We retreated into the safety of the circle, not wanting to awaken another beast. Urvi set her sword down on the soft grass before flopping onto the ground beside it. She had a broad smile on her face.

“Doing good?” I asked with a wide grin on my face.

“Still trying to process what happened... what just happened?” she asked again.

“You took out the mother of all treants.”

“I took down a mountain! Well, maybe not a mountain. A hill?”

“Let’s not ruin the moment with specifics.”

I had so many questions, but my dumb brain took ages to process the idea that I had a fucking guide with me all along. What an idiot. I looked around trying to find my journal but couldn’t find it. Wait. Where did it go? “Urvi, did you see my journal?”

“Your journal? Oh. Just hold out your hand and think about it,” she said.

“Seriously?” I did as she told me, and the journal manifested itself in my hand. “What the! How did you know?”

“I was desperate dying so many times, so once between deaths I just thought about it and it appeared in my hand,” she replied.

“I see… we can summon our default items whenever we want!” I quickly opened the stats section and saw my stats hadn’t budged at all. It stung my heart a little. I died so many times and my experience had barely increased, I hoped to see at least an increase in maybe a point or two. But alas. I moved forward, into the next section, skills. No change here either.

Up next was the journal. This was where things got interesting. I had several lines printed on it.

    . Exited foundation for the first time.

    . Killed three treants. 30 XP gained.

    . Found a chest. 5 XP gained.

Lastly and most importantly.

    . Destinies linked. The first link in the chain created.  

What does that mean? I quickly flipped more pages and began to scan the guide. The guide covered some basics. Stats, gaining XP, weapons, and chests. But beyond that, everything else was just more explanation about the five topics. Dammit. I also realized that there was no explanation for the magic system as well.

“What are you looking at?” Urvi said. I looked to my left and saw her peeping over my shoulder.

“Did you hear someone say something when I said... I would marry you?” I asked, trying hard not to blush.

Her eyes pointed to the canopy as she went into deep thought. “Hang on. I think I did. But I was so out of my head, I don’t remember what it said.”

“It said, destinies linked.” I pointed to my journal page.

She got off my back and pulled out her journal as well. Flipping it open, her eyes suddenly went wide. She held the book up and pointed to the stats. “They increased!”

Level	Health	Attack	Defense	Speed	Special Attack	Special Defense
4	64	16	12	15	13	11

Hot damn! That’s my girl! “Congratulations babe!”

She was jumping up and down in excitement. “Thank you! Thank you!” She stopped her jumping and flipped her page. “Karna! I got more stats!”

“Show me.”

She did and I saw that five more had opened up. Strength, stamina, dexterity, recovery, and lastly charge multiplier. I wonder when these open up. “Your looks a lot different than mine.”

“Hmm...” She took back her book and flipped more pages before saying. “There are entries in my journal.

    . Exited foundation for the first time.

    . Killed two treants. 20 XP gained.

    . On target aim. 5XP gained.

    . Found a chest. 5 XP gained.

    . Destinies... linked. The first link in the chain created...

Karna. What is this?”

“Keep going.”

She turned back to her book and continued.

    . Killed mother treant. 500 XP gained.

    . Iron guard armour gained. First strike Sabre gained. Healing potion gained.

She shut the book and looked at me, wearing a concerned expression.

“There is no explanation about the destiny thing in the book yet,” I said.

“There seems to be a lot more mysteries in this world,” She replied.

“Indeed. And I think it makes it all the more interesting, don’t you agree?” I asked.

She grinned with caution and said, “I guess so. What now?”

“Time to start unlocking the mysteries of this world.” I said before pointing south.  “Beginning with the chest we still yet to loot.”

***

The journey to the chest was smooth. No creature ambushed us, no treants brought their wrath on us, and the forest remained a little too calm for our liking. The chest sat buried in the ground, with all its contents still intact.

Urvi squatted down and began to pick up the contents of the chest one by one. First up, was the mysterious shard. “Here you go,” She said as she passed the shard up to me. I held onto it, admiring its dull green shimmer.

She continued digging and found a hunting knife sheathed in black leather. As soon as she picked it up, the piano tune played once again. A voice said, ‘survival attribute activated. Hunger and thirst unlocked.” What the hell?

I felt a strange sensation in my stomach, something familiar but also new. “Did you feel that?”

Urvi gasped. “Is that hunger?”

“I think so.”

These voices. They sound like notifications. But not all of the notifications seem to be triggering them. I wondered what the condition for triggering the piano and voices was.

She continued to pick more items from the chest. Three more bottles, one with green liquid, one with red, and another with silver liquid. Beneath them was yet another package, covered in a tan shade cloth. No wait. Two packages. The other was wrapped in green cloth. She put them down beside the chest and reached down into the chest. A second later, she pulled out a large bag of kind of thing. It had a leather strap with a very small opening. The content inside sloshed around.

“Water!” we said in unison.

“Hold it,” she said as she handed it over to me before returning to the chest.

“I think this is the last one,” she said as she pulled out, what appeared at first glance to be a book.

It was a book. A tome, to be more precise. “What is this?” she asked as she began examining the inscriptions and symbols on it.

“I think it is a book,” I answered.

“Oh... Here,” she said and shoved into my torso, making me gasp. She proceeded to pick up the two packages and stood up. “Think they are armor?” She asked, holding each in either hand.

“Give them to me. Let me open them this time,” I said.

“Hey! Why so?” She said. She looked a bit annoyed at the idea.

“When you opened the armor, it seemed to morph to fit you. Considering I need one, maybe be a bit generous?” I asked.

She snorted and said, “Go ahead. Which one?”

“Give me the tan-coloured one.”

She lent me the package which I proceeded to rip open immediately. Just like before, the content of the packet fell apart, making me panic for a second. But immediately after that they wrapped around me and transformed into... clothing? I took a proper look at what I was wearing. Dark green trousers, black leather boots, a tan shaded loosely stitched T-shirt, and no gloves. I have to say, I am a bit disappointed.

“Damn! You are looking sharp my boy!” Urvi commented.

“This is...”

“Disappointing? Yeah. You look like you just walked out of a fashion boutique. But I can’t deny that you still look sexy as fuck.”

It cheered me up a bit. Maybe it was my level. Sometimes the armor is tied to the level of the player. Perhaps I should have waited until I leveled up a little more. Urvi managed to level up to four in just her innerwear.

“Let’s see what is in this,” she said and proceeded to tear through the green package. This wasn’t cloth like I initially thought. It looked a lot more organic. “It’s... soft.” She opened it a bit more carefully. What we found inside were three blocks, each was of a different color. Could it be? “What is this?”

“I think it is rations,” I said.

“Food?” She pressed on it, and it sprung up like a sponge. “Huh. I think it is bread.”

“Well, I guess that is something.”

Urvi, however, looked a bit disappointed. “Well, what are going to do now?”

I looked at the tomb in my hand, whose runes and letters allured me. “Do some reading I guess.”

“You do that. I am going to go swing my sword around.”

---

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