My return to the campsite was at a good time, or just plain luck.
The fire had burned down worryingly low. Something for me to remember, maybe keep some heavier pieces of wood around to avoid this in the future for now, I stack wood on the fire and got it going again. Then I grabbed The Book.
> Aaron Shepherd <
Class 1 Builder
Age 21
H/P 80
M/P 150
Str 09
End 08
Con 07
Dex 08
Int 10
Combat rating 10%
Identify Skill 23%
Gathering Skill 22%
Crafting Skill 10%
> Quest Complete <
+5 Health
+1 Strength
+1 Dexterity
Identify Increased
Gather Increased.
Crafting Increased
Well, that was a pleasant boost. I actually feel a bit stronger now that he was paying attention. My muscles feel a little more toned. Dexterity was a bit harder to measure, and I didn't feel like going through some kind of flexibility routine at the moment.
What I did feel like at the moment was food.
I grabbed a straightish stick, rubbed all the loose bark of it, and skewed a pheasant breast on it.
I then settled down to roast my first meal in my new life over a fire I built myself. It was a special kind of feeling to experience. A self-reliance kind of feeling. Of man against nature
Shepherd, you are so full of shit. I chuckled to myself over that thought. I was still impressed with what I'd achieved.
After I ate, I planned to go through some combat drills. Whatever I could think of that might help me improve.
Tomorrow, I will be building a shelter. I've been lucky that it wasn't raining tonight. That would have given me a miserable night.
I remembered something about a fire in a hole in the ground that native Americans used to use. Mentally, I couldn't see how it worked, though. I've always been a learn by doing kind of person, which meant digging a hole tomorrow.
The pheasant breast proven to be quite delicious, if somewhat plain since I had no spices. It was filling. That's all that mattered.
When i fished eating, I stood up and started going through any combat routine I could think of, trying to lay the groundwork for building muscle memory. Thrust, swing the opposite end around to strike, then step back to my starting position.
After an hour, I was exhausted, but the Book said I had gained an extra 5 points in Combat Skill. It was a good start, in my opinion.
I dragged a large seminary log over and placed it across my fire. It should burn through most of the night. I was on daylight time now, so I expected 10ish hours of darkness, a darkness that was just falling now. Sleeping on the ground wouldn't be the most comfortable sleep I've ever had.
Even after I carved out a spot in the ground for my hip and shoulder to rest in, spreading my weight evenly, I still expected to wake in the night to check the fire.
The night turned out to be rather peaceful for me. I only woke once, fed the fire, and dozed off again. I woke at dawn when the birds kicked off their own greeting to the new day.
By the time the sun rose enough that I could read the Book with natural light, I saw it had given me a new Quest. One that I was already thinking of.
> Builder Quest Available <
Construct A Shelter.
Gather 4 long Straight Thick Green Branches.
Gather 20 long Straight Thin Green Branches.
Gather 2 Short Straight Thick Green Branches.
Gather 4 Intestinal String Coils
I decided to go hunting for the String first. Right after a visit to the nearby stream that I found the Pyrite at. Even for a simple trip to water, I took my Light and Heavy Spears. Always armed should be my new motto, I think. And besides, water attracts animals.
Today, however, it attracted none, at least on the length of the stream where I was.
The stream water wasn't as cold as I expected it to be. That led me to stripping down naked for a proper wash, even if I had no soap. I couldn't do much about my clothes getting cleaned.
After that, I grabbed my satchel from camp. Checking the previous day's meat, I didn't see any change in its condition. Still smelled fine to, so I thought nothing more of it.
I was mainly looking for a pheasant today, as that's where I had picked up the Intestinal String from last time. But I wouldn't turn down other targets.
That's how I came across a deer an hour later. Drinking from the stream I decided to follow. As deer sizes go, this one looked relatively small. Not having hunted before, a city boy born and breed, I really couldn't be sure. It was just a feeling.
My Light Spear cast was as good as always, it piercing the deers heart as it dropped instantly. I was now thoroughly suspicious of my hunting Skill. There was no reasonable reason for my apparent success rate for me bringing down animals. Whatever it was that happened to me was clearly guiding my hand in some way. I was grateful, of course, but equally wary.
Looting the dear gave me:
Large Venison Meat x 2
Large Deer Skin x 2
Intestinal String x 2
Deerskin Leather Tunic.
Is a tunic really any weirder than a leather satchel? In the grand scheme of things, both were right up there on the weird-shitometer.
I need to stop being surprised by this stuff and be as grateful for the tunic as I was for the accuracy of my spear.
I put on the tunic. It was soft and flexible. It also seemed to be made just for me, a perfect fit. No surprise there, it being a magical item after all.
