In Jumpers to Time, A player needs to accomplish a specific set of actions that were unique for each 'skill' at least 1000 times.
Should you not do so, it be just a waste of precious time and energy.
But it shouldn't be that hard right?
Since you have to do the same movements as you do in real life.
The sad thing is, sure, you can have a professional trainer help you learn but due to everyone having a different body, they have to do it ACCORDING to their body!
Not by what anyone else's methods, nor by 'textbook' in the game, you have to master your 'body' before trying to get a skill, or you'll just continue to make mistakes and never grow stronger!
Anybody can learn the skills to conserve stamina, to increase attack effectiveness, or to gain fortress-like defenses, or even to have inhuman strength, all of these are essential within the game to progress and growth stronger.
The frightening part about people in certain eras, many of the 'NPCs' would have incredible resilience or monstrous strength that could easily eliminate a player, and they won't even know that until the NPC crossed blades with them.
So mess with the wrong person, your life is pretty much over since after defeating or killing you the grudge is already set and they'll hunt you down until you either become friends with them or eliminate the problem completely.
These are just some of the settings within the game to increase the player's immersion and have them relate to real-life problems.
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Each player has a starting set that is given according to the 'background' chosen, Akira A.K.A Kuroe Kisaki had chosen the life of a Shinobi that lived as a small-time herbalist.
This activated a little secret that puts him ahead of the other players, A pet that can act as his companion, however, he needs to not only take care of it but also 'heal' it since the pet is currently weakened and crippled.
This made his next choice of actions crucial as should this pet pass away not only will he lose the chance for additional skills and abilities but also a starting negative relationship with other possible pets in the near future.
So now, it was time to put his medical knowledge from the beta to the test.
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(A/N In game, I shall refer to akira as she or her due to the gender of the character, while outside of the game I shall use he or his for Kuroe to lessen the confusion between the game life and real life~)
Inside of the cave were the basic essentials for a home and for a herbalist.
The bat, which was no bigger than a man's fist, laid weakly on the bed as the area that was crippled in this 'setting' were its wings, meaning this was a death sentence for it, unable to move much less hunt for its own food.
"Alright little guy, hang in there, I'll patch you up real soon."
Her own bell-like voice caused goosebumps to form on Akira's arms due to how weird it was for a healthy young man that was always too busy trying to survive the day.
Akira moved to the apothecary stand to create a batch of healing paste.
Her action startled the animal but its injuries made it lay still as it looked at her actions with a dull and lifeless gaze.
The Apothecary stand wasn't much but it could still help Akira create the most basic medicine,
The ingredients were pretty straight forward too.
some mountain berries, a few dotted jasmine Lillies, and some leaves act like bandages.
But she only had enough to create ten batches of healing paste, with Akira being a new character, that made things even harder as she'll need to regain his dexterity to concoct medicine like in her previous playthrough!
The first batch resulted in a failure, that was a given ESPECIALLY with the shitty tools she was using this time around, a cracked grinding bowl, a grinder that should already be thrown away, some water and bamboo bottles to serve as containers to heat the solution while it was in a pot of heated water that was over a fire.
Yep, she was pushing her luck right about now, but time was of the essence due to the bat nearing death within an hour or so.
Thus Akira endured since the rewards were too precious to give up, a companion that could compare to mythical creatures in the near future and the increased affinity to other pets in the future.
While it wouldn't grow into a vampire, it can become something akin to a Nargacuga should it survive long enough!
This was something that only a few beta players were able to find out as upon successfully saving the pet, there will be a quest generated and its rewards would motivate anyone to struggle for it especially from the name of the said quest.
Rise of a Mythical beast!
With that being said, Who wouldn't want to do this quest?
So Akira was going to concoct the medicine as soon as possible and save her future comrade that will eliminate any enemy that stands in their way!
P.s. a few butterflies and some worms that were inside of the cave would serve as a good meal for the bat~.
"Fucking hell, did they up the difficulty?"
The second batch turned into a dud as well, as did the third, the fourth, and fifth, But she took a deep breath which helped her maintain a cool head as getting frustrated would only make things even worse, and wouldn't change anything.
She wiped off the sweat that dripped down her forehead before cleaning her supplies again and starting up the fire to begin her next batch.
Akira worked slower this time, as her eyes were fully focused on the berries and Lillies in the grinding bowl, once it reached a certain consistency, she poured it into the bamboo bottle then placed it in the pot of water that was boiling right now.
She repeated the steps four more times before waiting a few minutes to eliminate the bacteria that would cling to the healing solution that hasn't been completed.
Once it finally reached the required time The girl immediately removed the medicine out of the pot and poured them into separate wooden bowls.
"*Phew* Holy cow that was more difficult than I remembered!"
Out of ten batches, only three were successful, on the bright side, she just needs to create ninety-seven batches of usable concoctions be it as medicine or poison.
But that was going to require either some good harvesting skills to preserve its potency or enough money to buy the necessary herbs from the store in the village a few hours walk away.
The timeline that she was in used a currency called mon, which followed a tri-coin system where the rich used mostly gold and silver, while the poor often had to struggle with bronze coins, the conversion rate was rather tricky with gold constantly fluctuating, with silver to bronze would range from 100 - 500 coins.
This made it extremely hard for 'peasants' to even catch a glimpse of a gold coin.
This was what the game had set for Akira in this timeline, so there will be some differences, however, it will follow most of the rules and way of life of those in this timeline.
Akira still sighed in relief for having some product to use as this was going to be enough to help the bat fully recover since unlike the other games recovery won't be instantaneous for low-tiered medicine.
Unless you are an herbalist or an apothecary who can increase the effectiveness of their concoction via the level of their skills in the trade~.
The was another setting of the game to make players treat their avatars like their own bodies, to understand the real hardships people had to overcome as they rise to the top.
It also caused many players to try and learn the necessary skill despite the amount of trouble it will bring to those that have classes that AREN'T related to the skill!
They needed 1000 successful concoctions to gain the said skill compared to those that are related to it needing only 100 successful tries.
By the way, there is a -10% penalty added to the success rate of the former.
So they'll be struggling a lot!
While the latter won't have any bonuses and their success rate is dependant on the items being used to concoct the medicine or poison.
So due to Akira's previous playthrough, she had gained two more additional healing pastes compared to how it should've been, the future Shinobi was sitting down beside the bat that snapped at her in hopes to scare her away.
But it was too weak and its injuries just served to hinder its movement, allowing Akira to apply the paste from an angle that it was unable to reach the hand that was smearing its crippled wings while the other hand was holding its head in place to allow her to finish her task.
Once that was done, the bat didn't have the energy to screech or hiss at Akira as it seemingly gave up, at least until the few dead butterflies and wriggling worms were placed in front of it!
Without any hesitation, it bit into the nearest bug before gobbling it down, it ate all of the bugs before its eyes turned to Akira who was watching all of this with a look of intrigue.
Then began a staring contest.
.
.
.
.
. after ten minutes went by, Akira got up and collected some of the boiled water that was set aside to cool down, then placed a bowl in front of it to make it easy access to water, for the next few days they'll keep each other company and luckily for the girl, there was enough food to last her for a week.
This would allow her to provide it with as much attention as it needs, just to increase the bonus affinity between them~.
However, despite her plans, the sound of rustling leaves already gave the sign that things weren't going to be easy as a wounded man entered the cave with a rusty blade drawn!