《Survival Farming》 Were not in Texas anymore! Strong, vibrant light beamed down unto the quiet earth. The brisk wind ran through the trees and teased the grass. Creatures faster than the eye could see dashed from behind trees, underneath bushes to unseen burrows. And in that land lay a strange figure asleep between the plains and the trees. Why is my bed so cold and my room so bright? I spent $50 last year on light-blocking curtains. How can those go out? Is that even possible? The birds sound louder than usual, the AC is running super strong, and why is my bed so itchy? Rustling, I hear rustling in my bedroom. What rustles in my room. Opening my eyes, all I can see is prairie on one side and what seems to be forest on the other. Okay, deep breath. In. Out. In. OUT. Okay, that''s not working. Let''s try counting. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. What is that! This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Before my eyes is a blue screen.
Welcome to Altiria! You have been selected from among a group of your fellow human beings that survived cosmic energy poisoning to integrate into the world of Altiria. after the tragic demise of your planet. As such, we have created a support system to help with your integration.
I can''t read anymore. I don''t believe this. This is impossible. A whole planet can''t just be gone. This is some virtual reality joke. Someone must have put a headset on my head while I was sleeping. It must be a really thin one, running my hands all over my hair and face. I¡¯ve come to the realization I can¡¯t feel anything on my face. On the off chance, this is real. Ow. I just scratched myself hard. The line of ash and pain on my skin tells me this might be real. I guess I''m not in Texas anymore. Panicked Planning Okay, so panicking is not allowed. It¡¯s how you die early. So, let¡¯s start with the facts: My name is Azaiah Star. I am 26 years old. I have three sisters and one brother. So, I am not suffering from memory loss, because I know who I am. So, this must be real because I can feel the elements, and I¡¯m self-aware. Next step, I am in the wilderness. I need to cover my basic needs: water, food, and shelter. Oh, my goodness! I¡¯m losing my sight. There are things in the corner of my eyes. Actually, they are blinking ¡­ icons. Focusing on the little square box opens up the familiar blue screen from before.
Welcome to Altiria! You have been selected from among a group of your fellow human beings to integrate into the world of Altiria. after the tragic demise of your planet. As such, we have created a support system to help with your integration. Due to your experience and interest in building and management you have been selected for the frontier division. You and a group of ten others with similar interests will be the foundation of your village. Family members and other future villagers are being held until specific requirements are met to avoid overloading infrastructure.
So, I should have finished reading the blue screen before panicking. The box gives me a bit more context, at least. Status update: I am on a foreign planet, dressed in only what I slept in last night, I will create a settlement, and something other has control over our lives. Focus on what you can change. First, I need to get somewhere safe to finish the integration; I can''t say the word; otherwise, the lesson might start, and I''m definitely not ready. Second, complete said tutorial. Third, find and scope out fellow "founders." Fourth, meet basic needs. Fifth, find pants. Sixth, Begin construction of the settlement. The pants might be more important but harder to pull off. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Okay, I got this! My best bet is to climb a tree, then read through all of whatever this is. Scanning the trees in front of me leaves me with only three options and two significant problems. Problem-solving can only begin with acknowledging the problem. First, I don''t know how to climb a tree, and second, I have no shoes. I have to hold my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming my frustration. Screaming in the middle of a forest is the dumbest thing a person can do. Okay, so an "inventory" of my surroundings is called for. Who knew talking to yourself could be so helpful. I apparently have an inventory thing now that honestly defies the laws of physics. God is good; there are shoes in here, well to be technical boots, with socks! Now that I''m looking, there seems to be a decent amount of stuff in there. Okay, breathe, no cheering in the woods, and focus. Problem 5 from list A and 2 from list B are resolved. I still don''t know how to climb a tree, but I need a tree to climb first. So, the first tree seems like a straight ladder to climb up and is only the size of a small house. The second tree looks weird like it''s moving with no wind. Hard pass. The last tree is a higher up step ladder tree like the first tree. The best tree is obviously the higher up step ladder one, but can I get up there is the question. After two very embarrassing hops and an insane amount of sliding, I decided to take a running jump and barely managed to grasp the lowest branch. It took what felt like a burning forever which might have only been thirty minutes to pull my body up to the first branch, not to mention afterward, where I had to drag my body to the next highest branch. Looking down proved to be a mistake. It feels like I¡¯m thirteen feet off the ground. It was a very easy decision to decide not to climb another branch for my own safety. While I¡¯ve always loved nature, the view from the top of the tree branch proved to be very insightful. I love how clean the air is, the lack of cars, and the background noise is different and lovely. The bird calls and insect noises without the growling and shrieking of cars is beyond neat. That being said, I¡¯m right outside of a clearing. The forest has obviously been here for a while; with the forest beginning to be taller than a two-story house. However, the height of the grass is wrong for this to be the absolute wild. I don¡¯t seem to hear any water in the direct vicinity, and my ears are beyond amazing. Focus. The next step in the plan is to complete the tutorial. Tutorial Overload I can¡¯t focus on the height but it¡¯s hard to not keep looking down. This has brought me a whole new meaning to the word tree hugger. There doesn¡¯t seem to be anything around, though¡ªnothing in the nearby trees or on the ground. I can¡¯t see through the bushes, though, so that might be something to worry about later. Okay, Tutorial.
