I promise this story will get into Naruto soon.

The thing is, unlike the normal start of my system-based stories, the MC is starting out in the wild with no idea what universe she's in, plus I want to set up the system and how it works before she gets to society and begins down her dark road towards sacrificing villages for power! Maybe not quite so extreme, but she's definitely going to be practicing some 'moral relativism' on hapless idiots.

Also, I can't do a letter followed by more than 1 minus, Fanfiction I guess regard it as a mistake and leave just one, so that's damn annoying.

Chapter 2

Honest Work

God: Hephaestus, God of Craftsmen

Description: Satisfied with honest effort, Hephaestus desires an offering of any kind, so long as it was made by your own hands.

Reward: Calculated based on ritual grade

Reading through her quest again, Rosa toyed with the long branch in her hand.

Hephaestus wanted, well, anything, so long as she made it herself. As for exactly what she could make though, she had no idea. A spear perhaps, hewn from the sturdy branch she was carrying, wrapped with her plant fiber rope to give it more grip? She could maybe even start a small fire and burn the end to make it sturdier. She presumed, based on the title and description, that so long as she put genuine effort into what she made, Hephaestus would be pleased by her offering, so she didn't concern herself with the fact she wasn't forging a steel blade or something equally ridiculous.

It took her effort to make the rope, and making a proper spear would also take some effort, especially starting a fire with no tools to harden the tip. Checking the shop, there wasn't anything in there, at least that she could see, which would let her start a fire. However, there were tools, and the one that caught her eye was a small bronze dagger. It'd be workable for self-defense, but far more importantly, it would let her easily cut the branch down to the right shape and size, whilst at the same time allowing her to sharpen the tip to a fine point.

The price was 'only' 25 ritual points as well, which was still moderately expensive, but in the face of her stored 150 ritual points, it was a worthy purchase in her eyes. She could have gotten a bronze sword for 75 ritual points, or a hatchet for 80, or any of the other weapons, but the dagger was both the cheapest, alongside also being easy to control and use as a weapon and a tool, using a sword to whittle down a spear wasn't exactly going to be easy after all.

Purchasing the dagger, it dropped onto the floor in front of her, and without hesitation she picked it up, twisting her hand from side to side. It felt a bit heavy, but not so heavy she couldn't swing it around. Rubbing her thumb across the edge gently, she was surprised by the sharpness, but she supposed that since it was bought from the shop, it would have to be fairly well-made.

Taking the dagger in one hand and her branch in the other, Rosa placed the blade at an angle against the edge of the branch then pushed her hand outwards whilst pulling the branch in, slicing into the wood cleanly, and quickly out the other side, cutting a wedge through the branch. Rotating it, she then repeated the process three more times, succeeding in a pyramid-shaped point at the end.

Rosa then sat down, bringing the tip of the spear closer and pinning the shaft beneath her arm, her other hand bringing the dagger towards the tip, where she began to whittle the spear to a more pronounced tip, shaving away layers of wood repetitively, pausing several times as her arm began to ache from the constant motion. Once she was satisfied with the pointy tip, Rosa gathered up the wood shavings and loose pieces into a pile, laying her spear down beside it as she got up and hunted for dry branches, quickly finding a few and gathering them up.

Taking one, she used her knife to start shaving down the branch, repeating the process on the other branches and leaving her with a sizable pile of bark and wood shavings. Grabbing another branch, she snapped it in half and used her knife to make a decent-sized crater in one branch, within which she packed some of the finest wood shavings before picking up the other half of the branch and pressing it into the hole.

Placing her hands on either side of the branch, she began to twist the branch backwards and forwards repeatedly and swiftly, ignoring the burn in her arms as she kept up the rapid pace, generating heat through friction with the wood shavings starting to smoke. After at least a minute, she removed the branch and took some more wood shavings, sprinkling them on top of the now-glowing wood shavings before blowing gently on it, succeeding in getting it to catch and begin to ignite properly. Repeating the process of adding wood shavings several times, she then took one of the branches and placed it on top, adding even more of the loose wood pieces and chunks of bark, coaxing the flame to spread.

As the fire started to grow, Rosa tamped down on her excitement, focusing entirely on making sure that the fire started properly the first time and didn't go out because she was careless. As one stick caught fire, she added another two, then more, until eventually, she had what could, by all accounts, be called an actual fire. Grinning in victory, she took her wooden spear and held it above the flame, rotating it carefully and making damn sure it didn't actually catch fire. After a few minutes, she felt satisfied with the spear, and so she laid it down and contemplated what to do with the fire she had made.

After a moment, she snapped her fingers, gathering up rocks and encircling the fire, intending to sacrifice the flame and fuel she had used to make the spear in hopes of raising the grade of the ritual. Unwinding the rope from her body, she tied one end to the very end of her spear, the not-pointy end, then began to wrap it tightly and carefully around the spear, over and over again, all the way up to the top, stopping about a hands breadth from where the spear tapered down to a point. Taking a bit more rope, she used her knife to cut it off there, then opened the braiding and wound it around and over itself and the spear, tying the other end of the rope and affixing it properly to the spear.

