Overpowered Idiots

The duo spent the rest of the daylight hours discovering more sources of food, noting with each find the lack of wide life that seemed to be present on the little floating island of theirs. Not even a worm in an apple or a chewed on leaf in sight. By the time the sun began to set the duo had a small piled of each food they’d managed to find laid out before them.

“Alright we got potatoes, wild carrots, apples, and oranges.”

“A solid start.”

“And absolutely no wide life.”

“Right.”

“That supper weird right, like there should be insects or something here right?”

“Star, we’re on a floating island, I feel the lack of animals is one of the less weird things.”

Star stared at Salem in silence for a moment, “You probably right.”

Star rolled her eyes, “Whatever, lets eat I’m starving!” She demanded, picking up an apple and biting into it.

Salem laugh, taking a bite of her own food. They sat together in peace for the first time in hours, simply enjoying each other presence. They’re only focus being to chow down on the food, and they did so with a ravenous hunger. Slowly they filled up, leaving the rest of the food before them on the ground.

“We got food and water,” Star started, “And a kinda shelter, I’m not sure if we really wanna count that rickety old farm house shelter though.” She added as an afterthought.

“Well, we can always sleep outside tonight, its warm out, and we don’t have to worry about bugs.”

Star nodded at that, “True.”

The duo fell back into a peaceful silence. Star relaxed as she laid back on the ground propping her head up with an arm. She stared up at the partly cloudy sky for a few moment, not thinking of anything for a few moments. Growing board of looking up she, out of plain curiosity, pulled up her skills once more.

Current skills:

• Deconstruct [1]

• Gacha gathering system [1]

• Lucky [5] – Lucky [7]

• Scan [6] – Scan [9]

• Synthesis [1]

She smiled at the screen before dismissing it. “You know I haven’t tried to make anything with my alchemy skills yet.” She spook suddenly, sitting back up.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah,” Star stood looking over the random assortment of plants and discarded parts of her meal she’d placed aside for alchemy purposes. Reaching over she picked up three, a clover, an apple core, and a slightly rotten potato.

From what she understood about each plant, the clover should provide a boost in the success rate of the synthesis. The apple and potato should create a healing effect, the apple would also purify the potatoes toxicity trait as well. Nodding to herself she place the three ingredients in front of her. Not entirely sure how to activate the synthesis skill of hers she choose to simple focus on it with her mind.

The skill activated, causing the three items to float in the air for a moment before being overtaken by a light. They twirled together, merging into one item, in the next instant the light died down and the final product fell into Star hand. The new object was small, round, and gray, no bigger then her pinky finger nail. She looked the pill over once before using scan.

Minor nutrient pill

A pill made from the extra parts of foods. Provides a minor calorie boost.

+1 health

+2 toxicity.

Well that wasn’t quite what Star expected. She mentally went over the part in her head. “Ugh! I forgot to scan the apple core for its effect!” She exclaimed once she realized what she’d missed.

Salem glanced over, raising an eyebrow at her friend, “You going to try again then?”

Star nodded, already hold a second apple core in her hand.

Red apple core

The core of a red apple.

+1 health

+1 toxicity

That hadn’t been there before. What could be cause the toxicity? The core didn’t appear to be rotten in the slightest. The seeds maybe? Apple seeds could be toxic if eaten in high quantities right? Star pulled the seeds out putting them off to the side.

Red apple core

The core of a red apple.

+1 health

Star, satisfied with the new stats, wasted no time combining the three ingredients once more, a new pill coming out. It was the same size and shape of the other but was a light grey color. Star scanned the pill.

Minor nutrient pill

A pill made of the extra parts of foods. Provides a minor calorie boost.

5% chance of minor healing

+1 health

That was new, did she gain another level in scan?

Current skills:

• Deconstruct [1]

• Gacha gathering system [1]

• Lucky [7]

• Scan [9] – Scan [10]

• Synthesis [1] – Synthesis [2]

Sure enough, and a second level to Synthesis as well. Star smiled to herself. She held the first pill in her hand again, deconstructing it, pulling out the unsavory part of the apple and resynthesising it. The new pill seemed to be of the same quality as the other one was at a glance. With the scan Star could see the minute difference between the two.

Minor nutrient pill

A pill made of the extra parts of foods. Provides a minor calorie boost.

2% chance of minor healing

+1 health

Was the decrease in minor healing change part of her luck or a result of the deconstruction lowering the quality of her items. Only one way to find out. Star deconstructed and reconstructed the pill once more.

Minor nutrient pill

A pill made of the extra parts of foods. Provides a minor calorie boost.

+1 health

A result of deconstruction it seemed, but just to be sure... The pill was once more deconstructed, however, when Star went to reconstruct the pill she found herself left with a small handful of dust in her hand, quickly blown away with the wind. Thus how she discovered the hidden trait of deconstruct, or at least the low level version of deconstruct, the decrease in ingredient quality and integrity.

“What you thinking about?” Salem suddenly asked cutting though Star’s thoughts.

Star blinked coming back to reality, “My deconstruct skill causes the quality of my ingredients to go down slightly.”

“I see.”

“Well what about you, making any progress with you magic?”

“You bet I have.” Salem pulled up her skills.

Current Skill:

• Mana manipulation [6]

  • Mana: 0/60

• Mana regeneration [2]

  • Mana regeneration: 10.1% per hour.

• Affinities [3]

  • Chrono [1]

  • Spacial [4]

  • Summoning [1]

“Nice.”

“Yeah, I’ve found out that if you pull apart space it just creates a void space. I can’t hold it open long, but its interesting.”

“Have you tried putting anything in it yet?”

“No.”

Star nodded, “What will you try next?”

“I’m not sure,” Salem yawned, “I’ll test a few things out in the morning, for now I’m going to sleep.” She said, laying back against the ground, using her arm as a pillow.

“Ok, goodnight.”

“Night.”

Star lay on the ground staring up at the night sky. As she observed the stars she found no recognizable constellations, or the north star. The stars were completely different. Star felt a strong sense of yearning as she realized the change. For the first time since she got here she was force to recognize just how far from home she truly was.

Slowly she closed her eyes turning her focus inwards. She focused on her she felt acknowledging each emotion and moving on to the next. She reflected on her she felt during her day on the island, the unease, the fear, the anxiety, the anger, the joy, and the relief. She looked to each emotion and put them to rest. Finally once she reached a sense of calm she opened her eyes once more, looking up to the starry night sky.

Resolve settled in her, she would survive, no thrive here. For the people she left behind, those who may still be alive just like her on an little floating island. She would find them.