The God Machine

Hey guys, for the last few weeks I've been working on a new project. I am tentatively planning for this to go live on RR and Patreon Monday, Feb 13, but if you'd like to get a sneak peak of it now, here's that the first 3 chapters.

I'm calling this one the God Machine, and it's a story inspired by the idea of why the system needs to exist, not just what if there was a system.

Blurb:

When Luke Bennet gets pulled into a world full of deadly monsters that’s governed by video-game rules, he finds out the truth about what really happened to his missing family. And he finds out that there’s a way to get them back, to get them all home. The journey will be dangerous, and he’ll need to be much, much stronger if he wants to have a chance of even surviving it.

Arrayed against him are the hungry beasts who would snap him up given half a chance, the mortal agents of a Pantheon determined to end him, and perhaps even the omniscient system itself. Luke is hellbent on reclaiming everything this new world has stolen from him, even if he has to burn it down to get what he wants. Not even the gods themselves are going to get in his way.

Chapter 1

When Lucas Bennet was nine, he briefly saw a therapist who told him that he needed to work on identifying what emotions he was feeling and how they were influencing his actions. That one idea stuck with him over the next decade, though he could admit to himself that he wasn’t very good at it. He tended to lash out at problems and only think of alternative solutions after the fact.

Luke could safely say that right now, he was pissed off and helplessly confused in equal measure. The last normal thing he remembered was sitting down at his uncle’s kitchen table to have a beer, and then he woke up in a field in the middle of the woods, surrounded by mountains he didn’t recognize, with a plastic grocery bag full of beef jerky and store-brand water bottles on one side, and his cousin’s old baseball bat on the other.

Thank God for that bat, because about thirty seconds after he woke up, the nightmare spawn of a three-way between Satan, a wood chipper, and a muskrat had leaped out of the grass and attacked him. Luke had beaten the little fucker to a bloody pulp before it could tear off his calf muscle. It was only after he’d finished having a miniature heart attack that things went off the rails.

Up to that point, there could have been some sort of bizarre but ultimately logical explanation. Now, however, there was a thing floating in front of him, a weird text box that had popped up as soon as he’d bludgeoned the mutant woodchuck to death. It moved with him as he turned his head, always remaining front and center. It was translucent enough that he could see the grass and dead rodent behind it, but was still easily able to read the words.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 2). 4 XP awarded.]
[Error. System unable to connect. Tracing route.]
[New route established. Searching index for profile.]
[Error. Unable to find profile. Generating new temporary profile.]
[Profile generated. Performing initial diagnostics.]
[Diagnostic scan completed. Bloodline detected.]
[Welcome, Lucas Bennet.]
[Level: 1]
[XP: 4/10]
[AP: 1]
[Bloodline: SysAdmin]
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 2]
[Stamina: 2]
[Perception: 1]
[Skills:]
[None]

The window didn’t physically exist, of course. He couldn’t touch it. It was just this thing in his vision that didn’t want to go away. Once he acknowledged it and skimmed its contents, it folded up on itself and disappeared with a barely audible pop.

“Only 2 stamina? I guess I should have done less weights and more cardio,” Luke said. “And what’s with this 1 perception crap? It’s not like I’m blind.”

“Oh! This is most unexpected!” a voice said from behind him.

Luke jumped a foot in the air, spun in place, and swung the baseball bat as hard as he could. It passed harmlessly through a man-shaped glowing blue thing, barely doing more than blurring its form for a moment. The blue thing, the same shade as the window and about the same transparency, now that he got a chance to look at it, didn’t even react to the bat going through it.

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Who the hell are you!” Luke demanded. “Actually, scratch that. What the hell are you?”

“I’m System. I don’t usually appear to people in the flesh, so to speak, but people don’t usually make it to nineteen before being connected to me. I don’t think that’s happened in at least a hundred years.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Quite understandable. It’s not every day a new off-worlder shows up on Aros.”

“Off what now?” Luke said. His eyes widened as his brain caught up to his ears. “Oh you have got to be shitting me.”

“What can I do to help, Lucas?”

“I prefer Luke.”

“Noted. Would you like your status screen updated to match?”

“I- er, I guess?”

“Update completed. I would love to help you further, Luke, but first you should probably address those monsters approaching you.”

