/100
XP: 0/100
?????????????????????????? - Locked
Skills:
Create drone - level 1
Construction - level 1
Weaponry creation - level 1
Traits:
Intuition - level 1
A nice looking status if he said so himself, it was pretty satisfying to see his abilities displayed in such a neat and orderly manner.
Now then, looking at the sky it was about four or five hours until night. I,ll have to set up camp for the night before that.
Jake looked in the distance at the huge rock, still sitting at thirty meters wide and fifty meters tall. Before he got attacked and earth got thrown into a new dimension his plan had been to camp near the rock.
Even now that seemed like a pretty good idea, the rock would serve as some cover for the elements. And he had a good idea to survive the night without being attacked in his sleep by some monster.
He could only act on his idea once he arrived at the rock though, and he was getting more uncomfortable by the second standing out here in the open, easy to see for anything that might want to eat him.
¡°Well, no use waiting around and i dont have that much time before night falls¡±
So he grabbed his bag and started making his way towards the big rock, the rock was easy enough to see even from far away because of its huge size.
While walking he didn¡¯t really have something better to do so he decided to start checking out some of his skills.
Create drone [Info]
He took a quick look at his mana which was still sitting at 100Mp. Seemed like just activating his skill didn¡¯t take any mana.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Then Jake noticed the info option. Im being given even more info? Well that¡¯s nice of them.
He quickly selected the info option and a little window appeared in front of him.
Types of drones:
Then he selected the info option for the scout drone and a second window appeared in front of him.
Type of drone: Scout - 100Mp
Maximum speed: 100 Km/h (60Mph)
Drone amount: 1/10
Connection range: 100 M
Recording time: 5 minutes
The scout drone is a semi intelligent drone suitable for spying and the gathering of information. Within its connection range it can send a live feed directly into the user''s mind. It is also able to record up to 5 minutes of video which if within connection range can be shown to the user.
He was a little surprised at the amount and detail of the information. If he were to be honest he had been expecting needing to figure out everything for himself.
Then again whatever this system was, clearly wasn¡¯t against humanity. And if you thought about it, it made sense to give info about your own skills after acquiring them. Since the user would figure it out eventually anyway it seemed pointless to hide the information unless you were just trying to make life harder for the user.
After finishing reading the information he felt choosing this skill had been an amazing decision more than ever.
The scout drone had a nice maximum speed and it could send a live feed straight into his mind as long as it was within 100 Meters of him. It had a recording feature as well for when it would scout things outside of his range. Overall it seemed like what you¡¯d expect from a good scout drone.
Semi intelligent was also a pretty good bonus, since it meant the drone would understand even complex orders and wouldn¡¯t need micro managing.
¡°Now then, lets see what this drone looks like shall we?¡±
Jake mentally activated the skill, immediately he felt some sort of energy leaving him.
In front of him in the air, a small ball like metal structure started appearing, then it slowly started filling in.
Jake stared in fascination at the sight playing out in front of him.
He watched as a camera lens started appearing and metal hid the internal structure away from view.
About a minute later when construction finished, Jake was looking at a floating metal ball with a camera lens. The drone being just a little larger than a tennis ball, about the size of a hand.
Immediately he felt a connection with the drone, leaning into the connection he tried giving an order to the scout.
¡°Fly in a circle around me¡±
The floating metal ball immediately set off to do a lap around his body at a high speed.
As Jake was looking at the drone though, he was getting an idea.
This is a flying metal ball, if it can fly fast enough wont it be able to do some good damage?
I mean the size seems big enough to do damage, and if it flies into something at a speed of 100 kilometres an hour (60 Mph) wont that be enough to do a good amount of damage?
He decided to try it out, he ordered the drone to fly into a nearby tree at high speed and then return to him.
Jake watched on as the scout drone accelerated quickly and smashed into a nearby tree, and then seemingly without a scratch returned to him.
When he went to observe the damage to the tree, he could see a generous dent was left in the tree.
The drone seemingly had enough force to do some good damage, not enough force to destroy a tree or go through concrete or something, but more than enough to break a bone or two.
¡°Seems like even if it''s not a combat drone i might be able to use it for fighting anyways¡± Jake mumbled to himself as he continued making his way towards the big rock.
