Forests. The great outdoors. Nothing like them. The sound of wind rustling leaves, all manner of wildlife buzzing and chirping. Perhaps even a fire to light your path in the dark and send warmth seeping into your bones. All is good with this picture, except in a particular forest, within a particular clearing, standing next to a common fire, a young man was becoming particularly familiar with a certain word.

“What.”

Nature refused to answer.

“What was that?” he asked. “Hey, who said that?!”

As no one answered, he started walking around the fire, talking, as was his habit by now, to himself.

“Ok, I’m losing it. I wake up in a forest, naked, not knowing my own name or anything else. I have to struggle to even remember what fire is and when I make one, I start hearing words.” He mumbled.

“Maybe it’s the mushrooms?” He mused.

“No, I need to think.” He said, closing his eyes.

Which didn’t do any good for his fraying sanity.

“OK, what the fuck? First, I hear the words and now I see them when I close my eyes?” he asked, voice raising in volume. “How am I gonna sleep?”

While he went around asking the important questions, his fire slowly, but surely, went through the pile of wood. As fire is wont to do.

“Ah great, of course I’d have a problem with this too.” He said, feeding more wood into the fire. “Wait, actually, this is pretty great. I started getting cold without even noticing. Mmm.” He said, enjoying the feeling of warmth. Which brought back a recent unpleasant memory.

“No, focus! What are these words? A Class? Gatherer?”

He knew these words, but couldn’t place them in his context. He didn’t remember being a student, but perhaps he was? He supposed gathering all the things he did made him a gatherer, though he wasn’t too keen on being defined by this.

“And there’s a level for this class. Which now that I think about it, I don’t think has that much to do with education. Maybe it’s like a role…” he mused out loud.

“Skills… I don’t really remember the word. Doesn’t sound harmful though.

He paced around the fire some more, trying to see if there was a connection between it and the mysterious announcement that threatened to keep him awake that night.

“Fine, I’m guessing this won’t go away until I accept or reject it.” He sighed. “I really hope this doesn’t happen often. I accept.” He said, with a bravado he didn’t feel at all.

 

|Class Accepted: Gatherer|

|Class Level: 2|

|New Skills:|

|Resource Vision|

|Thick Skin: Hands|

 

“So. That was weird.” He said, after a moment.

“I’m a Level 2 Gatherer. Which if I’m judging this correctly, means I’m a pretty bad gatherer. And Vision? I can already see!” he complained.

As odd and surprising this turn of events was, the general situation was bad enough that his most prevalent feeling was one of annoyance, with wonder being close to the bottom.

“Alright, I’m going to sleep.” He said, feeding some more branches into the fire. “Maybe this was all a bad dream and I wake up somewhere nice tomorrow. Or I get eaten.”

Predictably, he didn’t wake up somewhere nice, the next day, but he did wake up a few more times that night to get the fire back from embers, since his judgement of how many branches does a fire burn through, in an entire night, was not without error.

“Worst. Sleep. Ever!” he yelled at the sky.

“Also, the only sleep, as far as I can remember, so maybe I there’s nowhere to go but up.” He said, after a second, feeling better.

While he stretched, he looked around, noticing with some dismay that his pile of wood had decreased noticeably. His pile of stones too.

The pile of leaves was alright.

“I still don’t remember anything, I’m still lost and if I remember yesterday correctly, I’m about to be hungry. Well, at least I can fix one of those problems easily. Small blessings.” He smiled.

“I wonder where I know that expression from…?”

Since his curiosity couldn’t be satisfied, he started walking in the direction he remembered the mushrooms were located. While he walked, he thought about the day before. Specifically, about the second Skill, the one he ignored, since he was too cranky to think about it before going to sleep.

Though, if asked, he would have simply said he was simply too tired.

“I’m supposed to have thicker skin on my hands, right? I mean, I guess I can feel it.” He said, looking at them. They didn’t look much different, but when touching one with the other, he could tell that the skin was just a little bit thicker.

“Kind of useless really.” He said, while walking. “It’s not like I’m going to try and scrape them raw.”

In no time, he reached the spot bursting with mushrooms. It was different than the day before, thought he reason why came slowly.

“Wow, that’s a lot of mushrooms. They’re everywhere. Why didn’t I notice this much of them yesterday? It wasn’t that dark.”

Wonder aside, he wasted little time in exploding them, gathering them and subsequently eating them.

“Ok, now I’m thirsty. I can basically hear my lips scraping against each other. I need to find a river… Even a pond would do.” He said, looking around. There was no water source in sight, but he did notice moisture.

Sure, there was dew on the plants, humidity on the trees, the earth looked humid. He really seemed to be noticing a lot of humidity.

Too much.

“Wait, is this… is this my skill?” he asked, suddenly alert.

“The skill said Resource Vision. So, I think about something I want and I notice it more easily? People! I want to see people!” he yelled, rotating his head left and right.

“No? Ok, shelter! Still nothing. Predators? That’d come in handy. Nothing. Great.” He said, with mixed feelings.

“Resource Vision. I only notice things that are resources, right? Alright, stones!” he said, concentrating.

And easily enough, the stones around him became more apparent. He didn’t see stones in the ground, through trees or hidden by plants, but the stones around him immediately attracted his attention.

“It works!” he laughed.

“Mushrooms. I see them everywhere. But why can’t I see water. There’s got to be a river here somewhere. Wait.”

He walked off for a few moments, then tried to see if he could notice the mushrooms again, looking back at the spot he had just left from.

“I can see a few. But I know there’s more. So, this means the stuff I’m looking for has to be around me. Hmm. Not that useful.”

With all the excitement gone, his thirst came back with a fury.

