[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=16 - PHYSICAL=24 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=16 - SPEED=24 — APTITUDE: MANA=17 - STAMINA=23 — TILT: CONTROL=24 - LUCK=16 ]

  [ NEW UNCOMMON C.L.A.S.S. ACTION: SWORDSMAN / SPACIAL ANCHOR - SWORD — EFFECT 1: TELEPORT TO THE LOCATION OF YOUR EQUIPPED SWORD — EFFECT 2: SMALL ATTUNEMENT-BASED AOE CENTERED ON YOUR TELEPORTATION ORIGIN — EFFECT 3: LARGER ATTUNEMENT-BASED AOE CENTERED ON YOUR SWORD UPON ARRIVAL — STRENGTH SCALING: MAGICAL — TILT SCALING: CONTROL — COST: MODERATE MANA — RECHARGE: SHORT — RESTRICTION: HAS NO EFFECT IF EQUIPPED SWORD IS WITHIN 1 BODY-LENGTH OF YOURSELF ]

  [ NEW RARE C.L.A.S.S. TOGGLE: ANIME / EXTEND-O-SWORD — EFFECT 1: INCREASES THE LENGTH OF YOUR SWORD BLADE. — EFFECT 2: DIMINISHING LOGARITHMIC SWORD DAMAGE MULTIPLIER BASED ON BLADE-EXTENSION PERCENTAGE — STRENGTH SCALING: PHYSICAL — TILT SCALING: CONTROL — COST 1: MINOR MANA DRAIN, INCREASES BASED ON BLADE EXTENSION PERCENTAGE — COST 2: STAMINA PER SWING, INCREASES BASED ON BLADE EXTENSION PERCENTAGE — RECHARGE: MODERATE AFTER DEACTIVATION ]

  Mich and I have been hanging out in a frozen field since early afternoon.

  We weren’t planning to stop here, but both agreed that we needed to once we realized how pretty it was.

  It’s as though all the overgrown grass and flowers and everything else was in the middle of being blown by a gentle breeze before getting flash-frozen. Like someone hit pause on reality for the whole area. And also made everything sparkly and cold.

  Anyway, Mich is already under the covers of his deployed bed.

  Meanwhile, I’m off to the side of our makeshift campsite, working through the suddenly moonlit night to adapt my new Skills into some sort of actionable style as I try to slice falling frozen leaves. Emphasis on ‘try’.

  Resetting my position yet again, I kick the tree and ‘try’ to zone in on a few leaves as soon as they’re jostled free. Aaaand…

  [ COMMON ACTION: IAI QUICKDRAW ]

  [ UNCOMMON ACTION: COUNTER SHEATHE ]

  [ RARE TOGGLE ON: EXTEND-O-SWORD ]

  “AAAH!!!” The skills combine as my hard-won katana launches itself hilt-first like a comically oversized, under-padded Nerf dart.

  [ COUNTER SHEATHE: CANCELED ]

  [ RARE TOGGLE OFF: EXTEND-O-SWORD ]

  To my credit, the actively shrinking sword does go right through where the leaves are about to fall. Even if its passing happens long before they get that far.

  Wincing at what sounds like an entire kitchen’s-worth of plates breaking, my eyes dart to where it landed, shattering a line of the overgrown frozen grass.

  Then I smile as I realize the sword is now completely hidden from my sight. This looks like a job for…

  [ UNCOMMON ACTION: SPACIAL ANCHOR - SWORD ]

  The grass underneath both me and my sword shatters as I teleport right to it.

  Smugly bending down, I pick up my fallen sword at the center of what looks like a crater of shattered grass.

  Still wearing the grin from already having used my other new Skill for something practical, I resheathe the sword once more.

  [ IAI QUICKDRAW BONUS DAMAGE: 0 ]

  I blink down at my sword. So I guess Iai Quickdraw keeps going even if it leaves my hand? Huh…

  Walking back to my starting position yet again again, I try again again.

