As though waking up as everything I never was on earth in this new world wasn't enough, I also got a golden finger.
Or what I thought was a golden finger.
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[ SIDE QUEST ]
You are an amateur in the wilderness with no survival skills whatsoever.
OBJECTIVE : Make a fire.
REWARD : Random Skill
PENALTY : Possible freezing to death
TIMER : 6:23:53
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I might not be an expert in the reincarnation business, but I've read enough to know a system interface when I see one.
"Make a fire, huh?"
To its credit, it really was getting uncomfortably cold with the sun now gone. Strange that it hadn't crossed my mind until this moment. I must have been so distracted by the exhilarating feeling of being reincarnated that I forgot where I actually was.
An actual forest.
To be honest, it was strange that no wild, ferocious creature had crossed my path the entire time I'd been sitting here. Either I was incredibly lucky, or perhaps this was some kind of safe zone.
"Could be," I accepted the thought with a nod.
But then again, it was just a possibility and not an actual fact. I couldn't trust my new life on unproven theories that might get me killed. So I would find somewhere safer to make the fire first.
"But where?"
I muttered it, taking a slow look around the surrounding area.
All trees and bushes.
"What should I even consider a safe place?" I wondered. If this was a forest and there was a possibility I was somewhere in the middle of it, far from any edge, the options were limited. One such place that came to mind was the top of a tree.
Instinctively I looked up.
The tree was enormous. Wait... were those fruits up there?
But the branches were too high up. There was no way I was reaching those.
Tsk.
Focus.
A place to sleep first. Food could come later.
But no matter how long I thought about it, I couldn't find anywhere that fit the definition of safe.
"I guess I have to take the gamble," I mused, deciding against my better judgment to camp for the night in the very spot I had woken up in.
Which then led me to my second objective.
Make the fire.
"I don't have a match," I muttered the obvious, already knowing where this was headed.
The ancient method it was then.
"Sighs. This isn't going to be easy, is it?" I muttered, staring at the clearing.
I began searching for fallen old branches, scouring the area for everything flammable, playing it wise by not straying too far from my camp zone. I scavenged quite a lot, enough to build a pile that could last two days if I decided not to move from this spot tomorrow. Twigs, branches, dried leaves. Plenty of it. The next task was finding a sparking stone, or whatever they were called.
I found some smooth rocks not far from the camp zone, then got down to the final part.
Starting the fire.
I gathered the twigs, dried leaves, and branches together, mostly the dried leaves and hay at the center, then crouched close with the rocks and began striking one against the other.
"What? Just like that?!"
I was so shocked I had to blink a few more times to confirm what I was seeing wasn't my imagination. "Shouldn't it be harder?" I asked, watching the fire slowly blaze to life. It had taken only a single strike for a large spark to drop into the pile, and what followed was anyone's guess.
"...,"
For some reason I felt a little dissatisfied. Perhaps I had expected the thrill of struggling far more than I actually did.
"Forget it. What does it matter?"
I waved the thought aside and moved back as the fire grew in size, throwing in every dry, flammable thing I had scavenged until the blaze was enormous. All that was left to do was sit back and bask in the heat.
"Puff."
I exhaled, rubbing my palms together before stretching them out toward the fire.
Well. That's that.
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[ DING! ]
[ QUEST COMPLETE ]
[ REWARD: PROCESSING... ]
[ DING ]
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A cascade of interfaces claimed my vision, stacking upon each other by the second.
[ SKILL ACQUIRED: GOD LEVEL PLANTING ]
"Wait, WHAT?!"
[ USER HAS BEEN AWARDED THE SKILL: GOD LEVEL PLANTING ]
"I heard that the first time! Tell me what the hell you mean by planting!" I asked with a deep frown, even though I had a rough idea of what it might mean.
Excuse me for hoping for something a little more flamboyant.
Not to be greedy, but this was literally my first skill. If memory served me correctly, all these system-related reincarnation stories always started with some kind of beginner's starter bonus, meaning this quest, given how easy it had been, was likely exactly that. Which meant who knew when I would get another opportunity to gain a skill.
[ GOD LEVEL PLANTING: A skill that makes it possible for the user to grow any crop imaginable 1,000 times faster than it would naturally ]
...Wait. For real?
"This... this is incredible!" I laughed.
I had expected something like an enhanced understanding of plants and cultivation techniques, but this was something else entirely. With just this one skill alone, I could actually begin working on that plan of mine.
Could it be that the system knew what I wanted to do and had given me this skill intentionally to help me along?
That was a thought that made me genuinely wonder whether this was the type of system that simply worked to help its user accomplish their goals.
[ USER CAN NOW VIEW STATS. SAY: STATUS ]
"Status," I said.
An interface materialized before me.
My jaw dropped to the floor.
WHAT?!