While walking he kept doing little experiments with his drone, occasionally sending it out ahead of him to see if the path was safe.
After it had been about an hour he decided to check up on his mana, if he could find out how fast it regenerated he could make plans for the coming days on how he would spend it.
Mana: 22/100
22? Since it''s been about an hour, I can probably say it''s about 20Mp per hour regenerated.
Wait, could i use my drone as a timer? If I give it a command to do a little lap around my head when an hour has passed, would it be able to do so? Since it''s semi intelligent it should be able to fulfil complex commands, question is if it can keep track of time.
Lets just try it out then, he gave the command when his mana hit 30/100, just to double up on seeing if he really regenerated 20Mp per hour, and of course see if his drone was able to be used as a timer.
As he walked there was the occasional rustle or animal sound, it was really getting on his nerves after the attack he had experienced earlier. Because more monsters could be wandering around the forest, and the more noises he heard the more paranoid he got about being attacked again.
Nevertheless he kept going, because standing still here in the forest was basically asking to be eaten. Not to mention not moving meant stagnating, and stagnating eventually meant death.
As he walked he also kept track of any creeks or little ponds of water he passed, he might have to find a new source of water if he wasn¡¯t able to get to civilisation in time after all.
Not to mention food, he had passed a few groups of mushrooms but whenever he got closer to inspect them this nagging feeling in the back of his mind started appearing, the feeling somehow telling him those mushrooms were bad news.
He had guessed that it was probably intuition telling him they were bad mushrooms. Probably uneditable or just outright poisonous.
He still checked every batch of mushrooms he passed though, maybe one of them would turn out to be edible and could serve as a food source when he ran out of rations.
He hadn¡¯t found any fruit trees around here, not that that was weird I mean it wasn¡¯t like he was in a rainforest here.
But he had at least expected some berry bushes or something, but nope, nothing.
After a little bit more of walking his drone suddenly returned to him from scouting ahead and did a little lap around his head.
Huh, so it can keep track of time? Since i also counted this to be around when the hour was over.
He immediately checked his mana, and sure enough it was sitting at 50/100.
So I really do regenerate 20Mp per hour?
That was good to know, now he could ration and manage his mana with his maximum daily output in mind.
If he assumed that he would sleep for 8 hours a day, he would have 16 hours for mana to spend every 24 hours.
Since he would need 5 hours for every 100Mp he regenerated that meant he had about 400Mp to spend a-day. 100 from a full capacity when waking up after sleeping, and 300 from everything he regenerated until he went to sleep.
400Mp seemed like a pretty good amount, at least until he figured out how to get a bigger mana capacity or better Mana regeneration rate. And something told him, (mostly his gaming experience) that all he would need to do was level up.
I can figure out how to level up later though, since for tonight i,ll just have to focus on surviving and maybe setting up a shelter or something.
After two more hours of walking he finally reached the rock, it was sitting in the middle of piece of elevated ground in a big clearing.
The piece of elevated ground itself sitting at about two meters above the ground.
After a little bit of struggling and some climbing up the elevation, he finally reached the big rock.
¡°Now then, lets see what my construction skill can do¡±
Jake had a plan, his mana currently sitting at 100/100. He would just see how far this got him in making his plan work.
He mentally activated the skill and a window appeared in front of him.
Construction [Build mode]
Level of technology: Earth 1800-1900
Categories;
- Structures
- Terrain
- Materials
- Defences
- Utilities
- Decorations & Furniture
A neat little window appeared in front of him with a bunch of options, unlike his drone skill though there was no info button. Then again most of what he saw was self-explanatory or just really easy to figure out.
He clicked on one of the categories and a bunch of little pictures with tiny descriptions appeared.
The mana costs were shown and effects were also shown.
In Utilities for example he found the option to build a Hand water pump that cost 60Mp.
Water pump (Hand) - 60Mp
When built it can pump water from far underground, needs manual operation.
Or in defences he found barbed wire for 5Mp per two and a half meter.
Barbed wire - 5Mp / 2,5 Meter (8ft)
A string of spiked iron wire meant to hinder people or animals from passing through.
It was certainly all neatly done, and it seemed to be pretty easy to use, both in terms of building and also getting inspiration for building since options were just laid out in front of him in the form of a catalogue of some sort.