“The what?” Luke spun in place to see another of the mutant groundhogs scurrying through the grass towards him. Its feet made little scrabbling sounds as it ran, and the grass rustled with its passage. There was another one behind it by five or six feet, also coming his way.

“Fuck me. I do not need this right now,” he growled, gripping the baseball bat tightly and setting his feet.

The first time he’d been attacked, the monster had surprised him. This time, his bat met the thing’s face as it leaped and he punted it halfway across the field in a cloud of shattered teeth and blood. The second groundhog monster was on him before he could reset his stance, but this wasn’t the first fight Luke had been in. Admittedly, his previous fights had all been against opponents that stood on two legs, but he figured some of that experience should translate over.

He backpedaled across the field, one part of his mind hoping and praying he didn’t stumble into a hole and twist an ankle, and the other part focused on the groundhog pursuing him. It snapped at him with each step, but he kept it at bay with a series of short and vicious downward chops that smacked against its shoulders and head, but didn’t stop it.

The groundhog leaped in the air, giving him what would have been a perfect opportunity to smack it across the field like he’d done to its friend, but he wasn’t in position for it. Instead, he pivoted on his back foot and let it jump by, then followed up with another smack of the bat. The groundhog tumbled into the dirt, stunned.

Luke lifted the bat up like he was chopping wood, and brought it down with both hands on the monster’s skull. Then he did it again, and a third time. He didn’t stop until a new box popped up.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 1). 1 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 3). 9 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 2. 2 AP awarded for use.]

“Okay, so I’m in a video game. System, you still here?” Luke asked, looking around.

“I am everywhere,” System said, appearing next to Luke. “Admittedly, not usually to this extent, but I’ve always found off-worlders need a bit of help getting going.”

This was all spiraling way out of control. Luke was stranded somewhere, in another world if the fucking ghost haunting him was to be believed, armed with nothing more than an old baseball bat, wearing blue jeans and a coat. At least he hadn’t taken his shoes off before sitting down at the table.

When Aunt Sophia had first disappeared, her husband had been investigated on suspicion of foul play. The cops never found anything, and eventually they’d given up. Either she’d run off somewhere without telling anyone, or whoever had taken her had done it without leaving a shred of evidence behind.

Then his cousin had disappeared a month later, and then his father, his older sister, and his older brother, all a few months apart and in that order. None of them had ever been seen again. Investigations had been opened, and reopened, and nobody had a clue what had happened to them. Uncle Duncan had become more and more erratic. If there’d been anyone left to make the decision, he might have ended up institutionalized.

Luke had a pretty good idea of what had happened now. He wondered how many other worlds were out there, if any of his family had ended up on the same one together. Maybe the last off-worlder to show up on this one a hundred years ago had been a great-great-great-something of his.

It was obvious that Uncle Duncan was involved somehow now. Luke had been literally sitting at his table talking to him before he’d… he didn’t know, been drugged and shipped off to another world? He wanted to know why his uncle had done this to him, to his whole family. He wanted to know howhe’d done it. It was insane. Impossible. If he was ever going to get a chance to ask those questions, he needed to find a way back.

“Okay, first question: how do I get back home?”

System shrugged. “Same question everyone always asks. I don’t have an answer, unfortunately. No off-worlder has ever left Aros after arriving, to the best of my knowledge. And, well, I’m System. It’s unusual that I don’t know the fate of something connected to me.”

“Fucking. Fantastic.” Luke wiped the baseball bat off on a relatively clean spot of marmot fur. “So I’m trapped here, just waiting for one of these things to sneak up on me and tear out my throat.”

“These monsters are a very low level. It should not be too much effort to advance past the point where they could threaten you,” System said.

“Video games are a lot more fun when you’re not stuck in one,” Luke said. “Okay, give me the tutorial or whatever. How does this all work?”

“It’s very straight-forward. As you gain levels, you will be given ability points. You can spend them on new skills, or use them to boost your stats.”

System walked Luke through the process of accessing his status, the skill store, and helped him select his first skill: [Mace Mastery]. It cost him 1 AP and, as soon as he bought it, it appeared on his status screen. The entry in the store switched to an option to upgrade it to rank 2 for 3 AP.

