3) Phase one, Day one

Skye pushed a small branch out of his face as he continued to stumble through the forest. Some parts were beautiful meadows with wide openings, and others were dark overhangs of leaves and dense bushes that reached his shoulders. The plants here looked like the type that he'd seen before on the internet, no matter how censored it was, basic information like that was still free. But somehow they looked… different.

He did as the orb instructed and summoned his information into the real world now that he knew how to do it, unfocusing his eyes and finding a line that asked him if he wanted to open his "Welcome Pack". The Yes or No option to open it made his hands shake, already traumatised from the last time he had a choice. Luckily all it did was provide him with something called Enchantment Tools. 

"What am I meant to do with these?"

"They're probably useless, just throw them into the woods or something."

Looking at his information he selected Yes and found the list. Sun Soaked Staff, Heart Felt Protector, Rabbits Pouch, and Fire Stone.

Skye replied to the orb while summoning them into the world, focusing on them and drawing the items to hand. 

"If your advice is going to be for me to throw the only things I got so far away then I think you're less of a helper and more of a saboteur."

"And if you would have followed that advice then you'd be too dumb to help and we'd just be cutting to the chase."

Skye shot him a side eye while looking over his gear, the staff was straight, circular, and solid. When he focused on the words in the list its information came up in more detail.

[Name: Sun Soaked Staff]

[Engraving: For cold nights in unknown lands, I cannot promise you much light, or warmth, or safety. I cannot watch you grow. I can only give you the ability to provide these for yourself my child]

[Rank: Bonze I]

[Status: Dead 0/50]

[Enchantment: Warmth Embedded]

[Warmth Embedded: Omits heat and is warm to the touch. This staff is harder than expected.]

He held it in his hand, it was indeed warm to the touch but didn't burn him. It was gentle and travelled up his arm and through his body. It felt safe. It felt like how he always imagined a home would.

He was going to look at the rest but had to look deeper into himself before he starts obsessing over his new belongings. While it was a struggle to walk through the thick bush and read the floating words he was too curious to try and the orb was moving too fast to stop.

Under his class, and above the list of enchanted tools, laid the line about his abilities. There were only two things listed.

[Abilities.]

[Innate: Root Control.]

[Activate: Seed of Engulfing]

[Root Control: The casters' nerves can reach farther than their skin, becoming the radicle of roots that sprawl into the world. Information, resources, and energy can be transferred from the roots to the body over a short distance.]

[Engulfing Entanglement: The seed is formed by the compacting roots and then blossoms in rapid growth, latching on and entangling anything caught within its grasp. The more energy absorbed into the seed the faster and stronger the entanglement will become.]

Skye had tried each of these on their own and had been left a little disappointed. It seemed Root Control allowed him to push his nervous system past his skin, allowing it to take the form of a root that he, for the most part, has control of. It was slow moving but he could sense the air that passed over it, and could also connect it to the roots of other plants and hijack their system to sense what they did. It was easy to break and couldn't squeeze very hard, but even after the piece broke off he could still sense it for a few meters. 

Seed of Engulfing, which was a mouthful and a half, was harder to figure out, but he eventually did. It was a three step spell. First he had to create the seed by wrapping roots into a small seed-like ball in his hand and slowly compressing it, then he had to place it away from himself, and activate it with his mind. When he did he watched it slowly sprout and reach for the sky, trying to grasp anything it could, to only then curl in on itself and stop moving. He felt a slow release of energy in his gut when he commanded it to activate, draining him slightly.

"Hey, what are these counters I keep seeing next to things by the way?"

The orb was silent for a second, then responded.

"Sorry I was trying to think of a joke but nothing came to me. Those are how you improve things. You use slivers to get those numbers up and when you hit the threshold, it should become better."

Skye pondered for a second. He had a few questions to ask but felt like he wouldn't get another straight answer today.

"Yeah I can't think of a snide remark to make about that either, you really might be me."

Skye counted his lucky stars that it seemed like there was nothing to fight here, because he didn't know how he'd fair. Maybe he could bash it with his staff or it could choke on some seeds if he was lucky, but that would be the extent of his fighting power. Or he could freak it out with his wiggling fingertip roots.

He continued to follow the orb, focusing on where to put his feet next to ensure he didn't fall flat on his face. He had the notion that he would just get teased about it for days if he did.

"Do you know where we're going?" 

He broke the silence of the last few minutes, he had a lot of questions, but felt like his soul orb was moving with too much purpose to interrupt him, her? Them?

"Also, do you have a name?"

"To be honest with you I've been lost for the last hour or so, I had this feeling like we should head this way but I do not know why."

Skye stopped in his tracks as his soul orb kept floating forward, and without looking back replied.

"And I don't really have a name, I'm just a bit of your soul floating about, so maybe call me Skye and you pick a new name?"

This mother fucking orb man

Skye thought to himself before a new idea hit him. Picking up the pace of his steps to catch up.

