Iris was Iris, Rosa is Rosa. Wait, is this a fantasy game?

'This has to be a copyright infringement.'

Rosa glared at the so-called crafting menu. It looked like a rip off of a very popular video game with mine and craft in it's name. The window even looked the same with her Inventory below and a small four grid space where she could craft in the middle.

'What am I supposed to do with this?' There wasn't even a tutorial or other tabs to use at the moment.

"Boom!"

An explosion in the distance bellowed over the city. Fire and smoke could be clearly seen in the early morning light. Rosa immediately flattened herself to the belfry floor and crawled to the door.

'Every monster in the area will be on the move. The noise will have attracted them. If I am to act, the time is now.'

Rosa opened the door and slowly made her way down the stairs. A system notification chimed in and had her startled.

"Ding! You are no longer hiding, presence has raised to 20. You are trying to learn skill: Sneak. Would you like to learn skill?"

Rosa quickly tapped the yes button. If her presence rose too high because she came out of hiding, then it might not be worth it.

'Perhaps this sneak skill will help.'

"You have learned skill: Sneak lvl 1. Your presence has dropped by 2. Any action taken that creates noise will cancel skill Sneak."

Eighteen presence. Rosa checked her attribute board and hovered over the presence information.

"Prescence: 18. You make a better door than a window. Monsters will agro if they see you. Monsters within a proximity of 9.8 will agro."

Rosa frowned in confusion.

'What unit of measurement does this go by? Nine point eight meters? Inches? Feet?'

Rosa quickly went over to check on the skill sneak. Maybe that could answer some questions.

"Sneak. Lvl 1. As long as the user does not execute an action that leads to noise lvl 2, users presence will be harder to detect. Presence down 2 per level."

Hovering over noise lvl two initiated another system window.

"Noise lvl 2. Everyday noise that will carry. Examples are: dropping objects, speaking, stepping on a branch in an open yard. Note: be careful around water."

'Well that's not foreshadowing or anything.' Rosa made a mental note to be extra careful when outside.

There was the same icon for experience up on sneak as it had for hiding last night.

'Still in danger. Got it.'

Rosa made her way down into the dark. It was still pitch black at the bottom of the stairs. She got down on her knees again. This time, she began to collect things into her Inventory rather than avoid or move them. A list of notifications popped up.

"You have collected: a small table. 1 star."

"You have collected: pottery shards. Trash."

"You have collect-"

Rosa waved most of them off, she was just getting the junk out of the way. The door was slightly ajar, she paused.

'I was sure I closed it last night.' Rosa trembled as she edged the door open a bit more. The windows of the shrine let a little bit of light creep into the main hall.

The neat and orderly pews from last night were still there. However, new details she couldn't see in the dark last night became clear. They were bloodstained.

A hand rose to cover her mouth to muffle the involuntary shocked gasp.

'Was the iron screech from last night from outside the shrine or inside?' Deciding that she could contemplate how close she came to death last night could wait.

Ignoring the mess, Rosa spotted a side door completely open. The dirt path she could see winding away from the courtyard in front.

Most shrines had a caretakers house out back. Careful to not make noise, Rosa made her way to the side door. A quick peek out yielded no monsters in sight.

A well and a small garden were to her left, the street and courtyard to her right.

'That helps. As much as I don't like being in the open, food and water may be lifesavers.' Making a mental map, she quickly made her move.

Rosa watched the path before she stepped. It wasn't a run, it wasn't a walk, but she moved close to the ground and quickly. The first stop was the well. A curse nearly made it past her lips.

'Really!?!' There wasn't a bucket. Scrambling to keep the well between her and the street, she went for the garden. Before she could reach the nearest green topped vegetable, an invisible wall stopped her.

"Ding! You are trying to harvest produce, Gathering system is unlocking. Please wait."

'Are you kidding me!?!' Rosa quickly looked around to see a tiny shack close to her and a small house in the corner of the plot. The shack was closer.

Rosa veered around the garden, nearly tripping as she scrambled inside the tiny threshold. The door had been open for some reason and it slid closed instead of having hinges.

"You are hiding. Presence reduced to 9." Popped up. It overlapped with the please wait windowed message.

'You couldn't have picked a worse time to activate.' Rosa cursed in her mind. If her stomach gave her away to the monsters because of this, she'd haunt the system after she died.

In the early morning light, she spotted what the tiny shack was used for. It stored tools.

'Finally, some good luck!' Notification after notification chimed in the system.

"Ding! You have acquired tool: shovel 1 star."

"Ding! You have acquired-"

A shovel, a trowel, a rake, a hatchet, a pickaxe, a sickle and more rope. All 1 star equipment. Rosa picked up a tool that had her eyes sparkling. The system called it a cultivator and hoe combo. She called it her lifeline.

'If I can somehow get this over the top half of the wall, it can definitely anchor to something.' Rosa had completely emptied the shed and the system wasn't done updating yet.

'That's odd. The system was much faster when unlocking other things.' Rosa decided that she shouldn't waste time and peeked back outside.

No monsters in sight yet again.

'Time to go.' The house was next. Waving away the windows alerting her change in skill use, Rosa booked it to the house.

The door was ripped right off its hinges. There were claw marks shredding the door frame from high right to low left.

Rosa stopped advancing and remained quiet. There was no noise coming from inside. Cautiously, she looked into small home.

Thankfully, she could see everything from the doorway. The bed in the corner had been shredded. The various things in the house had been tossed around.

There wasn't a monster or person to be seen.

'Let's be quick.' A quick rundown of the place didn't yield much and nothing was above 1 star in quality.

There was a cast iron pot, a set of tableware, a butcher knife, some onions, a broken table and chair, a basin and finally, the bucket she'd been looking for.

"Ding! Your skill: Sneak has leveled up to lvl 2. Presence has lowered to 16."

Rosa had been expecting the gathering system to have finished, not a level up on skills.

'Wait, why sneak and not hiding? I haven't moved much in here.' Rosa used Iris's knowledge to help her make a theory.

The skill hiding probably needed an enclosed or dark space. There was no door here and the morning light chased the shadows away. Rosa cursed inwardly.

'That means I'm safer in the shack hiding than I am here.' Rosa peeked back outside and spotted something that she wouldn't have if the house wasn't in the corner.

A ladder stood tall against the shrine.

A tall, sturdy and beautiful ladder that seemed to shine in the early morning light.

It had to be hers!