And the Oscar Goes to...
Shortly after his sudden reform to a hardworking and enthusiastic member of society Khan remembered that first. society was no more. and second, the quests would probably be quite hard. This was not necessarily a problem for Khan. With parents as pathetic as his, the only way he survived this long was a bit of luck and hard work. Sadly with the constant pressure, he was under from the debt collectors after his Mum, who, when they realized she was long gone promptly turned their gazes to her unfortunate son. hoping to squeeze out any amount of money from him they could. This left Khan living a life without leisure and the luxury of choice.
Now, faced with a world with endless possibilities and no responsibilities he wondered what choice he should make. After opening the quest tab he only found one option:
Quest Type: Timed.
Goal: Survive.
When looking at the details of this Quest it was as barebones as it gets. he was to survive For the Equivalent of 100 hours on Earth. He would then be scored by the system on how he performed and rewarded accordingly. The criteria for scoring higher were not clear, and he could only guess they involved accomplishing more than mere survival within the specified timeframe.
After accepting the quest a small green glowing digital timer appeared in the top right of the 'Guide System' counting down from 100:00. Seeing this he sighed in relief because he would have no way of telling the time remaining otherwise.
Next, he went over to the 'Guides' Page and found what looked similar to a page of contents in an encyclopedia with innumerable categories. At the top of which were a few highlighted Guides. Such as Basics of Hunting; Basics of shelter Construction; Basics of wild plant identification etc. This left Khan stumped. With so much choice how was he supposed to pick? Then after looking through a few more Basic Guides he noticed the pricing of the Guides all of the Basic Guides being 2 credits. in joy he went to start the first guide he had seen, Basics of hunting, when he froze.'
"Mr 'Guide' Sir does the basics of hunting include the basics of weapon creation?" Khan asked with a fawning expression, clearly hoping to glean some secret info from the 'Guide' [No.] Responded the guide curtly "Then how am I meant to kill the animals?" [From my recollection the Basic one is mostly focused on traps such as pitfalls and catching smaller critters like bugs and rodents.] The 'Guide' elaborated. "That sucks" sighed Khan. He was no stranger to eating rodents himself and didn't want a repeat if it could be helped.
Looking through the endless Guides with more care this time Khan eventually Gritted his teeth and was about to select Hunting anyways when the 'Guide' made a coughing sound, despite having no throat then started whistling, despite having no mouth and seemed to say in wonder [Just look at this Beautiful forest and all of this wonderful PLANT life. It sure is nice here... ahem oh the wonders of Nature... Nat-.] "Alright, I get it already Jesus." If Khan hadn't got the point after that Oscar-worthy display he would have to question his own existence. As such he quickly bought the Basics of plant life identification and then paid closer attention to his surroundings hoping to see some other natural resource he could take advantage of.
After walking through the Sky-scraper sized trees for half an hour he reached a river and Quickly bought the Basics of Fishing, followed by the Basics of shelter building and He also Bought Hunting anyway as the traps could come in handy. After buying the Guides a video would appear of a person performing various skills and he was to click on the Video once he reached a safe place. This was easier said than done but after some searching, he found an ancient, gnarled, fallen tree with a hollow he could just about crawl into, then opened the Basics of plants Guide.
He felt as if his whole being had somehow zoomed out and then back in again on a different place following which he registered he was in an endless greenhouse where endless plants stretched out around him of infinite varieties and shapes, some particularly eye-catching ones were even mobile. He gasped when he reached out to touch a nearby plant he could clearly feel the surface of the plant and yet could also tell he wasn't really touching it. All of this was clearly a projection of some kind but it was so real he could even smell the overpowering nectar that permeated the air in the greenhouse. Yet they all appeared oblivious to him.
While he was staring in wonder at the menagerie of Mythical plants a nearby tree started to shake and then slowly a wizened face appeared on the surface of its bark. the branches of the tree seemed to split apart and a cross between a tree and a man stepped out and started walking towards Khan with slow deliberated steps. "Greetings Youngling" the tree-man called out immediately catching Khan's attention away from a vine with fake treasures growing from its numerous tentacles. "You are here for basic training in plants, yes?" The wizened tree-man asked, "Yes, I am my name is Khan and what should I call you?"Khan asked with every sliver of etiquette he could muster "Names are not important in this place, I am but a simple Ent, now quickly child follow me and learn what you can. Your time here is limited."
With that Ent led Khan to a corner of the greenhouse he hadn't seen before. when travelling with the Ent distance seemed to become irrelevant as each step they took led them to new and mystical scenery. The Plants in the Area where they eventually stopped were much simpler and less magical than the ones he had just seen. Even still, when compared to the Foliage on earth it was like comparing a tree and a shrub. The ent brought Khan to the nearest section of plants where there were roughly 3000 different plants and a passage engraved on the wall surrounded by vines.
