Iâm really curious about this Rooted thing, but no matter how many different ways I ask for an explanation, this system doesnât seem to want to give me an answer so Iâll give up on it for now.
Instead letâs get a couple descriptions.
Water-Holding Breath (Rooted)
You can hold your breath longer than normal humans â up to several minutes with training.
Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)
Your lungs extract more oxygen from each breath, reducing fatigue during physical exertion or underwater stasis.
Steady Breathing (Rooted)
Your breath remains calm under pressure, reducing panic effects and helping with precise movements in tense situations.
â¦
Honestly I didnât think I needed to look past the first one but I looked over 10 or so more before circling back to the first couple I looked at.
For the situation we were in, I donât think thereâs anything better at the moment than Water-Holding Breath, but it would quite literally only be beneficial while underwater. That doesnât seem very smart when our current goal was to get back to land.
And although I donât know whatâs going to happen after that, itâs probably safe to assume that more red people on birds will be around, so getting a Trait that wonât be of any help at all in that situation wonât be smart.
Need a Trait that can help now in my current situation but still have use for later.
After thinking about it for a momentâ¦
Oxygen Efficient Lungs it is.
Once I made and confirmed that choice, my chest immediately felt warm.
It wasnât uncomfortable but it truly felt weird.
Didnât feel particularly bad or goodâ¦just weirdâ¦
I took a deep breath and I immediately felt the difference. Well maybe thatâs a bit of an exaggeration but I think some of the fatigue I felt from swimming just now, faded ever so slightly.
Alright, that will help.
The screen in front me updated to match my selection. In fact it updated with a whole bunch of stuff.
Status
Name: Fred Williams
Born World: Earth (ENWPI70059)
Race: Human
Age: 17
Grade: F
Level: 1
XP: 0/51
Traits
Trait 1: Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)
Trait 2: Locked
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Trait 3: Locked
Class
Current Class: None
Class Grade: N/A
Class Rarity: N/A
Skills: N/A
Attributes
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Vitality: 5
Endurance: 5
Mana: 5
Willpower: 5
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 5
5âs all around ehâ¦Iâm going to out on a limb and assume that those are the average stats of every human on the planet right about now.
So Iâm neither special nor bad in comparison to everyone else. Of course I could be wrong and these stats are the peak of Earth, or the very bottom rung of society but both of those seem farfetched.
Anyway, F grade huh, hopefully thatâs the lowest possible Grade and Itâs only up from here. Then thereâs levels, XP to gain, a class I could unlock at some point and even more Traits to unlock.
Alright...alrightâ¦yeah this is happening.
I didnât read all those LitRPG books for nothing. Just gotta make sure I help Grandpa and the others adjust as well.
Oh yeah, Grandpa.
âHey Grandâ¦â
âFreddy did you pick your Trait yet? I hope you didnât pick something useless.â
I knew he was just joking like he always did, but I had to snap something back.
âAnd I hope you didnât pick something to do with hair growth for that head of yours Grandpa.â
âHeh! This is your future your looking at! Better get used to it from now.â
âWhatever you say Grandpa.â
It was good to see him bounce back a bit. I know losing the boat would affect him for a long time. Of course, Iâm not too happy about it either and I miss Grandma every day, but it definitely affected him more.
âThough for your information I didnât pick anything to do with hair growth. Iâm damn sure proud of my bald head. Donât worry your dad will be joining me soon, haha!
ââ¦Anway I chose something called Hardened Bones.
âIt felt a bit warm and itchy after selecting it, but hopefully it help us get back to land faster. What about you?â
âI chose a different one called Oxygen Efficient Lungs. It will help me breathe better and reduce fatigue. Or something along those lines.â
âGood enough. It seems youâre not completely hopeless, anyway might as well start swimming now, we got a long way to go.â
âSure you donât need me to pull you along Grandpa? Youâre getting kind of up there in age.â
âBlah blah blah.â
We laughed a bit at that last line and then began swimming.
I knew I really didnât have to worry too much about him, since I donât know of another old man that can move the way he does at his age.
Thoughâ¦Iâm a bit worried if weâre going to survive this trek back. We were probably a little over a hundred miles away from the coast at this point, and we would eventually get hungry, new Traits or not.
But what else can we do but try.
I doubt there would be anyone coming to save us.
So we swam.
Then swam some more.
And then more than that.
Thenâ¦I stopped swimmingâ¦the trait has helped a lot honestly, but Iâm tired. Disgustingly tired.
And I think weâve only been swimming for maybe just a little bit more than an hour or so without break. Much longer than I couldâve gone before. I wasnât an Olympic swimmer or anything.
âGrandpa! I needâ¦oh you already stopped, why didn't you say anything?â
âFreddyâ¦look under the water.â
I turned my gaze downwards be I really didnât see much through the sloshing of the waves even the water was pretty clear, but once I ducked my head underâ¦I saw something moving.
Actually I think I see a few somethings movingâ¦
What are thoseâ¦sharks maybeâ¦? I donât knowâ¦butâ¦arenât they getting closer? Fuck they are getting closer!
I picked my head back up to see my Grandpa already with his pistol drawn.
âGet close to me Freddy! I donât have a lot of shots left! Your gonna have to fight boy be ready!â
âComing Grandpa!â
Did he say fight? How the fuck are we going to fight sharks dammit. But shit he isnât wrong itâs either this or just let them eat us so we had no choice but to try.
âHere!â
My Grandpa handed me an old pocket knife he usually used for picking at his damn toes. Fuck where did he even pull this shit from, did he get an inventory or something?
Whatever beggars canât be choosers.
I watched until the presumed sharks finally got in range of Grandpaâs pistol and he promptly let go a series of shots at the encroaching sharks.
But shooting under water was a different story that shooting above.
He left off about 7 shots and out of what looked to be 4 approaching sharks. Only 2 got hit, and only one of those two seemed to be out of commission.
That left 2 uninjured sharks and 1 that seemed to have a fin with a gash in it now.
Fuck!
âThe injured one is yours! Donât die on me Freddy or Iâll whoop yo ass with the belt I like used to back in the day!â
Leave it to Grandpa to make jokes in a time like this.
Though I guess it worked because a grin found its way onto my face as the sharks neared.
âCome on then you fucking sushi rolls!!â