Altiria is a 2nd Tier planet with varying and vast ecosystems. Altiria is host to world energy that permeates the entirety of Altiria. All beings that hold vitality can manipulate world energy. The civilization present in Altiria is equivalent to the medieval level of your society. We have placed colony groups in twelve different, but sustainable settlement locations based on scans of your race. We have divided up the remaining humans, who were able to withstand the cosmic energy at the point of the incident, into settlement groups. As a participant of the frontier division, your family has been placed in the settlement group designated for this area. Your duty as a member of the frontier division is as follows: 1. Locate a suitable starting point with the agreement of the majority of the division. 2. Cover the basic needs of your people a. Food b. Water c. Shelter 3. Locate the majority of the threats to your people. The Frontier division is the first step in the integration process for the resettlement of your people.
So, this system thing also responds to thought and specific thoughts at that. I didn¡¯t even say the word ¡°Tutorial¡± out loud. Planets are now tiered; does that mean we can go to other planets? Focus! There is another potentially hostile civilization on the planet. There is this thing called world energy, is that supposed to be magic? Lastly, when I build this settlement, I¡¯ll get my family back. Oo! A list. How nice the system thing is, giving me a list to follow. You can never go wrong with an organized list. Well, Houston, we have a problem. This is a group project. I need other people to make decisions. I¡¯m not sure that this will be a win if this becomes a popularity contest. How is that going to work? Am I going to be a leader or a follower? I¡¯ll figure it out when I meet the other members of the frontier division. Oh, neat! My list matches up with the system list. I knew there would be threats! Focusing on the now.
The ¡°system¡± is provided by the vitality of Altiria. Altiria is alive and has ¡°basic¡± consciousness. Altiria kindly agreed to take in your people after the destruction of your home planet Earth. Altiria recognized that the environment that Earth had set up is another variation of solid earth planetoid. Thus, has provided a basic tutorial of how her planet is operated. First, as you have recognized, Altiria has a ¡°system¡± that allows direct communication with the spirit, physical, and atmospheric level. All beings that have vitality have access to the ¡°system¡±. There is only one ¡°system¡±. Second, Altiria is indifferent to all beings that have vitality. All beings that are living on Altiria produce vitality. Altiria is fed by vitality and feeds vitality. Altiria has quantified all the general components of the beings on the planet in reference to each other. Viewing your status will give you a direct comparison of your stature among all beings. All beings, races, and resources are able to transcend or descend their stature.
There¡¯s so much to unpack in this box. I am going to have to come back to it. Status overview is next.
Personal Status
Name This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Azaiah Star Race - Variant Earthling - African American
Vocation None Carrer Mechanical Engineer
Standing Frontier Woman
Age 26 Gender Female
Tier Excellent
Vitality 12 Power 5
Strength 3 Charisma 3
Wisdom 5 Spirit 15
Intelligence 15
Equipment Sleep shirt, Underwear, Leather pants, Wilderness boots
Vitality is how much lifeforce a being has. Assume that unless the vitality is zero or the status of a creature states that it is dead; the being is alive.
Strength is the relationship between the amount of power that can be exerted through physical means.
Wisdom is the current amount of intelligence that can be applied to situations a being may experience.
