Not Alone

DING!

[Quest: Legendary Hunter]

You can become the stuff of legends. Hunt your first Legendary monster.

Kill Legendary Monster 0/1

Shhh!

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" I screamed internally at the system box that appeared in front of me. "You're going to give me away!"

Surprisingly, the giant beast in the clearing didn't seem to react to the loud sound coming from the Infinite System. Was it not able to hear it? My fear of being discovered subsided a bit as I came to realise that the beast wasn't looking at my direction behind the tree. It was rearing its head and sniffing the air as if it had caught onto the scent of something that wasn't meant to be there: me.

I had been walking through the forest all day, my sweat had soaked into my clothes and this beast supposedly being a legendary grade monster must have impeccable senses so it must've smelled that I was in its area.

I dared to peek at it from around the tree again, only to be met by its four eyes staring right at me.

"Oh shit!" I thought, as I started to break out into a run.

Before I could even take my first step, the ground started to shake and an eardrum rendering roar came from behind the monster. I stumbled to the ground and looked toward the beast in horror, expecting it to pounce on me any second now.

That didn't happen.

Instead, my eyes darkened as I watched the giant monster being eaten by an even bigger being that resembled the most famous of creatures in video games and children stories: a dragon.

It had swooped down from the skies and consumed the colossus like it was an early bird catching the first worm of the day.

I realised, then, that the system wasn't saying that the bear-like beast was a legendary monster. No, it was talking about this dragon-like titan instead.

My fear had frozen me to where I was on the ground. I could only keep staring in utter trepidation as the behemoth chewed on the giant beast. Its exposed teeth were as tall and wide as pillars and even its nostrils were as wide and deep as any cave I had seen. Despite having just devoured the bear-like monster, which was already a terrifying creature made of the darkest of imaginations, it just lifted its gigantic head to the sky to fly off again.

"W... wh... what was that?" I stammered, feeling weak all over. "Was that... was that a dragon?"

A drop of cold sweat ran down my face and woke me from my terror. I clambered onto my hands and knees, rustling the grass and leaves beneath me, and crawled over to the tree again. My lungs burned and I realised that I hadn't been breathing so I gasped for air as my heart and mind slowly returned to normal.

"System," I said, nearly choking on my own words. "Where am I?"

[Infinite System]

Only these two words floated in front of me. In its own way, this reassured me that I was still alive, but the sense of dread coming from the realisation that I was no longer on the Earth that I knew sunk into me like an anchor being dropped into the ocean.

I don't know how long I had been sitting against the tree for, but by the time I could muster the strength to stand up again the sky had started turning dark.

My mind began to work again and I realised that I still had things to do; I still have a quest to finish. I brought my thoughts to the system's quest box and the reliable floating translucent box appeared to show me what I needed to do:

[Quest: Survive]

You have left your old world behind, you must now survive in this new place.

Find a source of water 1/1

Build shelter 0/1

Reward: Common grade Tool Recipe

"How interesting," I thought. "The system somehow knows that I've found water."

I built up the courage to walk toward the edge of the tree line and into the open where the river ran. As I moved ever closer to the river water, I was expecting for the system to drink all the water up like it had for the Miracle of the Heavens. However, it simply continued floating there in the air.

"Do you want me to feed you the water or something?" I asked it.

To no one's surprise the floating box just sat there, giving off a little bit of light in the dimming evening. I realised that it must be because the water running down the river is of a lower rarity grade so it won't eat it by itself - the smug bastard.

I kneeled down to start scooping the water into the box, but stopped myself as a diabolical thought came to mind.

The Infinite System's interface appears and disappears at a thought. It follows me where I go and is always within arm's reach of my face. If it's too hard to bring the item to the system, then I should bring the system to the item. My face broke out into a devilish grin.

It might have just been my imagination, but I could swear that I saw the floating box sweating.

Fortunately it worked out as I thought of the box being dropped into the river to collect the water.

Fresh Water

Type: Miscellaneous

Rarity: Common

Description: It's water. What more do you want?

Reading its description in the inventory screen, I couldn't help but think that the system was rebelling because I dunked it into the river water. I paid it no mind, however, and tried to once again bring the water out of the system. This time I won't make the blunder of dropping it on the ground.

"Come on, water," I whispered as I tried to control the flow of the water to go into my mouth. "Come to papa."

SPLASH! A bucket full of water rushed out of the floating box into my face.

"Oh, come on!" I exclaimed while coughing and spluttering.

My attempts to stay dry were foiled by my own hands. Well, my own system. I went to take off my clothes to wring them dry, as staying wet is never a good idea, but as I was doing so, I realised I didn't have anything to dry the clothes with after.

"I need fire," I finally thought to myself. "It's still light out, but it won't be for much longer."

I decided not to wring my clothes dry just yet and use a trick I learned from a movie I watched when I was younger.

Back amongst the trees, I twisted my shirt to make it thicker before wrapping it around the trunk of a tree and using the extra grip from the wetness to climb it enough to snap off a few branches to use as firewood. While I was up there, I decided to try putting some of these branches into the inventory as well.

Wood

Type: Miscellaneous

Rarity: Common

Description: A common yet fundamental resource, is the backbone of countless endeavours across the realms. Harvested from the sturdy trunks of trees that dot the landscape, wood is versatile and enduring.

Wood, just like the huberries and water, is a common grade item. After putting a few branches into the inventory, the count was still only at 1/100. Does this mean that I can't just throw one hundred smaller pieces of wood into the system and need to be conscious of the size or quantity of the wood? My mind was stuck on this thought while I made my way down from the tree to try start a fire.

You can't just start a fire by having two pieces of wood. My camping knowledge, from when I was younger, came to mind and I realised I had to get a few more things before I could successfully start a fire.

I was already becoming hungry again, so I kept an eye out for more huberries as I walked through the forest looking for a good place to set my fire and camp. My search didn't take long as I found a small area between the trees that looked perfect to start a fire without too much risk in burning the forest down.

I went back to the river to fish up some rocks, of which I also threw some into the system. As I put my clothes back on and tried to duplicate some stone, I was surprised to see that it didn't take as many rocks to count as one stone as it did for the branches to count as one wood. I was actually relieved that I wouldn't have to jump into the water too often compared to climbing trees to snap off branches for wood.

Building a fire in the forest isn't as easy as the movies make it seem. You need to make sure the wood is dry, the rock you use is sharp and there's something for the fire to consume to grow. As the wood dust turning into embers, and started smoking right into my face, I quickly transferred them into a bundle of roughly stripped shrubbery to start a flame.

As the fire grew bigger, my face relaxed into a relieved smile and I put the newly lit bundle under the branches and twigs I piled up in the middle of my camping area.