Grabbing her new weapon, she stood and gave it a thrust, genuinely satisfied with the heft, the grip and the power she felt holding something she made with her own two hands. She honestly felt a little sad that she was going to be sacrificing it to Hephaestus, she honestly really liked it. It was crude and shitty, sure, but she made it herself and put her blood, sweat and tears into making it. Well, not really, it only took her about a half-hour to make it, but it still felt damn good.

Laying the spear down within the circle of rocks, Rosa tried to think of something to say to venerate Hephaestus, but honestly, nothing really came to mind, and so, instead, she simply folded her hands together, bowed her head and closed her eyes for a few moments. A flicker of white was visible behind her eyelids, and when she opened her eyes, the spear and the fire were both gone, leaving not even a smudge of ash on the forest floor. Once again, she also felt a presence watching her, but she was now expecting it, and so, it didn't unnerve her quite so much.

It was still discomforting, as if she was an ant on a table and a human was peering down at her, but at least she was ready for it. Putting that thought aside, Rosa opened up the ritual report, which announced that her ritual grade was at a whopping F+3 thanks to the effort required to make the spear. It counted the rope even though she had already made that, because Hephaestus still recognized that it was made by her own hands, and appreciated the extra attention she paid towards making the spear a workable weapon. As a reward, the ritual itself gave 140 ritual points, which proved her reward theory correct.

Far more importantly though, the quest gave her an extra one-hundred ritual points, alongside an active ability.

Inspired Craft - When activated, the next item crafted will be one grade higher. Cooldown: 1 hour. (Locked - Purchase Crafting to unlock)

Frustratingly enough, the ability was useless to her right now, and would be for some time thanks to the price of crafting.

To unlock crafting was a full 1,000 ritual points, so it was far from her price range. Her next unlock was her inventory, as she has so far saved up 375 ritual points, and to unlock her inventory was only 250 points. It was a shame to lose so many points so suddenly, but it still left her with 125 points, so she could purchase a hatchet to help cut things down if she needed to, or perhaps a machete, that was a better option actually.

Biting the bullet, Rosa threw 250 points at the unlock, immediately opening up her inventory. It was in two parts, one side was a blank panel, and the other was a 2x2 grid, four slots. At the top, it said that she could deposit any item she was able to carry unassisted, and said item would take up one slot. How that would work for something like sand or water she had no idea, maybe however much she could carry in her hands, or if she had a bucket and filled it that'd count as one item? Whatever the case was, she put her dagger into the inventory, and it appeared in the top-left slot.

Looking at it, she pointed with a finger, and dragged it to the bottom-right slot, before then reaching into the blank panel and retrieving the dagger. With a brief nod, she stored the dagger again and closed her inventory. In her status menu, which had become indicated with a small number informing her of a change, there was now an option to upgrade her 'carrying capacity', which was just an inventory size increase. In order to make herself stronger to carry and therefore store heavier items, she'd have to put points into her strength instead, which she felt was a bit of a rip-off, but she wasn't able to change it, she just had to accept it.

She had another quest available, and so, she opened it up, blinking in surprise at the objective.

Devotion

God: Any

Description: To show your devotion, you must choose a god, any god in existing mythology, and perform a ritual rated at a minimum of E-3

Reward: 500 ritual points, 2 free trait increases, 1 active ability

That was definitely a pretty big ask honestly.

So far she'd only been capable of F-tier rituals, she supposed she'd need a proper ritual circle, a proper sacrifice and a more zealous sacrificial process to reach E-tier, since the difference in ritual point value made it damn clear it was a qualitative change. Chances were high that E-rank rituals would multiply the amount of ritual points she got, so a neutral F-rank ritual would have 80 points, and a neutral E-rank, based on the quest reward, might go up by about five times, so 400, then each plus or minus adding or removing 40 ritual points, so an E-3 would be worth 280 and E+3 would be up at 520 points.

That was just her theory, but from the quest reward value, as well as the price of unlocks and items, she believed that was an accurate assumption. In her mind, she began to plan out a ritual. She already damn well knew she was going to be performing a ritual to Hephaestus because he wasn't hard to appease, she didn't need to hunt or be introspective nor self-sacrificial, she needed to make something with her own two hands. As for what she would make, well, since she made him a weapon last time, this time, she would make a tool.

Since she'd just been thinking about axes, she decided she would make one, and to make the gathering of materials easier, she splurged on purchasing a bronze machete for a hundred ritual points. It served multiple purposes, as it was a weapon and a tool, able to cut through bushes or through thin trees as well as slash at attackers. Not that she expected to get attacked, but she wasn't comfortable being nearly defenseless, and having a big machete made her feel safer.

With her new machete in hand, Rosa started to hunt for the right size of wood, eventually finding a young tree that she guessed was about the right thickness, thick to the point that she could only barely touch her thumb to her fingers around it. Swinging at the base of the tree, she started to cleave a wedge into it, slowly chipping away at it. Once it was halfway cut, she put her machete away, took a few steps back, jogged forwards then jumped and grabbed the tree as she passed it by, using her body weight to bend the tree. It bent over significantly and the wood itself cracked, but it didn't fully detach, so she took her machete out again, and with a few swings, she cut through the final connections, severing the tree entirely.

