Chapter 7: Firmly Outside Normal

Chapter 7: Firmly Outside Normal

Level Up!

Research 23

Congratulations! For having your first Class be a unique Class, you have unlocked the Pioneer path!

Congratulations! For gaining your first Class, you have unlocked the Outsider path!

You may evolve your Status skill into the Outsiders Almanac skill!

Accept Evolution? Y/N

Done!

Calculating Rewards

Class Change!

None Outsider

You have completed the CharLimitCanttalkmuchNocluewhathappenedDidmybesttohelpyouli path!

You have made your way to an unfamiliar world. Ahead of you lay possibilities beyond imagining. Your unique perspective will be your greatest tool and greatest hindrance. Taking this Path first has opened many new destinations for you yet closed away many you would otherwise be able to reach.

Congratulations! For spending 120 Skill Points, you have unlocked the Trainee path!

Congratulations! For spending 60 Skill Points, you have unlocked the Beginner path!

Congratulations! For spending 12 Skill Points, you have unlocked the Novice path!The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

Edwin stared blankly at the wall of text. It was the most notifications he had ever gotten at a single time. Well, so long as he wasnt counting the pile of error messages he got when he woke up that first day, or when he beat the truck-sized Stonehide bear. Okay, maybe it wasnt the most notifications he had ever gotten, but it was still a lot for a seemingly simple action. It did seem as though his assessment for how to get a Class was correct, as well as the purpose of Skill Points. He got a total of five new Paths for completing one, though it didnt look like that would happen every time.

It was also interesting that the System seemed to be base 12. He had somewhat expected as much, what with his Paths being 60, 90, or 120 skill points across the board, but it was nice to have it mostly confirmed. Did it just translate to base 10 because those were the numbers he was used to?

Ewin was confused as to why there were apparently achievements for spending 12 and 60 skill points, when they would both be completed simply by the first Path one would take, but glancing at them on his Status showed they only needed twelve and thirty Skill Points, respectively, to complete. Were most Paths cheaper than what he had?

It does kind of make sense. If people have the System from birth, theyd probably get a lot more mundane accomplishments which I skipped by falling into the middle of the wilderness. I also got a lot of Paths, but maybe I didnt qualify for the cheaper ones, for whatever reason? I dont know.

Still, he had an immediate choice to make, and an eminently obvious answer to the question.

Outsiders Almanac

Become the guy who wrote the book

Record information regarding what you encounter

Increased limit per level.

And were back to super-cryptic skills. Cool.

Edwin called his Status back up, but didnt see any obvious changes to it, beyond a section at the bottom with his Completed Paths. Well, the skill said he could make record information about what he encountered. So, he looked at his hand.

Outsiders Almanac, he thought at the appendage, similar to him trying to Identify it or call up his Status. There was no immediately obvious change, but he got a vague sense that his skill was asking for an input of some sort? What?

Edwin looked away, and then re-activated the skill on his hand. Oddly, there was no response beyond the same mental prompt as before, but this time he also felt a sensation as though the input would replace something. Weird. Um.

...Identify?

Outsider

What?

Wait, what? Did he Identify as an Outsider now? What was going on? He tried using the Almanac again, but this time, when the skill asked him for an input, he mentally provided, Testing

Identify

Outsider

Testing

Oh cool! He could leave notes for future-Edwin that would show up with Identify. Increased limit per level, though, did that mean he could only leave a limited number of notes, or that his notes were limited in size? He sat up in his bed and grabbed a nearby stick.

Outsiders Almanac. TestTestTest- the note was cut off suddenly, a distinct note of being full permeating the feedback.

Level Up!

Outsiders Almanac 12

Okay, so he may have gone a little overboard, and brought his Almanac back to being his highest-level skill, but he needed those levels if he was to complete more Paths, which would give him more rewards, probably skill upgrades, which could be very useful in surviving. Besides, who knows when it might be useful to have- he checked his current maximum- a character limit of 35 letters for his Almanac notes? That could save his life. You never knew. Anything was possible.

Perhaps more seriously, though, he should consider what Path he wanted to fill out in the future. While he could complete something like Novice or Beginner right away, what with his 39 Skill Points, he felt it might be better to use them on a longer Path, which would probably give better rewards, going purely on gut feeling. That would logically mean he should go for Realm Traveler, but was that too much to spend on a single path for right now? Hmm. He pulled up his Paths.

Paths

Skill Points: 39

Athlete 0/60

Beginner 0/30

Daredevil 0/60

Explorer 0/60

Linguist 0/60

Lumberjack 0/60

Micro-Biomancer 0/90

Novice 0/12

Outsider 0/60

Path Less Traveled 0/90

Physical Alchemist 0/90

Pioneer 0/60

Realm Traveler 0/120

Researcher 0/60

Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60

Survivor 0/60

Titan Slayer 0/90

Trainee 0/60

Trapper 0/60

Way of the Empty Hand 0/60

World Traveler 0/60

Athlete, Daredevil, Linguist, Pioneer, Researcher, Way of the Empty Hand, and World Traveler all sounded cool, and were 60 points, but he wasnt sure how well they might help him out now. Explorer, Lumberjack, Outsider, Stonehide Vanquisher, Survivor, and Trapper might help him now, but he also didnt want to specialize himself into surviving in the wilderness too much, which his Class changing as a result of his Path completing seemed to indicate. Though that concern only really applied to Lumberjack and maybe Survivor, the others sounded cool enough that he might want them eventually. Titan Slayer sounded super metal, Path Less Traveled was in a similar vein to his CharLim-whatever Path, and he absolutely wanted Physical Alchemist and Micro-Biomancer, but they were all 90 points, which seemed like a lot. He also wasnt doing Trainee. It was too generic in comparison to his other options. With a bit of focus, he rearranged his Paths so theyd be easier to parse

Paths

Skill Points: 39

Very Much Yes- Eventually

Physical Alchemist 0/90, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Path Less Traveled 0/90, Realm Traveler 0/120

Promising

Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Titan Slayer 0/90, World Traveler 0/60, Researcher 0/60, Explorer 0/60, Outsider 0/60

Maybe One Day

Survivor 0/60, Linguist 0/60, Athlete 0/60, Daredevil 0/60, Pioneer 0/60

Meh

Lumberjack 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Trapper 0/60

No

Beginner 0/30, Novice 0/12, Trainee 0/60

He categorically dismissed the no Paths from considereation, not wanting to waste mental space debating them, but that still left him with more than a few options. After mulling it over for a while, he decided that while hed figure it out for sure in the morning at least, he was leaning towards the Explorer path- hopefully it could get him out of this mess. After loading up his campfire with the biggest piece of deadwood he could find, to hopefully give him something to work with in the morning, he retired for the evening.

Hopefully it wont rain, that would be annoying. Does feel a bit like it might be coming, though, Edwin mused as he shifted in his bed, then berated himself for even thinking something that might tempt fate. Fortunately, though, the real world didnt work like that. As he fell asleep, he almost believed it, too.

Level Up!

Sleeping 45