"How about I just call you Dubs from now on?"

"Dubs? Is that even a name? I knew we were bad at naming things but I didn't know to what extent"

It was Dubs turn to stop moving, allowing Skye to take the lead

"It means Dumb Useless Bitch Soul" 

Skye threw it backwards as he continued to march on, since Dubs didn't know the way, it was up to him. 

"So Dubs, you mentioned that this is Phase One, what are the rules and what is the goal. Also, can you please just tell me where we are"

Skye asked as they came to an opening in the forest, a good place to take a break and get his bearings. He was no longer following so he had to start making decisions, mainly shelter, food, water, and security. By his guess he arrived in the morning time meaning it was at least mid-day now. The ball of fire in the sky followed the same rules as their sun, even if it was a bit more orange and didn't hurt to look directly at it for some reason.

"I swear to god if you call me that I'll teach you the wrong information and everyone will laugh at you. I'll do it. Don't test me."

"I don't think you will Dubs, I think you were given a purpose when you were created, and I don't think you can go against that. I think one of those purposes was to lead me in the direction of others and to tell me what I need to know."

Dubs was silently hovering in the air, either contemplating or seeing if he could really tell him wrong information, even as a joke. When he tried something inside him compelled him to tell the facts he knew.

"Well I'll be damned, I don't think I can lie to you about this, I've been trying"

"Might as well accept the reality of it and spit it out"

Still reluctant Dubs continued

"You're currently on the soul of a god who died long ago, floating through oblivion without an owner, a god that was killed by Gaia many many years ago. The plants you see around you are the bases of the forests that used to cover Earth. She must have liked a few ideas and took them for her own after the fight was over, this being one of them. It's currently being used as the training grounds."

"The training is Phase One? How many phases are there?"

"I only have information about this phase and what came before it, I have no idea what happens next, but I do know that this is all to help reshape society, and this phase is focusing on the team level so I can only assume there will be more after. You need to find 4 other people and form a party, everyone in this phase needs to be in a party of 5 before going on to the next part of the phase."

Skye could see the logic in it, there were 200 people involved here, so 40 teams of 5 would be made. They were most likely placed spread out from each other to give them time to discover their own powers and come to accept reality.

A single question lingered in his mind though.

"What happens if someone dies and they can't form a full team of 5?"

Dubs was silent, like he was trying to search for an answer, or make sense of the answer he was given. 

"Then we wait for the other 4 to die maybe? Or you could kill them. Maybe you'll get something good from it. All I know is you have to be in a team of 5 to move on… It's like it's written in bold in my mind."

—

Skye took this answer and decided to chew it over, he's yet to see anything that could kill a person other than the elements, so he needed to address those first. He decided to make the clearing home and spend the rest of the day building it up. He never needed survival skills in the Steel Dome so he was left learning from square one.

One thing he did have though? An endless amount of tiny weak ropes.

The roots were slowly emerging from his fingertips and wrapping around each other to create a stronger structure that could be used for…. something? He had not figured that part out yet. But he created five 20 meter long strips of rope nonetheless. 

It was a weird sensation, when he was close to them he could still feel them as if they were attached to him, and then a few steps in the other direction the sensation went quiet. He could also feel his energy levels increasing deep in his gut when he was closer, though not enough to make a meaningful difference. So little in fact he wasn't even sure if this was true or if he was just imagining it. He didn't look up but asked dubs

"What is the energy I feel in my gut Dubs?"

"Probably gas I'm guessing, how would I know?"

Skye's hands stopped making little root ropes as he looked up, not shocked at the answer but more shocked he didn't see that coming. He was getting complacent with all the information he was getting.

"Dubs. Oh Dubs. Why are you like that Dubs."

"It's either that or that's or something else. Only way to tell is to push really hard and see what comes out I guess, or maybe learn to ask the right questions."

Skye was able to find a few long thick branches and stockpile them, and after some contemplation on what to reply to him, decided to just start building. If he wasted any more time he would most likely freeze to death in the middle of the night, his last day spent fighting with an orb about being gassy. 

Just outside the clearing were three trees, about 3 meters apart from each other in the shape of a triangle. Skye didn't know any knots so it took some time to figure out how, simply commanding the roots to fuse together. Eventually he was able to tie the thick branches to each tree so it floated right above his head connecting the triangle, throwing other branches on top to create a makeshift roof. It looked like a strong gust of wind could topple his whole empire, yet he was more proud of himself than he should have been.

Once the roof was completed he leaned branches against the sides and tied them together for stability to make a leaning wall. This all took several hours, and just as he was finishing the last wall, the light began to fade. Skye wiped the sweat off his forehead and admired his work.

Great, all that time to build a shelter from the elements yet it's just a beautiful night. I could have just slept in the grass.

As that thought crossed his mind, the silence of the twilight was shattered by a deep primal howl. 

Skye stayed completely still for a moment, then slowly started to tip toe into his snobby shelter, moving the wall to cover the entrance.