Nash wakes up in the bushland, the middle of the wilds, confused, alert, and shaken. The last thing he remembers is riding down the street on a bicycle, getting ambushed, getting a bag thrown over his head, and getting knocked unconscious. 

He gets up off the damp, dew covered ground. The sun has just begun to rise over the horizon. He has no sense of where he came from, where to go towards, or how long he'd been unconscious. He has no pain, not even a headache from his blow to the head.

What he does have is a rucksack. He pulls it off of his back, empties it onto the grass, and examines the contents. One metal canteen, three throwing knives, one large Saxe knife, a sharpening stone, a double knife scabbard (for the Saxe knife and a throwing knife), a compass, and a bottle of liquid marked in an unknown language. 

He notices upon picking up and organizing his bag, a longbow and a quiver of arrows underneath. He picks up the Bow and examines it. Reinforced composite polycarbonate, with a threaded metal bowstring. Then he examines the arrows. Lightweight metal, red feathers, and a fixed tri-blade broadhead pile, 13 arrows.

He equips the scabbard, and drops his Saxe knife and a throwing knife inside, tucking the other two into his front pocket, then grabs the compass from his bag. He throws the bag over his shoulders, mounts his bow and quiver of arrows over his bag, and starts walking West to the treeline. 

The bush at the edge of the forest is dense, so Nash equips his Saxe knife and starts chopping through the growth. He continues west through the forest, the undergrowth starts to thin out, and he sees a river flowing though the trees. So he cuts a tree deep with his knife to mark where he started, and he begins to walk North upstream, following the water up into the hills. He knows if he can't find a city to the North his best option would be to float the river downstream to the South.

Keeping a close eye on the ground he sees a large chunk of flint, picks it up to examine it, and drops it in his backpack.

"Aquired Flint. Foraging plus 1" he hears a voice say loudly.

He turns around quickly, scanning all around to find the source of the talking. "W-was that me?" Nash asks himself.

He picks something else up off the ground, waiting for the voice to respond, and hears no response. He drops the rotten piece of wood he'd picked up, and starts scanning the ground for something more useful. That's when he sees something more useful, a ginseng plant. He carefully digs the root out of the soft ground, and examines the plant, then he hears the voice again.

"Examining Ginseng Root. A medicinal herb used in a variety of potions and elixirs. Herbalism plus 1," the voice says.

"Is this like a system? Am I in a game?!" Nash exclaims.

The system replies only to the first question, "I am a system to keep track of the skills you acquire, used to upgrade abilities that will aid your survival."

Nash shakes his head a few times before admitting, "I'm going crazy." He drops the ginseng root in his backpack and continues North. 

The sun is high, and Nash figures to himself, "It must be midday. System, can you tell me the time?" The system remains silent. "Of course not," Nash scoffs.

He keeps walking along the river as it's twists and turns begin to bend off to the Northwest. A few hundred feet through the forest, he spots a small bluff jutting up 30 feet in between a fork in the river. With the sun beginning its descent towards the Western horizon, he makes his way towards the bluff to make camp for the night. 

Once he gets to the fork in the river, he looks for a dry way across and sees none. Rather than wading over, he looks around for a large enough tree he can use to cross the river. He finds a nice 20 foot spruce tree. He begins cutting into it with his Saxe knife.

As he takes four or five heavy swings into the wood he hears the system again, "Woodcutting plus 1."

He takes another swing, and the blade sinks slightly deeper into the wood. However, he doesn't notice, his skill has barely increased.

He fells the tree, and begins striping the branches off of one side, and starts weaving them into the other branches to make a solid platform.

"Crafting plus 1, Carpentry plus 1. Ability Point unlocked," the system notifies.

"What are ability points?" Nash asks out loud.

"Ability points are unlocked by increasing your skills and can be put into your list of abilities," the system replies.

"What are my abilities?" Nash asks in response.

The system again replies with a list, "Resistance, Evasion, Agility, Perception, Accuracy, Stamina, Speed, Intelligence, Charisma, Stealth, Navigation, Strength, Hunger, Thirst, and Health."

"Put the ability point towards Perception," Nash responds.

Suddenly his eyes catch a glint from the dirt, and an herb off to the right of the tree he was working on stands out slightly brighter than the others. He walks over to the reflection off the ground and finds a small piece of clear quartz.

"Examining clear quartz crystal. Clear quartz can be used to focus the sunlight and start a fire. It can also be used as a flint against a steel blade to start a fire. Quartz dust is used to strengthen an effect in several potions and elixirs," the system states.

He sticks the quartz in his bag, and walks over to the plant. He picks it from the ground and examines it.

"Examining Chervil. A bittersweet plant best eaten raw, can be used in several potions and elixirs," the system explains.

Nash stuffs the chervil plant in his bag and hears the familiar sound of the system, "Herbalism plus 1," then continues weaving the branches of the tree together.

He then drags it over to the river, standing it on end, and dropping it over to the far edge of the river. He takes off his sandals, and walks across the bridge, feeling the icy water hit his feet. 

By the time he makes it across, the sun is already close to setting. He walks around the bluff to a smooth slope leading to the top of the rocks. He starts gathering dry wood from his surroundings to build a fire. With a large bundle of sticks and branches, he grabs the quartz from his bag, crumble some dead cedar bark, and begins striking his knife against the quartz. The sparks come off of the blade in small number. He then grabs the flint and strikes it to a similar effect. Suddenly, he has an idea. He starts pulling the yellow dead grass from the ground and beats it against a tree for several minutes. He grabs the three throwing knives and drags the grass through the blades several dozen times before putting the two knives in his bag, and the third knife back in the scabbard. Then he braids the blades of grass together in a small piece of twine, and wraps the twine around the quartz and flint, sandwiching the knife between the two.

With the fleeting sun comes another message from the system, "Crafting plus 1."

He centers the knife and flint over his pile of kindling, and pulls the flint and quartz down the blade of the knife. Twice as many sparks contact the kindling and a small ember settles into the cedar bark. Nash kneels over and blows lightly on the ember, and a flame erupts and quickly spreads through the cedar. He grabs cedar sticks and pine boughs, knowing they'll catch and burn quickly, piling them over the fire, and begins stacking sticks on top of the boughs. As the fire grows stronger, he grabs thicker cedar to make the fire burn long and hot. As the fire starts burning, he grabs the Saxe knife and sharpener, and begins sharpening the edge of his knife, while slowly feeding more sticks and branches onto the fire. With his knife sharpened he finds a fallen cedar tree, confirms its dead and dry, and starts chopping logs off of the tree. He then carries the logs back to the flat stone of the bluff, and starts cutting them into pieces to fuel his fire.

Within 30 minutes he has enough firewood to fuel his fire for the night, and another message from the system, "Woodcutting plus 1."