Branch by branch, Scott built a lean-to against a tree. He covered the branches with leaves until he thought they would keep rain out. Though he had taken the time to retrace his steps to the location where he’d first found himself, it seemed far enough away from the beetles which seemed to sense him in the jungle.


    With daylight waning, Scott assumed that the time of day was similar to earth’s. At night, the air was chill, and the breeze gently permeated his lean-to.


    Scott shivered, and he reflected on the past hellish year he had spent on earth. Whatever intelligence gad called itself the system had been there. Why hadn’t he nor anyone he spoke with received the stats he now had? Why had he only received them in a much more peaceful setting where the monsters seemed like plush toys compared to the horrors he’d kept hidden from on earth?


    He considered all the deaths he witnessed. He saw them over and over when he shut eyes to attempt sleep. Though those faces and scenes lasted in his mind, he didn’t feel more phased than simply understanding that things were the way they were. It happened. People died. He lived. Tomorrow was a new day of survival. Or perhaps he was just a cold bastard. Maybe that was it.


    Scott closed his eyes and curled himself under his lean-to. The surf of the sea eddied. Foreign animals called, sang, screamed. In his dreams he wielded a powerful branch against a faceless system with mandibles that pierced his ankle. The pain felt so real, so intense, that Scott awoke.


    Beetles chittered around him. They bit his ankles and delivered enough pain that Scott bolted up and broke through his lean-to. He limped out of the brush and into thr starlit, moonlit sand. Beetles swarmed after him. Their glossy backs reflected the splatter of stars.


    Scott felt warm blood wet his sock. He felt the chill of the air in his wound. He realized that he had abandoned his branch, so he rushed for the rocks as the beetles came for him.


    He smashed them as they drove him across the sand. One by one, he bashed them until their shells cracked and until they oozed.


    The chittering died when the last beetle met its end.


    Sweat dripped from Scott’s sand-freckled tresses. On his knees, with his grip white on his bashing rock, Scott caught his breath as notifications appeared.


    15 level 1 scavenge beetles slain


    75 xp gained


    2 level 2 scavenge beetles slain


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    40 xp gained


    Level 2 has been reached


    1 stat point acquired


    Experience is 162/200


    38 XP points until level 3


    Scott smelled his own blood and sweat, and his grin opened his mouth to taste the rank air. He laughed, and he staggered to his feet.


    “You fuckers,” he mumbled. He kicked the carcass of the beetle before him where flies were already gathering. He dropped the rock, and he wiped sweat off his brow with the back of his hand.


    He was disappointed that he could no longer safely sleep on the ground. Not without better fortifications. That left the trees. The canopy was thick with vines and branches. He would make it work.


    In the meantime, he was ecstatic to reach level 2. It had been so easy! Now? where would he allocate his new stat point? Strength? Yes.


    Unable to allocate stat point to strength.


    Body fortification required.


    Scott recoiled. He was baffled. Trudging his way back to his razed lean-to, he mulled the condition. He then asked the system what the deal was with the body fortification requirement. He received no reply. How could he fortify his body? No response. Where could he glean answers? No fucking reply!


    Having to need aid put Scott in a foul mood. Right now his survival depended on information he felt he might have to seek others out for. When the system had wrought havoc on earth, he had relied only on himself. That’s how he’d been able to survive until he was relocated!


    Scott found his site in the jungle. On his hands and knees, with eyes as wide as he could make them to make up for the dark of the jungle, he finally found his branch. He should have put it in his inventory. Why hadn’t he?


    Doing so required less than a thought. The branch vanished from his hands, and he felt lighter. He could open his inventory in his mind, and he saw the branch within.


    His gaze wandered up the trees as he considered where he would sleep. He wouldn’t climb tonight. Too late for that.


    A walk along the beach covered the time needed for adrenaline to ease out of his system. He found his thoughts racing. However much he wanted to avoid relying on others, he needed to find out what body fortification was, how to do it, and then he needed to continue leveling up.


    Things were not so bad at the moment, but he knew the system could unleash chaos in mere moments. This time, he’d be prepared.


    Under a sky filled with cosmic gases of purples, oranges, and yellows; and myriad stars; and a moon which held a constant silver sheen; Scott ambled up the coast. The sky was so bright, he felt like he was looking at an enormous wall of marble freckled with cosmic noise. He gawked, yet he didn’t feel humbled like everyone who’d seen unpolluted skies seemed to feel. He didn’t feel small, nor insignificant. He felt like he belonged. Losing himself in the woods of a new planet would do nothing to budge him from beneath the stars. How could he ever feel lost and small to such a greater constant?


    Beetles chittered in the jungle. Flora rustled, and spindly legs disturbed jungle debris. Scott withdrew his branch from his inventory. As he strode along, he slayed beetles between periods of gawking at the cosmos of his new home. This planet was his new world.


    Scott’s stat sheet:


    Level 2


    Experience 162/200


    Stat point (1)


    Strength 10


    Wisdom 0


    Intelligence 1


    Dexterity 5


    Constitution 4


    Abilities none


    Inventory 01/10


    Awesome branch