Tess sighed.

“You really aren’t going to let this go,” she whispered.

Of course not! Not even I know how many different skills there are! Isn’t the thought of all these new things exciting?

“Sure,” Tess answered.

That didn’t sound enthused.

“It’s been a long day,” Tess deflected.

She wasn’t about to start treating the box as her psychiatrist. A part of her still thought she was trapped in a hallucination, despite how real everything felt.

Mostly, it was the boxes and status sheet that threw her off. Randomly waking up in some strange wilderness? That Tess could believe. There were always parts of Earth that hadn’t been explored. The Boarlus could have easily been some insane mutation. The boxes, though. Now that was something otherworldly.

Tess shimmied a bit further into her makeshift shelter. How had the box said to call things again? Right.

Skills

ROLL

1 Star Skills

Expand

2 Star Skills

Expand

3 Star Skills

Expand

4 Star Skills

Expand

5 Star Skills

Expand

Tess moved her hand to select the roll button.

Don’t worry about that! What kind of god would I be if I couldn’t do a little thoughtscreen programming? Just think about what you want and it’ll open!

Tess rolled her eyes. “It’s a habit from using phones.”

Still, she obliged the one behind the box and thought, ‘roll.’

Would you like to use 10 xp to roll for a skill?

“Of course,” Tess answered.

A jovial face appeared in her vision before it faded away to reveal a machine similar to the bubblegum machines she used as a kid.

A coin labeled, ’10 XP’ slid into the slot and the mechanical knob turned. There was a bit of a rumbling, then a small neon orange capsule appeared. There was a satisfying, ka-chunk, as the capsule opened to reveal her new skill.

Star Level							2
Stoneskin
Cost:	0	Health	30	Mana	0	Qi	0	Other
Cooldown:		120
Effect
For one minute your skin is as strong as stone and nowhere as brittle.
									Secondary Effect
									Tertiary Effect

“Another two star,” Tess murmured.

Oh! That one will be fun!

“It might be useful stopping a blow or two,” Tess said.

The woman pressed the roll button four more times, growing increasingly annoyed each time the animation played out.

“Can’t you do anything about this animation?” She complained.

What! I slaved over that for three whole seconds! That’s a lot of time to a god, you know. We have a lot to manage. Also, it only happens during downtime. If you need something quickly it’ll spin a wheel real quick.

“I’m sure,” Tess muttered.

She took a look at the rest of her skills.

Star Level							3
Heart of Qi
Cost:	0	Health	0	Mana	0	Qi	0	Other
Cooldown:		Passive
Effect
A percentage of your HP also adds to your Qi
									Secondary Effect
Stacking these grants 1% extra conversion for each extra collected
									Tertiary Effect

Star Level							2
Linguist Fanatic
Cost:	0	Health	0	Mana	0	Qi	0	Other
Cooldown:		Passive
Effect
Spending at least one hour listening to a spoken language you do not understand will allow you to understand the literal translation of what is being said. Listening to the same language for four hours will allow you to understand as though you were a beginner in terms of context. Six hours will allow you to understand the intent. This resets daily at midnight
									Secondary Effect
Listening to the same language for a continuous month will allow you to ignore the daily reset
									Tertiary Effect

Star Level							3
Uncanny Dodge
Cost:	0	Health	0	Mana	20	Qi	0	Other
Cooldown:		6
Effect
Man, those are some uncanny reflexes! When struck by an attack, reduce force damage dealt by an amount equal to your reflex attribute!
									Secondary Effect
As long as your reflex is over 100, gain flat extra damage reduction equal to five percent of your reflex!
									Tertiary Effect
Feed 100 3-star skills to reduce the cooldown to 1 second!

 

Oh wow, lucky you! Five rolls and only one 1-star!

“Wait, I can’t understand the language?” Tess asked.

That would have made things difficult for when she went to look for people.

No no. You can talk to people. You think I want to watch you struggle learning a language? That’s only interesting like the first few times.

“Then why is this here?”

Like I said, I don’t even know everything that’s available. Some of it is bound to overlap.

“Fine. Then how do I add this?” Tess asked.

Think, Equipped Skills.

Tess did so.

1 Star Skills

Puzzle Master

Qi Reserves

2 star skills

Druidry

“Where do I add 3-star skills?” Tess asked.

You gotta gain levels! Each level will unlock more skill slots, leading to more fun combinations!

“So what do I do with these 3-stars?” Tess complained.

Save them! I’m sure something will come along! Or you could feed them to other skills! Get a bit more experience and you could unlock the extra effects from Druidry!

“God I hate this,” Tess said. “You take me from Earth and I don’t even get something useful.

Hey! I saved your life! I didn’t have to pull you from that landslide you know.

Tess sighed. “I know. The events of the day have made it very clear.”

Yep. You definitely aren’t in Kansas anymore!

Tess turned her eyes upward in annoyance. She could already tell that this god was going to be a pain to deal with.

At least it answered her questions.

“So, are the skills locked after they’re equipped?”

Nope! Mix and match to your heart’s content! It’s more interesting that way.

Tess instantly switched out Puzzle Master and Druidry with Super Hearing and Stoneskin. Instantly, the little sounds of the world outside her makeshift tent amplified.

It was as if Tess was underwater and had just come up for air. The small clicking of bugs, which the woman had barely noticed, were now loud enough that she could determine direction. The leaves even made different sounds now, Tess able to tell if one was larger or smaller by its rustling in the wind.

A soft thud caught the woman’s attention, and Tess realized she was hearing the footfalls of a nearby small animal. The sound of air whooshing through nostrils came next. It seemed the animal recognized that there was something foreign nearby.

Tess unlipped her knife from her belt just in case. Sure enough, the animal seemed to be moving forward. Soft growling, at a level Tess knew she wouldn’t have heard normally, came from the stalking animal.

The woman wrinkled her nose in distaste. She didn’t want to fight another animal tonight. The boarlus had already been enough.

Tess blinked. The boarlus legs!

The woman scrambled out of her tent, only now remembering the two rations she had pulled with her.

Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten all day either.

Tess grabbed the two leg quarters and threw them as far away from her as she could. They landed somewhere in the trees with a louder crash than expected. It caught the animal’s attention, and Tess scrambled back into her shelter, grabbing her supplies and bolting.

So, uh… Wanna tell me what that was about?

Tess turned away from the box. “No.”

Now that she was aware of it, Tess’s hunger struck full force. She’d always known herself to be a focused person, but Tess had never thought she was the type to hyperfocus.

“Stupid,” she mouthed.

The entire day she had two leg quarters. She could have built a fire at any point, roasted the meat, and sustained herself. She could have set up somewhere and turned the legs into jerky. Instead, she had decided to solely focus on finding a reliable source of water. To the detriment of all else.

“No more of that,” Tess mouthed to herself as she ran.

If she was going to survive here, the woman would have to be more alert.

Once Tess no longer heard the earlier animal she built another shelter, wiggled inside, and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t make any mistakes tomorrow. There would be no more accidents like this.