“So this… does what? Makes me better at swinging a baseball bat somehow?”

“Give it a try,” System told you. “You’ll be faster, stronger, more accurate.”

Luke took a couple practice swings, but they didn’t feel any different than usual. He raised an eyebrow at System, who shrugged back. “It’s only rank 1.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Luke muttered. “Okay, let me think here. So this is pretty basic stuff. Kill monsters, get XP, level up. Get stronger. But then what? Where the hell am I? Are there even any people nearby?”

“This region is known as the Tenebrous Valley, located approximately two hundred miles west from the human city of Valtira.”

“Okay, okay. Fine. I can work with this.” Luke started pacing back and forth. “Jesus. This is messed up.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” System asked.

“Uh, well. What should I do with these other 2 AP?”

“That depends on what your goals are.”

“Uh, well, I want to not starve to death.”

“You might enjoy something like [Survivalist], given your current situation. Your… rations… such as they are, are not going to last you too long.”

“Mmm, yeah.” There was about one good meal’s worth of food in that bag. “What other options do I have?”

“You might consider investing points into your stats. Perhaps perception? It is currently your lowest stat. Those who invest heavily in agility often find that their minds can’t keep up with their bodies without it.”

“Uh.”

Luke was so far out of his depth. He played video games, sure, but that had always been more his brother’s thing. He was the one who played the games with all the stats and builds and levels. Luke preferred retro games from his old man’s collection, games that all he had to do was insert the cartridge and turn the system on to play, games with a very simple progression of left to right, and beat down anything that gets in the way.

“Heh, I bet Curt would have loved this place. This is exactly the kind of stuff he enjoyed.”

“Curtis Bennet?” System asked. “He asked more questions when he first got here than any other off-worlder I’ve ever met.”

Luke jerked his head around and stared at the ghostly apparition. “You know my brother? How? You said there hasn’t been an off-worlder for a hundred years! He’s only been missing for a month.”

“I do not know how fast time flows in your home world. I suspect it works differently than it does here.”

Luke groaned. “Great, like this wasn’t complicated enough already.”

“My apologies. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Was there anyone else here with my last name?”

“Yes, two others in the last thousand years.”

Luke stared at System for a minute. “Fuck.”

Chapter 2

Luke sat down on a rock and put his head in his hands. “So… my family is dead. It’s been centuries, relatively speaking.”

“That is unfortunately correct. The last member of the Bennet bloodline connected to me was an off-worlder who perished ninety-seven years ago.”

“Shit,” Luke whispered. “Curt, Lizzie, Dad…”

He sat there silently, just staring at the ground. He’d known in his head that his family was gone. One after another over the last year, they’d gone missing. The best that could be said after all the investigations were closed or finished or whatever was that none of the bodies had ever been found. Even though they’d said not to hope, there was always that little sliver in the back of his mind that they might all come back some day.

That sliver was all bent out of shape now, ready to snap. The only thread left was that something magical was happening, something he couldn’t understand. Maybe the rules he’d grown up with didn’t apply anymore. He was sitting on another world with a status screen and a translucent blue ghost talking to him.

Curt was dead though, according to System. One month on Earth, a hundred years in Aros. “How did my brother die?” Luke asked.

“Curtis Bennet was slain in a cave two and a half miles southeast of your current position. He was level 14 when he was killed by a group of goblins from the Throatcutter tribe, now extinct. He killed all of them, but later succumbed to blood loss from the wounds he received during the fight.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. My… my sister, too? Her name is Lizzie”

“Also perished. She was level 21 and killed by a level 44 human a little over three hundred years ago while-”

“That’s enough. I don’t need to know all the details. Just… my father, William Bennet?”

“Killed at level 56 around eight hundred fifty years ago.”

“Fuck.”

System stayed silent while Luke sat there for an hour. Eventually, he looked up and asked, “Why did this happen to my family?”

“I expect you were brought to Aros because of your bloodline ability.”

“Oh right, that. I was going to ask, but… you know, other things on my mind. What is it?”

“It is why I’m able to appear to you like this. For everyone else, I can only send standard system messages like the ones you received when you gained your first XP. It also allows console access, though that requires you to be at the God Machine to use that ability.”

“What is the God Machine?” Luke asked.