  I can tell I’ve improved by how the sword doesn’t shoot out like a blowdart this time. But my swing still passes under all the leaves before any manage to fall that far.

  So I do it over and over. And over. And also over.

  But the same thing happens every time. The only difference is how badly I miss the leaf I was aiming for. If I was just a bad shot, random chance alone should’ve guaranteed some hits. But no. I keep getting there too early despite always thinking I’m late. Just like with the JackAsses.

  Extend-o-sword was supposed to fix this. But it just didn’t. Despite the lesser damage potential, I really should’ve gone with Projected Slash.

  That fact is only pounded further into me with each and every miss.

  Eventually, I get so frustrated that I throw my sword at the ground. “FUCK!!!”

  [ RARE TOGGLE OFF: EXTEND-O-SWORD ]

  It pierces clear through the apparently brittle soil, sinking nearly to the hilt. The optical illusion makes it look more impressive than it is. Since the blade shrinks back to its normal length almost as soon as it leaves my hand and seems to bury itself to more than twice the depth that it actually does.

  Those goddamn bullets… If I was just faster…

  I consciously know it wouldn’t have mattered. No human has ever moved that fast on their own. But I still died because I couldn’t.

  I also consciously know that’s stupid. That doesn’t stop my subconscious from screaming at me to move whenever I try to wait.

  It honestly wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t perpetually feel like I was too slow to save myself even more recently than my last sword swing.

  Eventually, Mich calls over from his bed. “Hey, kid! I can hear your sulking all the way from here. What’s up?”

  Frustration fully mounted, I run over and kick the tree like the JackAss did to me a few days back.

  To my immense annoyance, it doesn’t even budge.

  Peak sulk, I call back over my shoulder. “I can’t do it.”

  “And what, exactly, can you suddenly not do?”

  Grumbling no less for having been called out on my foul mood, I decide to switch up which Skill to practice. I did already use it once. But I can do better than that.

  [ UNCOMMON ACTION: SPACIAL ANCHOR - SWORD ]

  Disappearing in a shockwave of force that shatters not only the grass underfoot, but also the leaves overhead, I reappear above my buried sword.

  At which point, an even larger shockwave emanates from there. Overall, this accomplishes the amazing feat of saving the few steps it would cost me to pick it up like a normal person.

  Except I don’t even get that far.

  Thanks to the shockwave having no other way to dissipate its energy, my katana launches itself out of its katana-shaped hole, at a katana-shaped angle, spinning in an arc before falling back to the ground way further away than I ever managed to throw it.

  Cocking my head, I glare at the blade as it falls. The Skill isn’t recharged yet, so I can’t just teleport and reach it in midair. But my Speed isn’t minmaxed for nothing.

  Jogging over, I feel somehow mocked by the ease with which I catch and resheathe the mostly lethal spinning blade before jogging back to belatedly answer Mich. “No ‘suddenly’ about it. What I ‘can’t do’ is the same thing I couldn’t do this entire time. Wait.”

  “For what?”

  [ RARE CHAIR DEPLOYED: BENCH HALF ]

  Sitting down, I make like I’m on the toilet I don’t need to use anymore and lean forward with elbows on thighs. “EVERYTHING. I always know the opportunity to strike is coming. I always know it isn’t time yet. But then I panic. I panic and my Skill or whatever activates too early or I move before I should and it just fucks my whole shit right up.”

  I kick the ground harder to punctuate each word. “Every. Fucking. TIME.”

  Fresh off my third kick, I still. And sulk. “I keep freaking out at the last second. Or what seems like it at the time… I just keep remembering my own death. If I just could’ve been faster…”

  Mich winces. “It’s still rough on you, huh?”

  I let out a dark chuckle that comes out sounding closer to a sob. “You could say that… It’s at least bad enough so that every time I get the chance to think in a fight, it’s like I’m right back there again. That, by itself, I think I can handle. But then the adrenaline or endorphins or whatever hit me and I panic and miss by a mile. Unless it’s against a straight-forward attack coming right at my center mass. I’m good with those. But if there’s any sort of delay? I just whiff and get hit by the thing I was in such a hurry to defend against. It’s fucking frustrating is what it is.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Fight-or-flight, huh? That’s a tough one. Really, it’s better not to resist. That’s a losing battle if I’ve ever heard one.”

