Ash woke and felt… different. More energised. Stronger. She pulled up her stat sheet and gasped.

  Her strength, reflex and constitution had all gone up by one point. She frantically searched for the reason before finally noticing that her ‘withering’ status now said ‘(intense)’. It had been ’(extreme)’ before, right? She was recovering! Damn, maybe that stew increased my recovery rate for that too! She resolved to find a way to earn more good meals. That single night’s rest and recovery was the equivalent to gaining like 3 whole levels!

  She examined her body, noticing her arms looked a little less skeletal than they did before, her legs too. That was a start.

  Freshly energized for the day, she ate her last fruit and the remainder of her bread before clambering out of her room. First thing, she channelled another flame burst through her torch. Then she tried a frost touch the same way. Nothing happened. It didn’t feel the same as before. Maybe the torch really would only allow her to do fire spells. She tried for a few more minutes, firing off another flame burst for comparison. Nothing about the descriptions she had read seemed to preclude any type of magic, yet the feeling of thrusting it up into the air just didn’t feel right with frost touch.

  Oh. That’s because it’s frost fucking touch, dummy! She scolded herself. I actually need to touch something!

  She tried poking at some leaves, but that also didn’t work.

  “Oh, come on!” She cursed, swinging at the leaves and enjoying how easily the torch tore through them. That would be even more satisfying if I could blast them with ice at the same time.

  There was something about that thought. She paused. Maybe that was something she could work with. Like, using the Great-hammer as a weapon and channelling at the same time!

  She tried it, focusing on the sensation of casting while swinging the torch through the foliage. It took her a few tries to get the timing right, but when she focused on channelling the spell just at the point of first impact…

  *crunch*

  The frozen shards of leaf scattered through the forest and Ash cried out in exaltation. She had done it! She was also rewarded with a notification.

  You have reached Arcane Conduit level 2. Your potency multiplier has increased to 0.28x.

  Great! The damage modifier has gone up too! Assuming linear progression, that meant by level 10 her efficiency would be… 0.44! Nearly double what she had started with. Ash calculated that by 38 she would be at 100% efficiency! After that it was all bonus power! Maybe there would even be some materials that would increase that further too or at least make her focus use more Will efficient.

  This had been an unexpectedly excellent start to the day. She now had a buffer of 14 whole Hitpoints! Enough to take several ant bites or maybe even 1 hit from a lizardman. She would now hit harder too, not that it will matter once I’m torching the bastards with my new flamethrower! She felt like cackling with glee. It was time to set out. She looped her basket over 1 arm and set of into the jungle, heading straight for the Bondi tree near where she had been first attacked.

  She looked up at the fruit. 3 of them still hanging tantalisingly close. Now she thought she could do something about it.

  She channelled frost touch, aiming for the connection between the branch and the fruit. She was a little too incautious. Her swing connected hard, and probably too low as well, the unfortunate fruit shattering into shards of ice.

  “Shit!” She cursed and quickly decided on a new strategy. She swung the torch as slowly and carefully as she could while still allowing the spell to be channelled. She still shattered the first branch, her improvised net just about still catching the half-frozen fruit. By the third she eventually she got the hang of it, leaving her with two good Bondi fruits gradually thawing in her basket.

  You have unlocked the skill, harvesting: You are now Harvesting level 1.

  Harvesting rate and the properties of the items you harvest are now more apparent to you.

  Feeling confident, she jumped and swung at a higher branch. With pauses to recover her focus, she managed to collect another 3, with only one meeting the same shattering fate as the first. She sucked on a few of the frozen shards, enjoying the cool sweet fruit melting on her tongue. 5 fruit and a new skill. All in all, a successful harvest.

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  Now it was time to hunt some ants. She left her basket hanging from the tree and stalked through the jungle, retracing the path she had taken before.

  “Come on you skittering little guys, mama wants to try out her new toy.” She muttered to herself, flexing her hands around her torch, which she currently had pointed out in front of her like a makeshift gun.

  She was getting impatient when she finally heard the telltale skittering.

  The ant emerged from the brush and rushed straight at her, she tracked it better with her reflex of 3 and thrust her torch forward, channelling the spell.

  Her weapon kicked back as the flame burst forward, instantly engulphing the ant then quickly dissipating.

  She blinked at the aftermath. The dropped leaves and foliage smouldered on the floor all around the ant but… the creature itself looked completely unharmed. It rapidly got over its surprise at the burst of light and hurried past the smouldering patch, continuing straight for her. Ash stumbled backwards but not fast enough. Once again, she felt the jaws of an ant sinking into her ankle.