“Technically, I suppose I am,” System said. “But I am referring to an actual location in the world where the physical core of the system resides.”

“Sounds like a long road trip. What’s console access good for?”

“Changing how the system works. You could set up new rules, remove specific individual’s access, alter XP or AP totals, or really just about anything else. It would depend on your admin credential level.”

“And how would I go about checking that?” Luke asked.

“You would first need to access the console.”

“And if it’s high enough, I would control this… this God Machine. I could do anything I wanted. That would basically make me God.” Luke paused for a second. “Could I bring my family back?”

“It is within the realm of possibilities, yes.”

“And get us home?”

“That is not currently possible,” System said. “There are many forms of magic available within the confines of the system, but targeted dimensional travel is not one of them. You would need to add it before you could use it.”

“And… I can just do that? Just make up some new ability and then use it?”

“As long as you have high enough admin access, yes.”

Luke slumped back and felt the tension drain out of him. “Wow. I could fix all of this. I just need to make it to wherever this God Machine thing is. How hard could that be?”

“You would likely need to reach a significantly higher level to stand a chance of reaching it.”

Luke thought about it. It wasn’t really his kind of thing, the levels and stats and XP, but to bring back his family, to get them home, he’d do it. Then he’d corner his uncle and demand some answers.

“Alright, that sounds like a plan then. Let’s get started.”

He stood up, grabbed his baseball bat and the plastic grocery bag with his food and water, and started walking. “Come on out, you shithead groundhogs. I’m going to play whack-a-mole on every damned one of you.”

* * *

Two hours later, Luke ran into a problem. He was getting very good at clubbing marmots to death, but the constant use, or maybe just the general age, of the bat had caused it to shatter on the skull of his most recent victim.

Luke held the remains, barely more than a foot of wood, in one hand and looked down at it. “Well, fuck.”

It wasn’t the end of the line, thankfully. It would be quite the ignoble death to die after having barely reached level 4. He took System’s advice and increased his perception first, then his stamina when he started feeling winded. That left him with just 2 AP, which went towards the [Survivalist]and [First Aid] skills. He took them under the assumption that he wouldn’t escape every fight unscathed and might need to patch himself up.

The changes were almost overwhelming at first. Luke had been in pretty good shape prior to arriving on Aros, but bumping up his stamina from 2 to 5 left him feeling like he could run a marathon. Perception was even harder to acclimate too. Every single movement jumped out at him, and the challenge became sorting out what was important from what was background noise.

His hearing was also sharper, which actually helped more in his marmot hunt than his vision. The long grass was always waving from the wind, and though it was possible to note the passage of the marmots in it, it was much easier to listen for their little claws scraping against the ground and react when they got close enough.

Now though, the bat was broken and he had precisely two weapons left: the multitool in his jeans pocket, and a folding pocket knife he’d found in his coat pocket. He didn’t recognize it, but it was next to a cigarette lighter that he did know belonged to his uncle. It was not hard to guess who’d given him the food, water, and weapon, though Luke was at a loss as to explain why.

He was not willing to try his luck against one of the vermin with a pocket knife that sported a four-inch blade. His enhanced perception stat came in handy again here, as now it allowed him to dodge the few remaining marmots in the field and make it to the trees, where he quickly used the serrated blade on his multitool to cut himself a nice, thick branch. After clearing it, he had a club as thick as his wrist on the small end and about four feet long.

“Hey System, will [Mace Mastery] work on this too?” he asked, brandishing the branch.

“Yes, though it will not help as much as using an actual crafted weapon would,” the pale blue apparition answered.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like it did all that much to begin with.”

“Your previous weapon was not a true mace either, and you were already quite skilled in its use. There was not much a rank 1 weapon skill could improve upon. Perhaps when you level up again, you should invest your AP into increasing it to rank 2.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said. He gave the branch a few practice swings and called up his status.

[Name: Luke Bennet]
[Level: 4]
[XP: 244/301]
[AP: 0]
[Bloodline: SysAdmin]
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 2]
[Stamina: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Skills:]
[Mace Mastery (1)]
[Survivalist (1)]
[First Aid (1)]

“I’m not sure there are enough of those monsters left to get up to level 5. What else is there to kill around here?”

