Island King Chapter 3

Hi all,

Here’s the next chapter of my original story. Myles continues to experiment with the System, and he faces a crisis when something slithers onto the island.

Chapter 3

Myles hung another can of salt water over the fire in order to produce more fresh water. The previous batch had taken approximately forty minutes to evaporate, so he had to monitor it carefully to maximise his water yield. It would also help him obtain the skill that he learned from it. After examining it in further detail, he was eager to acquire it as soon as possible.

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Skill: Water Filtration | Status: In Progress (3%) | Type: Water Element

Description: This skill improves the speed and effectiveness of removing contaminants and other undesired elements from water, regardless of the method used. The effectiveness of the skill relies on the user's Water Elemental Affinity, but it does not improve beyond ten per cent.

[Water Elemental Affinity + 1%]

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“Hey, Steve,” Myles spoke to the AI in his head. “Will I gain the Water Elemental Affinity if I acquire this skill?"

[Affirmative. Some skills can unlock affinities, but they are quite rare. It's impressive that you found one so quickly. While it is possible to obtain them through other methods, it's not as easy.]

“So, what does having an affinity give me?” Myles asked. “Can I use magic now?”

[Affinities will offer numerous benefits, but you will have to discover them on your own. As for magic, there are additional steps involved to unlock it, but I'm not allowed to provide any further details on the subject.]

Myles did some quick calculations in his head to see how long it would take him to acquire the Water Filtration skill. He would need to filter the water thirty-four times, judging from the progress he had already made so far. That was almost an entire day in total.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the time.

9.31 pm.

Not surprisingly, the time on his phone was still set to his timezone back on Earth.

“Steve, what is the current time in this world?”

[2.37 pm]

Myles adjusted the time on his phone to show this world’s time. His phone still had eighty-nine per cent charge remaining, so it would last a while as long as he used it sparingly.

“Is the calendar here the same as my old world?” Lucas asked.

[Today is the 13th of Carcinus, 695 AS. The hours, days and number of months are identical to Earth, but the days and months have different names.]

“What does AS stand for?”

[After System. It represents the point in time when the System was introduced to this world.]

“Interesting. So Carcinus is the name of the month?"

[The months are named after the twelve Great Beasts. This is because they are empowered during specific times of the year, depending on the rotational cycle of the moon. On average, it lasts thirty days for each Great Beast. Therefore, the inhabitants of this world used this as a measurement for the months of the year.]

“What are the Great Beasts?”

[That isn’t something you need to worry about at the moment.]

Myles shrugged and didn’t ask any further questions. He examined the spear to assess its progress, being cautious not to leave it for too long over the fire in case he ruined it. As he was unfamiliar with the process of fire-treating wood, he worried that he might be doing it wrong. He decided to leave it for another half hour.

Baron was in the process of making another hatchet. Thanks to his newly acquired skill, Baron would likely produce a better hatchet this time. He knew who to go to if he wanted any tools in the future. Baron's assistance would be crucial if he planned on reaching the other island by building a boat.

With nothing else to do while he waited, he decided to bother Steve once again.

“So, can you tell me about attributes now?”

[You have reached the limit for the amount of information I am allowed to provide per day. Please try again tomorrow.]

"Why are you only telling me this now?” Myles frowned. “You're not being very helpful."

Steve remained silent.

After half an hour had passed, Myles pulled the spear out of the ground. He waited for the heated tip to cool before touching it, in order to gauge whether the wood had hardened. He felt like there was a small improvement, although it might just be his imagination.

[New Skill discovered: (I) Appraisal - 5%]

[In order to fully unlock this skill, you need to continue inspecting crafted items in greater detail.]

This was an important skill as he would be able to assess any items they crafted. For example, knowing that the boat was seaworthy would bring him some peace of mind. While it had limited applications as it could not examine everything, it still served a useful purpose.

Following Steve's advice, Myles examined all the tools and weapons that both Baron and he had created up to that point. Although he felt a bit foolish, staring at the objects blankly as though they would reveal something important, his skill progression increased by another forty percent.