Now that he had checked out some of the categories he decided to take a look at the Build mode function.
He selected build mode and immediately something interesting happened, the entire world became covered in grids. The ground, the rock the trees it all had grids now.
And in his left corner was now a window with all of the categories and tools to help with building.
After a few minutes of looking at everything and figuring everything out, it was time to start on his plan for the night.
I mean what better way to set up shelter than use Construction, and what safer place is there to be than high up inside a rock?
His plan was to make stairs and a room inside the rock about four or five meters above ground, this way he could get a good view of the forest, and beasts on the ground would find it hard to get to him.
Flying monsters might still pose some risk, but if he just kept out of sight by leaving up a wall it wouldn¡¯t pose as much risk as sleeping near the ground did.
So he got to work, first he made rough little rectangle indents in the mountain with the terrain tool. He could use the rectangle indents as a ladder to get up and down relatively safely as long as he kept a good grip.
He had left the rectangles a little rough on purpose, if he had made them smooth it would be harder to keep his grip after all, and unless he wanted to risk falling he would need to keep his grip.
When he had made the indent ladder to about four meters above ground he still had 80Mp left, he then got to work on making a rectangle room in the rock.
The room itself was about 2 meters tall, 3 meters wide and 5 meters long and the rocky walls were flat but not smooth, otherwise it would probably become a slip and sliding show when he tried to walk around.
He kept the outside wall though, it would block him from both wind and flying animals after all. Then he made the doorway that would let him exit and enter.
He waited with adding a door of some sort for now though, since he only had 4Mp left, he would add a door when he had more Mp.
When he finished he checked everything over and then finalized his construction.
The grids immediately went away and a timer appeared in a little window in the corner of his vision.
27:32
27:31
27:30
So it needs some time to actually construct, just like the drone did. It¡¯s nice i get a timer to see when it finishes.
With his drone patrolling the area around him for any danger he kept an eye on construction as the timer ticked away.
It was kind of fun to see how it happened, as the rock slowly disappeared and took on the form he had finalized in Build mode.
When the timer finally hit 0, he grabbed his backpack, and started climbing his ladder.
When he reached the room sitting 4 meters above ground he threw his backpack in the corner and sat down for a moment, looking out over the forest and at the sunset currently taking place, just taking a moment to rest and enjoy the view after a really eventful day.
After five minutes of watching, he stood back up and started taking things from his backpack.
His sleeping bag, his sun powered heater, and a flashlight.
He would sort the rest of the stuff from his backpack tomorrow, right now he was just so tired he wanted to just turn on his heater and go to sleep.
He put the sleeping bag in the corner, put his heater next to it, recalled his scout drone and went to sleep.
¡ª
The next morning Jake got woken up by this nagging feeling in the back of his mind, he immediately recognized the feeling as his Intuition trait, it felt the same as with the mushrooms except this time it felt a little stronger.
Fuelled by fear of getting killed by something, he shot up and looked around, confused about where he was for a moment until he remembered the day before.
¡°Right, Panther attack, new dimension and me stranded in a forest sleeping in a stone room, now I remember¡±
He looked around the room but just saw an empty stone room besides the things from his backpack.
Then what was causing this feeling of danger he was getting?
He stood up and walked towards the doorway to take a look outside.
¡°Well.. This certainly explains why intuition is acting up, it seems to be quite the predicament im in¡±
4 - A Creepy cap encounter
Beneath Jake at the bottom of his ladder was a big mushroom cap around the size of a car moving around.
Every now and then out from under the cap a cloud of spores was sent into the nearby surroundings.
Jake had no idea what he was looking at exactky, but he certainly wasn¡¯t planning to go anywhere close to the big moving mushroom.
Instead he ordered his drone to go down and take a closer look, he connected to the drone and immediately a window appeared in front of him, showing the perspective of the drone as it flew down towards the mushroom.
Yesterday when he had been walking towards the big rock he was currently residing in, he had been doing little experiments with the drone, and he had figured out how to get a live feed of what the drone was seeing as long as it was within range of him.
Just like the drone¡¯s description had told him, this live feed was only shown to him if the drone was within 100 meters of him (330ft).
As the drone got closer to the mushroom he got a better view of what was actually going on under the moving mushroom''s cap.