Intelligence is the acquired knowledge that a being has access to either learned, gifted, or acquired.
Power is the amount of force a being may apply to in any given situation.
Charisma is the ability to dominate, communicate, and influence another being.
Spirit is the ability to influence atmospheric energies.
Altiria was unable to choose a correct vocation for you based on your hobbies and past experiences would you like to choose your vocation now?
There is no way I¡¯m ready to pick a vocation. I don¡¯t even know what that is or what it does. I haven¡¯t even finished digesting the information that I¡¯m receiving.
A vocation is a being¡¯s makeup expressed as ability. Based on your previous hobbies of ¡°DIY¡±, gardening, engineering projects, and tinkering. Altiria has suggested the following vocations: ¡¤ Mentalist ¡¤ Grove Tender ¡¤ Earth Architect
I¡¯ve always wanted to be an architect. There¡¯s no details though. Altiria is that all you¡¯re going to give me. I¡¯m going to take that as a yes. So, I have not the faintest idea what a mentalist is, there¡¯s no way to be able to tell what an Earth Architect is. I love the idea of a Grove Tender, but this is sadly not the time for wants and desires. Being that I will be aiding in building an entire civilization my best bet is probably the Earth Architect.
You have chosen the vocation of Earth Architect. As the Earthlings race is a new race you are unable to seek a mentor out for training this unique vocation. Altiria has graced you with a tutorial for your vocation¡¯s basic ability and tasks. To begin the tutorial, release your intent to start learning your vocation.
The system said Altiria is alive, but I think Altiria is really alive! The system is basically Altiria¡¯s voice to beings on the planet. That¡¯s another can of worms I¡¯m not even close to being ready to work out. I have so many thoughts I need to work out. Not now! Focus, I¡¯ll come back to this later.
Note function unlocked. Would you like to save the tutorial to your notes section?
My Lord in Heaven! Altiria is really alive and paying attention! It takes exactly five minutes before I can breathe again, and another five before my heart stops racing. Deep breaths are king, living is the best gift. Deep breaths. Step one, is calming down. Step two, is saving the tutorial. Step three, is completing the rest of the tutorial. Step four is following the previous plan. After creating the plan of action, I can breathe again. With just a thought steps one and two are complete. Completing the tutorial feels like it would be a nightmare. I¡¯ve exhausted myself in this, honestly, I don¡¯t even know how long it has been. Looking through the trees, the sun appears to be halfway past the direct center. So, maybe it¡¯s around noon. Apparently, the sun works the same on Altiria as it does on earth. I pray it does because dying from radiation or something doesn¡¯t seem pleasant, at all. Focusing! So, the plan was to complete the tutorial, but the day is passing me by, and I still need to find the others from the frontier division. So do I finish the tutorial or find the other frontier division members. Finishing the tutorial or finding people
Vocation is what was weaved into your being at creation by the creator of your soul. Your creator seems to have been a God of justice, and order. To invoke your vocation, you must know your calling in life. The passion for plants and building has given you a vocation of Earth Architect. Combining the needs of plants with desire to build has allowed you to have instinctive knowledge for the desires of plant life. As well as knowledge of resources and their uses and inclinations. Earth Architects have the ability to manipulate the following aspects: ¡¤ Earth ¡¤ Water ¡¤ Plant life
Altiria established the Frontier division modeling the current civilizations established process for new towns and cities. The Frontier division covers infrastructure and planning, services that a new society will need, and governance. Twelve people have been chosen based on ability and mental stability in the face of unexpected situations. In each Frontier division there will be one person with the ability to: ¡¤ Find Water ¡¤ Discern Edible Food ¡¤ Grow Food ¡¤ Construct Necessary Buildings ¡¤ Plan Infrastructure ¡¤ Heal Wounds and other Maladies ¡¤ Defend Community ¡¤ Lead the Community ¡¤ Provide Counseling ¡¤ Produce Goods ¡¤ Produce Services ¡¤ Handle Livestock ¡¤ Construct Basic economy
The nearest piece of humanoid civilization is 1244 kilometers away from your current position. They will not be alerted to your civilization¡¯s presence till significant progress has been made in your civilization¡¯s settlement. Altiria is unsure what the attitude of other civilizations will be towards your civilization¡¯s introduction into the ecosystem.
