It was odd. Creating this simple, rudimentary card felt as good as it had making the Transcendent card, if not better.

Slumping down by the tree with a weary grin on his face, Tristan dismissed the [Forge], not wanting to see it again for a while. He slotted his new card into his deck, pulled it, and cast it.

The card manifested as a glowing cluster of redberries. He smushed them against his wound.

The relief was weak but immediate. The pain slightly faded, and he quickly used up the remaining cast before dismissing his deck so the casts could refresh. With one more application, the bleeding had slowed to a trickle.

He then sat back and did some mental calculations. With the card being Novice, it’ll probably take ten or so more casts to fully heal a wound like this. The wound wasn’t that bad, but this was also the first real injury he’d ever gotten in his life.

His stomach growled. He desperately wanted to eat some of those berries he stockpiled, as well as drink the brook water, but he decided to wait until [Healing Berries] was off cooldown. Eating random berries and drinking suspicious water sounded like a good way to get sick.

In the meantime, he thought. I want to get some more materials. He had some ideas on some other staple Novice cards he wanted to make, though he’d be doing the actual forging tomorrow during the day and after some rest.

He stood up, then immediately experienced a wave of vertigo that made him slump back down. Shit. Forging really killed me. His stomach and throat were back-alley knifing each other for his attention, too.

No material gathering. I need to rest. He squinted around, but the thin moonlight made it difficult to see past his immediate vicinity. Blundering around the dark forest, trying to find a safe spot to rest, sounded like a quick recipe for death.

The thought sobered him. He needed a moment to think, delve through the possibilities, and figure out a plan.

Well, he thought, looking up at the tree he’d been resting against. Guess this is as good a spot as any.

***

As it turned out, climbing a tree was quite difficult with a healing shoulder. Without the effect of the [Healing Berries], this would’ve been impossible.

Luckily, the tree was obliging in having low enough branches for him to scurry up in like a squirrel. He wasn’t particularly tall—he was actually pretty short, about 5’6 on a good day—but this wasn’t a particularly tall tree.

Heaving, sweating, Tristan finally reached a height he thought was safe, on a branch thick enough to hold his weight. He sat down, rubbing his aching shoulder. He summoned his deck and used up the now refreshed two casts on his shoulder.

Then he looked down at the ground.

Should probably secure myself. Don’t wanna wake up mid-air cause I rolled off in my sleep. The best he could think of was to take off his shirt and tie it around his legs and under the branch. It was unfortunately too short to wrap around the trunk. Likely if he fell, the knot would just come undone and he’d plummet to the ground, but it was better than nothing.

With his shirt off, and it being night, the cold came quickly. Tristan sat there, shivering, trying to convince his body that being cold was just a state of mind when an idea popped into his head.

Feeling a little stupid, he pulled the two [Squirrel Fur] he got from his [Binder] and converted them. Together, they were wide enough to cover his whole lower body.

They were deeply warm. Stinking, but warm.

He leaned against the tree, closing his eyes. Though he was dead tired, a part of him couldn’t stop thinking: Were there any monsters that could target me in the trees in this area? Some [Dark Bats] and [Earth Sprites], maybe, but those are rare. He yawned. This is a Novice-Apprentice rank area, anyways. Monsters here aren’t as aggressive or abundant as in the higher rank areas. Besides, if they come, they come. I need to sleep.

But what’s the plan for tomorrow? He made a mental checklist of the materials he needed to acquire, quickly double-checked his [Binder] for the Novice cards he could forge in this location with the available materials. This is a forest, so it’s predominantly Earth cards… but there’s wolves around, which also provide Dark materials…

He also thought ahead to which Apprentice card he wanted to make; in order to advance grades, one needed to forge the next grade of card. They couldn’t be bought. He needed to find the [Blueprint] for those cards, and they weren’t in his [Binder] already.

The thought of forging again made him a little queasy. He wasn’t sure exactly how the game mechanics transferred over here, but if the concept of having a NPC forger companion did, he needed one as soon as possible.

He shuddered to think about the time and effort it would take to forge a Master card, much less a Transcendent. In the game, cards forged by a recruited forger would count towards your advancement to the next grade, though you had to be the one to complete the Advancement Trial.

What’s the plan for the near future? Realistically, I’m not going to be staying in Great Woods much longer. The item material here is mostly Earth with some Dark elements scattered in with the wolves and other mobs at night. I could spec into Earth for now and hope for a chance at a Perk Reset Card later on, or make do with what Dark cards I can make here.

I could also just leave and head to the main town after unlocking Apprentice. Farm some more materials, sell them for chips, and find travel to the Continent. He shook his head. No, this is a good area to farm an Apprentice-rank deck. There’s enough Dark elements for me to make something I can use.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He racked his brain, tried to avoid the conclusion he’d been leading towards, then sighed in resigned acceptance. I’ll spec into Earth and Dark for now. The closest Water environment is Shoal Springs, and that’s on the other side of this beginner island. A quick trip in game but definitely too long in whatever world this is.

He didn’t want to spend any longer on Solossi than he had to. Which meant he needed to use the resources Great Woods offered and turn them into a usable deck. The dull pain in his shoulder reminded him that though speed was critical, survivability was even more important.