Under the cap were thousands of tiny tendrils moving the mushroom around. Jake was captured by the sight of the tiny tendrils moving in patterns and fluid motions, the stem of the mushroom seemingly being made from thousands of intertwined tendrils.
When the drone finally got close enough though, the mushroom and its tendrils suddenly froze in their place.
He quickly ordered the drone to stop getting closer and just observe for a little bit, as a precaution he also ordered his drone to take evasive manoeuvres if the mushroom made any weird movements.
He watched on with interest, waiting for the mushroom to do something besides the occasional spewing of spores into the surroundings.
Then suddenly from out of nowhere thousands of tiny tendrils shot forward trying to latch onto the drone, as the mushroom shot forward towards the drone at high speed.
Jake would have lied if he said he hadn¡¯t gotten a little bit of a jump scare thanks to the sudden attack from the mushroom, luckily for him though, his drone was able to move away faster than the mushroom could reach for it.
The drone flew up a little more while keeping its camera on the mushroom, when the drone had flown far enough away the mushroom got back to slowly moving over the ground.
He had to admit the mushroom was quite the eerie sight, the speed and the movements of the mushroom in its last attack were scary to say the least.
It reminded him of an octopus laying in wait for prey to get close, only to launch itself forward at high speeds and entangle the prey in its tendrils.
Except now, it was a huge mushroom with thousands of tiny tendrils and on land.
To say this posed a problem for him was him being nice about it, because if the mushroom didn¡¯t leave he would be stuck up here, slowly running out of food and water.
Before taking any further action though, he decided to wait a few hours first, maybe it would leave his area on its own, and if it didn¡¯t? Well then he would have to find a way to kill it.
Talking about finding a way to kill it, he still hadn¡¯t checked out his weaponry creation skill that he had taken for situations exactly like this.
And after sleeping, his mana had regenerated, so he had 100Mp to work with.
He activated the skill and a window similar to his two other skills appeared in front of him.
Weaponry creation
Level of weaponry: Earth 1900¨C2000
Categories
- Melee weaponry
- Ranged weaponry
- Ammunitions
¡°So I get categories I can choose from, just like with construction?¡±
He clicked on the category of ranged weaponry, and just like with Construction he got little images of his available choices with their mana costs and short descriptions.
First he wanted to take a look at the ranged weaponry, maybe find a gun or something he could use to attack the mushroom.
He came along many guns, but also some basic artillery which turned out to be really expensive Mp-wise.
A mortar for example was 500Mp and its ammo 100Mp per piece. At some point he even passed a flamethrower and a ranged taser.
But eventually he found something that would probably help him more in his current situation while being affordable.
Pistol (Semi-automatic) - 75Mp
A basic 9mm semi-automatic pistol, the magazine can hold up to 12 bullets.
It seemed like he would need to buy the ammunitions separately.
9mm pistol ammo - 10Mp / magazine
The basic ammo for a 9mm pistol
With the 100Mp he currently had, he could buy a pistol and 2 magazines of bullets.
Just for the sake of it he also took a look at the melee weaponry, but it was mostly knifes, swords, axes, hammers and a hand held taser or other unique weapon here and there.
He even saw a stun baton at some point.
Now granted, Jake was anything but an expert in weaponry or guns, if he were to be honest he never really had any interest in such weaponry besides a little sword wielding as a kid.
But he felt like normal gun ammo wouldn¡¯t do much good for a mushroom, I mean a few tiny holes surely wouldn¡¯t kill a huge walking mushroom.
It was pretty safe to say normal ammo wouldn¡¯t do the trick, luckily for him incendiary ammo got invented in 1938, and he was sure a bullet that lit a fire would do wonders for destroying a moving fungus.
So he searched through ammunitions for a little bit until he found the right Incendiary ammo.
9mm Incendiary pistol ammo - 30Mp / magazine
This ammunition lights nearby flammable materials on fire upon impact.
He wouldn¡¯t be able to purchase the gun and the magazine at the same time, so he¡¯d buy the gun first and then wait until he regenerated 5Mp so he¡¯d have 30Mp to buy the gun.
Jake decided it was better to purchase the gun as soon as possible, and if the mushroom hadn¡¯t left before he got the ammo, he would just go kill it.