Using the thin stump, she placed one end of the tree on it and measured out about a meter and a half of wood, then started to cut through it. Once most of the way through, she rolled it over and leaned on it, snapping the wood in that spot and leaving her with a small enough piece of wood to work with. Since she could carry it, she was able to store it in her inventory, and she headed back to where her pre-existing rock circle was placed.

Crossing her legs and sitting down, Rosa took out her bronze knife and placed it against one end of the wood, then started to bash it down on a rock, forcing the knife to cut down the middle of the wood. It took at least an hour of bashing, then wiggling and pulling, but eventually, she managed to cut through about a foot of the wood. Picking through the rocks around her, she searched for and found one that had a decently sharp edge, picking it up and pushing it into the cut she had made in the wood, then forcing it down with strikes using the backside of her machete.

Once it was inserted, she pressed the wood back together and used the remaining plant fiber rope to tie the wood together again as well as winding some down to form a grip, holding the rock very firmly in place within the wood. Lifting her new axe, she gave it a swing at a nearby tree and was satisfied at the small groove that it cut into the thick wood. Was it perfect? Fuck no, it was a piece of shit that would likely not even cut down one tree. But she gave it her damn best effort, and that would just have to do.

Now she had to think about how to make a proper ritual circle. Firstly, she scraped out a clear patch of ground, then cut a circle into the ground, widening it using the head of the axe. She filled the groove with loose stones, before then adding more decorative grooves into the circle and filling those with stones as well. She avoided making a pentagram and instead made an octagram inside of the circle, filling those grooves with loose stones as well. Since she didn't really know any runes or anything that Hephaestus would appreciate, she didn't even risk trying, and instead, she placed the axe into the middle of the octagram and took a few steps back, thinking of anything else that could be added.

She had made a nicer ritual circle, she had made him a proper offering, what else could she do though? Maybe making some kind of verbal addition would be good, but what to say she didn't know. After thinking it over for a little while, Rosa opened her mouth, then closed it again. Finally, she resolved herself and began to speak again. "Hephaestus, God of Craftsmen, I offer this crafted axe to you in sincerity and a desire to create greater tools." It wasn't exactly a great recitation, but she still pushed as much meaning into her words as she could.

Plus, it was honest. She sincerely created a tool to sacrifice to him, and she wanted to make better tools, and if he deemed her ritual worthy of an E-rank, she would hopefully be able to make better tools. With a flash of white and a feeling washing over her that felt more akin to...well, she had no idea how to describe it other than 'fatherly' in a sense, the axe vanished, leaving just the empty ritual circle.

Gnawing slightly at her lip, she closed her eyes and hoped that it worked, then opened up her ritual report...grinning as she did so. Not only was it an E-rank, it was E-1 and not E-3 as she worried it might be. That was 360 ritual points, which when added to the quest reward meant she had earned 860 ritual points from one ritual. When added to the 25 points she had left over, she now had 885 total, only 115 left until she could unlock crafting from the system itself instead of making things herself.

Opening up the quest itself, she accepted the two free trait increases and held onto them for later, then focused on the one active ability, completely failing to contain herself as she yelled out in pure elation.

Heart of a Crafter - When activated, crafting trait will be increased by one grade letter for 60 minutes. Cooldown: 24 hours.

That was still not useful to her, since she didn't have a crafting trait yet, assumedly it was going to unlock when she purchased Crafting.

She presumed that as she leveled up her crafting trait, she would inexplicably become better at crafting things even with her own two hands since she also assumed leveling her strength, agility, and other traits would improve her physical actions. Inspired Craft only had an effect on the crafted quality of something made via her crafting menu, but if she made something with her own two hands, it'd be influenced by her actual crafting trait, the same way that running would be influenced by her agility trait. Of course, there was a chance she was completely wrong, but she had said during her ritual she desired to create greater tools, and so the ability she got would hopefully help her with that immediately, even though she couldn't yet see her own crafting trait.

Cracking her back, Rosa saw that she now had two quests, not just one. She skimmed them both, wanting to use her pre-made ritual circle to complete them. One required her to complete three rituals, and the other required her to perform a ritual to a new god. The reward for three rituals was one free trait increase and five-hundred trait points, whilst the ritual to a new god had a deterministic reward based on what god she sacrificed to, as well as the value of the ritual itself.

Since the quest was giving her free reign to sacrifice to any god once again, so long as she hadn't sacrificed to them before, it meant she was utterly spoilt for choice as to which god to sacrifice to. She needed a useful god, so maybe one devoted to physical displays? But she also needed a topical item to sacrifice, so to a god of physicality, what could she even sacrifice? Her best bet was to find something regular she could sacrifice, maybe she could hunt some small prey and sacrifice it to...maybe Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, she would probably appreciate it. If she gathered some berries that would likely also go over well, and she could possibly also sacrifice some of the scrap wood she had gotten to fuel the aforementioned hearth. Prey and berries to make a meal, and fuel to sustain the fire, it was both topical, as well as being gatherable.

Nodding to herself, Rosa got up from where she was sitting and once more began to hunt.