Myles picked up the spear and began practising with it. It was stupid to immediately pick up a spear and go hunting monsters, as it was likely to get him killed.

He had no prior experience in using spears, or any weapon for that matter, so he attempted to mimic moves he had seen in movies and television. At first glance, the fighting style appeared simple. However, it soon became apparent that it was far more complicated. Every aspect had to be carefully considered, including the grip, stance, and the various different techniques.

He imagined himself facing a real adversary and executed a sequence of cuts, slashes, thrusts, parries, and blocks. His performance was far from impressive. He looked rather foolish, pretending to be an expert with the spear. He dropped the spear multiple times and kept tripping over his own feet. Undeterred, he pressed on for a few minutes until he had worked up a healthy sweat.

When he opened his menu, he noticed that his stamina had fallen to below fifty just from a few minutes of intense exercise. That wasn’t a good sign. With such a small amount of stamina at his disposal, catching something to eat tonight seemed like a daunting task.

How exactly was his stamina determined? Perhaps the fact that he didn’t have any physical attributes was to blame for his poor performance. How did he go about unlocking them anyway? Was it as simple as having to engage in physical activities? He wished he had asked Steve this question instead of squandering it on other questions which weren’t as important.

Myles returned to the fire and removed the can and cloth off from the tripod. He set them aside and waited for them to cool down. Since he was going to be physically active, having enough water was important. He had hoped to learn a spear skill through practice before he hunted some seafood, but he would simply have to make do without it.

Baron ran over to him and showed him the new hatchet he made. He dutifully examined it and was surprised when his skill progression increased by ten per cent.

“This looks better made compared to the others,” Myles praised him. “Can you make five more of the same? It would be good to have some in reserve.”

Baron shook his head. He plopped down on the ground and pretended to doze off.

"Are you tired?" Myles asked. Baron nodded in confirmation.

Myles examined Baron's resources and saw that his stamina had dropped below ten. Evidently, the process of crafting all the tools had greatly depleted his stamina. This outcome shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering that crafting the weapons had also taken a toll on his stamina. It appeared that crafting activities consumed stamina, even when they were not physically demanding.

Just as he was about to exit Baron's menu, something captured his attention. Baron’s Dexterity had increased by one. Could this be attributed to his crafting activities? Was it possible to improve one's stats through performing specific actions? He would likely be capable of doing the same, even though he didn't know what actions he needed to perform to increase his mental attributes. However, he might be able to unlock some physical attributes.

Another thing he noticed was that Baron had earned thirty experience points. Was this because he made the new hatchet? If so, then it meant that he received experience for crafting items, but he had to have the relevant skill first. Myles checked his own experience and noticed that he had earned fifty experience for the spear he crafted. He considered it a fortunate discovery because he could increase his levels without the need to engage in battles if he wanted to.

“Then just relax for the moment,” Myles told him. “I am going to try and catch us something to eat.”

Baron squealed with excitement before folding his hands under his head, portraying a lazy look that made him smile. After allowing the cloth to cool, he wrung out the water and drank it. Despite the horrible taste, he refrained from expressing any complaints.

After filling the can up with seawater again and placing it on the tripod, Myles was ready to hunt  for some food. Standing at the island's edge, he peered into the water below. Catching anything seemed like a challenging task, given the limited range of his spear. Although it measured about twelve feet in length, the island was elevated above the water, making the spear awkward to use.

A fish abruptly lunged out of the water, and Myles took a hasty step back while slashing downwards with his spear. He completely missed his target, and the fish flopped on the ground, aggressively attempting to bite his ankles. Aiming carefully, he thrust down with his spear and pierced the fish.

[Vile Clown Fish Killed: 10 exp gained.]

Myles frowned. He had caught yet another one of those repulsive fish. It seemed to be the only thing he was able to catch at the moment. Would he have to accept his fate and see if it was edible? At least they were easy to bait.