I have made a terrible discovery that Altiria uses international units. Also, we cannot depend on the other civilization, that¡¯s for sure.
After the Frontier Division has completed the starter task. The Frontier division can begin its main task starting a village, town, or city. The Frontier division¡¯s initial work will determine the standing of the settlement. Village Starting Requirements: ¡¤ Village Hall ¡¤ Fields ¡¤ Well Town Starting Requirements ¡¤ Town Hall ¡¤ Fields ¡¤ Well ¡¤ Houses ¡¤ Stores City Starting Requirements ¡¤ City Hall This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡¤ Fields ¡¤ Well ¡¤ Houses ¡¤ Stores ¡¤ Warehouse ¡¤ Market ¡¤ Apothecary or clinic
After completing the Frontier division¡¯s assignment, the Frontier division will be dissolved, and the City Manager will take over future direction and management of the civilization.
Congratulations! You are one of the few of your race that has read the tutorial. You get to keep access to the status without having a revealing stone in your possession.
This is why you always read all of the directions before doing something. We need to have a revealing stone for our town. That¡¯s going to be so important for proper placement and management of the people. Wait how many people each settlement type contains. If we don¡¯t get enough people, what are we going to do; this is untamed wilderness. If there¡¯s not enough capacity for people, when will I get to see my family. I need to be part of the city hall. We¡¯re on a brand-new planet with no rules or laws, and people don¡¯t know how to act. The tutorial is overwhelming and I¡¯m burning daylight. Finding the frontier division shouldn¡¯t be hard. We should have all landed somewhere in the same vicinity. I forgot I climbed a tall tree for protection with all the information overloads. I, unfortunately, arrived late to the party. Ten out of the twelve members of the frontier division had already found each other. I arrived at the group eleventh, and it was already cliqued up. There seems to be two different groups. There are no independents either. I¡¯m going to have to choose one person to follow. Ugh, I really don¡¯t want to be a follower. I tried to hide behind a tree to observe the two groups. One group had a clear leader. A haughty man who commanded the center of attention. He didn¡¯t yell but his movements were aggressive. Great, we have an ¡°alpha male¡± type, and three brown-nosers. A slim swamy man basically fawned over the man aggressive one with his movements. A beautiful and curvaceous woman stood slightly off to the side carrying a holier than thou presence as if everything was beneath her notice. A short mousy woman stood demurely behind the queen bee with her shoulders hunched in. The other group had an even split of women and men. The very atmosphere of that group screamed, ¡°I am peaceful¡±. The three women over there looked competent and non-combative, they actually sat on the grass discussing something. One of the men stared at the other group, I couldn¡¯t tell what he was thinking but it seemed like he severely disliked them if the grimace on his face was anything to go off of. One male looked like a surfer dude, he leaned against a tree and seemed to just take everything in. One man had to be a solider the way he carried himself and the look in his eyes said a lot. He found me and stared me down for five minutes before he looked away. He didn¡¯t even tell the others around him. I feel dismissed, I could be a threat too. The best group in this case is obviously the majority. With as much confidence and poise as I could muster, I walked out from behind the tree and announced my presence. The quiet group noticed me first and the analyzer made his way towards me. It took a nice minute before the arrogant man noticed and swaggered over. When he finally reached me, the quiet man just stared at my face, as if assessing me. The arrogant man started speaking before he even made his way completely over. ¡°Do you need help? I can help you. I know it seems strange, but I have a plan to make it all better. Why don¡¯t you follow me?¡± The man was a slimeball, because he literally did the whole scan thing, from top to bottom, twice! Then, he made a move to turn around as if the decision had had already been made and started to swagger on back to his group. ¡°Who is that?¡± I paused in disbelief. The quiet man cracked a smile and replied, ¡°That piece of work is Max King, as he introduced himself. Because he owns a fortune 500 company, he has the necessary skills to lead us into a new era.¡± I just gapped at the man. The sheer foolishness of the introduction floored me. Everything we know and love is gone. What does running a company have to do with starting a whole new, well not technically new civilization have to do with running a company. ¡°While you process that my name is Aldrich Konrad. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Would you like to come over with us?¡± Mr. Konrad has some sense. He actually asked me to come over rather than commanding a total stranger to follow his lead. I couldn¡¯t respond right away. I wanted to just walk over with him, but I kept looking at the mousy girl and feeling bad. ¡°I¡¯m going to come over. I just need to do something really quickly.¡± After that brief statement I briskly walked over to the other group. Bypassed the smirking Mr. King and walked up to the mousy girl. I smiled and spoke softly to her, ¡°Hey¡±. It took her a minute to look up once she realized I was speaking to her. I think it took her a moment to process because she gave me a trembling smile and said it back. I held out my hand to her and offered, ¡°Would you mind coming with me?¡±. This time she was quicker though and grabbed my hand and I briskly but softly tugged her along with me. Sometimes you have to protect the quiet ones. I could tell she was overwhelmed, and that Mr. King had gotten to her first. She didn¡¯t have the option to choose and had been ambushed into his circle. I offered her a choice I believe we should all have one. The choice to choose what type of situation we want to be in. We met Mr. Konrad on the way. I smiled, ¡°Mr. Konrad, we can go now.¡± Just as quietly as he came, is the same way we returned, only this time Mr. Konrad brought two additions. He didn¡¯t introduce us, just waved his hand forward. A quick glance at the woman made me open my mouth first. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Azaiah Star.¡± I glanced back and the mousy woman caught my glance and stuttered up, ¡°I¡¯m ¡­ Becky ¡­ Arnold.¡± The other five kind of stared us down for a while. Finally, one of the ladies on the ground stands up and wipes her hands on her pants and offers it to me. ¡°Well, it¡¯s nice to meet you Mrs. Star. Names Sasha Webber.¡± I shook her hand, ¡°Likewise.¡± It¡¯s like a dam break and everyone introduces themselves one by one. Are you Okay Mr. King? It has become really clear, really quickly that Mr. King doesn¡¯t like to be ignored. He stomped up here so fast before I could start digging for information, he was upon us. I¡¯ve never seen someone¡¯s face contort in such a manner. He grimaced and smiled at the same time, ¡°How¡¯s it going over here? I never got to introduce myself to you. My name is Max King, I own Power group and its many subsidiaries. I know you¡¯ve heard of it. Don¡¯t be amazed.¡± He smirked and continued on, ¡°I noticed you walked away too quickly before I could explain to you our situation.¡± I won¡¯t lie, I tuned him out after this statement. I supposed he was talking to me but honestly it felt like he wasn¡¯t even talking at me more at the group over here. Judging by the side eyes, eye rolls, and sighs these people were thoroughly done with Mr. King. Day light was literally burning, and we didn¡¯t have time to do a peepee measuring contest. Pulling off the best customer service persona I could muster, ¡°Mr. King it was such a pleasure to meet you and hear about all your glorious accomplishments. I do have a quick question Mr. King; what should we do its about to get dark?¡± Right as he was about to ascend into the sky, he paused as contemplated it. With a quick back and forth wave the rest of the group caught my hand signal and quietly started moving a short distance away. In the middle of his pondering, ¡°Mr. King, I know you¡¯re so smart you know we need to get a fire going and build shelter.¡± He smirked up at me, ¡°Of course I knew that, why don¡¯t you start picking up sticks for the fire.¡± and swaggered away. I almost chocked on my sigh of relief when Mr. Konrad softly laughed behind me, ¡°Well you handled him very well.¡± Glancing over at him and shrugging I walked over to the group. ¡°Not to hostile takeover or anything but it¡¯s evening time, and I suspect it will get dark soon. I suggested it to Mr. King, and I¡¯ll suggest it here. I think we need a fire for this first night. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s out here with us, and I for one can not see in the dark.¡± The chuckles, giggles and head nods were enough to tell me the idea I put forth was a valid one. ¡°I also want to bring up that I believe we came over with stuff. I was asleep when the incident occurred, so my bed was brought over. It would probably behoove us to gather those items.¡± The smirks I got from a few of my fellow frontier men told me I was not alone in that thought. ¡°Lastly, I don¡¯t know how y¡¯all feel but my bed landed in a clearing similar to this, so we could leave Mr. King to it?