“Have to find water. I found food, I’ll find water. Maybe shelter after that. But water first.” He said, stumbling around, in no particular direction.

While he walked, he thought. And as it was fast becoming his habit, he thought out loud.

“So, did I get this class because I gathered things yesterday? I got wood, stone and some leaves. Does that make me a gatherer?” he thought.

“I guess not, since I was the one that accepted the class. I made me a gatherer. And the skills. Thicker skin on my hands. Was that because of the mushrooms? Then why didn’t I get it for my feet? I’m afraid to look at how scraped they are, but I know they don’t feel good.”

“Still, I’m low level. I’m guessing maybe I’ll get better skills when I get a better level?”

“How do I even do that though? I just gather stuff? Do I gather stuff I need or just gather stuff?” he said, while his throat continued to get drier and drier.

“Also, do I continue talking like an idiot, while I DIE OF THIRST?” he yelled.

“Come on Skills, don’t fail. WATER!” he screamed.

Amazingly enough, he did find water. He noticed the tell-tale sound of a miniscule river, just over a few feet away from him.

“I have to scream them to make them better?” he asked, thinking that it made an odd sort of sense.

He looked back at the way he came and sucked in air for a powerful bellow.

“MUSHROOOOMS!!!”

No mushrooms became apparent, but a sound like rustling leaves and broken twigs was heard some distance away.

“Fuck, I think I split the skin on my lips.” He swore, touching them with his tongue. “Yup, it’s split. Why did I even think it worked like that? …because I’m an idiot, that’s why. Ah, this hurts.” He said, moving towards the water.

“At least, if there are any animals in this forest, they’re now more afraid of me, than I’m afraid of them.” He muttered, thinking about the sound from earlier.

All those thoughts were cast aside at the sight of the river. Words of thanks and gratitude might have been uttered, if not for his very, very parched throat.

“Oh wow.” He said, after he had his fill. “That was beautiful. I’ve never tasted water this good. Literally!” he laughed.

“I wish I could take some of this back with me.” He said, after a moment, despondently.

“Or, I could just fill my stomach… Yeah, that works.” He laughed again and went for a second portion of the cool, clear water.

Necessities satisfied, he started walking back to the mushroom spot, since he wasn’t yet sure where the river was, in relation to the clearing.

“So I now know where to find food and where to find water. All I need now is to make a shelter and I’m all taken care off.” He said, smiling. “Maybe this forest isn’t so bad.”

His stomach grumbled.

“Huh? I already ate. Maybe I need a second portion of mushrooms too.” He said, grinning.

“About the shelter, I’m sure I could make something, if I had enough wood. Like, angling sticks between each other and I could crawl between them.” He said, thinking about his pile of firewood, only supersizing it.

His stomach grumbled again.

“Maybe I could place stones at the base, so they don’t move. And I could throw leaves on top to keep the sunlight off. I mean, why shouldn’t I sleep during the day?” he asked.

The grumbling continued.

“I think I’ll eat a whole load of mushrooms this time. And I’ll build it some distance away from the fire, so it I don’t wake up in a burning shelter. Yeah, that’s smart.”

By this point, his stomach was not as much grumbling, as it was churning.

“Wh… What is this? Why am I feeling like this?” he asked himself.

It merits to say that while he remembered eating and drinking, he only remembered because his body gave him a sign of what he was forgetting. Most body necessities were signaled to the owner, by the body itself. It stands to reason, then, that since the body hadn’t given the signal of this necessity before, the young man didn’t take it into account, until that point in time. Yet when the body finally did give the signal, the young man listened.

And panicked.

“Oh shit.” He would have laughed at his own choice of words, if not for the intensity of the sensation.

“I have to find a place to do my business. Fast! And…” he said, thinking ahead. “And leaves. I need leaves!” he said, now breaking into a run.

“Got to get to the mushrooms. And then the clearing. First mushrooms, then clearing.”

Upset as his stomach was, the sudden activity didn’t lighten the situation at all.

“Mushrooms. Clearing. Mushroom. Clearing.” He said, repeating the words, which were on the fast track to becoming his very own personal mantra.

“Mushrooms!” he yelled, when he came in sight of them.

He veered left of the mushroom place, running in the direction he remembered the clearing was. Though his situation made it understandable, he might have wanted to activate his Vision skill while he was running. Because, while his focus was on finding the clearing, his left foot found a mushroom. And found pain a moment, soon after that.

“Shit!” he yelled, falling amidst the branches, though managing to break his fall with his hands.

While thinking about this later, he would remark that when breaking his fall, he managed to scrape his hands against stones, twigs and dirt, yet there was hardly a scratch on them.

The reason he didn’t think about this on the spot, wasn’t because he had an urgent business to take care off. It was because his stomach, inconvenienced by all the running, had decided make the business take care of itself, right then and there, while he was lying on his hands and knees.

“It hurts! Why does it hurt?!” he screamed.

Indeed, the pain his posterior was experiencing had nothing to do with his fall or any other illness. It had to do with his very recent diet.

“Oh. Oh wow, this hurts. I’m guessing eating spicy mushrooms and drinking river water is not that healthy… but HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?” he screamed again.

Moments later he got up and started walking towards the clearing again, albeit at a more sedate pace.

He did make use of the leaves, but with more care than he would have thought necessary. His posterior demanded no less. Of his pride, he thought nothing.

“Ok, so I ate, I drank and I… took care of this too. I suppose I have to start on the shelter.” He said, trying to motivate himself.

Yet sitting on the grass felt too good to make any real attempt at moving.

“I wonder if I’ll get a |Thick Skin| Skill for my butt as well?”