As the three unidentical clones wake up at once in a mess of tangling limbs and messy hair and little bits of drool they realize they forgot to wash up. which honestly didn't make too much of a difference, but was a great way to start the day rinsing all dirt and vague remnants of blood off carefully over the ashes of the fire. Also lucky the fire didn't spread and, since Tako had taken the chance to wash off while at the spring last night. Tako takes the chance to build a proper fire ring out of stones, keeping the cooking slab in place. Once the pit was built and the clones all rinsed clean, it was finally time.... to skip all the boring notifications and check the status to see all of the improvements and rewards.
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Status:
Name: Tako
Species: Dragonkin/Tiefling/Human hybrid
Age: 12
Level: 3
Health: 210/210
Mana: 125/125
Skills: Species Form Shift lvl NA, Tracker Spores lvl. 1, Root Laying lvl. 1, Woodcarving lvl. 1, Bark Working lvl. 1, Knifework lvl.2, Vine work lvl.1 Knotter lvl. 1, Cooking lvl. 7, Knife wielding lvl. 1, Skinning lvl. 2, Mana Manipulation lvl. 1, Magic Manipulation lvl. 1, Sword wielding lvl. 3, Attalacian Swordsmanship lvl. 2 Tracking lvl. 1, Piercing Stab lvl. 1,
Passive Skills: Anxiety lvl. 2, Cloning lvl. 1, Vision Master lvl. 1, Death Whisper lvl. 1, Photosynthesis lvl. 5, Plant Identification lvl. 3, Aromatic scent lvl. 1, Animal Identification lvl. 1, Heightened Hearing lvl. 3, Heightened smell lvl. 3,
Blessings: (all) Vore, Vore ability absorption, Languages of the Infinite Minor Blessing
Strength: 22 --> 32
Toughness: 34 --> 42
Speed: 10 --> 32
Agility: 10 --> 22
Endurance: 25 --> 40
Alertness: 33 --> 45
Dexterity: 10 --> 15
Flexibility: 5 --> 10
Perception: 20 --> 40
Intelligence: 22 --> 28
Wisdom: 20 --> 25
Defense: 20 --> 34
Willpower: 25 --> 35
Luck: 11 --> 18
Spirit: 10 --> 15
Force: 24 --> 29
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"WOOOOOOOO Baby!!!!! Look at all those stats and skills! Such a delicious bounty!" The three clones exclaim in unison. "Also looks like our health and mana show now, and this is just a guess but I would say that health is toughness and mana is wisdom and Its a 1 stat to 5 health and mana ratio." Tako says and the other two nod in agreement. "Makes sense." Hiper says and Justine adds. "It also looks like 5 is the minimum increase to each of our stats. Which means 2 stats for achieving level 2 and 3 for level 3. Which also means our current stats are probably abysmal in this world. But that still makes sense considering we're only level 3 and Just got here yesterday."
Hiper nods in agreement then continues talking for the 3 of them. "And Look at all those skills too! our Vore Ability Absorption blessing either was working overtime, or it works much better on animals and people. Probably people the most, I bet most of the stats and skills we got came from those bones. I mean look we also got a language blessing and I am pretty sure we didn't get that from the rabbits."
Tako nods along then speaks. "Speaking of both the rabbits and the skills, We now have knife wielding on top of knife work. We also have Sword wielding and some sort of Swordsmanship skill. We should make wooden swords and knives so that we don't almost die next time we decide to have a cooked meal or something stumbles upon our little tree... House? Hideout? Tent? Fort! Tree Fort! The Tako Tree fort! Wait No! The Tako Tree Tower! THATS THE ONE! We can build up both inside and outside the tree as we live here and slowly get more clones. Also I noticed an old notification we seem to have missed that says we reached our current clone limit. So we are stuck with the three of us until we figure out how to level up our cloning."
"That aside I have a plan for the next few days. First Justine will Work on carving 3 Wooden knives and 3 Wooden swords as well as 3 staffs, 3 Spears, 3 Sets of Kali sticks, and 3 basic wooden shields, that should take about all day. If Justine has time to spare she can carve a bunch of large pointy sticks to bury around The Tako Tree Tower. Hiper will focus on Magic and digging a moat all the way around our tree that we will fill with pointy sticks. We can use the spare soil and stuff to make a decent earth wall on the inside. Remember to give us a decent amount of room we have about 90 feet to the nearest tree so a 55 ft radius should do. I will fly around with the sack gathering as many resources as possible, Plenty of vines, Logs, bushes, rocks, Everything! then I will unload things here and gather more. We will stop for dinner Agreed?"
"Agreed!"
"Agreed!"
The three clones say and nod at each other with smiles on their faces. Despite Almost dying last night they haven't felt this free in years. They set about their tasks with a level of motivation they thought they lost forever due to depression and Anxiety. However, in this world, they don't feel that weight anymore. Even with anxiety as a skill, it's probably just a "Spidey Sense" type skill. Justine starts by grabbing 3 sticks a little longer and Wider than the knife and works on carving the wooden knives first. She remembers to make the blades thicker than the real knife so they don't break that easily. While Justine does that Hiper Follows Tako outside the tree and while the Dragonkin Flies off low about the ground so they can land and grab anything edible or useful, Hiper sits down about 50 feet away from the base of the tree and starts to meditate.