He temporarily set the fish aside and resumed spearfishing. Another fish leapt out of the water, but this time he didn't kill it immediately. Instead, he pinned it under his spear and closely examined it. He had come up with the idea of acquiring another skill and was eager to put it to the test. After killing it, he repeated the process twice more and was rewarded with another skill.

[New Skill discovered: (I) Scan - 15%]

[In order to fully unlock this skill, you need to continue inspecting monsters in greater detail.]

Thanks to his Monster Sense trait, he was able to easily acquire skills that pertained to monsters.

Myles had earned a hundred experience points so far and was curious about his progress towards the next level. He opened his menu and focused on his experience cache. With a mental command, he spent his experience points and watched as his progress rose by fifty per cent. That meant he needed a total of two hundred experience points to reach level two.

The fish were easy enough to kill when you were prepared for them. Myles continued to examine and kill another ten Vile Clown Fish. Now that he had the required experience points, he increased his level to two.

[You have reached level two. As a result, your maximum resources have increased by ten and have been fully restored. You have been awarded five Attribute Points.]

Myles's face lit up with a smile. His worries were eased by the fact that levelling up replenished his Resources. Despite his best efforts to be efficient while hunting fish, he still ended up almost bottoming out on his stamina. He decided to hold off spending his AP for the moment and carried all the fish back to the fire.

Now it was time to fillet the fish. He placed one of the fish on a flat stone that he was using as a cutting board and reached for one of his knives. Without hesitation, he severed the head from the body. He had no intention of consuming that particular part.

Myles offered the fish head to Baron, but he looked at it with disgust and turned his head away.

"You're a monkey," Myles muttered. "Why are you being so picky about food?"

He set the head aside. Perhaps he could use it as bait to catch something else. He proceeded to fillet the fish. He cut the fish from the front to the tip of the tail along the backbone, separating off the top half. Next, he separated the stomach bones from the fillet. He removed the fatty stomach flaps by cutting them carefully along the fillet, then removed the base of the fin and the fat from the backbone. Finally, he cut the fillet away from the skin.

“Not a bad effort,” Myles congratulated himself.

Despite the challenge of using such a crude knife for cutting, he successfully managed to produce two fillets and preserve most of the meat. Although he wasn't an expert, he had some prior experience in filleting fish because he enjoyed fishing as a hobby. The fish was small, only about the length of his hand. It wouldn't be sufficient to feed both him and Baron, so he proceeded to fillet the other fish.

Baron grabbed a stick and pierced it through one of the fillets and held it over the fire to cook it.

Once Myles had filleted ten of the fish, he learned another skill.

[New Skill discovered: (I) Skinning - 50%]

[In order to fully unlock this skill, you need to continue skinning monsters.]

He was learning a lot of rank one skills. He was unsure  about whether acquiring a collection of low ranking skills would be advantageous for his first class, so he needed to be careful about which skills he chose to acquire.

After all the fish were filleted, he had twenty-seven fillets. There was no way for him and Baron to eat them all at that moment, but they didn't need to.

Myles opened his menu and navigated to the Inventory tab. Although he hadn't explored it yet, he had a good idea as to its purpose. Displayed on the virtual screen was a grid containing fifty empty slots, presumably intended for storing a variety of items. He had no idea if the inventory would preserve the meat, so he would have to keep a close eye on them.

“How do I store items in my inventory?”

He decided to go for the most obvious approach—grabbing a fillet and pressing it into the virtual screen. The fillet disappeared and in its place, a symbol of the fillet appeared in the first slot.

Baron chattered excitedly, having witnessed the phenomenon.

"It's an awesome feature, right?" Myles grinned.

He stored most of the fillets in his inventory, but he set aside five to cook and eat. All of them were stacked into a single slot, which would help save a lot of space when he acquired more items. While he was in the inventory screen, he stored all his other miscellaneous items that he had on him. Closing his menu, he grabbed a fillet for himself and started cooking it over the fire.

Baron retrieved his fish when he deemed it cooked and blew on it to cool it down. He blew on it, before taking a bite out of it.

“How’s it taste?” Myles asked.

Baron chewed and swallowed the fish in his mouth, then let out a joyful squeak.