¡± So off we went back to the clearing. I decided to split the mattress, box spring, and the bed frame so that we could all have somewhere to sleep that wasn¡¯t grass. The next step was the fire. Luckily, James Duran, brought the fire. Well, he told us what to do and actually made the fire. He¡¯s also the man who stared me down and decided I wasn¡¯t a threat. He¡¯s actually a retired army ranger, he got hurt during his rounds and was on medical leave. When his wife got sick, he just retired to take care of her. While he might not talk too much, he obviously loves his wife; the way I got him to open up was very much through her. As I watched him start the fire the others trickled in. It was almost like camping except the do or die situation we were currently in. Everyone was content to just be and stare at the fire, but I was not. ¡°So, what are our next steps.¡± Everyone gave me this funny look. ¡°We don¡¯t even know where we are or what happened,¡± sneered Mira. What crawled up her butt and died, I will never know. However, what she said is simply not true. The tutorial told us what happened and what to do. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Didn¡¯t you go through the tutorial?¡±, my disbelief made her bristle. ¡°What tutorial!¡± she almost yelled. Everyone else was drawing blanks. ¡°You didn¡¯t see the blinking box when you woke up or read the tutorial?¡± ¡°Wait you saw that too? I thought I was going crazy, and it went away.¡± So, you can dismiss the tutorial, good to know. Wait, that¡¯s not good at all. ¡°Say status!¡± I jumped forward and urged immediately. ¡°This is not a video game are you crazy. That¡¯s not going to do anything.¡± She sneered back. Sitting back and blinking. I think I might be one of the few people who read the tutorial. I questioned, ¡°So none of you know the name of this planet?¡± Sasha questioned back, ¡°And you do?¡± Receiving rapt attention, I summarized the tutorial for them. Of course, I left out the vocation because I felt that was private. Secondly, I noticed the numbers didn¡¯t match. The system said ten at first then it jumped to twelve, but I only met eleven. Someone¡¯s not who they say they are. We need a revealing stone. Darn, I missed an opportunity I should have asked who all saw the blinking box. Only us Earthlings would have the opportunity being that were new to Altiria. Altiria would you be able to tell me how to get a revealing stone. While everyone was processing, I tried to communicate with Altiria. Which was a flop. The tutorial said that Altiria didn¡¯t care, I¡¯m going to believe that is true. However, I did get the feeling that I could find the revealing stone. That being said it didn¡¯t feel anywhere near here. I¡¯ll add it to the list. Elated I mentally checked my list and realized it only had three task now all of which I could get help with as they meet the current task that Altiria had given. Given that I was the only one who read the tutorial I became the de-facto leader because I knew the most about our new world. Which was honestly only a little bit more than them. My first act of leadership was to clarify everyone into roles and tasks given their occupation. I got to take notes!
Notes
Aldrich Konrad Studied Environmental Engineering and works as a Real Estate Developer
Becky Arnold Studied Psychology and works as a trauma counselor
Sasha Webber Studied Nursing and works as a R.N.
James Duran Went into the army and is a retired army ranger
Mira Knowles
Ronnie Markson
Vincent Cain
Max King CEO
Markus Rusker
Jennifer Richards Mall Director
I honestly didn¡¯t know them well enough to really start assigning tasks, but it was a great start. Becky told me the names of the other woman and man with Mr. King. I haven¡¯t found out the occupation of Mira, Ronnie, and Vincent. This works though I run a tight ship. I just know we¡¯ll build a great town and I¡¯ll get to meet my family again. For now, though, I¡¯m going to sleep and I''ll worry about the rest tomorrow. I¡¯m sad to say we don¡¯t even have food right now. Locating Food When the sun crested over the earth, I turned over and grumbled. I hit someone by accident and was startled awake. Who is in my bed! The sun blasting my retinas brought me back to reality. This isn''t my room or even my planet. I''m not ashamed to say that it took a good thirty minutes of intensive breathing and a pat on the back to wake up from what felt like a major-league spiral. I believe that I have a new friend in Mr. Konrad the comrade. Ha, I will die with that joke. Groans and moans of suffering surround me as everyone in the team wakes up one by one. Today''s agenda is by far the most important. Substance! I could work on the tutorial disaster, but I have a good feeling I''d be wasting my time. However, I know for a fact that you can always go right with food. "Today''s order of business is the most basic one. Food! I, personally, garden, but that won''t help us right now. Does anybody believe that they have the skills to figure out whether a plant is edible or not? Afterward, Mr. Duran, based on your experience, I ask you to lead us to a suitable location