Once he arrived at Advance, the first major town on the Continent, he could work towards reclaiming his true build. Speedrunning through this beginner area wasn’t smart, as much as it rankled him. He needed more information, time to adjust, and a strong foundation before he truly started blitzing through the ranks.

He sat in quiet silence for a while, the quiet symphony of a forest at night filling his ears, before his thoughts turned inevitably to where he was. Strapped to a tree with an injured shoulder, an empty stomach, and squirrel fur draped over his lap.

He worked through all the possibilities, as best he could in his current weary state. Checked off every angle, every alternative.

All roads led him back to a single, undeniable conclusion: Either this world was real, or it was so indistinguishable from reality as to not even matter. In either case, he was here.

And he will not only survive, but rise to the top. Again. He needed to finish up in this area and get to the main town of Sol somewhere nearby. He needed to figure out if there were other Transcedents in this state of the world. If there were, they would already be working towards achieving Divine, though he knew from personal experience breaking the Grandmaster to Transcendent barrier that it would take quite a bit of time.

He used two more casts of [Healing Berries], the wound now starting to scab over. He decided to just eat and drink tomorrow before promptly falling asleep.

***

The morning came without trouble. Tristan blinked awake, yawning, looking around with bleary eyes. He had not fallen off the tree, which was nice, but his [Squirrel Furs] did at some point. A funny thought occurred to him; this was probably the earliest he’d awoken in a long while.

He untied his shirt, checked his shoulder, no longer as inflamed or red as last night, and put it back on. He was about to descend when a thought occurred to him. Carefully, he climbed the rest of the tree and reached the top.

From here, he had a decent vantage of the surrounding area. In short, it boiled down to trees. Trees and trees as far as he could see. However, that was enough. To his north, the trees grew in size; to his south, the trees lessened. The massive, almost mountainesque tree dominating the horizon in the far distance would be the Great Oak itself…

Oh! A grin spread on his face. He knew what he had to do before exiting this area and entering the town. A little thrill of excitement ran through him at the idea of clearing [Withering Roots] again, not to mention the rewards. He turned back towards the south, trying to find some sign of Sol, but he couldn’t see the town.

Though he was relatively familiar with this area, a map would have been ideal to find his way…

Oh. Feeling stupid, he ran through the in-game commands, including [Map]. Unfortunately, none of them worked, except for the ones he’d already tried and the [Perk Page], though that last option was locked until he reached Apprentice.

There were navigation-related Support cards, but those were gated behind higher ranks and more specific in their usage.

Still, feeling good about having scouted, he scurried back down the tree. He dropped the last few feet, picked up the [Squirrel Furs], and converted them back into cards.

Then, because it was no longer ignorable, he pulled out the [Stagnant Brook Water] he’d collected earlier. A floating globule of relatively clean-looking water formed in the air, and with some hesitation, he slurped it down.

If he started feeling some funkiness, he would cast [Healing Berries] to sort it out. For now, he used two more casts of the card on his shoulder, which was healing nicely.

All right, he thought, grinning and looking out at the forest, it’s time to go find some wolves.

***

A violent cramp seized Tristan’s stomach, making him gasp, right as the fourth wolf of the day slashed out with its claws. He barely managed to jerk his head out of the way but still got caught under the eye, the claw scraping a thin line above his cheekbone. Growling, he pulled [Earth Bolt]

and cast the card right at the monster’s rib.

The bolt struck and crushed the wolf’s already weakened ribs, killing it.

You have defeated 1x. [Great Woods Wolf].

You have acquired 2x. [Wolf’s Eyes], 1x. [Wolf’s Meat], 1x. [Lupine Soul], 1x. [Basic Nightvision Blueprint].

He only had a moment to be happy about acquiring his second [Lupine Soul], not to mention the [Blueprint], before another wave of cramps struck. Groaning, he hastily accepted the loot, then pulled [Healing Berries] from his deck.

He was about to use all two casts when the new wound under his eye stung. Grimacing, he ate one and used one as a paste for his eye wound. It was only a shallow cut, so it wouldn’t require too many casts.

The cramps soothed out somewhat. But now his shoulder wound had to be delayed, plus the new wound under his eye needed healing, and he likely needed another two casts of [Healing Berries] for his stomach to be fully settled.

He groaned. I can’t do this, he thought, opening his [Binder]. There has to be something in here. He flipped through his [Novice Blueprints].

There! Breathing in relief, he picked up the [Blueprint] for [Novice/Earth/Support]—Simple Rations. It was one of the starting ones he’d received. A Support card that created a basic meal that would fill his stomach and hydrate him. He checked the item requirements and saw he only needed to find another [Minor Earth Source].

Initially, he had decided on three Novice cards he wanted to forge before moving onto Apprentice: the Support [Basic Nightvision] and the Attack [Hamstring], which he received as drops from the wolves, and the Support [Dash], another starting [Blueprint].

He’d acquired the requirements for the first two with the [Lupine Soul] he just got—the second one he needed. It was shocking to him at how quickly those dropped; those were a rare drop from wolves of this grade, and he got them in only four kills today.

Thank you, double drop rate, he thought, standing up gingerly. It was quite helpful. With that behind his back, plus his knowledge and skill, he was progressing at a dizzying pace.

After I forge these four cards, he decided, heading off into the woods, it’s time to gather the Apprentice materials and advance.