Sandrine dismantled a chest by roughly hitting it with her machete, grabbing the pieces of wood and piling them up in a little tent 2 meters away from Paquerette. It wasn't dark yet, but it would be in a few minutes. Sandrine really rushed.
She remembered that she had traded some fuel with AlphaWolf for a bunch of firestarters. She grabbed them in one of the chests on Paquerette's back. They looked like little bundles of straw but smelled quite aggressive. If the system said they were firestarters, they were probably very good at starting fires. If it said 'bread', then it was the most bread of all breads. If it said 'firestarter', then it would always accurately start fire.
She lit one up with her lighter and put it inside the small wooden tent, adding fragments of wood from when she smashed the chest. The fire started easily, and she added more wood as it went on. When the fire was burning well enough, Sandrine took her pot and poured the entire can of cassoulet inside. She needed something substantial to fill her stomach and give her enough energy to get better.
She didn't have any equipment to put the pot over the fire, nor any stone around, so she could only push the pot until it touched the edge of the fire, and stir regularly with a spoon. When it was heated and bubbling, the night came as suddenly as yesterday, along with the monsters. But this time neither Paquerette nor Sandrine were afraid.
The girl carefully wrapped her hand in fabric to avoid getting burned and gradually pulled the pot back towards her. The inside was steaming. Normally, she would have put the content in a bowl, but tonight she was too tired to lift the pot. She directly dug in using her spoon.
The white beans dripping juice and fat filled her mouth, along with the pieces of duck confit and sausages. As she opened her mouth to exhale the heat, she eagerly chewed and swallowed. The heat fell down her throat and into her stomach. Now, she somewhat felt alive.
There was grease all over her chin but she didn't care. She grabbed spoonful after spoonful, tasting each piece of meat. It was a typical Toulousain cassoulet, with pieces of ham and rind, the kind that would make dieting people scream. However, this was truly luxurious for someone living through the apocalypse. Yes, it was cassoulet from a can, far removed from a real homemade one, and the meat was a bit tasteless and not salted enough, but it was still heaven.
Finally, when Sandrine had finished the pot, her brain seemed to reboot. With newfound clarity, she looked at her inventory, getting ready for another round of trades.
"Let's first take care of the vehicle upgrade fragments. Let's see… In the trade tab, they go for 1L of water each ! This price tag is insane !"
By monitoring the server chat, Sandrine learned that with 10 vehicle upgrade fragments, players could initiate the upgrade of their vehicle and see the list of materials needed. Once they gather these materials, they can upgrade their vehicle.
"Totally useless for me, but essential for others… Well, let's just grab more water and try to stockpile it."
To be in top condition, Paquerette needed to eat 12kg of hay and 15L of water per day. Right now, with the 7L of water from the trade with the fragments, if she subtracted what Paquerette would consume tonight, Sandrine had 8L of water and 5kg of hay in advance for tomorrow. This was way better than yesterday when she started the day with nothing left ! Moreover, she still had 17 loaves of bread and she couldn't keep everything because the bread would eventually go bad and she had nothing to preserve it. Using it, she could already have a day worth of supplies in her inventory.
"Stockpiling is slowly starting to work out… But I can't keep eating bread and cans, I need proper fruits and vegetables."
They had enough to survive, which was great, but not enough to live comfortably.
She really needed to find sources of food and water, or she wouldn't last long. The other vehicles could keep livestock or potted plants in their trunk, but that wasn't the case for Sandrine. With only Paquerette as a vehicle, she couldn't keep anything on hand. Even if she found a water collector, she couldn't use it.
"This game is really out to get me…"
The water collector thing didn't come out of nowhere, someone had boasted about finding a water collector in a chest. It was unknown if he was the only one or if the others stayed silent, but the number of water trade had slowly gone up, so the price of water was gradually going down. Right now she could trade a loaf of bread for 1L of water, but tomorrow she could probably exchange it for double.
The bread wouldn't go bad tomorrow, she could afford to keep it in her backpack. With a bit of luck, tomorrow she could buy enough water to wash up !
Feeling happy, she sent the fuel she had found today to AlphaWolf and he sent her a list of what he had to offer. That guy really was the luckiest unlucky guy alive, always finding everything except food and fuel ! But what he did find were things Sandrine desperately wanted.