I decided to head back to camp to drop off my looted items. I didn't wonder about getting 2 deerskins from 1 deer, I vaunted it as a bonus. After I unloaded, I headed downstream this time just to see if there was anything different. What I found after another hours hunt was a wild boar.
I could already feel the strength of the animal. The other animals had made me feel like a predator in complete control. This beast gave off a different vibe. A vibe of strength and constitution. I readied and cast my Light Spear, then quickly picked up my Heavy Spear, even knowing my throw was a good cast.
The strike on the boar staggered it, but it did not fall. It turned and charged at me, by Light Spear getting knocked out by a tree. I braced myself as the charging boar closed on me, then stepped easily aside.
I drove my Heavy Spear deep into the pig just behind the front leg, those front legs that collapsed, instantly causing the boar to cartwheel onto its back. It lay still where it fell. I stood panting for a moment, then turned away.
I walked back the way the boar came and retrieved my Light Spear, then returned for my Heavy. And the loot.
The special item I got this time, as I had decided to call them, was a broad leaf-shaped Spearhead. A few inches below the head was a solid crossbar.
The boar had given me the head of a boarspear. The bar is designed to halt the penatration of the spear, and ideally, the boar itself.
As for the rest of the loot
Boar Skin x2
Boar meat x 2
Intestinal String x 4
It was then that found out I was in a valley. Ahead, past where I first saw the boar, there was a break in the trees. I walked to it, seeing the valley for the first time. A wide valley several thousand metres wide. The stream joined a river half a kilometre away. The valley itself must have been at least 10 kilometres long from my position. I was both excited and scared by the view. Sensory overload made me turn back to the forest.
To be honest, I had had enough of hunting for today. If the meat I had stayed magically fresh as I expected it to do, I had food for a few days. I stopped at the stream, stripped down to my waist, and washed my head and chest. I was already clean, but I needed something to calm my nerves after that fight.
My adrenaline slowly dropping, I walked back to camp.
Tending the fire as soon as I returned was always my first task whenever I got back, then a quick hunt to replace firewood, which in this case was also a hunt for straightish branches. Having found the other branches I used for the Spears in the trees, I looked in the same places this time.
Finding the branches took what felt like 2 or 3 hours. the climbing up and down trees wasn't any trouble. It was the fact that I couldn't get all the branches from one tree.
Thick Branches were rare, and taking too many thin branches from one tree would leave me unable to safely climb down.
Jumping from the tree was an option I would leave for a life or death situation.
So multiple hours later found me back at camp with the Gather Quest items. Extra, in fact. It was just as easy to bring more than I needed than not.
I began laying out the Quest think branches in different shapes. The Book told me how many of something I needed, then left me to figure it out.
I could see how to make a frame from the thick Branches. Each was about 2 metres long, which gave me a good-sized frame.
The Short thick branches led me to the conclusion that I was building a lean-to shelter. 4 Intestinal String Coils would allow me to tie off 4 corners, the front two Coils wrapping around the frame and the front posts.
How did the roof work, though? I was left with one thick and 20 thin branches.
In the end, I dug two post holes for two thick branches. I opted to use two of the extra branches I gathered to raise the height of the front of the shelter. Once I set them in place, I built the frame, a simple enough task, then lifted it to tie it to the posts. That took some work, making it tight enough so it would collapse.
Then came the trial and error part. The last thick piece couldn't go on the inside of the frame, or I would need more strings. And the thin pieces? I could lay them out running parallel to the frame sides, I knew that was right. But how are they held in place?
I decided to leave it to cook some food. It was just past noon anyway.
Time to eat.
It was while I was cooking some rabbit meat that I figured it out. Cook meat on a stick means not doing anything else but sitting still and looking around. While I was looking at the thin branches laid out in a row with the thick branch laying across, it reminded me of a fence. It's not a very strong fence, a fence like in medieval times. A whicker fence.
After that, I knew what to do. The ends of the thin branches would sit inside the frame, running over the top of the thick branch that sat outside the frame.
The force of bending over the thick branch held the thin branches in place.
After I ate, I finished the shelter in less than an hour.
The moment I fixed the last thin branch in place, the branches swell slightly and multiplied enough to seal the roof. The Intestinal String also became tighter and more secure. My reasonable stable shelter just became rock solid.
I grabbed the Book to see the results
Builder Quest Complete
+1 Endurance
+1 Intelligence
Identify Increased
Gather Increased
Building Skill Unlocked.
> Aaron Shepherd <
Class 1 Builder
Age 21
H/P 80
M/P 150
Str 09
End 09
Con 07
Dex 08
Int 11
Combat rating 20%
Identify Skill 28%
Gathering Skill 27%
Crafting Skill 10%
Building Skill 10%
Finally, I can take an hours rest.