Jake bought the pistol and laid it down in a corner for now, as he walked back to his temporary doorway to look at what the mushroom was doing, he heard some weird sounds coming from outside.
When he reached the doorway and looked down, he saw the mushroom walking on the ground beneath him, trying to reach up to him with its tendrils.
He wondered if the mushroom had somehow spotted him, and was now trying to reach him. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
He watched on nervously as the mushroom tried multiple approaches to get up the wall.
Luckily he was too far up for the mushroom to even get close to reaching him. But if the mushroom kept trying it might find a way to get to him, and then he would be in hot water.
As he switched to watching the mushroom through the drone, he remembered his little test with his scout drone he had done the day before.
¡°Well, this might be a really good time to try it out, I might even get some mushroom stew out of it¡± Jake joked
I need something to stall for some time anyways, at least until I can buy those incendiary bullets, he still needed 5Mp which meant he needed to stall for about 15 minutes.
Now then, let''s see how good a scout drone can be in combat.
He ordered his drone to start attacking the walking fungus. While he kept a close eye on the battle from his doorway, five meters above the ground.
The drone flew back a little first and then started accelerating towards the mushroom cap, the mushroom somehow knowing the drone was coming because when the drone got close hundreds of tiny tendrils shot out towards it.
The drone just did some quick manoeuvring around the tendrils though and flew straight into the mushroom cap, leaving a decent dent.
The drone then flew away only to return in an arc for a second attack.
Jake noticed something strange though, from the spot where the first attack had left a pretty deep dent, a purple liquid started leaking out.
Did the mushroom have blood of some sort? Was this due to the earth changing and evolving, that he now had to deal with a huge moving mushroom that bled for some reason?
Did normal mushrooms bleed? He was pretty sure they didn¡¯t right?
After two more successful attacks the mushroom seemingly started focusing all its attention of the drone, as it stopped trying to get up the wall and towards him.
It seemed to have a very hard time finding his drone though, speaking of how it was finding his drone. How was this mushroom finding it anyway, he didn¡¯t see any eyes or ears on it?
Did it use vibrations? In the air and ground to detect prey? Im sure those many tiny tendrils could do a good job at detecting vibrations. Would that mean the mushroom would get confused if he created more sources of vibration?
He really wanted to find out.
Would yelling really loud work to confuse the fungus? But that would risk other monsters or animals coming towards him, and if possible he wanted to avoid having to deal with even more monsters.
So instead it would be better if he could throw things on the ground near the mushroom, but he had nothing nearby he could throw except the stuff in his backpack, and he didn¡¯t really want to lose or risk destroying anything in there. Since it was all pretty crucial to him surviving.
Well maybe with the exception of his two hiking sticks he had bought, he hadn¡¯t really used them yet though, turned out they were meant more for the elderly, so they could have better balance and stability while traversing nature.
In your 20s unless going up a steep mountain they were more of a hindrance than a help.
But he only had two hiking sticks to throw, so if this idea worked, he had to make sure to make it count.
So in preparation he gave a few commands to his drone, when he threw the hiking stick the drone would back up, until the mushroom reacted to the hiking stick, at which point the drone would rush in for an attack.
He made a few practice movements and then just went for it, he threw the hiking stick close to the mushroom, and just as he had hoped tendrils shot out to grab it.
Jake let out a small internal cheer at the mushroom falling for his trick.
His drone immediately took the chance to shoot at the mushroom from behind, this time smashing straight through the cap of the mushroom, even more purple blood starting to leak out and onto the ground.
The mushroom not letting go of the hiking stick even after the drone attack. Maybe it thinks it has caught its prey? It did return to trying to grab his drone though, which made the situation return back to where both sides were unable to harm the other.
Jake quickly checked his mana to see how much more time he would need to buy the incendiary ammo.
29/100Mp
He just needed to stall for about three more minutes, then he could use his gun to burn the damn mushroom down.
The mushroom seemed busy with trying to destroy his hiking stick, so he just let it be for another minute.
Until the mushroom had seemingly had enough and let the hiking stick go.
Then he did the same he had done earlier, threw the hiking stick while his drone used it as a distraction to get an attack in. This time though, the mushroom didn¡¯t fall for his trick, and went for both the hiking stick and his drone.
