Chapter 3

  Unlike last time, Matt became aware of himself not floating in a comforting void, but laying on hard ground with a rock stabbing into his side. Grunting in annoyance, Matt turned onto his side so he could remove the offending stone and brushed his hand against the grassy ground searching for it. Finding the rock and tossing it to the side, Matt rolled back onto the ground and began the task of waking up.

  Even outside, Matt did not like waking up and took a few moments to ready his eyes and mind to open. Rubbing away the crust that had formed since his time in the void, Matt woke up to the visage of leaves blocking out the sky. Looking around, he could see he was in a fairly dense forest of some kind of white barked tree. He wasn’t the greatest botanist in the world but he would often go down research rabbit holes and at one point in time, he could name any tree he saw with an eighty percent rate of accuracy, but these trees did not look like anything he was familiar with.

  They had rough and thick bark, but the color was a pure white with no spots, stripes or otherwise mottling. Weird. While he was in the shade of one specific tree, the treeline wasn’t dense enough to completely block out sun so Matt could still see fairly well. Reaching up to adjust his glasses while sitting up, Matt noticed something wrong immediately as his fingers went past where there should be metal frames and just struck skin.

  Panicking for a moment thinking he had lost the necessary accessory, he began to frantically look around his location along the floor in search of them. It took Matt a few more moments then it should have for him to notice an odd fact; Matt was not wearing his glasses, and yet he could see just fine. In fact, he could see better than fine, he could see perfectly! Better than he could ever remember, his vision was clear and precise.

  Marveling in the sensation, Matt took a moment before looking himself over. He wasn’t wearing his convenience store uniform or coat anymore, instead he had a tan shirt with long loose sleeves made of some sturdy fabric. Over that he had some kind of brown vest that was a thinner fabric. He had a fabric belt sash wrapped around his waist a few times, then darker brown pants in a similar fabric to his shirt. On his feet was a pair of worn leather boots that were surprisingly comfortable.

  It looks like he lost all of his other clothes and possessions, which was a bit unfortunate but a beggar can’t be a chooser. Speaking of choices, Matt should have some kind of cool magic powers now! He didn’t know how to activate it, but in novels with a system there was one true way to get started.

  “System!”

  Smiling at his success, Matt moved on to the next part of his benefits package, and probably the most important part of the package. With excited glee, he called out “Status!”

  Oh, here we go! Huh, no stats. That's interesting. That's very interesting! Usually there would be attributes and whatnot that can be upgraded with points, but the only points here look to be Purchase Points? What can be purchased? Focusing on it, another window appeared.

  Okay, that makes sense. Material feels pretty self explanatory, what with the whole object control thing, but what does properties mean? Best check anyways, if there was something important he missed knowing about then he would feel foolish.

  Oh, very helpful. Matt was glad he took a look even if he thought he knew the gist. Might as well check everything. Name didn’t have a window when he investigated it so he moved on to the next thing.

  Both of those made sense, level sounded a bit more complicated then getting a certain amount of experience and you level up, so that would be fun to experience. And the bond level sounded like a simple way to gauge his power. The more stuff he could Shape, the more he could do, and the more he could do the stronger he would be.

  Okay, Scale is easy enough to understand. Eventually each level in scale will get less and less valuable, but that is a problem for future Matt. Present Matt gets way more use out of levels, so that is going to be invaluable.

  Blueprint and Intent being locked behind level gates was interesting, but again a problem for future Matt. He could make some guesses but right now that wasn’t helpful, had to focus on what he could actually do.

  Oh, there is a quest system. Nice. Matt wondered exactly what some of these rewards would be, but it would probably just be points or unlocks or something. Seeing as how he has investigated every part of his sheet, Matt looked back at his status. It was a bit worrying that he didn’t have anything unlocked yet, but before he could worry too much about that another window appeared.

  Oh, what luck! That fixes his immediate issue of not having anything unlocked. Looking back at his sheet, he saw a flashing blank space under both his Materials and Properties tab, as well as a feeling that he just needs to think hard about what he wants to unlock.

  Well, that's the choice, isn't it? Matt needs to pick something that will be his first material that he can Shape, the first thing that he will use these weird new powers on. Some part of him feels like he should have been freaking out way more on everything that has happened, but right now he just feels anticipation and excitement.

  Metal would be immediately powerful, there are tons of things you can do with metal but that would require actually having metal to work with, which he does not. Looking around, there is plenty of dirt, wood and leaves, so those would be his options.

  Hmm, well there are very rare times that he wouldn't be near dirt, and if he just chose earth he could get tons of use from that. But it would probably be pretty weak if what the windows said about specifics applies. And dirt by itself wouldn't be all that useful without a lot of work.

  Leaves are fairly common but don't have any real use. They are fragile and even if he could control a lot of them with his current Scale Level, he doesn't know what his range is like.

  Wood on the other hand, is incredibly useful and abundant. And if he got creative, it could be even more useful. He doesn't know exactly what he needs right now, but he has a strong feeling that wood is the way to go.

  Solidifying the intent, he watches as the blank spot in his Materials list changes and the word ‘Wood’ takes its place. Immediately Matt feels the change, as if there was some kind of blindfold covering his eyes his whole life and it was just removed. With a sense that is both new and incredibly familiar, Matt can feel the wood all around him.

  It doesn't have a lot of range, only about ten feet and gets fuzzier the further away it is, but he is right next to a tree and he can feel wood in it, reaching out to him. And he feels like he can reach back… Stepping forward, Matt places a hand along the bark and rubs his hand across the logs surface. Under his touch he can feel how the wood reacts under his fingers and how he just needs to reach out.

  And he does. Just like feeling the wood, reaching out and bonding with it is just as instinctual, like he's been doing it his full life. He pushes out with his will and can feel the wood there, waiting to listen. But there is a bit of resistance still, like one final gate he needs to pass through before the wood will listen to him.

  He feels along the barrier, investigating how the wood is reacting to his presence. The barrier isn't very strong and it feels like he could just knock it down with his new power and start shaping, but that feels like the incorrect way to approach this. Running his hand still down the trunk, Matt is astonished at how much information he receives from the bond alone.

  It's like he can see an x-ray image of the tree, seeing everything about the wood under his hand. And he gets feelings. Not like the tree is actually having experiences the same way an animal might, but it is aware in some way and willing to listen to him. He just needs one more step…

  Walking closer, Matt places his other hand and forehead against the tree and closes his eyes. “H-hey. I'm Matt. I could really use your help, could you let me in?” He asks the wood, feeling silly about it for a moment before feeling awestruck as the barrier falls away and he has full access to the wood. He knows that he can want the wood to move and change, and it will.

  Stepping back and smiling at the tree with his hands attached, Matt's first instinct is to fell the tree and get wood that way, but he thinks better and instead trails his hand up the trunk and to a fairly thick branch, almost twice as thick as his arm and ten feet long. It's not necessary to keep his hand on the tree, but the connection feels stronger to Matt when he leaves it. He focuses on the spot where the branch meets the trunk and focuses his intent and wishes on the material.

  “Separate…” he whispers to the wood, and before his eyes Matt watches the material part, and the branch falls to the floor with a rustling of leaves and a thunk from the wood. Except it wasn't something he just watched happen, he caused it to happen. He had full control over the process, every second.

  It felt so right, like something that has been missing his whole life and he just realized it was always there.

  And this feeling of joy just continued with the notification. So that's how the system handles experience then. Looking back at his character sheet, he couldn’t find a tab that listed how much progress he had on his level, so it looks like it would just be something that surprises him when it happens.

  Matt is excited to see when he will level up.