She eventually got a whole set of horse brushes in their box, which earned her strange comments from AlphaWolf about doing charity, a hair brush for her and multiple combs, hair ties, pet shampoo, a roll of threads, a brand new pack of socks, and a pillow with its cover. All of this for only 10L of fuel, Sandrine was more than happy !
The man kept complaining and saying that she was only taking junk in exchange for the vital things she gave him, but it was nonsense in her eyes.
Happy with what she got, she quickly went to Paquerette, frowning while she ignored the pain, and took out the chest and ropes tied around the mare. When it was done, she noticed that Paquerette was drenched in sweat. Even if she was a robust animal, walking all day was also taking a toll on her.
"Stubborn horse, never telling me when it hurts…"
Sandrine grumbled and took out the box of horse brushes, applying some pressure while cleaning the coat so that she could massage the mare's tired muscles. Doing so made Sandrine wince from pain, her arms shaking, but she once again blocked out the feeling, continuing to take care of Paquerette while in a daze. When she came to, she had combed the mane and tied it in several braids with her hair ties, preserving it from harm and getting it out of the way so Paquerette could feel more comfortable. She also noticed that the mare's legs, especially the part just above the hooves, felt warm and a bit swollen.
"Go figure, a horse isn't made to walk all day on such a solid surface like asphalt…"
This game definitely hated her.
Anyway, Paquerette had a high constitution so she wouldn't feel the repercussions that early, but the situation couldn't last. Sandrine needed to find horseshoes made for road walk, with shock absorbers.
Otherwise, the mare was fine. She was burying her head in her feeder box, eating hay happily.
"I'm glad you feel better than me…"
Sandrine knew she should look inside the chests that had been tied to Paquerette's side, organize everything, trade what she didn't need, check out the state of her weapons, plan what to do tomorrow, exercise a bit to maintain a good condition…
But just brushing Paquerette already made her covered in cold sweat.
"Forget it. I'll just endure until my constitution gets higher."
With that, her brain foggy, she walked away from the mare to relieve herself.
Was she in a worse condition than she thought ?
Even if Sandrine was in a daze, she trusted her instincts enough to stay safe. After all, hadn't she survived the whole day while partially unconscious ?
But she had apparently been wrong.
She understood this when she suddenly saw a distorted face just in front of her.
So close that the wide cloudy eyes were the only thing she could see.
So close that she could feel the monster's fur brushing against her skin.
Sandrine was really shocked, frozen in incomprehension.
Had she gone above the 5 meters line ? She hadn't even noticed.
It was as if she had no control over her own body. She could only stare in silence as the monster grunted.
She thought the mouth would open wide, but it was apparently just a disguise. The whole face separated vertically in the middle, each eye staring in a different direction, revealing no skull behind but instead several rows of pointy, shiny teeth, like the mouth of a shark.
"I guess I'll die today…"
Even her last thoughts she couldn't keep to herself.
She watched the mouth open further until it was grossly distorted, a slimy red tongue poking out from behind the teeth, getting ready to swallow her whole…
Then something came flying over Sandrine's shoulder, crashing down on the monstrous face, with such force the creature was sent flying.
Was it… A hoof ?
As if she had woken up from a dream, Sandrine took control of her body and threw herself backwards, reentering the 5 meters zone. She landed hard, scraping her hands on the asphalt, but she was too shocked to care.
She had been really close to dying. A short moment of inattention and she had fallen right in the hands of the monsters.
Sandrine lifted her head, looking at the giant figure towering over her. The mare was still snorting with her ears glued to the back of her neck, visibly enraged, her rear end facing the creatures, ready to kick again.
A stubborn horse. But a darn good one.
Without Paquerette, Sandrine would be gone.
It was a bit terrifying to think about. But when Sandrine understood the situation, she couldn't help herself.
She burst out laughing.
She laughed so hard that she was rolling on the ground, holding her sides.
Paquerette was looking at her as if she had lost her mind, and Sandrine couldn't really prove her wrong. She didn't know how her life had been before, but now Sandrine was sure of one thing : She was truly and thoroughly mentally unwell. Batshit crazy. She had lost her mind.
She laughed until her abs hurt, her cheeks were sore, and she had tears streaming down her face. Only then could she somehow calm down.
She stayed laying on the ground, catching her breath, while her gaze shifted to the monsters less than a meter away. The lamp was still where she left it, so it was a bit too dark to see properly, but she could discern one of the monsters sprawled out on the road, twitching, bathing in a pool of its own blood.
