Dreams Fade

Eithin fell down in exhaustion, he took a breather to recover.

"Just..huh..hah...a few more swings." His skin glossed with a thin sheen of sweat, his eyes examined the tree.

[(Immature) Grenviou Tree: A common tree found in the north-western region of Eden.]

Eithin felt somewhat doubtful of the system, was it even a system? From what he remembered about systems, they were much different from his own.

For all he knew, the 'system' could just be something like psychometry.

Eithin took one a breath-shaking away his doubts- before pushing himself off the ground.

"I should finish chopping down the tree, I feel rested enough." He grabbed his axe on the ground and swung it into the bark with all his strength. The edge of the blade dug into the bark, he took it out and chopped down again.

'Creaak~ Craaack~'

Eithin didn't take the axe out this time. Instead, he slammed into the tree with his shoulder. There was a dull pain on his shoulder, but the tree had begun to tilt on the other-side.

Eithin backed up and watched as the tree began leaning down on the side, the remaining bark on the cut straining and cracking into two as the tree slowly toppled over.

Kaboom!

There was a loud boom as the tree smashed onto the ground, luckily not getting stuck in the branches of the other trees. Eithin looked at the tree he had felled with a tired smile.

"Now..how should I process it?"

He wondered what he should do, his body was still sore and he doubted he'd have enough time to chop the tree into pieces with his body sore.

Driing~!

[(Novice) Logger Achievement Unlocked! You've chopped down the first one of many trees you'll fall in your life!

Reward: +10% Synchronization.]

Eithin felt a pleasant cool coursing through his body, everywhere this chill coursed felt invigorated and full of energy. That wasn't all he noticed, the world seemed much more bright and detailed in his eyes, and his thoughts seems clearer and quicker than before.

"Hah~" The pleasant energy coursing through his body began to recede, but the changes had been kept. Eithin clenched his hands, a translucent panel manifested in his head.

[Synchronization: 45% Health:❤️❤️

|Options| ]

'There's more information...' He concentrated on [Options] and it briefly lit up before a few more panels appeared inside his mind. 'Most of these don't offer anything..oh?' He saw one which had been set to 'hearts,' he concentrated on it before it changed to 'numeral.'

He pressed 'save' in the options menu and closed it, the hearts disappeared and turned into a health bar.

[Health: 40/40]

'Is the system correlated to synchronization? It appears that it runs on achievements, going with this..I'm probably still in a tutorial.'

His theory sounded..sound.

Sluck~

Eithin turned his head quickly at the sound but relaxed after seeing the blue gelatinous blob. He had a small smile." Almost scared me, luckily it's just a slime." Examining the slime, Eithin noted that it appeared to wobble and bounce to approach him, he didn't really think of it as something dangerous.

'This should be one of the weakest mobs in the game—easy kill.' Grabbing ahold of his copper sword, he moved towards the slime and readied to slay it.

He prepared to swing, but as he got closer, the slime squished itself onto the ground like a pancake. His sword swung sideways, but the slime had suddenly unsprung and pounced!

Eithin quickly looked up and shielded his face with his left arm, the slime impacted his arm, some bits of the slime splashed onto his face.

"Hisssss-" He inhaled sharply, swinging his arm and throwing the slime off his hand. He looked and noticed area where the slime had made contact with his skin was smoldering as blood dripped down, his face felt burned.

"It's acidic..." He felt relieved he reacted in time, and that nothing splashed onto his eyes. His caution heightened as he gripped tighter on his sword, the slime had squished itself again.

'It's preparing to pounce!'

His body tensed as he readied for the slime's attack.

"Now!" He jumped to the left as he felt wind brush past him, he faced the slime and swung his sword down. It felt like swinging through muck, his blade only through a quarter of the slime before all the kinetic energy was drained.

It wasn't over yet, the wound on the slime oozed and it began stitching itself together. Eithin pulled the blade out, and continued slashing at the slime until it turned into a puddle by his feet.

"Hah...hah..."

[Achievement Unlocked! (Novice) Monster Hunter! You've slain your first of many monsters!

Reward: +10% Synchronization.]

The calming chill filled his body. Eithin sat down, staring at the blue puddle with a lingering caution. 'If that's a common slime...'

"F*ck." He felt a pressure from the battle just now, it didn't seem likely that slime was some sort of dangerous creature in this world, so the fact that he actually took considerable damage...

He felt a rising frustration, he took a breath.

"It's fine, once I'm fully synchronized.." Every time the value increased, his mental and physical abilities improved. Thinking on it made his frustrations disappear.

He glanced at his left arm, the burnt skin had disappeared and been replaced with smooth and unburnt flesh to his relief.

'Add healing as another benefit.' He felt quite happy about that.

Eithin moved his focus to the puddle and noticed that the reflection didn't look like what he remembered seeing in the mirror. Through the blue filter..his face looked like another's, though they had some features resembling him but younger

"Another surprise...I should've expected this.." He sighed, information about the slime appeared inside his mind.

[(Common) Slime: A slime local to this forest, is somewhat basic and dangerous for kids. The slime is very flammable, beware that the death of the slime reduces it's base attributes.]

He felt somewhat targeted by the kid remark, but brushed it off. He took the sword and retrieved his axe. 'Perhaps I've improved enough?'

Testing his theory, he concentrated on his sword and distortions surrounded the sword as it began flickering in and out of existence. As his mind started straining, there was a vroom and the sword disappeared! In its place was an unfamiliar sensation..

'What is that?'

He concentrated on the sensation curiously, he felt a slight drain as his copper sword appeared back in his hands. Re-concentrating on his sword, it took much less time before it distorted back into..somewhere.