“That’s a good sign.” He watched carefully as his fish cooked, eager to taste it for himself.

After it had been cooked, Myles was about to take a bite of his fish when something occurred to him. Is the cooked fish also considered a crafted item? If there was a cooking skill in this world, then he didn’t see any reason as to why it wouldn’t be labelled as a crafting skill. Although it was a strange idea, he decided to put it to the test. He examined the cooked fillet and was rewarded with more skill progression towards his appraisal skill.

The fish tasted like cod, with a mild sweet flavour. While a little salt would have been nice, it was still a satisfying feast. Both  of them ate another fillet each before their hunger was sated.

Since his stamina was full, Myles returned to hunting the Vile Clown Fish. He earned another three-hundred and fifty experience before he had to rest again. Furthermore, after examining more of the fish, he received a prompt asking him if he wanted to acquire the Monster Appraisal skill. After careful consideration, he made the decision to acquire it. The ability to study monsters in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses sounded like an important skill for his survival.

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Skill: Scan  | Status: Acquired | Type: Monster | Cost: 5 MP

Description: Allows the user to examine the parameters of any monster that are at or below level twenty. By default, the skill has a range of three metres, but this range can be increased once the Perception attribute is unlocked.

[Monster Sense Trait Bonus: +1 metre to range]

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Myles noticed that using the skill required mana, a factor to consider for future reference. He hunted another fish and tried out his new skill. He stared at the fish, visualising the name of the skill in order to activate it. Up until this point, he has observed that much of the System's functionality relied on intent.

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Name: Vile Clown Fish

Monster Type: Fish

Level: 1

Resources

Health: 30/30

Mana: 30/30

Stamina: 79/150

Attributes

Strength: 6

Agility: 11

Perception: 8

Affinities:

Water: 15%

Traits: Aquatic Breathing; Agile Swimmer; Hyper-Aggression.

Skills: --

Description: The Vile Clown Fish is a highly aggressive fish that typically hunts in large schools to compensate for its weak strength. They have the ability to propel themselves out of the water and attack unsuspecting prey that are above the water. Although the Vile Clown Fish does not possess any skills at lower levels; they possess razor-sharp teeth that are capable of inflicting significant damage.

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Fortunately, he only encountered them at lower levels, otherwise he might not have been able to handle them.

Myles spent the next few hours resting while producing more drinkable water. He observed that Baron had regained some of his stamina, presumably because of the fish he ate, rather than it being a result of natural regeneration over time. This was because Myles' stamina remained unchanged even after resting.

As evening descended, Myles could sense a sharp drop in the temperature. He added more wood to the fire to build it up, and roasted some more fish. After examining all of the cooked fish, he received a prompt asking him if he wanted to acquire the Appraisal skill, which he did so immediately.

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Skill: Appraisal  | Status: Acquired | Type: Crafting | Cost: 5 MP

Description: The user has the ability to appraise any crafted item that is at level twenty or lower and doesn’t exceed the Common tier. There is a chance to successfully appraise higher level items when the Perception attribute is unlocked.

[Perception +3 when unlocked.]

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So items had levels and tiers. The perception attribute was sounding more and more important the more skills he acquired. Tomorrow, his first question for Steve would be how he could acquire it.

He used the Appraisal skill on his spear first to see its parameters.

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Name: Crude Spear | Tier: Improvised | Level: 1 | Quality: Low | Durability: 45%

Description: A crude spear made with substandard materials and an inexperienced crafter. It isn't very strong but can be helpful when there are no other weapons available.

Piercing: E+

Slashing: F+

Bludgeoning: F-

Stamina Cost: C

Durability: F

Attribute Requirements: --

Equipment Skills: --

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The parameters were not the most flattering, but this was to be expected given that it was his first attempt at crafting a spear. and he had limited materials and tools at his disposal. Unfortunately, the durability was already below half, so he would need to make another one tomorrow.

He placed the spear down and examined the cooked fish next.