So he quickly ordered his drone to go back up. He just had to stall the mushroom for another minute, which didn¡¯t really seem that hard, he just made the drone taunt the mushroom every now and then for the remaining minute.
When his Mp finally hit 30 he immediately used it for the incendiary ammo, grabbed his pistol and loaded the magazine.
He had never used a gun before in his life, but he at least knew the basic stance to hold it.
He aimed at the mushroom who was still busy trying to catch his drone, then a realization hit him. If i miss wont that set the forest on fire?
The mushroom had blood and was moist, so it wont spread much when i hit the mushroom, but if i hit the grass next to it? That could be a whole different story.
And since this is my first time shooting I can''t just believe in my aim, the risk is too big.
At least, the risk is too big if it''s from this distance, he grabbed a shirt from his backpack and put it between his teeth, if he was gonna get close to this thing he wanted to make sure he didn¡¯t breathe in a bunch of spores.
Then he made his way down the ladder with his gun in hand.
The mushroom had seemingly noticed him climbing down as it turned away from the drone and started making its way towards him.
Jake kept one hand on the ladder, while with the other he grabbed the gun and aimed it at the mushroom.
He waited for the mushroom to get even closer, until it was only a short distance away from him. Its tendrils already reaching out to grab him.
He tried leaning into intuition for some extra guidance, while he kept his hand aimed towards the mushroom, and when he felt his shot would hit for sure, he pulled the trigger.
The bullet launched itself from the gun and flew straight into the mushroom, a few seconds later smoke rose from the hole the bullet had gone through.
And another few seconds later he even saw a flame pop up from the inside, the flame was quickly dying out because of the spilled blood though.
Jake shot two more bullets into the mushroom just to make sure, and he even ordered his drone to start attacking the mushroom once more.
A moment later the mushroom fell down to the ground and a message popped up.
Creeper Cap Level 3 Killed + 140 Xp
Congratulations, you have leveled up to level 2!
Jake smiled at the two notifications, quickly remembered the spores and bit back down on the shirt.
Then some pain hit his hand and he grimaced, apparently the pistol he had bought wasn¡¯t a hand gun. Which meant the blowback from the gun was more than his hand could take without damaging itself.
He really shouldn¡¯t have shot thrice using only one hand, bad idea, he thought as he put the gun away.
Then a strange feeling filled his mind, he suddenly felt a full coming from the mushrooms corpse. Not a physical pull but more like a mental one, like something was trying to attract him towards the mushrooms corpse.
Because the feeling was similar to the warning feeling Intuition gave him, he quickly made the connection that this was also Intuition trying to guide him.
But Jake felt a little unsure about rooting through the mushroom, for all he knew that purple blood was poisonous after all.
Or not, if it was poisonous he was pretty sure intuition would warn him, maybe he just didn¡¯t want to go rooting through a stinky wet dead mushroom and was using danger as a reasonable excuse.
And could you blame him? I mean, nobody would want to touch a big gross wet possibly poisonous stinky dead mushroom and dig through its insides!
Not to mention those creepy slimy looking tendrils, no thank-you, he wanted none of that.
The feeling of attraction trying to guide him towards the mushroom corpse only grew stronger.
¡°No, I''m not doing it! I won''t!¡±
It return he felt an even stronger tugging.
¡°But i really really really don''t want to! If i get dirty I cannot even shower right now, is it that important?!¡±
He got hit with another somehow annoyed mental tug.
Jake just let out a deep sigh as he took off his clothes as to not get them dirty, and started digging through the mushroom.
He would just need to find a river or spend Mp on a shower afterwards.
Eventually as he dug through the smelly corpse though, he felt something very tough, unusually tough compared to anything else he had dug through.
His intuition telling him this was it, so slowly he started getting the tough thing, whatever it was free.
When he finally dug it out and pulled it from the disgusting corpse, he saw a small blue stone sitting in his hand.
He wiped off some of the blood from the stone and took a closer look at what he had found.
It looked like a tiny, slightly glowing blue stone, its soft light illuminating his palm in a blue light.
Jake stared in fascination at the tiny blue stone, wondering about what it could be used for and why intuition was so pressed on him getting this, when suddenly a message popped up.
Would you like to absorb; minor mana stone (lv3) for 220 Mp?