The passage contained various techniques for identifying types of plants through various unique characteristics like their veins, hairs, roots even the angle at which they absorbed sunlight, tricks to tell if a plant was edible or poisonous and some basic medical recipes that could treat minor injuries. In this ethereal world of plants which seemed to greatly boost the productivity of studying such subjects, Khan spent an unknown amount of time studying the passage on the wall and examine many of the various 3000 plants. Every time he would gain new insights into one of the techniques in the passage he would rush over to the wall of plants like it was the greatest treasure known to man and ooh and aah at the various plants in appreciation.
While Khan ran about like a kid in a candy factory the Ent watched on with a peaceful smile on its sun-weathered old face sometimes if Khan seemed confused or lost he would offer a word of advice which was always exactly what Khan needed to hear to help him get past something he as stuck with. Khan greatly appreciated the Ents help every time he offered it and would always thank him profusely allowing not only his skill in plants to grow but also his brown-nosing skills to advance by leaps and bounds. In fact, he only awoke from his plant-based stupor after he reached the end of the passage carved onto the wall and a beep sounded in his head alerting him it was time to leave.
The Ent wandered over and its ancient Wrinkled face Smiled warmly at Khan "It looks like your time here is up youngling, ah what short month it was too. Alas, it is what it is. You have a good affinity for plants little one so keep up the hard work and I hope you give our path a chance when making your choice." Initially, Khan had felt patronised by being called things like youngling but when looking at the ancient smiling Ent he felt only a gentle warmth and knew those words came from a place of sincerity. All of sudden he had the urge to stay with this gentle creature and feel that kindness even if it was only once more. "Will I see you again?" The Ent let out a weary sigh "Yes... and No" Before Khan could ask a follow-up question it suddenly struck him "Wait, did you say a MONTH!?" and then he was Gone.
He awoke with a start and whacked his head off the ceiling of the Log "AHhhggh fuck that hurts. Hey 'Guide' why didn't you warn me it had been a month what if I had starved?" whether from anger or pain, it was hard to tell [It hasn't been a month idiot. Check the quest timer before you start wailing at me about something useless, Time in Those tutorials is much more condensed allowing for quick progress it should have been roughly 7 hours.] Khan checked and to his disbelief found that the time remaining now read 92:00. " No way! that means I spent 100 times longer in the Guide than in real life." [Why do you sound so surprised the guide is mightier than you could imagine. this is nothing.] Said the Guide haughtily.
Rubbing the lump on the back of his head Khan crawled out of the tree and discovered it was still day despite it being so when he left which surprised him. registering this surprise the 'Guide' Promptly explained that the day-night cycle was strange here with a day lasting for 6 earth days and night for 1 earth day making a 7 earth day-long cycle. Having sorted out his confusion, Khan went to search for medicinal plants that could help his headache dye down. Unsurprisingly in a primaeval forest, there were many strange and wonderful plants most of which he couldn't make heads nor tails of however, encountering these new plants helped expand his knowledge and improved his abilities with plants marginally.
After finding a few substitute plants he could make do with Khan made a medicinal paste by crushing them together with some water from the nearby stream. he was unable to start a fire at the moment. after the paste was ready Khan applied it to the sore parts of his head and then stored the rest away for a rainy day. However, he almost immediately noticed something was wrong as he suddenly felt like the top of his head had caught on fire. "Oh God! was my medicine really that bad. damn, I knew I shouldn't have added that much ancient brogs clove." As Khan mourned his premature demise, cursing brogs clove to high heaven he noticed the burning sensation in his head die down and eventually a cool sensation flowed out from the previously scorched area refreshing his whole head. Making Khan feel like a Dehydrated man who had just drunk a cool glass of water in the desert.
Once the refreshing sensation disappeared he immediately noticed a few changes in his vision he was almost certain he could see further and with better definition than before. Being able to spot many more plants from a distance he previously couldn't. He also had the indescribable feeling that his thoughts were a bit sharper and his memory had improved but that could easily be a placebo of some sort as that sort of thing is hard to quantify.
Barely able to contain his excitement at this development Khan exclaimed "'Guide'! fetch me more brogs clove Good sir, and make it snappy!" When the 'Guide' didn't play along with his joke Khan's mood was substantially lowered and he let out a sigh "Fine I'll fetch it for myself." then he trudged off in a bit of a huff towards where he last found the herb. While muttering about how unfair it was that he had such a dull 'Guide' who 'couldn't even let him have this one little thing'. Meanwhile, if the 'Guide' had a face it would be grinning. They both knew that behind Khan's veil of anger was shame at having said something so cringe-inducing in a moment of over excitement.