Paquerette didn't hold back, that single kick had completely exploded the monster's head. It kept twitching for a bit, but eventually it stopped. At that instant, a familiar buzzing sound filled Sandrine's head and a hologram appeared in front of her.
[Congratulations, your pet Paquerette has reached lvl 2 !]
[Congratulations for upgrading your vehicle to lvl 2. You are the 8th player to do so on your server. Rewards will be issued at the beginning of the next day]
Two notifications, one describing Paquerette as a pet, the other as a vehicle. Upgrading a vehicle brought rewards, that she knew because it was said in the server chat, but nobody had said anything about pets.
It made sense, though, Paquerette was a living being.
"Woah, one kill and you level up, you're savage !"
The mare snorted and walked back towards her feeder, ignoring Sandrine. She seemed a bit angry.
"The kind to act cold but secretly care ? I like that."
Sandrine laughed and opened the mare's panel.
[Name : Paquerette
Species : Earthen equine
Lvl : 2
Favorability : 17
Health : 95
Fatigue : 38
Strength : 13
Constitution : 18
Agility : 9]
"Let's see… You gained a point in strength, another in constitution, and three in agility ? That's a lot ! 5 points per level, it can reach big figures easily. And 3 agility points were exactly what we needed, now you're 50% faster than before !"
Sandrine was really enthusiastic. More agility was exactly what they needed, as if their will had influenced the evolution path for Paquerette. This was good news, especially since Paquerette had started with a very high constitution, probably an endurance type horse, not a speed based one.
Anyway, even if she was happy, Sandrine still felt on the verge of collapse. She really couldn't do anything anymore, the fall just now had been the waterdrop that made the vase overflow.
Her legs felt too weak to even stand up. She crawled on all fours towards the chests that had been on Paquerette's back. She remembered that there were a few animal corpses inside, and they would rot quickly. She needed to send them to AlphaWolf before she collapsed.
There was a snake, a rabbit that she managed to catch, and even a coyote. It had surprised her, because the thing was bigger than the chest but still came out of it. The chests really seemed like Mary Poppins' bottomless bag, but they lost this property after being opened. Now the coyote's corpse was half dangling out of it.
She send all the animals corpses to AlphaWolf with a short message :
[84jojo84 : About to collapse, need to sleep, take this and pay tomorrow]
Her eyes were closing on their own, but Sandrine forced herself to endure. She took out a bottle of water, the soap, and cleaned her scraped hands. She also checked on the wounds on her thighs, but those were cicatrising nicely, especially since her constitution had gone up.
She would fare better with a bath, or at least with a source of water to clean the bandages, but she had to make do for now.
While checking on her wounds, she noticed that the area between her legs was completely bruised, especially on the bone part. She hadn't noticed yesterday because it was too fresh and the lighting wasn't good, but now that it had been a while, it was starting to slowly turn purple. It looked ugly.
But she couldn't do anything, she still didn't have a saddle, not even an ointment to apply, nothing. She could only wait and pray for her constitution to continue rising, so she could get better quicker.
Then she hurriedly took out the straw, her new pillow traded from AlphaWolf earlier, and laid down close to Paquerette. She fell asleep instantly.
What she didn't know was that all along during her eventful evening, players on the server chat were going crazy.
[-Omg the big shot just exchanged Vehicle update fragments for water !
-I can't thank him enough ! I got enough fragments to update my bicycle now…
-Ouch, you have a bicycle ? Must be hell to cycle everyday
-Don't even talk about it, if the mileage keeps increasing I'll die… Now with enough fragments it gives me hope. If it becomes an electric bicycle, I'll be able to hold out longer !
-Big shot is really doing charity at this point, vehicle upgrade fragments are so valuable, nobody is willing to trade for them but he trades them away so easily
-And for water, everytime ! Nobody needs 7L of water, that's enough for several days of drinking ! And big shot can't possibly not have water at all, there's no reason for him to buy so much
-I think he's doing this for us. Water prices are slowly decreasing, in a few days it will be a dream to exchange fragments for water… He helped us by trading something valuable against something that soon won't be
-Doing it this way gives us face, it's not directly throwing a coin to a beggar but the spirit is similar
-Nice big shot
-Nice big shot]
Sandrine had been completely misunderstood, but she wasn't awake to see it.