"Do they get easier as I use them?" He wasn't sure, but he wasn't willing to test it. He was already feeling a bit sleepy from the use, anymore and he might go unconscious.

Walking over and picking up his axe, he looked at the tree he had felled. "Sigh..this'll be a lot of work-" He swung his axe, the edge of the axe's blade digging into the bark..

Hours later...

Eithin breathed heavily, the tree had been finally chopped into pieces. He pressed his hand on the log to use as a crutch when suddenly he heard something ring inside his head.

[Do you wish to convert into planks of wood x 4?]

He breathed a sigh of relief. "That reduces a lot of tiring work, yes."

Cracks started to spread through the log, it spread until the whole thing just exploded into planks of wood. '..Neat' He touched the planks, concentrated, and the they disappeared.

[Received 4 Wooden Planks]

He felt the wood inside his inventory along with his sword. "From what I can feel, I still have a lot of space left.." He moved onto the other pieces and converted them into planks before taking them into his inventory.

[Copper Sword: 1] [Wood Planks: 31]

"Okay, I'm looking good...I should find the cave Guide mentioned and make a base around it." He placed his axe into his inventory after some concentration.

"Almost forgot!" He went back to the puddle of slime, kneeling to touch the slime. Concentrating, the slime drained and entered his inventory, it was too useful to pass up.

Eithin looked at the setting sun, 'I should hurry...' He left in a sprint.

*****

Eithin sprinted for awhile, in the distance he could make out some sort of tunnel. "Is that the cave?" He was somewhat tired of the constant sprinting, though luckily this body had superhuman stamina.

Arriving closer, Eithin noticed the opening was more than wide enough for him to enter. He jogged up to the mouth of the cave and gazed into the darkness below, before turning to look at the setting sun. "I won't have enough time for mining, I'll need to set a shelter first and foremost.."

Exploring a cave at night wasn't a pleasant idea. Eithin prioritized building a shelter foremost, so he concentrated on the planks of wood and examined it.

'System? Is there any quick way to build?'

.....

There wasn't any response, but what was he expecting anyways? ' I'll just have to think of something. ' He tried to recall some memories of sandbox games and had an idea.

' What if...' His idea didn't sound very probable, but he stuck his hand out and concentrated on the wooden planks inside his inventory.

Pop!

"So it did work.." He took a look at the plank and imagined how his housing would appear. The flooring, walls, ceiling... 'It'll cost too much.' He tried thinking of an alternative, could I dig a hole and make a base underground? There wouldn't be much resources needed..

But he didn't have a shovel..

[Detected distress, initiating guide...welcome to terraria...Beware of monsters....]

Eithin skipped some of the information...

[..It's recommended to create a {Work Station} quickly!]

"There!....but how do I create one?" Eithin skimmed through some information until he saw just what he wanted.

[To begin creation, it's necessary to imagine what you wish to exactly create while concentrating on a resource...]

"Okay..." He concentrated on the wooden planks in his inventory and imagined a work station... streams of information appeared inside his mind about different stations he could create, but he chose the one which costed the least amount.

"There!"

[(Normal) Work Station: A crafting station is a necessary tool to make crafting much easier. This is a normal crafting station.

Cost: 10 Wooden Planks]

"What? So much..." He didn't though about it before he concentrated on the work station, confirming his selection. He felt the wooden planks inside his inventory begin draining away, and a new sensation in one of his inventory slots.

A notification popped inside his head.

[Achievement Unlocked! (Novice) Craftsman! You've crafted your first item!

Reward: +10% Synchronization.]

He felt his body flush as he felt strength fill his entire body, he concentrated on the work station and placed it onto the wooden plank flooring.

He felt a rush of possible creations flooding into his head, but he focused on flooring and walls. The wood in his mind dwindled and he concentrated in making the room, wooden floors erected out and into the cave defying gravity, he added walls and used the cave's natural ceiling as his roof to save wood.

After completing it, he cautiously stepped into the house. Even though the house was over the mouth of the cave and didn't have any support..it seemed sturdy. He checked his inventory, "A couple planks left."

Eithin looked at the room..it was small..even smaller than an apartment room, but that was reasonable because he didn't use all the wood to increase the size, because he had realized he could create armor—he valued it over size.

"It's almost night, monsters should spawn soon if I remember correctly.."

He placed his hand on the work station. "Sacrificing a bed and bigger room for armor..is a good deal!"

Light beamed from the work station, and he released the needed wooden planks. He watched as the wood split, bent, and folded into the shape of armor.

The light faded, and he had a full set of wooden armor.

'I should have armor slots..' He picked them up, and concentrated on the armor pieces, imagining them on his body. The pieces warped and appeared on his body.

Eithin tried moving his limbs. "It's quite flexible..but a bit ti- wait..options!"

He looked through the option menu and noticed some new additions, but he didn't care and instead scrolled down.

"Where is it...there!"

[Physicality of Armor: <On>/Off]

He willed it to be off, suddenly, the tightness of the armor disappeared. 'Is it still there?' He poked himself and still felt it... "Hmmm..." He grabbed his axe and placed it on his hand, he felt the edge of the axe's blade..but it didn't felt sharp.

He applied some pressure and began pulling the axe's blade across his hand. He felt the pressure, but it didn't cut into his skin..like it was being blocked..

Eithin sighed in relief, "It's still there..."

He took his tools and sat on the opposite of the gaping hole, he didn't have enough wood for a door anymore.

Watching the darkening sky from within his house, Eithin tried to resist the mental exhaustion but his eyes grew heavy. Time ticked by and his head began drooping...

'Stay awake Eithin...'

He told himself, but his eyelids grew heavier and heavier...as his consciousness grew fuzzier, the world became blanketed by darkness..