  “Fight or… What? I can’t fly. Although… Now there’s a thought…”

  Mich eyes me with forlorn suspicion. “What the hell are they teaching kids these days?”

  Sick of this question by now, I just count the main subjects on my fingers. “Let’s see… There’s Math… Reading… Social studies… Programming… Saltwater Desalination…”

  “Oh. My god… Like… Wow, that’s really sad.”

  “What?”

  Mich just stares blankly at me for a moment. “Nope. I’m not tackling that. But to answer your easier question… Instinct. Fight-or-flight is just another way of talking about your natural predilection to react to imminent danger by either fighting-”

  I snicker interruptingly. “Or flying?”

  “Running. Goddamned smartass…”

  I beam at him.

  He grumbles. “My point… Is that I think you’ll find this whole jumping-the-gun thing a liiittle hard to resist. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you suppress your instincts like that, you’ll get distinctly worse at fighting. Not better. What you’re talking about is something people their whole lives to master. Vanishingly few of them ever achieved the kind of control you’re so frustrated at not already having.”

  Burying my head in my hands, I let out a particularly aggrieved groan. “So… What, you think I should just give up on all this and check into a resort or some shit?”

  “You’re putting words into my mouth. Not that I’d object if you decided what you wanted out of Heaven was a permanent vacation. But that’s not what I’m getting at either. More about life here is different from Earth than just universal access to affordable vacation spots.”

  “Well yeah… I’ve got Skills now, for one thing.”

  “Mkay… And what if you used your next Point on a Skill that stops you from feeling the need to get ahead of yourself?”

  “Great idea.” I even thought of it myself. “Except what the fuck kind of Skill does that? I just looked through my whole list again, so I’m pretty familiar with my options at this point.”

  Mich shrugs. “I’unno… You’re the one with your instincts. So you’re the only one who can answer that question. I could throw out some educated guesses. But I could only ever be the blind-leading-the-blind on that one. I’d probably just end up suggesting a Skill that’d work for me, but be totally useless to you.”

  [ RARE CHAIR RETRACTED: BENCH HALF ]

  On that note, I give the leaf thing a few more tries.

  Then a few dozen.

  Then enough to drain my resources dry. But it’s no use. That doesn’t mean I stop trying just because the urge to stop moving overtakes me.

  When it inevitably does, I turn away from the still-sporadically-falling leaves, unequip my sword, and pick the first reasonably okay spot I see.

  [ COMMON BED DEPLOYED: BASIC TWIN ]

  Overcome with frustrated-laden exhaustion, I trudge over and fall right into bed.

  [ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - NIGHTTIME PRACTICE: UNDER THE NIGHT SKY, WITHOUT DEALING OR TAKING ANY DAMAGE, STARTING FROM 100% MP AND SP, YOU DEPLETED BOTH TO UNDER 0.8% AND ENTERED YOUR DEPLOYED BED BEFORE REGEN COULD TRIGGER — REWARD: RECOVER MP AND SP FASTER IN BED — XP: 32 ]

  [ ACHIEVEMENT MILESTONE REACHED: LEVEL 1 ]

  Not as good as the Rosenhold Inn. But definitely better than any other bed I’ve ever slept in. Wait a second… “Hey Mich?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do achievements pop in beds?”

  “What? Of course. Levels too, by the way. You’ve never had that happen before?”

  “I mean… No? I guess this is my first time using the thing since I bought it.”

  “What about yesterday?”

  “I spent all night practicing.”

  “You shouldn’t do that.”

  “What are you, my mom?”

  “Closest thing you got right now.”

  “I…” Well, he’s not wrong. “Shut up.”

  Surprisingly, he does.

  Laying on my back under the covers, I take another look over the list of all the Skills I can buy. It’s back to just Commons again.