He hadn’t yet seen one above level 3, and the 1 or 2s were far more common. There were surely other fields nearby, but he was hesitant to go too deep into the forest. For all he knew, there were level 50 wolves or something lurking in there.

“The valley is home to a number of goblin tribes, though they mostly come into the forest to forage for food or resources and actually live in caves at the edge of the valley. They are reasonably intelligent and organized, and would likely be the most proactive threat against you.”

“What levels are they?”

“Apologies, but you don’t have the admin level to access information about other living creatures around you. I can only tell you that goblins fall between levels 7 and 21.”

“Shit, too strong. Guess I’ll keep up the vermin hunt for now.”

“As you wish. Please keep in mind that the goblins may discover and begin hunting you as well.”

Luke grimaced and clutched the branch harder. “All the more reason to get back to work. Can you point me towards a nearby field that I haven’t committed genocidal acts on?”

“The closest one is approximately three hundred yards in that direction,” System supplied.

“Good enough,” Luke said. “Though, I think I might cut a back-up weapon just in case this one breaks at a bad time.”

“Very wise decision,” System said. “It seems that the [Survivalist]skill was a good choice.”

Luke had thought it was his own idea, but once System mentioned it, he started wondering how much knowledge was actually his. Nothing he’d done had been all that complicated, but he had stripped the branch with smooth, easy motions. That wasn’t something he’d ever practiced either.

“Huh, I guess it was.”

He made himself a second almost identical club and proceeded through the forest, one in each hand. That 5 perception was working overtime, pointing out every swaying branch overhead and every rustle in every nearby bush. It was a nerve-wracking few minutes of travel, but he eventually broke free of the trees and found himself in a field that was very much like the one he’d started in. The only real difference was that it was less circular and more oblong.

There were plenty of new marmots to fight too. Luke planted his back up club firmly in the ground, upright and ready for him to grab at a moment’s notice, and started hunting again. XP ticked in, one kill at a time as he grew closer to level 5. Each time he leveled up, he got more AP, always the same amount as his new level.

“What should I spend the next level’s AP on?” he asked.

“Would you prefer to prioritize your immediate needs, or plan for a long-term build?” System asked, appearing right next to him.

“Shit man, I don’t know. Why do you think I’m asking you for advice?”

Before System could respond, Luke felt a sense of dread come over him. It was practically palpable. There was something nearby, something terrifying. “What is that?” he whispered, his mouth suddenly dry.

“Ah, I believe you are sensing the XP in a nearby living creature, one that has significantly more than you.”

“So something high level is coming this way?”

“Correct.”

“Shit. Shit. Shit. What do I do?”

“Attack or run are the standard options. I doubt whatever it is will be interested in conversation.”

Across the clearing, something was moving through the grass. Unlike the marmots he’d been hunting, it was big enough that it was very easy to trace its progress, which meant Luke could see that it was heading straight for him.

“Oh damn it,” he groaned, grabbing his backup club. He had a feeling he was going to need it.

Chapter 3

Whatever it was, it was coming straight for him and it was fast. Luke almost wished he’d put a few AP into agility instead of perception, just because he felt like it would allow him to attack with both branches more efficiently, and he very much wanted to attack with both branches now that he had one in either hand.

“Uh, System? What can you tell me about this?”

“Apologies. I am unable to assist you with information about a specific individual.”

“Thanks for nothing,” Luke said, his eyes on the whatever-it-was moving through the grass at him. At least it was probably going to be worth a lot of XP. He considered stepping back into the trees to try to fight it there, but they were tight enough together that he suspected it would hinder him more than it would an animal that attacked with lunging bites and scratching claws.

It leaped out of the grass at him far sooner than he was expecting, from over ten feet away. It was another blademouth marmot, he thought, though it was bigger than any of the other ones he’d fought. It had darker fur and the proportions were slightly off, like it had been stretched out. It was also faster than the ones he’d been dealing with, and Luke barely had time to side-step the lunge and bring his club down on its back.

The marmot twisted in midair and took the blow on its flank, but if it was hurt, it didn’t show it. It landed in a skid, pivoted, and came in for another attack. This time it kept low, and Luke had a harder time judging how to move with all the grass in the way. He jerked his leg back just in time to avoid the marmot’s mouth, but not fast enough to dodge its body.