  “Fuck!” She cursed and swing down, splattering the annoying thing instantly. She ignored the experience notification, focusing on her frustration. It hadn’t worked. Her channelling had failed her. It still did 0 damage. She had been outmanoeuvred by a single fucking ant that she could normally kill in one hit. This is bullshit!

  She felt her frustration grow, her thoughts beginning to spin. The forest blurred, tears brimming in her eyes as she swayed with emotion. Frustration, anger, desperation and her crushed sense of hope all warred within her. She staggered, catching herself on a nearby tree.

  Ash blinked, trying to clear the tears from her vision. Everything still felt a little blurred, unsteady. This… this wasn’t just emotion. This was… She checked her status sheet, thoughts blending and sluggish. There it was.

  Delerium toxin: You are under the effects of delirium toxin. You will received impaired metal coordination, 100% reduction in natural health regeneration, and will lose 1 point of health every 5 minutes until you recover.

  She checked her health. Still 12 points. I’m losing 1 every 5 minutes… that will vanish fast. How long does the effect last. If it… if it is anything over an hour… then I’m dead.

  She had to get to the village. Surely someone there would know more, be able to help her. She stumbled backwards, turning. What way was it again? The shifting trees all looked the same now.

  No, that one is familiar, that is the way, right? She seized on it, stumbling in the direction she hoped was towards the settlements ruins. With at least that landmark she’d be able to find her way.

  But it was never going to be that simple.

  She heard a skittering from behind her, twisting fast enough to spot the ant darting for her. She swung and it splattered, but there was another. Another swing and that too cracked apart. Both down, but she could still hear it, more skittering legs in the jungle, coming for her. She stumbled onwards, glancing behind her every few moments and almost running into a tree for her trouble.

  Another ant jumped out from next to her and she kicked at it, only knocking it away temporarily as it quickly recovered and rushed straight back at her.

  *Crunch* Another one was splattered into the floor.

  Then she looked up and saw it. Another ant, but this one far larger. It stood about the size of a dog, mandibles twitching unnervingly. It was flanked by two normal foragers but those paled in comparison. If that big one got to her, she knew she was dead.

  They rushed at her. One of the foragers darting out ahead. She caught it on the upswing, then aimed for the big one.

  Crack! The torch slammed into its head, knocking it back just as she felt jaws sink into her left shin. The other forager. She quickly swung down, splattering it, but knew that single bite had cost her another 10 minutes of her dwindling life, maybe more if it had somehow added to the toxin. The big one was almost on her again. She was panting. Her stamina was low. She only had a couple of swings left in her.

  She cried out, yelling her frustration at the insectile creature and pouring that into her swing. But this time, the ant reacted, raising a thick chitin plated arm and taking the blow on that instead.

  She had a moment to register that that ant had blocked her, before it struck, slashing forward with its other arm. She tried to dodge, but the toxin left her too addled. It scraped over her wrist, carving a deep gouge and knocking her health down by another couple of points. Another 10 minutes gone.

  She needed to stop it now. The fire had startled the ant before. Maybe that. Or the frost touch, even without damage it the frost should have the side effect of slowing the beast. Perhaps she could escape then, reach the village before she fell.

  She didn’t wait, she just twisted and focused on her magic as she swung her weapon back up. A great scything uppercut that slipped past the creature’s blocking arm and slammed straight into its chin.

  There was a great crash and the ant’s head exploded into frozen shards. The heavy body of the beast crumpling to the floor before her.

  She blinked, dumbfounded, down at the slain ant. That had… worked?

  She wanted to figure out more, but the haziness of her thoughts reminded her of her impending doom. She still hadn’t recovered from the delirium toxin and her life was ticking down even now.

  She checked her health, seeing that it was only at 6 points. That meant it had been… Her thoughts swam and another point ticked away. Now she knew she had less than 25 minutes to cure this before she was gone.

  She hurried on, stumbling around for another tick of her heath before she found the ruin, rushing along it while another precious point ticked away. Then there was the clearing, the settlement. She hurried towards it, tears leaking down her cheeks. Another point, just 2 remained.

  “Ash! Ash, what’s wrong?” A voice, deeper, a figure that she couldn’t quite make out was running towards her.

  “A-ants…” She manged to respond, just as her stamina bottomed out and the world faded into blackness.