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Name: Roasted Vile Clown Fish | Level: 1 | Quality: Low | Satiety: 20%

Description: A fillet harvested from a Vile Clown Fish which has been roasted over an open fire. Due to a lack of tools and seasoning, its quality is low.

Restores Health + 15

Restores Stamina + 15

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It was just like he had suspected. The fillet regained some stamina, which was particularly important at that moment because his lack of stamina was an issue. Based on the satiety parameter, he could only consume five at a time, replenishing a total of seventy-five stamina. How long did it take for his satiety to return to zero?

Myles ate the fish he had already cooked, then retrieved some more fillets from his inventory and cooked some more until his Satiety was full. He immediately noted the time, as he was going to time how long it took to return to zero.

[Your Wisdom has increased by 1 for your efforts in experimenting and figuring out the mechanics of the system.]

Myles paused when he heard Steve speak. He didn’t think that he could increase his attributes in this manner. Did that mean by asking questions, he was losing out on opportunities to obtain free attribute points? Why hadn't Steve informed him about this mechanic? Or was it something he needed to discover by himself?

Dismissing the matter for the moment, he thought about what he should do next. Since he had recovered some stamina, should he hunt some more fish? Myles looked out, where the light was rapidly fading. Not a chance. He wasn’t going to hunt in the dark because it would significantly impair his fighting ability.

His eyes drifted to a nearby tree, which had a low-hanging branch that looked sturdy enough to take his weight. Instead of fighting, he was going to do some pull-ups and see if he could unlock some physical attributes.

“Baron, I am going to try to unlock some physical attributes. Do you want to join me?”

Baron waved his hand dismissively, already working on crafting another hatchet. Shrugging, Myles left him to his own task. Baron already had Strength and Dexterity, so unlocking some more physical attributes probably wasn’t as important.

Myles jumped up and grabbed the branch and began performing explosive pull ups. He kept his menu open so he could keep an eye on his stamina. He noticed that the Satiety stat had been added to his status page as well.

Due to the intense nature of the exercise, his stamina rapidly diminished. When it dropped to twenty, he decided to stop and jumped down. He needed to keep some in reserve in case there was an emergency.

He lay down next to the fire and watched Baron as he worked. The warmth of the fire, combined with the stressful day, made him feel drowsy. Before long, he was fast asleep.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Myles opened his eyes, feeling something wet trickling down his face. Something was definitely not right, but his mind felt clouded and hazy, making it difficult to process the situation clearly. He looked down, only to realise that the car's roof was below him. Puzzled and increasingly anxious, he attempted to move, only to discover that he was restrained by an unknown force.

The strong scent of gasoline filled his nostrils, triggering his memory of what had transpired. He must have lost consciousness because the last thing he could recall was screaming at Jeremy while the car swerved off the road. The car had been overturned in the crash, but he could take solace in the fact that he had survived. He looked over to the driver's seat to check on Jeremy, only to find that he was nowhere to be seen.

“Jeremy?" His voice came out in a croak. He swallowed, before trying again. "Jeremy!"

Myles struggled to locate his seatbelt buckle and free himself. Finally clicking it, he fell abruptly and landed with a thud. Groaning in pain, he tried to orient himself and find a way out of the car. Seeing that the back window was completely shattered, he dragged himself through the car, feeling the sting of broken glass piercing his hands. After what felt like a lifetime, he managed to extricate himself from the car.  As he rose to his feet, he experienced a moment of dizziness and nearly lost his balance.

Once he regained his balance, he turned his back to look at the car and grimaced. The car was completely totalled. He remembered that he was searching for his friend and started searching around the car.

He found Jeremy a short distance away, lying face down in the grass. “Jeremy!”

Turning his friend's body over, he found himself staring into Jeremy's lifeless eyes. He noticed a wetness seeping through his hands. He brought his hands to his face and discovered they were drenched in blood.

Myles screamed.

Myles jolted awake when he heard Baron screeching. His body flooded with adrenaline as he caught sight of his companion battling a monster in the fading glow of the fire. Despite the dim light, he could easily discern the monster's form due to its gleaming white scales. The monster was a snake. Its size was approximately the same length as his body and twice as thick as his arm.