  As expected, I find no obvious solutions to my problem.

  Once I get bored enough of that, my eyes unfocus from my menus, and onto the stars shining above. Or the projection of them? “Hey, Mich?”

  “Yeah?”

  I wave vaguely up at the sky. “How does this all work? You know… With the stars and all?”

  He looks at them too, narrowing his eyes to find something out of place. “What’re you getting at?”

  “So we’re supposed to be inside of a sphere, right? Then how are there stars? And how is there no sun? As far as I can tell, the thing never moves. But every day, it just sort of disappears. And then the moon shows up. So where’s it coming from? The same place as the stars?”

  “Huh… For the moon, the sun turns into it. And vise-versa. As you so succinctly put it, the sun never moves. You might’ve also noticed that neither does the moon. And if you were really, really observant, you might’ve put together that they’re always in the same spot as each other.”

  Sitting up to glare at him just lying over there, not even looking at me, like an asshole, I flip him off.

  Mich smirks, but otherwise continues uninterrupted. “As for how that, or any of it, actually works? I’ve got no idea, Jessic-”

  He hacks out a cough. “-Jessie. Maybe it’s a projection? Or a hologram? Really, the sky’s the limit with all the possible explanations.”

  After a moment, his face is overcome with smugness as he chuckles softly at his own pun.

  Laying back down, I scan the sky for anything I recognize. But no. I never paid much attention to star patterns or where any of them were in relation to each other.

  And I’m far too distracted by my heart suddenly pounding for some reason. “So are the stars always the same every time? Like, do they never move either? I can see them twinkling. So that means their solars are flaring and stuff, right? They’re not just static.”

  “No idea, Jessie. But how about this? Right now, pick a star. Try to memorize everything about it. Then look for the same one tomorrow. Whether or not you can find it, there’s your answer.”

  “But what if the stars are on some kind of cycle? It could be gone tomorrow, but back in a week. Or a month. Or year. And even if it stays there ten nights in a row, it could still vanish on Night Eleven, right?”

  “I guess you’ll just have to make sure to check every night for the rest of forever.”

  “Pfft… Shut up.” At that, I refocus my eyes and resume reading through my Skill options in search of a solution that if I found it, I’d never admit it was because he told me to. Not that I’m too hopeful about fixing my little problem with a single Skill. At least not one I can afford.

  [ SKILL POINTS: 1 ]

  Wait, I can afford a Skill? Now? Why do I have a Skill Point? And why am I second-guessing this?

  Even if I’m back to only Commons to choose from. I might as well just pick out some minor superpower to help with the timing. Even if I can’t fix the problem, I can at least make it better, right? I mean I’d rather just resolve my idleness allergy with a Common if possible. But even if not, it’s a good first step.

  Actually, isn’t the list a little bigger now?

  Hold up, there actually are some Uncommons I can buy… But why just the CRAFT ones?

  I already know that to buy an Uncommon Skill, I need two Commons. And to buy a Rare, I need two Uncommons.

  But I haven’t even bought a single CRAFT Skill yet. So how are the Uncommons available?

  Should I ask Mich? No, I just told him to shut up. And I’d really rather not go back on that again. Although… So what if I can buy a CRAFT Uncommon? What’s the point of smithing swords when I keep fucking up with the one I have?

  Putting that aside for now, I keep looking for a CLASS Skill to help with my premature subjugation. But try as I might, I can’t find anything that would help me wait. In fact, pretty much all of these seem focused in the opposite direction. Something like bullet time would be ideal. But there’s nothing like that.

  I do find the next best thing though. A dedicated, easy, cheap panic button with no cooldown.

