Noah smiled as the light began to filter through the leaves, driving away the dancing shadows cast by the firelight. He had woken early, eager to plot his next steps. He knew exactly what he was going to do and had been twiddling his thumbs over the last half hour while he awaited the dawn. As its rays settled on the sleeping forms of his companions, he grinned.
“Wake up! Up! Up! Up!” He yelled, doing his best bootcamp officer impression. Julie gasped and jumped to her feet, looking for the threat. He nodded at the appropriate response. A bit slow, didn’t grab a weapon. He noted, though the weapon part was a bit premature. The two teenagers also started awake, but instead of looking alive they groaned and rubbed at their eyes. Noah tsked, marking them down on his imaginary clipboard. Dead and dead. He hadn’t expected anything different which was the reason for this abrupt jolting.
“What’s going on? Are we under attack?” Julie asked, eyes wide.
“Nope!” He answered cheerfully. She squinted at him, making for a funny sight between the general disarray of her clothes and the twig sticking out from her hair.
“Explain,” She said.
“Today is the first day of boot camp, starting with reaction training! You passed this time by the way.” Noah said with a big grin plastered across his face. She wasn’t as enthused and looked to have eaten something sour. Noah took that as a sign to start the next phase of training.
“Welcome to boot camp, cadets!” He yelled, “If you want to eat tonight, then don’t fall behind!” With that, Noah took to the woods at a brisk pace. The others stared after him for a moment before his words sank in
“He can’t be serious, right?” Matt asked. Kyle was already up and moving, his grogginess replaced by eager anticipation.
“I imagine that he is,” Julie responded, not nearly as bright eyes as her brother. Matt’s stomach growled and he seemed to think for a minute before jumping to his feet and following after Julie. Once Noah could see the last of them he picked up the pace, rounding trees and bends, forcing them to stay close. This went on for some time as he led them in a large circle and he was soon rewarded with gasps of labored breathing.
“Form up!” He shouted, stopping abruptly not far from camp. He doubted they realized that and he wasn’t about to clue them in. The three cadets made for a sorry sight, sweating profusely and red in the face.
“We. did. It.” Kyle said between breaths, beaming with pride. Noah nodded at his most promising soldier.
“You sure did!” He encouraged, “That’s it for warmups, it''s time to get started on today’s tasks.” Julie had a “who do you think you are” kind of look going on, and Matt looked about ready to faint.
“Cheer up, everyone! Today is a light day. All you have to do is meet your quota and dinner will be served at dusk.” He explained.
“And what quota is that?” Julie asked, taking the bait.
“One level,” Noah said, as he made eye contact with each of them. This was the part he had been waiting for.
“If you want my help then I expect each of you to be one level higher than you are now by the end of the day.” He had learned something interesting this morning as he sorted through his thoughts; he could summon different parts of his status separately. This led to a potentially brilliant idea that he had been waiting to test. He willed the system to display his status to the group.
Status
Name: Noah Denter
Level: 10
XP: 3/100
They collectively jumped as the screen appeared before them.
“I take it that it worked, then?” Noah asked. Julie nodded, understanding on her face. Matt also seemed to understand the implications and groaned.
“I am going to hunt. If you are hungry then I suggest you either find your own food or level before dark.” Noah had decided on a hands-off approach to start, hoping to see some creative ideas emerge from the pressure. Noah started to walk away from them but Julie called out him.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hey Noah, can we talk?” She asked. He nodded and motioned for them to step away from the boys.
“What’s up?”
“I get what you’re going for, and I appreciate it–I really do. But do you think this is necessary?” She asked. Noah didn’t need to think about his response.
“It is. You heard the elf yesterday. To them and to the System we are disposable XP farms, you three especially. We need to get you to Iron as soon as possible.” He answered, his tone soft but firm. She took a deep breath.
“You’re right. Thank you.” She said, her lips pressed into a firm line. She turned back to the boys.
“You heard Noah, chop chop!” Noah laughed as he left them to find the promised reward for their hard work.