He reached out quickly and grasped his spear which he had placed beside him. He sprang to his feet and ran over to assist Baron, who was bravely fending off the snake's attack with his hatchet. He thrust out with his spear, attempting to pierce the creature's side while it was distracted.  The spear emitted a piercing screech as its tip slid off the creature's scales, failing to penetrate them. Myles was nearly thrown off balance as a result.

The attack caught the snake's attention, prompting it to turn and face him. It opened its mouth and released a loud hiss, before lunging forward with astonishing speed. Reacting instinctively, Myles raised the spear across his body to protect himself.

The snake bit down on the shaft, and Myles was almost yanked over his feet when the snake pulled back with incredible force. He sank to one knee, hoping to gain better traction as he attempted to wrestle the spear from the snake's mouth. However, his efforts proved futile as the snake's strength clearly surpassed his own. He had mere moments before he lost the battle.

With a scream, Baron launched himself onto the snake’s head. Holding on with one arm, he raised the hatchet over his head and brought it down on the snake's head. The axehead penetrated the snake's head slightly, causing a gush of blood to burst forth. The snake thrashed its head, and the force was so great that it snapped the spear in two.

Myles fell into the snake’s body as it tried to shake Baron loose from its head. The monkey clung on desperately for dear life, though. Up this close, Myles could see a strip of skin nestled between its hard scales. He firmly gripped the half-spear with the tip and forcefully drove it into the creature's body, aiming for the vulnerable area between its scales

The snake hissed, and slammed its head down onto Myles' own, causing him to faceplant into the ground. The impact was so intense that for a second, he could have sworn that he blacked out. Groaning in pain, he raised his arms over his head in an instinctive effort to protect his head.

There was no need for him to have bothered, as just a few feet away, the snake was fiercely thrashing around in an attempt to free itself from the spear. Baron had leapt off the snake and positioned himself protectively in front of him. Myles watched the snake dazedly, desperately hoping that the spear would be sufficient to end its life. The thought of continuing to fight seemed impossible to him, not to mention moving his body.

It appeared that the gods favoured him, as the snake's desperate movements only resulted in pushing the spear deeper into its own body. The serpent gradually lost its strength and eventually succumbed, collapsing to the ground.

Myles let out a sigh of relief, despite feeling absolutely terrible. His head was pounding with the most intense headache he had ever experienced. He could faintly hear Steve's voice echoing in his mind, but it sounded distant and he couldn't quite make out the words.

Baron patted his face, looking worriedly at him.

Myles felt the back of his head and his hand came away sticky with blood. He managed to summon his menu to check on his status. His health was at nine, and it ticked down to eight before his very eyes. His eyes widened in horror, and the threat of death brought a momentary dose of clarity.

He quickly accessed his inventory and grabbed some of the remaining fillets. Since he didn’t have time to cook them, he started shoving them into his mouth. Compared to the cooked version, the taste of the fish was horrible, but he didn’t care at the moment. He frantically chewed and swallowed the meat, almost choking in his desperation.

All the while, he was hoping that the uncooked fish would actually restore some of his health. It seemed like a major oversight that he hadn’t checked beforehand. Once he finished eating the fillet, his health increased by five points, bringing a wave of relief. Although his health was still dropping, it was slowing down.

Myles sat up with renewed strength after consuming five fillets. He felt fortunate that his Satiety had been restored, or he would have been in trouble if he couldn’t eat anything.

Despite the chill in the air, he removed his t-shirt and tightly wrapped it around his head to stem the blood loss. After it finally stopped bleeding, he was left with only twelve health points. Although he still felt terrible, the overwhelming sense of euphoria from surviving was intoxicating.

He looked at the snake, wondering where it had come from. It would suck if another one of those monsters were to appear while he was still weakened.

The world had just bared its fangs, leaving him feeling completely helpless.

So, what do you think? Things will be picking up from now on. Baron starts building the boat while Myles continues to improve himself.

Thanks for reading.