3 3 (1/2)
Morgan Mackenzie was starving to death. Merely an hour earlier she had been safe and sound in her apartment taking a bath. At the moment she found herself on an alien world, apparently one with magic based on a fantasy game. She had fallen through some kind of hole in reality, bathtub and all. Landing on a nest of some sort of terrifyingly huge giant birds had both granted her some levels, points, and titles while at the same time nearly killing her before she had any chance to get her bearings. The nest and the family of birds had fallen to the ground to be eaten by the roots of the tree, while Morgan learned some rather important lessons about spending too many points and forcing sudden drastic changes on her body. The shaking of the tree had settled down compared to its original burst of rampant growth, and the accompanying light show had travelled up the trunk and into the massive crown of branches that had suddenly grown out from its heart. The light made the night as bright as day, albeit a rather green hued one. Morgan Mackenzie clutched her only possession from Earth to her chest like the scrubby loofah was the last tenuous link holding her sanity together. It was all simply too much for the young woman to process.
Magic. A magic world. Several near death experiences, existential terror, floating messages she could interact with, and points and skills and other things that looked like a game but were most certainly far more deadly and serious. A veritable roller coaster of changes to her body resulting in her currently emaciated frame. And to top it all off she was naked as well. She blinked tears from her eyes and glumly considered her glowing silvery status screen:
Status Information for: Morgan Mackenzie
Level - 6
Primary Class: [Locked]
Secondary Class: [Locked]
Health - 73/140
Stamina - 41/168
Mana - 41/84
STR - 11
AGI - 11
CON - 15
VIT - 28
INT - 14
Stat points available to distribute: 0
Current Skills:
[Naked Instinct]
[Naked Resilience]
[Naked Recovery]
[Naked Camouflage]
[Pain Resistance(Lvl 3)]
Skill Points available: 20
Titles, Mantles, and Aspects
[Worldwalker(Title)] - You have travelled through the void between the many worlds! Every world is different, each with its own gifts and dangers. To help you survive strange new places you gain a slight boost to health and an increased ability to learn new things! (+50 to Health, +50% increased gains to Skill Experience)
[Blessed of the Guardian Tree(Title)] - Through an offering of the blood of your enemies you have reawakened the ancient tree! You need never fear its hungry roots! Future offerings or actions that benefit the tree may enhance this TItle!
[Naked Survivor(Aspect)] - You have defeated foes and increased your own power while [Naked] and [Unequipped]! For gaining five or more levels in this manner without the benefits of any [Class] you have gained this Aspect. Experience gained and points rewarded are doubled while you are [Naked] and [Unequipped]. Equipping clothing or items of any type will disable this Aspect. Facing further challenges and reaching new milestones of personal growth while [Naked] and [Unequipped] will enhance this Aspect for even greater benefit.
Afflictions and effects:
[Starvation] - All regen effects disabled!
Morgan was resolved not to repeat the same mistake of spending points without at least a little bit of thought and consideration. Acquiring [Naked Recovery] had changed her, and used her body's last reserves to do it. Her health and stamina and mana were not actively draining away, but they were no longer recovering either. The changes brought on by learning the skill were providing her with a wealth of information in the back of her mind. Just by thinking about it, she could tell exactly how bad her [Starvation] status was. She could feel the state of her very bones, and everything outward. Not just her lack of any remaining body fat reserves but the strain on her organs to simply keep going. She could also feel older injuries, the hardened places where she had fractured bones growing up, the scar tissue around wounds long forgotten. She could even feel her own reproductive organs and knew exactly where she was in her ovulation cycle. It would have been a case of too much information for Morgan, but apparently the changes wrought by the skill allowed her to keep it all walled off in her mind unless she actively looked, even though it was quite disturbing at first.
Her internal musings were interrupted by the tree once again. The shaking had stopped completely, but the light grew brighter and brighter. Morgan was briefly afraid she'd end up blinded as she could see the bright pulses even though her closed eyelids. With a sudden gigantic FWOOMP the light vanished, and Morgan gazed upwards in stunned wonder. The withered tree she had landed in was no more. In its place was a gigantic sprawling canopy of vibrant green. While the verdant layers of giant oak-like leaves blocked the light of the two moons, the undersides of the leaves pulsed gently with a soft green glow. The effect gave the pale radiance a shimmering effect on everything it shone down upon, like the gentle ripples across nearly still water. The effect was stunningly beautiful, surely something no mortal eyes had witnessed in millenia, if not longer. And Morgan didn't notice any of it, nor would she have paid it any bit of attention in the slightest if she had. In her starving condition, every single fiber of her being was focused on one single thing: the tree had grown fruit.