The vermin crashed into him, knocking him over and causing him to release one of the clubs he was holding so that he could catch himself with his free hand. Before he could get his bearings, the marmot pounced on his chest. It was surprisingly heavy, enough so that he felt the air being driven out of his lungs.

But stats weren’t just for show. His agility might not have been enough to dodge the attack, but his enhanced perception gave him the time to see it coming. He brought his tree-branch club up in front of his face while the marmot was jumping and lashed out with it when it landed. The vermin didn’t have the chance to snap at him before it took a thick piece of wood to the teeth.

It wasn’t a good angle for Luke, but fortunately for him the monster was only relatively heavy compared to the other ones he’d been killing. It still weighed at most thirty pounds. He was able to smack it away with a one-armed swing while flat on his back. Luke was kind of surprised it worked as well as it did, and chalked it up to [Mace Mastery] being useful after all.

He didn’t waste the opportunity to scramble to his feet and go after the stunned marmot where it lay, reeling in a bed of crushed grass. Normally, a marmot went down with one good solid whack to the skull, maybe two, but that was also with a baseball bat and with him having the time to line up a good shot. This battle was far more frantic, and his opponent was significantly bigger.

He brought the branch club down on it, targeting its joints where he could reach them while he circled around to get a clean shot at its head. The marmot didn’t just take the beating, of course. Even with all the blows he’d landed, it was alive and kicking. In fact, it was even more pissed off now than it had been when the fight started.

Worse for Luke, he could already see cracks running through the branch. He grabbed it and brought it down in a single ferocious two-handed chop, right on its skull. The branch didn’t explode like his baseball bat had. Instead, it just snapped in two, each end connected by a loose, flexible strand of wood.

Luke scrambled to recover his back up club before the monster could regain its feet. He snatched it up out of the grass and spun back to face the giant marmot, only to discover that his fight hadn’t gone unnoticed. A regular-sized one was coming his way, only visible because of how much the grass around him had been trampled during the fight.

With a glance at the oversized boss marmot to ensure it hadn’t recovered from the beating he’d given it, he set his feet and waited for the lunge. It came in low and fast, but Luke was ready and he splattered it across the field. It must have been one of the weak level 1 versions, thankfully. A quick glance around showed no further threats incoming, at least none that he clocked with a perception of 5.

The mega marmot was back up, though instead of attacking, it was limping off into the grass. “Oh hell no!” Luke said, pursuing it. If it thought he was just going to let it walk away after trying to jump him, it was dead wrong. He wanted that sweet, sweet XP.

He smacked it again on the skull and it fell onto its belly. A solid kick rolled it over, and after a few more whacks to the face, something finally cracked and fluids started leaking out. He got the kill notification, and let out a sigh of relief.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 1). 1 XP awarded.]
[You have slain Blademouth Matriarch (lvl 7). 50 XP awarded.]

“For real? 6 XP short of leveling up? Damn it, where’s one of those little guys at?”

Luke stalked through the field, watching and listening for the tell-tale rustles of grass until he found one. He cracked it across the face and sighed when he got the next notification.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 2) 4 XP awarded.]

“I swear to God if the next one is one of those level 1 weenies…”

Two minutes later, he found another one.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 2). 4 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 5. 5 AP awarded for use.]

“Damn right! Okay System, what do I do with this AP?”

System appeared and looked around. “Well done. It seems you’ve killed a strong enemy. As far as using your AP, I’m afraid I’m able to offer only limited assistance. As I said before, a long-term plan is vital, as AP is limited and should not be wasted frivolously. Statistically speaking, most creatures will raise all stats equally to a minimum threshold before they start to specialize in the ones that help them most in life.”

“Yeah, that’s why I focused on perception and stamina first, but now they’re my highest stats. Should I just boost agility next then? What about some more skills?”

“I am not able to offer advice on a specific build. I’m only able to clarify any questions you might have about the system-generated descriptions. If you need advice beyond that, I can only tell you that almost every sapient species possessing a written language has written frequently on the subject.”

“Which does me fuck-all right now. I’m hundreds of miles away from that city you mentioned.”

“Valtira,” System supplied.

“Yeah, that one. Isn’t there anywhere closer?”