  [ COMMON C.L.A.S.S. ACTION GAINED: MELEE / AURA BURST — EFFECT 1: EMIT A SHOCKWAVE THAT DEALS FORCE DAMAGE IN A SMALL RADIUS AROUND YOU — EFFECT 2: PHYSICAL DAMAGE DEALT ON IMPACT WITH ANY OBSTACLE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE SHOCKWAVE. DAMAGE DEPENDS ON FORCE APPLIED, DISTANCE TRAVELED, OBJECT(S) HIT, AND THEIR OVERALL MOVABILITY — STRENGTH SCALING: MAGICAL — TILT SCALING: CONTROL — COST: TINY MANA ]

  Ok, sleep now…

  With still more mental effort than I’d like, my Skill menus close.

  After a few moments, I remember my peripheral vision wasn’t always covered with health bars and things.

  [ HUD: OFF ]

  Then I lay there for a while. Despite my very real exhaustion, I don’t close my eyes.

  Instead, I stare up at the night sky.

  Eventually, I pick out a star. And look at it. And remember. Again. Goddamn it…

  In a hopeful, hopeless moment, I try to replace the memory of my death with absolutely every single detail I can think to note about the night sky, and that star specifically. But I don’t need Mich to tell me how futile that is either.

  Once I give up, my eyeline shifts down, past all the clouds. And the horizon. And the more clouds. And finally down to the source of the steadily repeating micro-earthquakes that I only just realized I’ve been feeling for the last several minutes.

  It’s some kind of lumbering cross between an elephant, sloth, and apartment building, just sort of wandering around a scant few miles away. “Hey Mich?”

  “I thought I was supposed to shut up.”

  “Oh shut up…” Fuck. Oh, whatever. “You see that big-ass thing a few miles thataway?”

  “You mean the walking barn?”

  “I guess. Kinda closer to an apartment building… But whatever, yeah. That. How do we know it won’t come over here and step on us while we sleep? I’m not looking to die in this bed. As much as death doesn’t matter anymore, I’m pretty sure my respawn point is still set to that first town.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Colossi like that are pretty common in Hazard Zones. Some even wander a little far from their squares. Like this guy. But the extreme cold from its home tundra seems to be bleeding over too. Not sure what’s going on with that, but all Colossi are closer to sentient than anything you’d find in a dungeon. In a way, they’re closer to a Hero than a Monster. They even respawn.”

  I raise an eyebrow with my back to him, making the gesture entirely pointless. “And the monsters don’t?”

  Mich seems like he’s getting ready to say something else, but clearly rethinks it. “You know? That’s actually a good point. But some Colossi can even talk. And I have it on good authority that no Dungeon Monster can do that. No more than parrots, that is. In any event, they’re not aggressive. Not in Outset. Not unless you attack it first. So don’t do that. But we’ll be fine even if it does wander over here and step on us while we sleep.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “It’s the way beds work. You can’t spawn or get into a bed if you’re in whatever the System considers combat. Or if you’re being targeted. Or… Look, there’s a lot of restrictions. But that’s because an equipped bed makes you practically invincible while you’re in it. You could come over and try to slice me all to ribbons right now, but neither me, nor the bed, would get a scratch. You could even destroy the ground underneath me. But the bed would just float above the hole until the ground underneath it regenerates. You couldn’t even target me laying here like this.”

  Having been challenged while already looking at him, I give it a try.

  But, just like he said, I can’t target him at all. “Huh… Well, I’ll be damned.”

  Mich chuckles. “You gonna come over here and attack me or what? I more than half expected it as soon as I said you couldn’t.”

  Tempting. Instead, I just yawn. “Maybe later… Too tired now. I already tried to target you and that didn’t work, so fuck it. I’ll just take your word on the rest.”

  “That’s awfully unsuspicious of you. Could it be that I’m finally earning a modicum of trust?”

  “Oh, I’m suspicious. But I’m also in enough of a ‘fuck-it’ sort of mood that I’d rather just die in my sleep and find out you lied that way. And then there’s the fact that it’d be a pretty stupid move to strike right now. Especially when you’re this deep in your plot for my trust. Don’t even know what you’d gain from it… I mean if I was gonna betray me, I’d definitely bide my time at this point. But you do you.”

  Then, with thoughts of running around and blasting apart all this grass in the morning, I finally fall asleep.