Days passed rapidly as Mike carried out his survival plans with varying degrees of success Technically, Mike could not keep track of the passage of time as the place was stuck in what he believed was a perpetual night time cycle. To overcome this challenge, he took into account the sleeping cycle of a few of the creatures found in the mountain cluster . Those few creatures that were active while others slept he arbitrarily tagged as night time creatures while he tagged the rest as day time creatures. Then he used the time the arbitrarily tagged night time creatures went to roost and the time the arbitrarily tagged day time creatures came around to measure the night and day circles respectively. Maybe he was wrong, but there was no better alternatives coming to his mind .
Finding drinkable water , or any water at all proved difficult . The only other alternative to water he could find was a liquid with a slightly higher density than water . This liquid had the same metallic sheen as pure liquefied silver . However, ingesting the liquid temporarily made one's movement very slow . Also bathing with this liquid also added to ones weight temporarily. In spite of the drawbacks, the local fauna always flocked to wheresoever this liquid could be found in numbers that were inversely proportional to their level on the food chain . Obtaining food was not any easier. He had to observe the plants and prey that were commonly used as food across many very different species of herbivores and carnivores. As it turned out , of the possible entries he got for his meal list, many were not suitable for his digestive system . Whether it was because he ate them raw or for other reasons, he had no idea. He was however stuck with three plant based meals and two animal based meals. This knowledge did not come without a cost though ; he had been the target of some of the native predators' hunt three consecutive times and he almost lost his life to the ambush of a clawed predator . The unhealed scar on his torso was proof.
His shelter problems remained largely unsolved.. While he could sleep on bare tree branches without an issue, the moment he tried to make a makeshift bed or anything else to slightly increase his level of comfort , the same unfeeling voice always resounded everywhere and nowhere at once.
[ << Spawn point error! residence error ! You do not have the necessary clearance to build on this location. Items of residence cannot be built outside a residence. A temporary residence can be built on your spawn point . Building outside a spawn point requires an affiliation to and and or the permission of a noble one whose domain of authority covers the area of interest >>]
Relatively speaking, his clothing was the easiest to solve. Crafting a piece of loin cloth from the remains of an unknown creature, he was finally able to kiss nakedness good bye
Ironically it was his discovery of fragments that was the most astounding . From what he observed, this fragments came in different kinds and took on different appearances. By a funny twist, he discovered that they were edible. On one of the days when he was experimenting with and searching for potential food candidates, and under the influence of terrible hunger, he discovered a tree on which hung juicy, luminous and inviting fruits.
[ << You have discovered a frag....>>] .
Mike who would usually try to pay attention to whatever the disembodied voice had to say, could not care this time as he totally devoured them. There were neither tasty, nor did they sate his hunger. [<< .....You are the first to eat up a fragment ..... You have created a record.....you have gained the unique skill { devour to grow}.....your strength of being has increased by a ten millionth as a result of eating a tier one fragment. The ability innate to the the fragment has been forever lost >>] Eating up the fragment did something better though, he felt almost imperceptibly better after that and he also discovered that fragment, whatsoever they were , came in tiers and granted abilities.
He also observed that the things called fragments also emitted a luminous mist whose colour, intensity and range depended on the nature, and what he had come to know as the tier of the fragments themselves. From what he observed , different fragments had different attractive strengths. The range and intensity of the luminous mist it emitted also varied directly with the attractive strength of the fragment in question. While some fragments gave off a moderate pull that gave a hint of what they were, others had this irresistible pull about them that made one want to instantly claim them no matter the cost. One of such was a set fragments whose mists covered all the ten central mountains of the Genesis-remnant mountain cluster. Ever since he discovered them , the pull they exerted on him grew stronger and never abated even when he was many horizons away from their range of influence. But since he had not discovered any important use for fragments apart from eating them and since he did not know how to obtain the abilities they provided, he decided to resist the pull of the said fragments for now due to the equally great feeling of danger he had anytime he went close to their areas of influence.