Hiper breathes in for 4 seconds hold for 4 out for 4 hold for 4 and repeat. Four 4's, 4 squared, a grounding technique that had a slightly longer hold time than normal, but its the one that has worked the best for Tako in their previous life. So it should provide assistance in Allowing Hiper to perceive the flow of mana inside their body since it is the most familiar breathing technique. And they were right, not even 5 minutes later they could feel a channel inside their body of what can only be described as vibrant blue pure energy. The channel, or actually channels , runs alongside bones and veins, coving most of their insides and seemingly having no obstacle inside their body. The energy originates from a pulsing sphere somewhere around the location of the heart and lungs, but more accurately the center of the chest. Little do the clones know there is now a small organ in the center of the chest known as the mana organ that didn't exist on earth, every being in this world has one.
Once Hiper can feel the mana flowing throughout their body they set about trying to control it. First the outstretch their hands facing them about where they want to start the moat. Then they concentrate the energy into their hands while keeping the breathing rhythm. Hiper then opens their eyes and pictures the dirt lifting out of a 5 ft by 5 ft by 5 ft hole and exhales as they say. "Dig." Hiper feels the energy leave their hands and entering the ground and watches the dirt lift itself and place itself between Hiper and the hole. once Hiper is sure its done, they stand up and walk around the pile and their hole admiring their handiwork. and checks their status again as they received another notification and want to check how much mana that took.
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Status:
Name: Tako
Species: Dragonkin/Tiefling/Human hybrid
Age: 12
Level: 3
Health: 210/210
Mana: 115/125
Skills: Species Form Shift lvl NA, Tracker Spores lvl. 1, Root Laying lvl. 1, Woodcarving lvl. 1, Bark Working lvl. 1, Knifework lvl. 2, Vine work lvl.1 Knotter lvl. 1, Cooking lvl. 7, Knife wielding lvl. 1, Skinning lvl. 2, Mana Manipulation lvl. 1, Magic Manipulation lvl. 1, Sword wielding lvl. 3, Attalacian Swordsmanship lvl. 2 Tracking lvl. 1, Piercing Stab lvl. 1, Earth Magic lvl. 1,
Passive Skills: Anxiety lvl. 2, Cloning lvl. 1, Vision Master lvl. 1, Death Whisper lvl. 1, Photosynthesis lvl. 5, Plant Identification lvl. 3, Aromatic scent lvl. 1, Animal Identification lvl. 1, Heightened Hearing lvl. 3, Heightened smell lvl. 3,
Blessings: (all) Vore, Vore ability absorption, Languages of the Infinite Minor Blessing
Strength: 32
Toughness: 42
Speed: 32
Agility: 22
Endurance: 40
Alertness: 45
Dexterity: 15
Flexibility: 10
Perception: 40
Intelligence: 28
Wisdom: 25
Defense: 34
Willpower: 35
Luck: 18
Spirit: 15
Force: 29
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"Nice only 10 mana and I got Earth Magic Level 1. I should be able to get other magic pretty easily too but first things first finish the moat." Hiper stands next to the dirt pile and extends their hands once again, still focusing on the sensation from earlier, eyes closed and breathing steady. I don't know how much mana it will take but this is going to be a big task, based on the size of the tree I would say the radius is about 70 feet making the inner circumference about 440 meaning I should be able to do about 1/8th of the tree at a time." Hiper opens their eyes and pictures the 8th of a circle dug out and Exhales as they say "Dig!". Once the dirt is all forming piles on the inside of the moat all three of the clones almost fall over. "Warn us next time " Tako thinks to the other clones having fallen out of the air for a second from the sudden exhaustion, not needing an update on what happened thanks to their connected thoughts. "Sorry!" Hiper thinks back and goes back to sit and meditate.
The exhaustion was mostly mental, and while their movements have slowed down the clones are nowhere near actually stopping what they were doing. While meditating this time around Hiper focuses on pulling all the energy inside them into the core, then focuses on finding and feeling the mana in the air around them and pulling it in as well and stays that way for a while.
About an hour and a half later, Justine finishes with the knives and stands up for a moment to stretch and goes outside for a moment to breath and admire the work Hiper got done. " Earth or wherever we are to Hiper mana just refilled you can work again." The Tiefling clone opens their eyes, slowly and looks up at the human "Oh Thank you I was actually lost in meditation like those times we basically lost entire days to regulating our breathing while laying on our beanbag or where-ever we would decide to plop down." "Don't mention it I know." The human taps the side of their head and goes back inside the tree. Hiper then stands up and walks to the edge of the moat and thinks a warning to Tako, waiting for the dragonkin to think an all clear signal before clearing another eighth of the moat and returning to meditate again.
Tako, who is roughly 20 minutes of straight flight from The Tako Tree Tower despite being gone for so long, is smiling as they feel the mental exhaustion return. "much easier than las time since I have been in this rock field gathering every possible rock in order to make better walls for the past 10 minutes or so." Tako says and thinks before returning to their task at hand of putting every rock inside the spatial storage bag until its full before flying back and dropping them off next to the dirt piles. Then dropping everything else except for the jerky and potatoes at the base of the tree and flying back to get more rocks. and do the trip again and again.
Shortly after she alerts Hiper the first time Justine returns inside the three and gets started on carving out wooden swords about 3 feet in length with a small hilt and a blade that is meant to be double sided but stays thick enough not to break just like the knives. While she does this she thinks nostalgically about all the stories and movies that have done this. It was always kind of funny how despite the only wood around being of a lighter color the wooden swords were always a dark brown. However the ones Justine is carving right now are of a light brown yellowish whitish color and that will do just fine.