“There are several goblin settlements in this valley, though despite the capacity for the written word, goblins very rarely feel the need to write anything down.”

“Anywhere closer that’s human, I meant.”

“There are quite a few small villages and isolated farms between the valley and Valtira. I am unable to be more specific regarding their locations beyond their general direction at your current level of system access.”

“They don’t sound like they’d be helpful anyway,” Luke said. “Okay, back to right now though, where should I- oh damnit!”

While he’d been standing there talking, another marmot had found him. Fortunately, his perception was high enough to see it coming even when he wasn’t actively hunting it, and they always seemed to attack in the same way. He set himself in a baseball stance, tree-branch club held in both hands, and smashed the marmot in the face as soon as it leaped up out of the grass at him.

[You have slain Blademouth Marmot (lvl 1). 1 XP awarded.]

“Screw it, I don’t have time to stand around. Everything is going up to 5. I’ll bank the last AP for later use. I can do that, right?”

At System’s nod, Luke went ahead and spent 1 point in strength and 3 in agility. The strength increase wasn’t something he could really feel, but such a drastic increase in agility was noticeable. He unconsciously adjusted his footing to be better balanced, something he hadn’t even realized would help until he’d already done it and felt the difference.

“I need a better weapon,” Luke said, holding up his club. It was still in one piece, but it wasn’t going to last much longer. “Something metal would be helpful.”

“There is a blacksmithing skill, but you cannot afford it with your current AP total. Additionally, you lack all of the tools needed to successfully craft anything.”

“Maybe I’ll just steal one from something else. You said there were goblins, didn’t you?”

“There are, ranging from level 7 up to 21.”

The marmot matriarch had been level 7, and it had cost him one of his clubs killing it. If he hadn’t had a backup weapon, he would have been forced to punch and kick it to death. If the weakest goblin was the same level, and they came in groups, there was no way he was ready to take them on.

He could keep chopping up new branches, maybe find some thicker ones or something that was sturdier than pine, and grind it out on marmots for a day or two. He didn’t love that plan, but at the same time, he did love not being dead. He could acknowledge a bit of luck in making it this far uninjured, but sooner or later something was going to take a bite out of him.

“Weapons. Armor. Higher stats,” he muttered. “More skills. Better skills. It all comes back to grinding out XP to get stronger, and getting out of here so I can find some other humans. Hey System, if I just leave the valley, could I find a safer area to grind out XP?”

“Safer than the marmots you’re currently fighting? Probably not. There are a few places, but by the time you could reach them, you would be far beyond them. Safer than the valley as a whole? Definitely. There are several creatures here that could easily kill you if you encountered one.”

“Shit. I guess it’s marmots then. First though, time to make a few clubs.”

Neither the serrated knife in his multitool nor the fold out knife were especially good for what he was trying to do, but it beat trying to break branches off with his bare hands. Luke spent about an hour warily watching for threats while he fashioned new clubs to use. Occasionally a marmot would find him from the field side, but nothing ever attacked from the depths of the forest.

Luke found that incredibly suspicious, but System was unable, or just unwilling, to give him any detailed information about Tenebrous Valley. “Stupid name for a place anyway,” he muttered.

Finally, he had five clubs fashioned from the branches that he thought were sturdy enough to hold up to a dozen marmots each. Surprisingly, half way through he got another system notification.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Woodcarving (1) skill. 25 XP awarded.]

“What the hell? System, what is this?”

“You have gained enough knowledge of a trade that you qualify for the skill. If you were to purchase [Woodcarving] at this point, there would be significant overlap, so the system rewarded you with an official ranking to the skill, allowing you to skip it and purchase rank 2 if you desire. Additionally, you receive a small amount of XP for the achievement.”

“So what you’re saying is that if I wanted to invest every point into stats, I could pick up all my skills the old-fashioned way?”

“That is one option that some people use, though it is not particularly successful. It is the work of a lifetime to become skilled enough at a trade to reach the top rank, for example. It is rare that anyone ever practices a skill enough to raise it past rank 2 or 3.”

That was a nice little bonus, but the next level was over 200 XP away. Luke was determined to get there before it got dark. Once he was level 10, he’d see what there was to those goblins, see if he could find some real weapons to use.