Noah was roasting the catch of the day, a pair of plump needle-toothed rabbits when Julie and Kyle stumbled back into camp looking worse for wear. Julie wore a familiar scowl but her face was red with tear-stained cheeks. Kyle’s torso was purple and he had a noticeable limp, but he victoriously clung to a long narrow branch.
“Noah, look what I got!” Kyle annouced.
“Oh? What is it?” Noah responded, taking an interest.
“My bow!” Kyle proclaimed. Noah frowned.
“It doesn’t look a like bow.” He pressed. Kyle nodded unperturbed.
“Well yeah, not yet. But it will be a bow.” Kyle assured. Noah didn’t want to burst the kid’s bubble but he felt responsible to point out the obvious.
“And where do you plan to get a bow string from?” He asked, doing his best to sound optimistic.
“Sinew!” Kyle responded immediately.
“Like animal tendon, sinew?” Noah asked not understanding.
“Exactly! See I told you Noah would understand” Kyle said, looking at Julie.
“You sure did.” Julie said tersely. Kyle then proceeded to pull a mess of white strings from his pocket.
“They are a bit squished from the fall, but they should work fine.” Kyle explained. Noah looked at the not-strings in Kyle’s hands and then at Julie.
“Was this your idea?” He asked.
“No, I just helped him with the… removal. He claims to have watched someone do it on Youtube.” She said.
“Convenient.” Noah said, unsure if he should ask about the fall. Not wanting to step on Julie’s toes he decided to get to the more pressing topic at hand.
“All right cadets, lets see those levels!” Noah said, resuming his cheerful drill sergeant persona. The three agreed and shared their status screens, he added his for fairness.
Status
Name: Noah Denter
Level: 10
XP: 5/100
Status
Name: Julie Weston
Level: 2
XP: 3/10
Status
Name: Kyle Weston
Level: 0
XP: 0/10
Status
Name: Matt Choi
Level: 1
XP: 7/10
Noah looked over the results and was surprised by the outcome. He would have put money on Kyle leveling if no one else, and he half-expected to have a man-to-man with Matt explaining responsibility and the like. Instead, it appeared that Matt had made the most progress, though Julie had gained a fair bit as well. He didn’t fail to notice that they both received more XP than he had gotten from his hunt. Not wanting to be a hypocrite he silently swore to push it hard the next day.
“Great work Matt, you too Julie.” He started, before turning his eyes to Kyle. Before he could continue, Kyle beat him to it.
“I know I didn’t level, so I won’t be eating dinner. It won’t happen again though.” Kyle explained. Noah was a bit taken aback, he had expected an excuse or bargaining. Instead, Kyle just owned up to the situation and accepted the consequences. Now was the hard part though, did he cave and give him food, or maybe just a bit less than everyone else? Julie made eye contact with him then and shook her head as if he reading his thoughts.
“That’s right. You chose what to do today and this is what it got you.” Julie told Kyle, taking the burden off Noah.
“More for me!” Matt said in the most enthusiastic voice Noah had heard from him yet.
After that, they ate and discussed their days. Matt had immediately produced some roughly carved tableware: two-pronged forks and a set of chopsticks. He had gotten his XP from whittling and had learned that the first time you craft an item you get bonus XP and it drops to a lower amount in subsequent recreations. Noah was impressed, both with his productivity and his deduction. Julie had leveled when she set the dislocated shoulder that Kyle got from the fall, which Noah assumed was the source of her tears and frustration. Kyle had managed to climb into one of the trees where he had spotted a loose limb. He had fallen in his attempt to climb down though resulting in his roughed-up appearance. Kyle stayed in good spirits throughout the night and shared his dream of becoming the world’s greatest archer. Noah learned that their dad was a hunter and had taught them both how to shoot bows in their backyard and Kyle had taken to it. The pair had been at home with Matt, and their parents were at work when the System arrived. The memory cast a somber tone upon them, they all had loved ones out there somewhere. There was a new spark of determination in their eyes when they said good night.
Noah was glad to see it because starting tomorrow, the real grind would begin.