to establish a foothold in this strange land. Mr. Konrad, could you point out any potential sites for the development of our, I guess, civilization." Mr. Duran stops surveying our surroundings to give me a nod, then goes back to his work. I can at least depend on having some defense when things get hairy. We lock eyes for a moment after the request, but the shallow nod I get is a good indicator of his help. That being said, no one responds to the food determination question. We''ve got a situation, and the clock is ticking. The silence is deafening, and I know that if I don''t speak, this might give ground to a seed of doubt I can''t afford to be planted. I''ve already come to a few conclusions in the span of a few breaths. "Well, let''s get started, then. Before we start, does anyone need a moment?" There is a silent judgment taking place. Pressure is beginning to settle in the atmosphere. My next set of actions may very well determine if we can get our frontier group off the ground. "Mr. Duran, let''s secure water first." Off we go, I don''t even give them time to really think before ushering everyone forward. I can''t give anyone time to start thinking. There''s too much to think about. What are we doing? Who is she? Who is she to lead us? What are we going to do? What is this place? The list goes on and on. We can''t afford to spiral. I don''t know if anyone has realized it besides Mr. Duran, but we are in a do-or-die situation, and I don''t plan to die. Trekking through the wild uses energy and focus. I need their focus because we need food, water, and shelter. Beyond that, we need a place to call home as soon as possible. How long can we last in the wild? More importantly, how long can we last before the wildlife comes back? The birds and bugs have been too far away for too long. If this were Texas, I would have been eaten to bits within the last thirty minutes of just walking through the brush. I won''t lie; I believe the trees were gorgeous and evergreen. All shades of spring green. The grass, however, itched through my pants. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The landscape changed quite a bit as Duran led us through the brush. I started to notice bushes and maybe weeds thigh-high. Flowers and berries of a multitude of colors. There were too many to count, and poisonous stuff is always pretty and tasty until you die. I heard it before I saw it. Duran had done it. We had water! Three people rushed forward without care. How unwise, what if something else was getting a drink. I waited until Duran gave the okay after watching the three who had already drunk the water for a few moments; I guess not die. This was decent enough water. The river was flowing, which meant it wasn''t stagnant. I didn''t see any fish, which wasn''t per se a relief, as the question of why not. It could be the river was too shallow. Altiria considered the fish to be too dangerous for our budding civilization. Or worse, the water wasn''t fit for consumption. As far as I could see, everyone else had already drunk the water, or at least almost everyone else. I noticed a gaze upon my back that seemed to question why I hadn''t drunk the water, too. There was no way to clean the water anyway, so I took a handful and tasted the cleanest water I''d ever tasted. I hate to say it, but the river water was sweet! Water was taken care of, but food was not. We couldn''t just start eating berries and hoping for the best; that''d be a disaster waiting to happen. I want to say it didn''t take me almost an hour, but I''d be lying. Status.
Personal Status
Name Azaiah Star Race - Variant Earthling - African American
Vocation Grove Tender Career Mechanical Engineer
Standing Frontier Woman
Age 26 Gender Female
Tier Excellent
Vitality 12 Power 5
Strength 3 Charisma 3
Wisdom 5 Spirit 15
Intelligence 15
Equipment Sleep shirt, Underwear, Leather pants, Wilderness boots
There it was in that lovely little spot called. Vocation. Grove Tender was the thing I needed. What was worse was I needed to find the revealing stone as soon as possible. No one else knew what they were set up for, and I needed to verify identities. Now is the perfect time to do the Grove Tender tutorial. As everyone plays in the water; I can focus on figuring out my vocation for food rather than lose ground for maintaining this operation. Leaders must be competent if they want to lead. However, I am concerned that there''s an extra person in our frontier group. Altiria said there were ten, but my list contains eleven, including my name. No one else read the tutorial, so they don''t have a clue, and if I mention it, I will surely be the one they point the pitchfork at. Mira is the only person I can assume is not an imposter. That being said, she is a prickly pear. One of us is not like the others, and I have no way to tell who is fake. I pray it''s not as serious as it could be.